Test System

Assembly

Installing the motherboard is done by traditional means, with the use of spacers and screws. There is loads of space above and to the right of the board, which should allow you to easily route and connect any cables.


The 3.5" hard-drive plates also allow for you to install 2.5" drives instead thanks to additional mounting holes. For the sake of this review, we will place the larger variant on here, which is secured with traditional screws. The tray itself is held in place with hooks and a thumbscrew.


Things are identical when it comes to the smaller 2.5" trays. Simply place your drive on one, secure it with the provided screws, and put it back into one of four mounting points by pinning it down with the thumbscrew.


To add a power supply, you first have to attach the frame to the PSU to then slide everything into place. I suggest keeping the screws holding the frame a bit loose to make sure you can align things properly once the unit is inserted all the way. Both the frame on the PSU and the mounting inside the case require traditional screws and a screwdriver. Once installed, it becomes apparent that there is plenty of space for any PSU you can dig up, regardless of length.


With everything installed, the Cougar Panzer makes a really clean impression on the interior. Thanks to the offset plate toward the front of the chassis, all the cables can easily be hidden. Cable routing is extremely clean even behind these plates - you can definitely show it off through the glass side panel without worry.

Finished Looks

With the side panels in place, you can see some of the hardware when the system is turned off. As soon as the system is on, a white LED illuminates the power button, and the elongated LED-illuminated strip on top will also light up.


You can see the hardware behind the tinted window in a well-lit room if you look closely. In darker environments, any type of lighting within the chassis should allow you to show things off much better. Luckily, Cougar is offering a Panzer-S, which includes three additional LED-equipped fans in the front. In the rear, everything is where you would expect it to be.