[Bundymania User Review] Microcool Benchtable Banchetto 101 Modular - ENGLISH

[bundymania]

Hello Guys,

Today i would like to give a short overview of another Benchtable (In the past I did some reviews of Benchtables from other producers). Therefore I would like to present the current Version of the Banchetto 101 from Microcool. Microcool has its residence in Italy and has got many fans because of their well products. I am using the older version for two years and I am very satisfied with this product (I think have changed the installed components about a thousand times). The Banchetto 101 is made of a metal-arylic-glass-mix. The parts which are made of acrylic glass have an adequate material thickness of 8mm. They do not show any defects or errors during often usage. In comparison to the older version, the version current version in this review has two additional holes for water-cooling tubes, led-holes at the backside and the acrylic glass is dark toned.



Technical Details:

Modell: Banchetto 101 Modular
Seize: 400(L) x 350(W) x 362(H) mm
Weight: 5.3 Kg
Material: Acrylic Glass (8mm), Aluminium, chrom-plated steel screws
Colour: transparent, black, chrom
Motherboard compatibility: ATX & Micro ATX
PCI Slots: 7
5.25" Bays: 3
3.5" Bays: 4
PSU bay: Standard ATX PS2
Water-cooling: prepared 360 Radiator, Pump & Reservoir
Optional Fans: 4x92mm
Price: ca. 220 Euro

The Banchetto 101 is a construction kit, which is shipped in a big box. All single components are well packed in small boxes and wrapped with bubble-warp. Therefore they are very well protected.





The assembly instruction has many pictures and is written in English language. The assembly is quite easy (maybe depends on your assembly knowledge) and should be finished around 45 minutes or 1 hour. The whole assembly procedure requires an Allen key and a standard screw driver. The Banchetto 101 offers two different assembly options, which are shown in the following pictures.

The assembly procedure is preponderant done with knurled screws in two different sizes. The scope of supply does not contain screws for power supply and device assembly.

For the optional installation of max. 4x92mm Fans, you have to install the following plates:



The base plate, intermediate bottom and the motherboard-tray are built of 8mm dark toned acrylic glass. The separate plates are equipped with threads of screws.
The motherboard-tray is easily installed with 4 rubber stands on the middle plate without any screws. Therefore you can easily lift the upper plate to the side, if you want to do a “quick-change” on your installed hardware. The motherboard-tray has as well a cut-out under the CPU-Socket, which means you do not have to disassemble the motherboard, if you like to switch the cooler.


Reset- and Power-Switch are made in a robust „bulgin-style“ (cables of the switches are sleeved). The switches shall be installed under the motherboard-tray.



The components for the installation of the other parts (drives, power supply, radiator, pump, etc.) show a high class processing quality (the assembly is done with knurled screws). The Banchetto 101 stands on massive rubber foots, which guarantee a save standing and fulfill an anti-vibrational function.



Additional metal-bars stabilize the carrier plate.




The sides offer conveniently two holes for watercooling-tubes. In my case you can see the usage of a 16/10 mm tube (3/8”-5/8”). The middle and the upper acrylic carrier plate offer holes in different sizes for a comfortable wiring of your PC components. The Radiator-blend has as well holes for the cables of the fans. The usage of slotted holes allows you to install a great variety of different Radiator types (the broadness of the Banchetto 101 allows max. 360 Triple-Radiators). Radiators which are bigger than 360 will overhang side wards.



The seperate plugin-cards are fixed by thread-bars and knurled-screws.








At the end i would like to present to you a few pictures of the older version, which differs slightly from the current version.







Conclusion:

All in all the Banchetto 101 Benchtable from Microcool from Italy is a very good product!
The processing quality is on a continuous high level and the usage of different materials is well chosen. The price is – according to the quality of the whole package – on an adequate level. Nevertheless the acrylic glass is quite sensitive concerning dust and scratches. A few details like the decoupling arrangement of the drives and the assembly screws for the power supply could be improved, but this should be only mentioned on the brink. Because of the stylish design the Banchetto 101 can be used as a Benchtable or a replacement for a common PC case. If your purse offers (or your wife ) enough money and you prefer products, which are made of metal, you can acquire the aluminum version for 370,00€.




Thanks: I would like to thank the following companies and producers for supporting my review: Aquatuning, Phobya, Microcool, Bitspower, Noiseblocker, EK Waterblocks, Swiftech, Fractal Design and Aqua Computer

[fraggerman]

nice review! And very great product.
They made a good job with the color! Now it's much more cool

A question: is this good for benching under LN2?

[bundymania]

Hmm, you have to be careful because of the material. i would recommend a dimastech metall benchtable more than this for LN2 Bench sessions

[fraggerman]

I was thinking exactly to the material... the very cold temp could damage the acrylic pieces. However, a very nice benchtable! I really like it

The supports for the card are solid? They may cover any port of the board? like DVI on graphics card for example...

[bundymania]

I transported the benchtable a few times with hw mounted. It´s ok and stable enough when you´re a bit careful while transporting When not watercooled, i would recommend to better dismount the cards, while transporting to another place.