The Inside
This content was originally featured on Amdmb.com and has been converted to PC Perspective’s website. Some color changes and flaws may appear.
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The first picture above clearly illustrates just how little metal holds up your power supply in your system. This is one place that concerned me while installing my power supply as it was a little leery trying to balance the power supply and attaching it in place. I would recommend as in all other occasions you remove your motherboard if you replace the power supply in this case. The next picture above shows you the front panel wires and the front fan guards. I still haven’t figured out why manufacturers insist on incorporating front fan guards, because most front fans are behind the front panel and it is nearly unheard of to have the front panel removed while operating the system. They are also quite a bit more restrictive then the rear fan guards and an overclocking enthusiast would certainly start here by removing the fan guards all together.
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In the above pictures you can see the front of the case, the fan guards, and the front panel wiring and how it passes through to the inside of the case. The hole it goes through has been rounded over so it won’t cut any of the wires. I do wish they had a neater way of doing it as each connector is a separate wire and there is nothing holding the wires together. This concern is more along the lines of aesthetics then anything else, but a case modder would certainly be wrapping these wires together. You will also note the room on the right side of the case for the wires. This will be a good place to put extra cabling later to keep it out of the way of the airflow.
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These pictures show just how much steel goes into this case, certainly explaining its 28lb. weight. This case is solid. One thing you can notice in the above pictures is the built in standoffs. There are 6 built in and can not be removed. They give you spare standoffs in case you have a long board like me with the A7A266 from Asus. The fan guards still leave something to be desired. You can also notice the ledges that hold up the power supply. They could be a bit bigger. One thing I have not be able to find a reason for is the rectangular cutouts in the top of the frame. With it being thick steel, perhaps they decided to cut some of it out to make it easier for blowhole cutting. You can also note the placement for bolts to hold down heatsinks that use four bolts instead of clips.
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You can now see me starting to put the system together with mounting both front and rear fans. For those who want to know, Panaflo M1A’s up front and L1A’s out back. I installed the three extra standoffs for the motherboard and installed the Enermax EG-365VE dual fan power supply. The cables are long and this case should have plenty of room to hide all the extra cable. You can also see more of the front panel wiring. You can see why I would like to have seen them wrapped up from the manufacturer but nothing that can’t be easily fixed.
