Test System

Assembly

Installing the motherboard is done using traditional means, with spacers and screws. As you can see, the grommets are well placed for cable management, and the openings at the bottom of the mainboard allow you to route all the usual wires past the pre-installed fans fairly easily. Most long GPU also shouldn't interfere with a side-mounted cooling solution as even the Palit GeForce RTX 2080 Ti comes just short of that area.


Adding an SSD on the backside of the motherboard tray is quite easy as well. Just take the plate off, screw down the drive, and put it back into its place. Should you want to install it elsewhere, you will still have to use the same tools and bits.


Installing 3.5" drives is quite similar as you have to pull the frame out of the case and secure the drive with special screws. If you opt to place a drive on top of the cage, you have to do so before filing the frame. Once ready, slide it back into place and secure it with the provided thumb screw. As you can see, I spent some time routing the I/O cables around it to ensure ease of access.


There is loads of space for a long and potent PSU in the ceiling of the Sharkoon Pure Steel, especially as there are two cable-routing openings. As such, you will always have an opening to work with, even if your unit is so big it covers the first one.


With a little cable-routing trickery and rewiring of the fans on the floor, the fully assembled system looks great! Sure, with coolers on the floor and the usual cables attached to the bottom edge of the board, that area is a bit more disorganized, especially for the white variant of the Pure Steel. In the rear, you can achieve a clean and clear wiring layout that allows the side element to be used in the future and makes for easy access to the top HDD slots.

Finished Looks

Turning the Sharkoon Pure Steel on, it looks beautiful inside and out. The only gripe I have is that the fan LEDs shed most of their light towards the front, which makes the bottom fans less noticeable than those in the rear. A small white LED lights up around the power button to let you know the system is up and running.


You can clearly see your hardware through the nearly clear window, and the white interior also helps. The rear with its top-mounted PSU offers all the accessibility we are used to.

You may toggle through various multi and single-colored animations for the ARGB fans, but as shown below, the Sharkoon Pure Steel also offers several solid color modes.