Installation

To install the mainboard the tray was removed. Six of the nine possible mainboard stands were already screwed on. The tray has little round indents which act as standoffs to thecase metal. So that the golden standoffs would not scratch the surface even if they are a little bit too long and go through the motherboard tray. I installed an MSI board which only used the six mounting posts already in place.


To install the 3.5 inch drives, the front must be opened to gain access to the drive rails. They are held in place by metal covers in addition to the plastic ones in the door. As you can see, as soon as they are taken off the door, the green plastic can be seen. even the location of the screws is still green, while the screws were painted in silver as well.


Installing the drives was quite nerve racking. The two plastic rails and the plastic I/O panel feel incredibly flimsy. I managed to put everything together so it would line up after a few tries. The drive rails for optical drives look and feel much better and I had no trouble installing them.


The hard drive rail was the only part of the case which had sharp edges. The hard drive is screwed into the bottom of the rail. It has rubber standoffs which keep the drive vibration from being passed on to the case. This is a good move, as the rail itself is not secured by any screw. The hard drive can be installed with the connectors toward the window or toward the closed side. I installed the hard drive so that the connector could not be seen from the outside.


Once everything was installed, I tried to hide the IDE cables and power/reset/speaker cables. This was an easy task, as I could route them behind the drives. It is not hard at all to get most cables out of sight in this case.