Installation (continued):
Now on to installing the drives. One of the tool-less rails provided for 5.25" drives is shown on a CDROM in the image below. The manual doesn't help here either, and from trial and error I would say that as pictured, they are on backwards. Not that it really mattered, as they didn't seem to work no matter what I did.
With the rail installed as pictured above, I was able to slide it in with some effort, but it would not go all the way in. I was left with the drive sticking out about an inch beyond the front bezel. I decided to pull the drive out and try the rail the other way, but it was now stuck! The rail had locked the drive into the case, and I had to get a thin screwdriver to pry it out.
I then installed the drive with the rail facing the other way, and guess what, it still didn't go all the way in (see images above). At this point my patience was low and I was willing to beat on the system to make it work, but it didn't help. At least with this orientation the drive was able to slide back out with relative ease. Do yourself a favor and just use screws to install an optical drive. Plus, make sure you install the 5.25" drives before the 3.5" drives, as you can not access the 5.25" screws once the 3.5" drives are in place.
|
|
|
As shown in the below left image, hard drives mount on their sides, two on either side of the 5.25" bays. This is another instance where you need to use standard screws, and if you want to use four per drive, it is not particularly convenient. Securing the two from the top is easy, but the two on the bottom require that you tip the case up and get a screwdriver small enough to fit inside the case. A bit of a balancing act that could have easily been eliminated with a tool-less system.
With everything else in place, installing the power supply is about the last step. You attach one of the two brackets to your unit with standard screws, and then attach the bracket to the case with thumb screws. Installation isn't a big deal, but if you have a unit with long cables intended for a typical ATX case, you may find yourself spending extra time on wire management. You not only want to keep them neat, but you need to keep them away from the exposed 120mm fans that are right there.
