Test System

Assembly

Unlike with traditional cases, you should really install the drives onto the floor first. I chose to go with a 2.5" drive for good measure. Before installing the board, make sure all the major headers are accessible to avoid any irritating surprises as you assemble your system. As you can see, the Gladius Q50 can easily fit a 120 mm tower cooler like the Fera 2 HE1224 v2 we reviewed here.


While there is no real need to remove the hard-drive tray under the ceiling, doing so makes assembling everything a bit easier. You will have to use traditional screws to secure a storage device with its bare end facing into the case onto this tray.


Installing a PSU is done by traditional means. If you want to install a GPU that is longer than 200 mm, you will need to make sure the PSU is less than 155 mm long with its cables and plugs. Our "short" GPU used for case reviews is slightly longer than 200 mm, so it had to make way for the Seasonic PSU.


With everything installed, the Gladius Q50 is quite crowded. Sure, this is also due to the fact that the PSU's cables were not routed. We have seen people take apart the chassis, which is easily done as it is held in place by screws and not rivets, to really make the most of it and keep things as clean as possible. We, however, chose to assemble the chassis with the only access point described in SilentiumPC's manual. A more compact top-blow cooler would also keep things slightly cleaner.

Finished Looks

With everything in place, the chassis looks pretty much like it did right out of the box. Once turned on, a white LED at its face lights up to let you know the system has been powered on. In the rear, all the plugs are were you would expect them to be.