AMD Athlon MP 2200+ Server Roundup - September 2002

Gaining access to the internals of the RC0103 is accomplished by removing the single panel that covers the chassis; a total of 8 screws hold the cover in place, 7 on the top of the cover and one on its hinge.

We would've much rather seen a semi-screwless design akin to Appro's 1124 which makes upgrades and repairs much easier.

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Removing the cover reveals everything about the cooling of the RC0103; the CPUs are cooled using two blowers that pull air from the side and front of the chassis and blow it over the CPUs. To prevent heat from getting trapped between the heatsinks and the top of the low-profile chassis, CCSI employs plastic flaps that act as ducts to channel the air across the surface of the heatsinks. The ducts also prevent the hot air from rising and getting trapped above the heatsinks.

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The blowers also help pull cool air across the surface of the hard drives; finally, set of two small fans act as exhausts for removing the hot air out of the case itself. Since the power supplies have their own fans, the blowers and exhaust fans mounted inside the case don't have to deal with cooling the PSUs.

Cables are carefully routed around the motherboard to the hard drives while still leaving access to the memory banks open. As is the case with all 1U solutions that use the Tyan Thunder K7X motherboard, the RC0103 only provides enough room for one PCI card to be installed.

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Unlike Appro's solution, CCSI has outfitted their chassis with a movable retention bracket for accommodating long PCI cards. A retention bracket is necessary to prevent the movement of very long PCI cards, especially during shipping.

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Because the power supplies are at the front of the case, the CCSI engineers had to develop some clever routing to keep the power cables out of the way of airflow. The end result is a little section between the motherboard and power supplies that's reserved primarily for cable routing.

Towards the front of the chassis you can access the CD-ROM drive and also see the PC speaker that's screwed onto the drive cage.