Case Interior and System Build

It has become a foregone conclusion that mid-tower enclosures will have a wide-open interior, and such is the case here.

It is easy to see how the CMT520 can optionally support EATX motherboards given the available width inside, and there is a little extra height compared to the average mid-tower as well which should aid in upper radiator support.

The front of the enclosure includes a trio of 120 mm LED fans, which are connected to a powered hub and RGB controller.

One very big discovery here: there is no screen filter for the front intake. This may have been an aesthetic choice as it could obscure the view of the RGB fans somewhat, but the lack of a filter here is pretty surprising considering the included filters on the top and bottom of the case.

The rear of the case offers another of the 120 mm LED fans for the exhaust, also connected to the hub and lighting controller.

Up top there are slots at both 120 and 140 mm widths for fans and radiators.

The case bottom (or is it?) reveals the floor mounts for the power supply and hard drives, but this will actually be covered by the time the build is complete.

Now to the rear of the enclosure:

Here we have a look at that hub and lighting controller on the left, which is actually a magnetic unit which can be placed anywhere on the steel frame that the fan cables might reach. Bottom right is the usual PSU floor mount, and storage slots include a lower left hard drive cage and a removable SSD mount on the back of the motherboard tray.

Build Notes

The installed ATX motherboard leaves plenty of space around the perimeter, though I will point out the lack of rubber grommets for the cable routing openings. A look to the far right reveals a pair of SSD mounts, adding to the available storage support.

Just look at the amount of space available above the motherboard:

After working within a few cases recently with barely enough room to force a liquid cooler on the top fan mounts this generous space is nice to see, and none of my conventional AiO liquid coolers face any clearance issues here.

Moving on to storage, this is a little limited in the 3.5-inch drive department at just two trays, though they are of a tool-free variety and were easy to attach to the hard drive with a trio of snaps on the bottom:

The hard drives slide in and are held securely with a snug fit in the metal cage.

SSDs can be mounted either on this dedicated bracket behind the motherboard tray, or on the spaces reserved to the right of the motherboard tray on the opposite side.

Next we'll take a look at the PSU mount, which uses a bracket that can first be attached to the power supply.

The exact reason for this mount is a little obscure as it is not held in place with thumbscrews and thus does not reduce the amount of time in mounting the PSU, but it is still a viable way to connect it to the enclosure. Once installed a window opening on the front-facing side shows off the power supply along with the rest of the finished build, a design touch perhaps indicative of the power supply heritage of FSP.

Finally we have a look at the intended use of the mysterious plastic panel accessory included with the CMT520:

With the panel magnetically attached there is now a removable case "floor" which is so shiny it reflects the components above and almost looks like glass.

On the next page we'll take a look at the finished build and then have a look at thermal and noise performance – and RGB lighting – before wrapping up the review.

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