Sharkoon Rebel12 Value mini review

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dkarko
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Sharkoon Rebel12 Value mini review

Post by dkarko »

Well i just replaced my old case with this one, so i thought i could share my experience with you and also note the advantages and disadvantages of this case. I'll post some pics too, mostly of the assembly though. Empty case pics can also be found here:
http://www.sharkoon.de/html/produkte/pc ... ex_en.html

The specs given by Sharkoon are
Features:
• BigTower case (compatible with E-ATX)
• 11x 5.25" drive bays (external)
• 1x 3.5" drive bay (external)
• 6x 3.5" bays for HDDs (internal)
• Screwless mounting system (HDD/ODD/add-on cards)
• Front I/O with 4x USB2.0, headphone and microphone ports
• 7 Slots for add-on cards
• Dimensions: 215 x 535 x 540 mm (W x H x D)
• 2 openings for water cooling tubing

Fan configuration:
• Front panel: 140 mm fan (pre-installed)
• Side panel: 250 mm fan (pre-installed), 2x 80 mm fans (optional)
• Rear panel: 1x 140 mm fan (optional)

Package content:
• Rebel12 Value edition
• Manual (8 languages)
• Accessory kit
It is a really big case, with plenty of room in general and superb airflow. There are also extra 140mm fan holders for the front of the case in the market if you want to install extra fans. That monster 25cm fan cools everything on the mobo. It's not without glitches though, in fact i found some being really annoying.
The accessory kit comes with a full set of screws, mounting rails for the case and 4 pairs of fasteners for 5.25" devices, but only 2 pairs of 3.5 to 5.25 extensions. It also includes an extra mesh that has a gap for a floppy for the front.

First thing i did was to install the rear 140mm fan (not included) and one of the 80cm hard disk side fans. Installing the 140mm fan was a bit tricky, it hardly fit.. it needed a few hits, push back and forth etc to get it in place! The 80cm one was much easier, but the holes were too small for most of the rubber fan screws i tried to use, but in general it was ok. Then it was time for the PSU. It is mounted pretty easily and its back side is placed on rubber pads (nice!). It is installed with the fan facing the motherboard and this can't be changed since it is mounted directly on the case. Here are 2 pictures, the back of the case and the psu-hd area (dont mind the little heatsinks, just had them spare. they are mounted in the wrong direction since on my old case they were facing the front and i was to lazy to remove them or at least change their direction).

Image

Image

I installed one IDE harddisk i have on the front 5.25 bays because i was not sure if the IDE cable i had was long enough to reach the dvdrw afterwards. Its easy to mount the extensions, as long as you have a thin magnetic screwdriver it wont take time, but you do have to open the other side of the panel too. Installing a 5.25" device is fast with the fasteners, again you need both panels open (http://www.sharkoon.de/pix/illus/450/re ... rechts.jpg). This system for 5.25" though has a problem, vibrations, since there are no plastic rails for these, but at least this way of mounting them doesnt need you to remove the front of the case.

Installing the motherboard was very easy (edit: BUT, both the base and the manual miss instruction on where to screw each spacer for each motherboard type, you need the motherboard to see where to place them... Moreover, it is missing one hole for my ATX mobo), and the brass spacers leave some room (1cm) between the motherboard and its base. This must be really good especially for motherboards that have coolers on the back side of the motherboard. One thing i noticed here is that even though the case has plenty of space in width, it lacks some in height. Removal of my zalman 9500 will require removing the top panel of the case. Also, placing a full size expansion card on the last slot wouldn't leave much space for the PSU's fan to work properly, but no problem for me there.

Image

The mounting system for the expansion cards is fast,seperate for each card and very solid. The good thing about all this extra width (apart from the ability to install a bigger motherboard) is that it left alot of space for cable management. I suck at it, but with all this space i managed to leave the space over the motherboard mostly clean of cables.

Image

The 250mm fan is connected on the sys fan header and the back 140mm is a sharkoon power fan connected at 5v. Its pretty silent, except for my IDE harddisk which was noisy anyway, i should place it on rails, maybe it will reduce its noise a bit.
The temperatures i'm getting are excellent (note, with the front 140mm fan disconnected) and better than my old case (which was without side panels, but with an extra fan over the northbridge and 2x120 one front one back). This 25cm fan is doing wonders cooling everything while running on low rpm and silent. The northbridge and gpu are the ones that had a notable decrease in temperature (probably ram and southbridge aswell since they were not cooled at all before, but i can't check).

It is a good and sturdy case and i found its cooling excellent!

edit: Forgot to add that the Power LED is TOO strong. It lights up a dark room. Might be annoying for some, it is for me, i'll have to cover it a bit :(.

The components:
Intel E4300 with Zalman 9500
Gigabye P35-DS3 v1.0
Supertalent 2x1gb kit 800 4-4-3-8
Evga 8600GTS
Chieftec 560W
WD 80GB JB IDE
WD 250GB KS Sata2
Seagate 320GB 7200.10 Sata2
Nec 4551A IDE
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Re: Sharkoon Rebel12 Value mini review

Post by Apoptosis »

great mini-review... how about the cost? Also that corporate site looks just like Antec... are the two companies connected?
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dkarko
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Re: Sharkoon Rebel12 Value mini review

Post by dkarko »

Thanks!

The case costs 76euro excluding VAT, that is around 120$. Good price for the standards here, but its missing 3 fans (a 140mm and 2x80mm). Purchase of those fans rises the price close to Antec nine hundred (It's priced at 144$ here). Especially, the 140mm fan was a bit expensive. I only managed to find a Sharkoon power fan here and it costed 7.5e or 12$ excluding VAT.
I never thought sharkoon could be related to antec, but you could have a point. Sharkoon's cases are all value except for one HTPC case, but its cases show it has the ability to make high end ones. It seems Sharkoon is a german company and it is very new (since 2002), but it doesn't say anywhere if it is a subsidiary company or in anyway related :(.

I chose this, since i liked the fan and its smaller version Rebel9 has a very good reputation. Other cases i was thinking about were the
Antec 900 and the Coolermaster RC-690-KKN1-GP (which again is cheap, but it's not as big and its missing 4 out of 7 120mm fans)
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Re: Sharkoon Rebel12 Value mini review

Post by Rockdweller »

It seems Sharkoon is a german company and it is very new (since 2002), but it doesn't say anywhere if it is a subsidiary company or in anyway related
Here in the Asian/Pacific these cases are sold under the iCute brand http://icute.com.tw/english/AllProduct.html with the Rebel12 called the Super18 http://icute.com.tw/english/A18.html.

the Rebel9 is the S901 http://icute.com.tw/english/S901.html

As for parent manufacturer, I thinks its GTR http://www.gtr.com.hk/ who obviously supply several brands including you may be interested to note, Lian Li!

I think the Super18 (sorry, the Rebel12 to you) would suit me fine, but unfortunately I can't find any here in Aussie, so I may have to stick with the smaller R9

BTW - great mini review
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Re: Sharkoon Rebel12 Value mini review

Post by Rockdweller »

Hmmm..........maybe iCute is the actual manufacturer in TW, and GTR is the distributor in HG.

Anyway, I recognize the same internal fames on numerous "European's brands" so clearly they are getting the frames from Asia and putting on their own fronts and badges, (although some are only re-badging as Sharkoon have done). Nothing wrong with that...been going on for a long time.......the point I'm making is that just because Antec and Sharkoon, or any others you care to pick may have similarities, it's probably only means they use the same source for some products, etc, not they have any relationship themselves.
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Re: Sharkoon Rebel12 Value mini review

Post by dkarko »

Thank you!

Thats some really interesting findings! =D>

Nothing wrong with that, rebranding etc is very common indeed!
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Re: Sharkoon Rebel12 Value mini review

Post by DMB2000uk »

Someone needs to learn how to tidy cables for sure :P

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Re: Sharkoon Rebel12 Value mini review

Post by dkarko »

:mrgreen: Oh trust me, this was a good result for me,you don't want to look behind my desk :axe:
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