Enlight EN-8950 Server Extended ATX

Would you ever have expected that the manufacturer of the case that houses your computer started out by manufacturing kitchen strainers? 

It's quite a stretch, but back in 1983 the company we have come to know as Enlight Corporation operated out of a small production plant in Taipei, Taiwan (the motherboard capital of the world) and was dedicated to producing hardware and electronic parts, as well as kitchen strainers.  How did a company go from manufacturing kitchen strainers to achieving over $140 million (USD) in sales?  By creating a respected, and recognized name for their products. 

Although they aren't nearly as popular among overclockers and tweakers as they are among those that buy their cases from the local PC shop, Enlight is a name known by just about all hardware enthusiasts.  The reason behind this is simply because at one point in time, most of us have either owned or known someone who has owned an Enlight case.  In some situations this isn't necessarily a good thing, but in this case, it is as we take a look at Enlight's entry level server case, the EN-8950. 

The 8950 brings the flexibility of a workstation case into a server environment, by offering a unique layout that is big enough to hold the largest of extended ATX motherboards while offering support for rack mount configurations as well as a hot swappable RAID bay, all in a package shorter in height than most Mid-Tower ATX cases.  As an entry level server case, it does its job, but how about the high end home users that are looking for better cooling of their systems as well as more drive bays than conventional ATX cases offer?  At a price lower than Supermicro's popular SC750A, let's see how well the 8950 fits this user category as well as its intended server market niche.