Hey Everyone! I finally received my HL8 yesterday and I thought I’d offer first impressions and photos.
I ordered just the chassis and backplane in white and blue. It arrived via FedEx Next Day service. There wasn’t a lot of packaging material in the box with the unit. Really just foam pieces fitted around all the corners. That said, my unit arrived with no damage so, at least in my case, that was enough.
First thing I noticed about the chassis is the weight and thickness of everything. 45HomeLab didn’t scrimp on the materials and I’m really happy with that. I can pretty much feel the quality of the unit. This even carries through the rest of the case such as the plate for the motherboard mount and the HL8 logo that’s on the top of the case.
The spring loaded captive screws are a very nice touch. The feet on the bottom are a rubber material and are also pretty large which gives a lot of clearance on the bottom for airflow. In fact, I love the amount of cut outs there are on the case to allow for airflow.
I was able to pretty easily take out the hard drive cage and back plane as a single unit. It’s put in place with a fair amount of screws (13?) which was a little annoying but I understand that’s what keeps it sturdy when installed.
Three Noctua fans were included with the chassis. Two 120x15mm slim fans installed on the front and one 40x15mm slim fan on the front next to the motherboard. It’s very quiet running normally and highly tolerable when running at full speed.
The front fans or even two additional slim fans can also be installed in the back. However, I there isn’t much room back there once I plugged in the molex power cables.
I ended up getting the same power supply that 45HomeLab offers. I was originally thinking of going a different route which is why I didn’t just get this preinstalled from the factory. I was able to put it in without issue and start to cable manage everything. I would say future revisions could use more places or orientations for cable ties. That said, I got the job done.
One thing I did notice that bugs me a little bit is the back wall does not quite line up with the top and side of the case that flips out. I don’t think there’s a lot that can be done here. It’s just part of the case design. It does flex a little so maybe one more captive screw on the top could be used to pull the back in more and line up better. Another option might be another mount point up higher between the back and the hard drive cage.
I also had a few hiccups with my unit. First, I ordered the acrylic front but, due to an issue with the web store, that add-on wasn’t passed along to the factory. 45HomeLab reached out proactively and is in the process of making this right. Second, I didn’t receive any motherboard mount screws. Again, 45HomeLab is fixing this by sending some to me. Third, I noticed some of the screws were loose. For me they were all screws attaching to the hinges. I’d recommend everyone just check and tighten up any loose screws on their unit when it arrives.
