Assembly

Due to the large size of the the CPU cooler, the mainboard was installed with the tray left in place. Even though the Metal Boned K6 can be considered quite compact, large GPUs seem to fit quite nicely. You will however, have a hard time reaching the SATA connectors and USB/Firewire/Audio headers of the mainboard once such a graphic card is installed. As you can see I have already connected all needed SATA cable on the Asus X58 mainboard.


Now, let us take a look at the afore mentioned hard drive trays. These are completely screw-less. Simply place the drive into the tray and close the large black top until it clips into place. Normal drives are held incredibly well, while thin, single platter drives will require the use of an additional foam spacer - which Lancool has included. The trays have rubber rings so you won't have to worry about any vibrations from the drives. The metal bar locks the drives and does not allow anyone to pull them out - great for LAN parties.


Installing the optical drives is a simple matter as well. Slide the drive into place slowly until the plastic clip snaps into place. This systems does not really hold the drives in place perfectly, so I would suggest screwing them down. Lancool has a new system in place on their newest cases, which should improve things in this area. The power supply is held in place by four traditional screws - nothing fancy to see here - move along.


Once everything is installed and all the cables are connected, there is still a surprising amount of free space. This is partially due to the cable management clips in the back of the mainboard tray. As you can see, I have packed every cable I could in there. Even with all these cables, placing the side panel back on did not pose a problem.

Finished Looks

The finished case looks great and the solid side panels hide all the components nicely. The fans are very quiet and do push/pull a noticeable amount of air. The rear of the chassis looks as expected and all the connectors and parts are easily accessible.