Enlight EN-8950 Server Extended ATX

When dealing with server cases, noise isn't that big of an issue.  Generally speaking, you don't really care whether or not your server is loud since most of the time you will be tossing in some very noisy components into your server or high end workstation that will create quite a bit of noise even if your case doesn't (10,000 RPM hard drives aren't quiet).   Instead of making noise a primary consideration, cooling is an even bigger factor with server cases than it is with any other type of case simply because of the type of hardware that will generally find its way in these cases.

Enlight is to be commended on the placement of their two 80 mm exhaust fans towards the rear of the case as they remove the heat from one of the most incredible source of it in the case, the CPUs.   The two fans are placed in the ideal location (directly over and to the back of the CPU(s)..) for cooling your CPUs, especially in the case of a dual Xeon setup where the processors are literally located perpendicular to the fans. 

The only complaint here is that there are no cooling mounts at the front of the case to aid in cooling the drive bays, a potentially very prominent source of heat in a server.  While it is true that the optional 8700 RAID bay comes with a 80 mm fan, the key word to keep in mind here is optional so for those users that aren't taking advantage of that capability, they are still left fan-less. 

As mentioned before, the front door features three air filters behind the door itself to help keep dust out of the case.  The filers themselves are washable and are easily removable as they simply snap in and snap out of the door. 

Other than that one complaint, the case was left fairly well ventilated primarily due to its size and the two exhaust fans at the rear of the case.  But let's leave it up to the cooling tests to decide exactly how good of a job Enlight did with cooling the 8950.