Internal Inspection:
The design of the Ultra Products m998 makes it just about completely modular, and it can be broken down to just about a bare frame for installing components. There are thumbscrews all over the place, but this does not mean things are necessarily convenient. I found that the small diameter of the thumbscrews made them difficult to grasp, and wound up having to use a screw driver to loosen really tight ones. In addition, the thin sheet metal doesn't provide much material for tapping holes. As I backed out some of the screws for the first time, metal shaving came with them, and I could see that some holes were on the verge of being stripped already.
The image below shows the case with the two sides, the top, and the motherboard tray removed. The lower drive cages can also be removed, leaving you with a stack of Aluminum pieces, and a very lightweight frame to work with.
The below left image shows the drive cage area, and the first thing you may notice is that the installation of drives does not appear to be tool-less. Yes, despite the fact that just about all cases now have some sort of mechanism to eliminate the need for tools while installing drives, and that this case seems to be a higher end unit where you would expect such features, you need to use a screw on every hard drive, optical drive, or whatever else you might install into one of these bays. The 3.5" drive cages are removable, and are partially tool-less, but that does not make them convenient. For example, the lower 3.5" cage can be removed by popping a pin at the back of the cage, in addition to removing four thumbscrews only accessible by removing the front of the case.
 
The above right image shows the front of the case with the plastic bezel removed. Removing the bezel requires that the side panel be removed, and then you pop three plastic tabs out and hinge it to the side. In addition to the four thumbscrews that hold the internal 3.5" drive cage in place, here we can see a removable filter for the 120mm inlet fan, and that two standard screws are used to hold the external 3.5" cage in place.
The front panel connections are seen in the images below, and present another one of the innovative touches found on the m998. The eSATA, Firewire, and audio connections are actually part of an expansion bracket that you might find installed in the back of the case. If you were so inclined, you could remove this bracket and replace it with another expansion bracket of your choice. I am not convinced of the necessity of this, but it is novel. Perhaps you don't want eSATA and Firewire up front, but you could use more USB ports... Just move the existing bracket to the back and install the USB bracket that comes with many motherboards these days.
 
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