Assembly

Installing the motherboard does prove tricky because it collides with the PCBs in the front, but I managed to squeeze past those with a bit of tough love. While you are restricted to using a CPU cooler of less than 175 mm in height, doing so pretty much includes most 120 mm tower units and most top-blow coolers on the market today. The ability to hold a graphics card of up to 260 mm length should also make for a cool little gaming rig—especially with the new SteamOS for which you no longer require physical media.


Installing a 3.5" requires the use of specials screws that mount on top of the pre-applied rubber rings. The method of installation is the same for the unit on the side and both 2.5" variants. I chose to have the connectors of the drive face toward the front of the chassis.


In our setup, installing the PSU was possible after inserting the motherboard, but you may want to install your PSU first. Due to the compact size of the Cooltek U3, you have to make sure to take a compact unit for this build. However, there is enough space to install high quality units which tend to be slightly longer than entry-level ones.


Things are a bit tight once everything is in place, but that was to be expected. As there is no way to really tidy cables up, you will have to get creative in hiding and routing cables in an attempt to keep everything accessible. We routed some cables behind the motherboard, for example.

Finished Looks

Once the side panel is in place, the Cooltek U3 looks quite spiffy, with the blue LED lighting everything up nicely. Not much to tell the unit is up and running, aside from its operating noise.