Installation and Operation:
The system installed in the In Win BK623 Mt. Jade mATX Case includes an ECS brand ATI based mATX motherboard, an Intel D840 dual core processor with stock heatsink, a 128MB PowerColor brand Radeon x800 GTO PCI Express graphics card, 1GB of Kingston PC2-5400 DDR2 memory, an 80GB Seagate SATA drive, and a Memorex 16x DVD-ROM.
The images above and below show that with just the basics required to run the system installed, things are very tight inside the case. It is extremely difficult to neatly manage the front panel connections and power supply cables, as there is simply nowhere to hide the excess. In previous reviews, this test system has been fitted with a 64MB low profile ATI Radeon X300 SE, but a full height card was required here (as seen well in the below left image) for two reasons. One, the expansion slots support full height cards, and two, the back of the graphics card also serves as a wall that completes the PPCT (partition plate cooling technology) and keeps the processor isolated.
The below left image shows the partition plate installed, and that it can be adjusted to mate up perfectly with the stock Intel cooler used on this motherboard. The below right image shows the optical drive bay installed, where the CPU cooler can still be seen through the removable air filter.
Next it was time to install the optical drive and to see if my concerns about the air intake being restricted were well founded. As you can see in the images below, the drive does stick way out into the opening and above the CPU cooler, but the remaining opening should be large enough to provide a large enough volume of air to the cooler.
I am no longer concerned with the processor's heatsink being able to get enough air, and my only concern now is that the cables coming off of the optical drive may touch the fan. The clearance between the drive and the cooling fan is tight, and having an IDE ribbon and power cable tucked in between makes it even tighter. I am just hoping that the pull of gravity doesn't eventually tug the cables down into the blades of the fan! I'll keep my eye on it, and if necessary, perhaps some duct tape will be needed to hold the cables to the bottom of the drive.
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