Rosewill 4U Server Chassis Rackmount Case | 12 Hot Swap 3.5", 2.5" SATA I, SATA II, SATA III SAS | E-ATX Compatible | 3 Front 120mm Fans, 2 Rear 80mm Fans | 2X USB 3.0| Front Panel Lock - RSV-L4412U

This Rosewill 4U server chassis is considered by many to be one of the best "economy" chassis out there. I'd beg to differ that this is one of the top chassis out there. Although you lose 3 drive bays by paying a bit more than some of the other Rosewill offerings, the hot swap bays are a tremendous value and you would be hard pressed to 3d print and/or DIY all of the parts necessary to recreate this setup. I did run into an issue with some missing screws on the chassis handle at the front but fortunately Rosewill includes a significant supply of spares inside the chassis. The chassis itself comes in a double-packed box with tons of styrofoam to keep the chassis safe from scratches and dents. Assembly was incredibly straight-forward with a ton of room for the ATX motherboard, memory, graphics (, and very large heat sink (Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 SE for size reference) that I was repurposing into a TrueNAS server. I did have to remove the large graphic card support bar spanning the top of the chassis. One mistake I made initially was to repurpose several modular power cables from the power supplies I've purchased over the years. I could have killled my motherboard as one of the manufacturers had reversed the polarity on their plugs and I could not POST. Once I confirmed I was using modular power cables from my actual power supply it was all good. The hot swap function works as intended and I was easily able add drives to my storage pools without rebooting. TrueNAS showed temperatures really low so airflow and fan directions work great. My one minor gripe is the use of Molex power receptacles on the drive bays. These connectors really have not been part of the SATA drive world for some time and I was surprised to see them. I had to buy SATA to Molex adapters in order to appropriately distribute the load across the power supply modular connectors/rails. One other tip is that if you have a home lab setup or smaller rack at home there are rack extenders that you can purchase to either extend the rack out front of the rack or to support the back. I opted for the former as I have a swinging wall-mount rack that would not be able to close had I done the latter. 5/5 stars for being an incredible value but functions like a very $$$ server chassis.

The RSV-AI01 is a well-built chassis overall, though I ran into a significant design limitation. I installed an Arctic Liquid Freezer III Pro 360 AIO and replaced the stock 3×120 mm fan wall with the radiator and its fans. The screw holes line up perfectly, and I connected each of the three radiator fans directly to the motherboard's chassis fan headers, without any issues. The problem came when installing the CPU pump block. There simply isn't enough clearance beneath the PSU to fit the complete pump assembly with the Arctic VRM fan module attached. As a result, I had to remove the VRM fan module to complete the installation. Fortunately, the system (ASUS X670E-PRO WIFI with a Ryzen 9 9950X3D) still runs within normal temperature ranges without it, so it's an acceptable workaround, though not an ideal one. If you're planning to use a large air cooler instead of an AIO, the limited clearance under the PSU could be an even bigger concern. Another thing to note is that the stock 3×120 mm fan wall is fairly loud (even at low RPM) if you're running the system nearby. Replacing it with an AIO radiator results in a much quieter box, with the fans set to Silent profile on the ASUS motherboard. Overall, this is a quality case, provided your CPU cooler fits within the limited space beneath the PSU.

The case seems decent. I have yet to get my equipment moved over (waiting on power), but I don't see anything glaring that would give me pause to think there's going to be an issue. What I will say is that the rails it comes packaged with are absolute garbage. They do not align with the standard RU and must be offset by one hole. Depending on the rack, that may make the rails unusable. I opted to go with a chassis that was offset 1/3 of an RU in both directions and give up the extra 1U of blanking panel below and a gap above the chassis. Setting the chassis in the rails, they deflect immediately. Again, I've not moved anything over yet, so it's a completely empty case. The rails are not able to hold the weight of the case when empty. The left rail failed halfway through pushing the server into the rack and got stuck. I had to open the side of the rack and beat the rail with a hammer to get it to seat on the bearings long enough to unrack. Advice? Trash the rails the second you open the box and go with a set of universals. Sure the server won't roll out smoothly, but at least you'll be able to get it out of the rack. I would wait until this goes on sale before picking it up. For the price, it feels like there are just a few too many corners cut for being "datacenter" gear and in that regard it's hard to call it a good value.

The Rosewill RSV-AI01 specs say a 145mm max CPU cooler height when not using the GPU bracket. My Arctic Freezer 4U-M is 145mm high exactly, but it doesn't come close to fitting due to a critical design flaw on this case. In order to provide the 11 PCI-E slot outlets, the PSU is placed on a little shelf above the motherboard. For an SSI-EEB motherboard, this puts the PSU almost directly above the CPU, severely limiting cooling options in order to stay under the low shelf. Basically, you have to liquid cool. Now, where to place the radiator? There are no mounting holes anywhere to be seen, and because of the 8 hot swap drive bays, there's little room to work with. In fact, one is tempted to place the radiator in the space an expansion card would go on those extra PCI-E slots! Clearly this design was not thought through. The marketing photos did not make this clear to me, and I wonder if it was an intentional deceit. The only real way to run this case would be to do custom watercooling with a 2U radiator placed above the drive bays. Or drill your own radiator mounting holes into the hot swap fan enclosure. Or place the radiator in the extra PCI-E slots which were the raison d'etre of the case to begin with. UPDATE I ended up moving to water cooling, and twist-tying the radiator to the hotswap fans. Meanwhile, the power button on the case was defective, so I can only start the thing by using the reset button as a power switch. Given that you're forced into water cooling, the case ends not being deep enough. Now my PSU cables are obstructing the airflow enough that I'm getting warnings from my network card which doesn't have its own active cooling. I'm basically planning on moving this system to a Sliger case with 28" depth when I get the chance. Anyway, you get what you pay for, but sometimes not even that.

Great 4u rack, I don't think you can beat it in this price range. Plenty of space inside. I was worries about the phantom spirit 120SE fitting over an MSI mpg x670e carbon but there's plenty of space. Only issue I had was the handles were too long, so I couldn't close my rack doors, and you can't keep the filters without the handles. Fortunately there are some stl fingers on the internet that remove the large handle and keep the dimensions short. Hot swap function was tested and all bays worked perfectly. Can't say on how the stock fans work as a replaced them with noctua but airflow feels smooth, GPU's and CPU stay cool and I hear absolutely nothing even when standing in front of the rack