I guess we should talk first about my initial thoughts when dragging (and I do mean dragging) the H800A out of the box. It's -big- and -heavy-. This is a server chassis that may very well survive air raids and natural disasters alike. It's solid as a rock and at about 33.5 lbs it isn't going to blow away in the wind (generated by the climate control system in your server farm).

The build quality on the H800A is above par, all the edges are rounded so you're not going to skewer yourself and lose a gallon of blood on your priceless server board and processors. This could definitely put a damper on an otherwise wonderful day. Who wants to be scampering for a first-aid kit when there's a box to be built? Not me, that much is certain.

Speaking of motherboards, you won't have any trouble fitting virtually -any- board in the H800A. If you notice above, I have mounted an ole QDI LX duallie which measures in at 12" x 12.2". It's not small by any means, and I have room to spare.

The part of this case that I probably had the most fun playing with was in fact the hot-swap, redundant power supply system. AOpen decided to only ship me one 337 watt PS (I can't blame them, this thing isn't cheap) but I easily entertained myself for 2-3 hours (ok, I'm exaggerating) simply by removing and reinstalling this power supply. Remove a thumbscrew, push in on the metal flap and remove. It's as easy as that. Reinstallation is just as easy. In short, if you can't easily replace these power supplies... you must ride the short bus to school everyday.

Modern Conveniences?

AOpen really tried to pull out all the stops on this case. I briefly mentioned a thumbscrew above, I'll expand on that now. You will not need a screwdriver at all to get into this bad boy. The two side panels slide on in the reverse direction that you're accustomed to. You'll start at the front and slide them -back-. Why? Simply so that after you thumbscrew the side panels in place, close and lock the front door... entry into the case is impossible unless you either a) unlock the door, or b) break the door open. Sadly, as per usual the locking mechanism could probably be circumvented by an energetic child. Still, the thumbscrews are a nice touch. Kudos.

While I have your attention turned to "security", I should also mention the intrusion detection on the H800A. Yeah... it's there. Honestly, I don't think I'd ever use such a feature and it certainly wouldn't be a selling point to me. Secure the area where your server(s) RESIDE.

Remember the pain-in-the-ass process we'd all endure back in the day when you had to install an optical drive into your case? Searching for the proper screws, holding the drive, maneuvering your screwdriver in there, etc, etc. As we've seen, drive bay rails are all the rage now. Antec implemented them wonderfully in their SX-series cases and AOpen tried to do the same with the H800A. Sadly, it didn't quite work out as well as they'd hoped. Antec went with a combination of plastic and metal for their rails, AOpen went with 100% metal. Let's just say that after you get these rails installed on your drives (which in of itself isn't -easy-), the drive doesn't slide into the bay with ease. It doesn't quite fit like a glove, at least not in comparison to other implementations I've used. This proved to be relatively frustrating, I'll admit.

Do you like the air filter on the inside of the door? I do. I think it's a simple, yet nice touch. Why? This is a server chassis. You're going to want this to run 24/7, indefinitely. The only time you -ever- want to open this case back up again are if something breaks, or to do some sort of hardware upgrade. As such, keeping dust intake to a minimum is a necessity. Excess dust can not only compromise the lifespan of the fans in your system but also act as an insulator on other components as it accumulates. This can make them more prone to failure. Keeping this in mind, having that air/dust filter on the inside of the door is a much appreciated touch and suited for the environments this genre of case would be used in.

RackmountABLE

"Jim, why the heck do you keep capitalizing the 'ABLE' portion of that word?" It's important that you realize that while this case is -able- to slide handsomely into that cabinet of yours, it won't be able to do this by default. Yes, option kits. I don't like them much myself, but they are an unfortunate reality. AOpen decided not to supply me with the necessary kit to make this H800A rackmount ready, but I'm actively working with my rep to discover the costs and availability, so I can relay them to you. It does come standard with stabilizer feet so at the very least, your server isn't going to be falling over while it handles it's important duties or even if it's inadvertently bumped by your lacky jr. admin.