The hardware manufacturer Streacom was founded in the Netherlands in 2010 and since then has focused on the development of high-quality small form factor and passively cooled cases made of aluminum. In addition to the very successful Streacom DA2 the manufacturer also has a completely different type of case in its repertoire. In the course of the “Open Benchtable Project” Streacom has designed two open benchmark tables together with its partners.
The BC1 and the BC1 Mini should stand out by their clever design and portable construction. The Streacom BC1 supports mainboards and power supplies in ATX format. Buyers of the BC1 Mini have to be satisfied with mini-ITX boards and SFX-L power supplies. Both benchtables are made of solid aluminum and are available in silver, black and red. The price starts at € 19.95 * for the BC1 Mini. Everything else you will find out in this review.
Technical details
| Model: | Streacom BC1 Mini |
| Case type: | Mini-ITX |
| Dimensions: | 230 mm (W) x 8 / 78 mm (H) x 190 mm (D) (disassembled/ assembled) |
| Weight: | 805 g |
| Material: | aluminum, steel |
| Color: | black |
| Drive bays: | 2x 2.5″ |
| Extension slots: | 2x vertical |
| Mainboard form factor: | ITX |
| Power supply form factor: | SFX-L |
| Ventilation: | right side: max. 1x 170mm left side: max. 1x 170mm |
| Radiators: | right side: max. 1x 170mm left side: max. 1x 170mm |
| Max. CPU cooler height: | unlimited |
| Max. graphic card length: | unlimited |
| Max. power supply unit length: | unlimited |
| Price: | € 19.95 * |
| Specials: | Open Benchtable, toolless assembly |
Scope of delivery
The Streacom BC1 Mini comes in an extremely compact and flat box made of high-quality material. The carton is black and reminds a bit of the packaging of current smartphones or tablets. If you remove the upper part of the box, the disassembled tablet is already hidden underneath. To protect it from damage, it is wrapped in a form reminiscent of foam rubber.
Below the aluminum plate there is a color printed manual in English language. It covers all necessary assembly steps and features of the BC1 Mini. Mounting accessories are not included. This is because the aluminum plate is already equipped with all necessary mounting features.
Optical impression and structure
Disassembled, the Streacom BC1 Mini is very flat and perfectly suited for transport. The base plate is made entirely of anodized aluminum and weighs less than one kilogram with all accessories. The workmanship and the painting of all components is of very high quality. However, with a price of € 19.95 * you should be able to expect this. Features that the benchtable was built to be as transportable as possible can be seen in the fact that the base plate is equipped with a recessed grip.
But as already mentioned, the design of the BC1 Mini is based on high functionality. Even when disassembled, all components required for assembly are still located on the body of the bench. No screw is lost and everything has its fixed place. After a glance at the instructions and some practice, the BC1 Mini can be assembled within a few minutes and completely without tools.
The workmanship of the Streacom BC1 Mini is on a very high level. The aluminum elements are cleanly manufactured and anodized. Despite the low weight all components feel very high quality.
Structure of the test system
Now we come to the system installation. As hardware we use an AMD Ryzen 5 1600 on a Gigabyte B450 I Aorus Pro WIFI with Crucial Ballistix Sport LT grey 32 GB DDR4-3000. The Ryzen is cooled by a Noctua NH-L12 Ghost S1. For the image output a GTX 1060 6GB from Gigabyte AORUS is responsible. The power supply is done by the fully modular >a href=”https://amzn.to/3pA8HSQ”> Corsair SF450 Gold with 450W.
A Benchtable is of course always made for quick component changes. Since there are no side walls, glass windows or other things, the installation of all components was quickly completed. In addition, all PC components including the hard disk can be installed completely without tools. As befits a test system, there are almost no size restrictions for hardware components. For CPU coolers and graphics cards there are no restrictions at all, but the SFX power supply must not be longer than 160 millimeters. This does not occur in this category anyway.
A radiator can also be attached to the BC1 Mini. Due to its small dimensions, however, it may be a maximum of 170 millimeters wide. The radiator is locked in place by means of two brackets that have to be screwed to the body.
Since the temperatures of all components when using a benchtable depend only on the thermal paste used and the ambient temperature, we have not included a stress test here.
Conclusion on the Streacom BC1 Mini
With the BC1 Mini, Streamcom has managed to create a mobile and yet high quality benchtable. All elements and components are thoroughly considered, the assembly is fast and the workmanship is on a very high level. We could not really find any negative features. The only exceptions were that the power supply could only be mounted with the fan downwards due to the power cord socket and a missing front I/O panel. At least a power and reset button would have been desirable.
Basically a Benchtable is of course a hardware component, which will not be used by many PC users. For a short test of the hardware, the mainboard box does the trick. But if you regularly test different PC components and want to have a system to quickly connect hard disks or the like, then a Benchtable is exactly the right thing. Since the manufacturer had to calculate with a lower sales volume, the price for the BC1 Mini with € 19.95 is quite high.
But if you are looking for a first-class tablet, you can’t go wrong with the Streamcom BC1 or BC1 Mini. From us there is a clear recommendation to buy!
Streamcom BC1 Mini
Workmanship
Structure
Features
Cooling
Value for money
96/100
The Streamcom BC1 Mini is a small and portable benchtable with high quality workmanship and no tools whatsoever.
