Installation & Testing

Unfortunately, I have no aluminum finished case to put these in. Instead, I opted to install the bracket in the very plain black plastic of the Z-Alien I do have on hand.

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Installation was not difficult…just a few screws to contend with. Two screws secure the FP31 to the FP51, and four screws secure the FP51 to the chassis. I had two major gripes. First was the size of the holes to allow one to secure the 3.5” bay device in the bracket itself. The ones provided worked just fine with a standard screwdriver, but the ratchet handle screwdriver I have did not work well with them at all. The second problem was with the IEEE 1394 (Firewire) adaptor – it has no motherboard headers! The Firewire cable has a standard jack on it, meaning you’ll have to pop out a PCI plate and run the wire directly to the back, and you’ll lose that port in the process. I’m surprised that a manufacturer has not come out with a way to ‘swap’ between the two types of connector to provide greater installation flexibility. I even think a transfer PCI plate would have been a better idea than just leaving a hole.

I found that I don’t like the two screw mounting setup on the FP31. The support for the device acts like a hinge…push too hard and the FP31 turns upward. It does rest on the opening on the bottom, so it won’t rotate down at all. I personally would have preferred a four screw arrangement with two screws above and below each other on the rear edge. Here’s a picture illustrating the issue.

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I guess it might be possible to tighten down the screws hard enough to prevent this from happening, but I’d be paranoid about stripping the threads out with that kind of pressure. I chose to forgo formal testing as the FP31, the more technical of the two, is merely a transfer device. I did plug in all the various ports to verify that each worked in the intended manner, and in this respect the FP31 passed easily.

Final Thoughts

These two accessories work as advertised with no huge surprises, although something needs to be done with the Firewire adaptor. The build quality and finish on these two components is excellent. I would certainly recommend the FP31 and the FP51 to anyone with an aluminum finished case looking for accessories. Having read a few reviews of some of Silverstone’s cases, I know the FP51 does not ship with their cases, and they don’t offer exposed 3.5” drives in some of the high end models. If you already have a Silverstone case, these would make an excellent addition if you need the capability. Both items retail for just under $20 dollars. If you wish to find these products, Silverstone provides a list of Vendors on their website.

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