A Closer Look - Inside

You may remove all the major panels of the chassis, including the front if you so choose. All of them feature a layer of magnetic metal mesh as an additional dust protection element. For the sake of the review, we will leave the front panel on as a viewing angle reference point. In addition to being able to remove the exterior panels, all mounting brackets may also be removed, giving you truly unobstructed access on three of the four main sides of the case.


The main side is utilized for air cooling, radiator setups or potential storage, while the opposite holds the motherboard tray which also acts as a mounting point for the SFX PSU bay bracket.


The side mounting bracket has two sets of mounting rails, so even though FSP advertises the ability to only install 120 mm fans here, there could be a good chance that 140 mm variants will also fit. Alternatively, you may mount two 2.5" drives or a mix of one 3.5" and one 2.5" unit here. However, if you opt for an ATX PSU, the forward section of the bracket may, at most, fit a 2.5" SSD instead of a fan or radiator.


In the front, there are the two SSD mounting locations which will only be accessible if you go for a side mounted SFX/SFX-L PSU. Looking at the ceiling, you can clearly see that there is only room for one fan should you opt for an ATX PSU, or if you have to mount the SFX/SFX-L unit at the top most bracket position. Just like the mounting bracket on the side, you may also install storage drives here instead of active cooling. Looking at the floor, you may realize that the mounting bracket is identical to that of the ceiling. There is an undocumented feature, that you can flip the frame of the FSP CST350 Plus around and have an upside down motherboard layout - something the OEM of this frame provides and some brands actually advertise, unlike FSP.


In the rear, the four expansion slots really allow for a Micro-ATX board, but things will be a tight fit as we will see later on. Another limiting element is the fact that you will be forced to move the PSU to the front of the case if your board is of the slightly wider variety. Above that, you can see the 80 mm exhaust fan mounted with classic screws. You may adjust the height of this to best suit your needs, which is a nice touch. However as previously mentioned, that unit blocks the vertical GPU mounting position, so you will have to get rid of it if you intend to have such a setup.


Looking at the motherboard tray, you will notice that the PSU cage encroaches well into the space once you spot where the spacers for a classic Micro-ATX board. There are certainly skinny Micro-ATX boards out there, but those are entry-level, dual-DIMM slot equipped boards. Even so, a quick search only revealed a handful of choices for Intel's latest socket and not a single one for AM5 that would fit that scenario. In other words: Micro-ATX will force you to mount the PSU in the front of the chassis.


Looking at the SFX/SFX-L PSU bracket, it is removable and can be mounted at two height positions on either the side or the front of the chassis. You may also mount a 2.5" or 3.5" hard drive here. You will need to install this before adding your PSU, as such any drive on here should be a more permanent element of your build. This is due to the use of classic screws instead of mountable pins that some other brands use for this type of assembly. The ATX frame comes pre-installed inside the case and will dictate where you put such a unit. FSP mentions a maximum length of 150 mm, which is quite compact. Using this format or an SFX with 3.5" hard drive in the front will also limit your GPU length to 245 mm.


All the wiring within the FSP CST350 Plus is of default variety. The wire lengths are well scoped for this case, so that you don't have to deal with too much of a mess once everything is installed.

Reverse Setup

As previously mentioned, not only does the body of the chassis allow you to flip your setup over, but also the FSP designed IO panel does. You simply unscrew the two screws holding it in place and the mount it on the other end of the front panel. Utilizing this setup would give you the potential to install a ceiling mounted AIO to push hot air out the top, while having intake fans on the bottom of the chassis.