Test System

Assembly

Installing the motherboard is done by traditional means, with the included spacers and screws. As you can see, there is plenty of space above the board for liquid cooling and easy access to connectors like the 8-pin CPU plug, while the bottom edge is right on the metal shroud.


Adding a 3.5" drive is tool-less because of the plastic trays. Just pop them in and slide the filled tray back into the cage underneath the shroud until it clicks into position securely.


The metal trays for SSDs actually come lined with foam strips as an anti-vibration measures, which is nice but seems a bit overkill as you are probably bound to install solid state drives here and the trays themselves rest on rubber-ring-equipped screws. Once filled, simply push them back into place.


Placing a PSU within the Sharkhan X500 is pretty traditional too, using the included black screws. There is plenty of space, 190 mm to be exact, for you to use larger, higher-capacity units if you like.


Once everything is installed, the interior looks alright, but the cables should not be this visible by today's pretty high standards. This is simply due to the missing grommets and some unfortunately placed hooks for the zip ties. I rewired all RGB leads from the front panel completely to reduce the cable mess to a minimum. That said, I could have probably hidden the 24-pin ATX cable better between the two sets of holes in the motherboard tray.

Finished Looks

With the system turned on, the power button lights up white, and all the interior elements are clearly visible as well thanks to the light tint of the glass panel. Naturally, the front RGB elements light up as well, but it is a bit disappointing how dim the four strips in the front panel are. With the studio lights, they are barely visible.


Look closely into the running system and you will be able to make out all the hardware inside. RGBs on the rear fan would have also helped a bit. In the rear, everything is where it should be.


I turned off all my studio lights so that I could show you what the colors of the DA601 look like. Besides being able to toggle through various animations with the built-in controller, you are also able to cycle through seven different colors.