A Closer Look - Inside

To gain access to the interior, simply remove the pair of thumb screws holding each panel in place. Xigmatek has kept the interior quite clean, with the hard drive bays turned 90% to allow for easier access and longer graphics cards. Numerous openings in the mainboard tray allow for cables to be routed and hidden, while a large one should give you access to the CPU cooler backplate. With 20 mm of space behind the motherboard, you should be fine when filling things up, within the chassis.


In the front, the six hard drive bays are implemented with individual plastic trays. You may remove the top cage for long graphics cards, while still retaining three bays for your storage devices. The cage is held in place by sturdy clips on the top and bottom, so you will need tools to pull it out of the chassis. Above the HDD area, are the four external drive bays. The bottom three come with the same screw-less locking mechanism we have seen in the Elysium for example. The top bay is actually only intended for a slimline optical drive - which is a surprisingly good idea to make the most of the space.


In the rear, the PSU bay is of the standard variety, but comes lined with foam to reduce or eliminate vibration from the power supply. Above that are the afore mentioned, seven expansion slots with thumb screws holding each cover in place. A 120 mm fan with a 3-pin connector pushes air out the back.


Taking a look at the top from the inside, two aspects become clear upon closer inspection. First all the fans or water cooling parts go on top of the ceiling and below the plastic cover, and second, there will be no free space between the mainboard and ceiling of the chassis, so there is no way to go for the thick radiator type.


Before we dive into the assembly process, let us take a quick look at the cables. Sadly, these are not all black to go with the rest of the chassis. All connectors are of the standard variety and Xigmatek employs a 20-pin header to connect the USB 3.0 I/O to the motherboard. While this is excellent, I would have liked to see two USB 3.0 plugs in the top of the chassis to make full use of the plug.