Installation Preparations

First I had to collect all the parts needed for this computer and since this case is geared toward the gamer, I wanted to put in everything a gamer needed to play todays games:

• AMD64 3500+
• Gigabyte GeForce 6100/nForce 430 mATX mainboard
• Thermaltake Blue Orb 2
• NEC 16x DVD+/-DL RW
• GeForce 7900GTX
• 2x160GB Samsung S-ATA
• 1x250GB Samsung S-ATA in hot swap frame
• Floppy drive
• Pinnacle PCTV Stereo
• Surecom WLAN PCI card

The first problem that came to mind was the power supply. While I could only figure out if it could run all these parts by putting the system together and taking it for a spin I had to plan the use of all the available power connectors to be able to connect everything. My biggest concern at this point was my graphics card, which alone took two of the four Molex connectors available since I had to use a PCI-E to Molex converter cable.

Putting it all together

So I started out with installing the mainboard in the slide out tray. The soldered on standoffs fit perfectly. After that I installed the graphics card, the four pieces of memory and the CPU cooler. The Blue Orb 2 was incredibly hard to install as I had to apply a lot of force to screw the cooler on. I was wondering why that was the case but more on that later. I chose a mainboard which has the PCI-E x1 slot right under the x16 slot. That way the currently fairly useless x1 slot gets covered by the graphic card, not one of the only two PCI slots. Right under the graphics card I installed the Surecom WLAN PCI card. As it was small and did not obstruct the fan of the video card. Below that I installed the Pinnacle PCTV TV tuner.


I was quite happy that the huge Blue Orb 2 fit inside the case, until I pushed the mainboard tray about half way in. Here a little piece of the case was in the way of the heatsink. I had to push down gently on the heatsink, to get each fin under that piece and inside the case.


After that problem was solved, I noticed why I had so much trouble with the heatsink. The Blue Orb 2 installs with a separate backplate for the mainboard (Take a look at our review here). Aspire cut a hole inside the mainboard tray, white a ledge about 3-4mm high. There was not enough room between the ledge and the mainboard for the backplate, so the mainboard was bend upwards a bit. If Aspire would have folded the ledges completely, this would not have happened.


Now the only things left to do were installing the drives and connecting the power cables. The hard drive holder has to be installed last, as it covers up the mounting holes for the other drives. The thermal probe for the hard drives was placed in between the two Samsung 160GB HDDs and the CPU probe was placed on the Blue Orb 2.

Considering that I completely filled the case, I also managed to use every last screw that came with the case, so Aspire gives you just the amount you need, no more, no less. With everything installed, we are ready to put the cover on and fire up the computer.