A Closer Look - Inside

The Aerocool Aero-1000's completely black interior comes with a fairly traditional layout. There are numerous cable-routing openings on the motherboard tray, and the larger of those come with rubber grommets. A large hole also gives you unobstructed access to the CPU socket's backside, allowing for the easy removable of coolers.


The hard-drive trays have been spread across three cages. The top and bottom cages are for either 3.5'' or 2.5" drives, while the middle cage can only fit two 2.5" drives. Aerocool also chose to firmly attach the bottom two to the chassis, moving both into the interior of the chassis a bit. The top cage, on the other hand, can be removed, which leaves those looking to install a radiator into the front or in need of some additional space for a long graphics card with a good mix of storage bays. Look closely and you will also see the two pre-installed 120 mm intake fans in front.


The two 5.25" drive bays in the top come equipped with a plastic locking mechanism that has proven adequate enough in previous Aerocool case reviews, but you should always have a screw ready to pin the drive down properly.


The Aerocool Aero-1000's rear is a pretty standard affair: The aforementioned PSU bay is on the very bottom, and the seven expansion slot covers are held in place by metal thumbscrews. With black blades and black cables, the 120 mm fan is pretty basic.


The ceiling bears no real surprises. The thick cover would easily support a radiator and fan combination without interfering with the motherboard. Any thin radiator of up to 280 mm in size will easily fit without it blocking off the top 5.25" bay. There is a magnetic dust filter on top of the chassis, which is possible because the cover is made out of metal.


To go with the all-black interior, all the cables within the Aero-1000 are sleeved black. Their respective plugs are labeled and of the default variety, and Aerocool includes a USB 2.0 plug for older motherboards as well.