Assembly

Installing the mainboard is achieved quickly as you just need to place the board unto the afore mentioned arcs. Due to the compact nature of the chassis and the fact that Thermaltake wants to keep costs to a minimum, the motherboard expansion cards are locked into place on the outside of the chassis. Interestingly enough, the metal bar covering all seven slots holds the dual-slot graphic cards extremely well with just a single case screw - pretty nifty, especially for system integrators.


As there is a spot on the bottom to install a 2.5 inch drive, I did so as you can see. To add such a drive, you have to tip the chassis over, so that you can gain access to the four screw holes for the drive. Due to the design of the chassis and its compact dimensions you will have to install the hard drives before placing a graphics card into the system, as you may block the adjacent slots otherwise. Once the drive is placed in the slot of your choice, placing the plastic lock and turning it, does an alright job in keeping the drive there. I strongly suggest using at least a single, traditional screw to ensure no vibrations are passed on to the case framing.


To install an optical drive you have to pry off the entire front first. It is good to see, that the I/O is not firmly attached to the front panel as this should reduce the RMA issued and make life easier for system integrators. Once the slot is freed, simply slide the optical drive into the bay and place the plastic lock back unto the side of the bay. Even though it holds, you should use a screw here as well to keep the drive from becoming extremely noisy as it spins up when a disc is inserted.


Placing the PSU inside the case is nothing out of the ordinary, but you have to remove the crossbeam first, as the different power supplies are of different length. Once the unit is in place, you should slide the support back into place, tip the chassis over and screw it back on from the underside of the case. This extra step may be tedious for end-users, but it secured the unit, reducing the strain on the frame of the chassis, which is once again a feature of interest to a system integrator.


Once everything is installed, the chassis still makes a bit of a messy impression, even though it is hold the minimum parts for a modern system. This is due to the lack of cable hiding and basic cable routing methods.

Finished Looks

Once the side panels were placed back unto the chassis, the Commander MS-I makes a really cool impression. Once turned on, the front LEDs and two embedded blue lights in the fan are the only visual hint that the system is up and running.


Taking a closer look at the openings, the light of the fan can be seen, glowing through the air vents. Due to the top openings, noise from the internal components can easily escape the confines of the chassis, which may result in a louder working environment as with higher-end cases.


The window gives you a good peak into the insides of the chassis and it is great to see, that the tall Prolimatech Super Mega fits perfectly fine within the Commander MS-I.


The power LED of the chassis is blue, while the one for the hard drive lights up red when in use. This looks quite nice and fits the overall design of the chassis.