Installation (continued):
Next to the 120mm intake fan is a front panel header. These cables may normally be hard-wired to the PCB, but these are socketed so any cables that you do not plan to use can be removed.
When you are ready to install the 5.25" drive cage, you simply slide it into place and secure it to the chassis with four screws. Here the drive door is lowered so I can guide the drive cage into place.
One feature I was happy to see was an easily removable front intake fan filter. In the below left image, the front door is down, and the fan filter can be slid out of the chassis for cleaning. The below right image shows the intake fan with the filter removed. The hole pattern is made up of small circles which might restrict airflow, and a more open design should be considered by Maxtop.
Installing a motherboard posed a slight challenge. I have four different motherboards available, including AMD 939, AMD AM2, and Intel 478. Each one of them has a processor backplate that helps to support the CPU cooler. Unfortunately, the backplate on each motherboard, in conjunction with the case's small motherboard standoffs, is where the problem arises. In the picture below, on the left is a standoff as found in a Thermaltake Eureka, Thermaltake Tai-Chi, CoolerMaster CM Media 281, or just about any other case I have reviewed. On the right is the standoff that is included with the Maxtop 4U ICX-4830B-20BX Rackmount Chassis. The included standoffs are shorter than the other, which is what causes the issue. The difference between the two standoffs is very minimal, with the 'standard' standoff being 0.7cm and the included standoff being 0.5cm.
When the motherboard was installed, the choices were to bend my motherboard (which is not going to happen), or remove the processor backplate (which means there is no support for the CPU cooler). Check your motherboard carefully, if it has a backplate that is thicker than .5cm it will not fit (without modifying the case).
If you think you can simply borrow standoffs from another case, you will then run into the problem of the motherboard sitting too high, making it difficult to mount expansion cards and to align the motherboard rear I/O panel.
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