A Closer Look - Inside

To gain access to the interior of the Stallion 3, simply remove the big thumb screws holding each panel in place. Chieftec has embedded a GPU support bracket system that provides structural support for up to two GPUs. Each of the shelves are held in place by large thumb screws, and Chieftec employs a mix of steel and plastic for this feature element. While this is nice, it is a bit bulky in general. As such, this will block the visibility of some hardware or ARGB components. The metal shroud does not extend all the way towards the front, which provides the unique opportunity for that floor fan placement which is not actually mentioned in the specification table.


On the backside, you will find a traditional layout with two rows of grommet covered openings. However, should you employ an E-ATX motherboard, both of these rows will be blocked, which will make cable management considerably more difficult. Besides that, there is quite the cable mess due to the four fans being pre-wired to the magnetically attached controller, which in turn is not at the best location possible. You will find two individual, steel trays to attach SSDs with two more plastic, tool-less clips towards the front of the chassis.


That controller, which is also the one you would receive if you were to buy the Tornado 3-fan pack, utilizes proprietary fan wiring, so you will be limited to these or other Chieftec fans. If you opt to swap these out with generic ones, you will also loose the ability to control the fan speed and ARGB through the case IO panel.


Under the shroud towards the front, you will find two 3.5" hard drive trays. The cage that holds these may not be moved, but there is still plenty of room for long PSUs. Above that, you will find the three Tornado intake fans. If you look closely, the body of the Stallion 3 offers two additional SSD mounting locations on the motherboard tray itself. However, Chieftec does not include these in the specification table either.


In the rear, the PSU bay comes equipped with two foam pads on which the unit will rest. Above that the seven expansion slots utilize proper metal thumb screws, which is nice to see. At the very top, there is that rear pre-installed Tornado fan, as expected.


Looking at the ceiling, you can see that the reason for the limited fan/AIO support is purely tooling based and could have been avoided as the metal frame element has simply not been modernized to make use of this space.


All the wiring in regards to the IO and case power/reset buttons is of default variety and all of the usual black color. The Chieftec Stallion 3 provides a power LED, but lacks an storage activity one.