Installation
The system installed for this review consists of the following components: • Intel Pentium D 840 (Dual Core 3.2 GHz) • Intel 945GCZ mBTX motherboard• 1024 MB (2 x 512 MB) OCZ DDR2 5400 • 500 GB Hitachi Deskstar 3 Gbps SATA hard drive• LiteON CDRW/DVD combo drive • Thermaltake CL-P0191 Silent CPU Cooler [ review] • Windows XP Professional
Although I have already mentioned that the drive cage must be removed in order to install a motherboard, I decided to give it a shot without removing the cage. So, my first step was to install my drives. The hard drive and optical drive slid right in, and sliding the black levers on the side around a bit quickly taught me how to lock them into place. The locking mechanism worked quite well, and both drives were held tightly in place, and the optical drive lined up perfectly with the front of the case. Too bad I didn't have a silver drive to match the sleek style of the case, but the fit looks good, anyway.   The motherboard was the next item to be installed, and I immediately realized that removing the drive cage would have been a good idea... But I pushed ahead stubbornly anyway. As you can see in the below left image, the drive cage over hangs the corner of the motherboard, making it difficult to reach the DDR2 slots, power header for the CPU fan, and impossible to use screws to secure the motherboard to the case. Later I also realized that attaching the CPU cooler to the motherboard would be tough too, so please, don't follow my lead and just remove the drive cage whether it is tool-less or not!   The above right image shows the motherboard in the case, and that I did remove the power supply in order to do so. The power supply is held in with four screws, and that corner needs to be available in order to insert one screw to hold the motherboard to the case, as well as to attach the front panel audio cable to the header located over there.
Even with my wasteful shortcuts, installation wasn't overly difficult or time consuming. Below we see it nearing completion, as the CPU cooler has already been screwed into place with six screws. Here you can appreciate the design of BTX, where cool air is drawn into the case, passed over the processor, and then allowed to cool other items like the motherboard chipset and perhaps your video card.   In the below left image you can see all of the cables have been connected and that everything reaches quite nicely. One concern is that the power supply doesn't have all that many vents to help draw air through, and many of them are blocked by the absolute rat's nest of cables in front of it. All of the power leads, as well as the drive cables I used, were difficult to manage and I couldn't do much other than pile them up as you see them. Not good looking, and not good for airflow / cooling. Before sealing the case up, the last thing to do is re-install the brace shown in the below right image. All this piece does is provide some rigidity to the case, and keep cards from popping out of expansion slots, etc.
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