Internal Inspection:

Gaining access to the case is a much simpler and a more elegant experience than you will find on most cases... Again another connection I can find to a car. You slide a large latch found on the back of the case, and the side panel opens just slightly. You can then hinge it open to a final position that is about 90 degrees from the body. If that is not enough room for you to work, the side panel can then be lifted off of its hinge (there is a handle on the inside of the door) and placed off to the side. Both side panels share the same design as described so far, as well as something I have never seen before. The side panels are actually double walled, with the outer surface being Aluminum, while the inner surface is made of molded plastic. It gives it a robust and well finished look/feel, and it probably contributes to reducing noise, too.



The next image shows an overview of the inside of the case, where the massive bundle of wires may be the most obvious thing you see. Other things worth noting include the three tool-less 5.25" bays, the five sideways mounted 3.5" bays (just wait - there are even more coming up soon), the massive opening in the motherboard tray to allow for CPU cooler mounting, and a small portion of the inside panel of the case's door is visible to reveal what I have described above.



We'll start our up close review of the internal components with the six visible 3.5" drive trays seen in the image below. The construction of these trays is rather lightweight - almost flimsy - but if you are careful while installing drives there shouldn't be any issues as the frame will hold them all together nicely when installed. Pins on the side of the drive trays slip in to the screw holes on the side of the drive, with a bit of rubber on the plastic frame to reduce vibration. As you can see, the intake fan is directly in front of these drive bays, so cooling should not be an issue.



Moving up a bit we see the tool-less mechanisms to secure 5.25" drives. Simply slide the Cooler Master labeled handle back and forth to release/lock the drive in place. It worked perfectly on a DVDRW drive, and aligned the face of the drive to be flush with the front of the case. Inadvertently skipped in this photo collection are the two externally accessible 3.5" drive trays. We saw them from the outside, but inside you would see that the back plane of each tray has a SATA data and power connection for the drive, along with the necessary leads to connect them to your power supply and SATA headers.