Curious about this. I have a Phanteks Enthoo Pro II Server Edition and a Fractal Define 7 XL (metal side panel). I’m thinking of positioning myself to the left of the case and lifting from the bottom while using a dual suction cup lifter like this PITTSBURGH 4-5/8 in., 85 lb. Dual Suction Cup Lifter as a grab handle at the top left or right when lifting them from the bottom. Thoughts?
Turn your head sideways and just pick it up from the bottom like a box. Or take the side panel off and use the top lip as a handle. Tis how I move my Corsair 750D, which is a little smaller than those but still very much a full tower.
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If you are unsure, get help. 90% it goes fine. 10% your back decides that you are being silly, you drop it and break the contents.
I’ve lifted my Tower900 and least a dozen times now. Which is 54lb empty, never mind all the crap inside it. I’m just taunting disaster at this point.
@ZandoBob suggestion of removing the side panel is a good one. It will give you a much better grip.
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So now I can’t see where I’m going. Fantastic LOL.
3x140 fans up top + reinstalling the side panel under the desk is a PITA.
Well, even that is complicated as the front panels of many of these cases will literally shear off if you use them as a lift point. The Phanteks Enthoo Pro II’s front panel has a couple locations that look like lift points, but are purely cosmetic. An uninformed assistant might be worse.
I was wondering where this case had disappeared to. Sadly it looks like it’s discontinued.
Yeah I’m worried haha. I’m also amused at myself then I never considered this aspect of full towers despite my love for them. That said, I did deliberately avoid glass side panels to save weight.
I’m gonna pick up the suction cup handle and test it without lifting the case fully. With my luck, it won’t even hold tight anyway.
Best I have dealt with on “normal” cases that are filled up and heavy is to remove the front panel and at least the component side panel and maybe the back panel, then lifting from opposite inside corners of the frame. I wouldn’t want to lift it much above waist high or so like that though. Lifting from the bottom of the case can be alright, just be careful with lifting posture and use your legs not your back!
If you have to go far with it and the ground is pretty level and smooth, a 4 wheel moving dolly from harbor freight can be an alright option (I would probably not do that with HDDs in it)
I seriously doubt the suction cup bar would work good or at all, the panel has to be extremely well attached to the case, otherwise a few tabs will bend and let the case drop free from the removable panel, or the panel will flex enough to release the suction cup and drop the whole thing. Better off looking into “manual lifting straps” for furniture, appliances and similar.
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Walk sideways.
You can put your fingers through the fan frames when the blades aren’t spinning, the blades will just move out of the way. Yeah, it’s a pain moving big cases like this, but it’s perfectly doable.
I move around my 750D without issue, even with top fans/radiator, and I move my Mac Pro around too (though that has handles so it’s easier to actually lift) and 2U long-depth servers and a larger not-quite-full-tower system as well. I used to use an Enthoo Evolv TG and that’s not a light or small case either (and the front panel pulls off if you were to try and lift it by that instead of the frame). It does help that I’m large too, but unless I heft ‘em up past my waist I end up shuffling sideways for short distances regardless. If you need to move it far you can set up a folding table as a stopping point.
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My 1000D is heavy out of the box with nothing in it
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I think that using a suction cup on a removable panel of a case that’s loaded down with expensive hardware isn’t a good idea… it’d place an awful lot of stress on the screws / clips holding the panel in place. It’s also unnecessarily expensive IMO. Why not loop some straps around the bottom of the case and create a couple of sturdy loops for handles at the top?
I have a long roll of Velcro that I use for lighter jobs, where the awkwardness is the main factor. I just loop it round a couple of times so that there’s plenty of contact area between the Velcro. But for a heavier job, such as lifting a case full of HDDs, I’d be inclined to get some proper ratchet straps and pad the case with something… or better yet, if I had to move my server, I’d take the disks out. HDD prices are just too crazy at the moment to not take a bit of extra care.
I have moved my server (Fractal XL R2, fully laden) short distances in the past. So my advice for the move itself would be-
- Plan it out so you know exactly how and where to move it… you shouldn’t be looking where is safe to step, or whether there’s enough clearance between, when you’re holding 30kg+ of valuable stuff.
- Make the move itself as easy (less awkward) as possible. If you have a good grip on something and you’re not having to contort your body, not only does it make the move safer for your body, it also makes it easier to lift the weight.
- Ask someone for help, even if they’re just there to clear your path or take some of the load off whilst you adjust your grip, which if you’ve planned step 2 well enough, shouldn’t really be necessary.
- As @Agent9 suggests, use a dolly if you can but take precautions with your spinning rust and remove them from the case. It might not be a shopping cart across a parking lot but why take the risk by not removing the disks first?
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If it was empty I’d say drill holes in the top and attach your own handles.
Doing that with the case full of parts is a good way to end with fireworks… 
I wish more cases had handles. Even for small form factor cases I’ve done that mod a number of times.
This.
Lift it from the bottom, holding as close to your core/body as you can.
If you can’t lift it full, you can remove components.
Especially if you struggle to lift more than 20 kilos, then remove gpu’s as the PCI socket may suffer more if you shake with the effort.
But you should not be that bad, once you have a grip.
Also this. Short, careful steps, looking sideways, and taking it slow. Especially if you have many flights of stairs to traverse.
And this, plan your route, walk your route, and remove any chairs/tables/debris/ boxes from the route..
When using my 760D, I prefer to remove all my HDD’s, and GPU’s which removes like 6 kg/15lb of weight, but the CPU cooler, which may be about 2-3lb, would new repasting, so I leave on.
The version I have, only has plastic side panels, which can flex annoyingly if I leave them on while moving, so I remove them, but not for weight, more so I don’t bend them, and they swing open and may catch
I dknr know the case, is the top panel, actually reinforced to not bend/deformed with the whole machines weight on it?
Get a lady of the night that will “do anything for $50”? Great…guess what we’re doing!
More seriously I bet there is some cheap wheels product on amazon for moving fridges and what not
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If you put one near the back, and one near the front it’d probably be fine. I always thought that was a big reason why the old school mac cheese grater towers ended up with handles and handle-feet. Those things were tanks even when empty.
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Huh, I thought the cheese graters had load bearing structural points there, so one can swap handle/feets, for rack mounting hardware?
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Not sure, I don’t think I ever encountered mac hardware in a rack at that point, just on the desktop.
I’m not sure what I am missing here.
Is there a reason you just can’t stick your fingers underneath the bottom of the case and lift it right up like you would with any other object?
I have a Phanteks Enthoo Pro (OG version) which from pictures looks to be a similar size as your Po II Server edition and that is how I have always lifted it.
Is it very heavy? Most full sized cases I have had have not been heavy enough to where that would be a problem. There was an exception though. My old Corsair 1000D became obscenely heavy when loaded up with a large reservoir and large custom water loop. I was still able to lift it on my own, but it wasn’t easy.
Suction cups don’t work well on surfaces that have a texture to them. Most modern cases have paint that would reduce suction a lot and the glass is not a suitable gripping point due to how it is mounted to the case and how strong it is. So I would not recommend that option.
Perhaps consider lifting with two people and/or use a cart if it really is that heavy?
Also, I don’t see why walking sideways isn’t an option if the field of vision is a problem.
BTW, how heavy is “heavy”? What kind of gear is in that case?