Installation (continued):

Installing the motherboard wasn't anything out of the ordinary; screw the standoffs in the case to line up with the motherboard holes, then secure it to the case with screws. The PCI and PCI-Express card installation was a little difficult because the tool less design requires all cards to be held or loose at the same time. So I had to line up all of the cards and hold them with one hand while my other hand pushed the clamp back into place. The hard drives are very easy to install; attach a set of the hard drive rails into the side of each drive, then slide it into the cage.


In many tool-less designs, you are required to remove the front panel to install or remove a device. With the Xclio A380, you can install or remove any of the drives by just opening the door and pushing the black device rails together (see below left image). To install a 5.25" device, insert two of the drive rails on each side of the drive and slide it into an open bay. I had a slight issue installing the DVD drive into the top 5.25" device bay. The drive kept getting caught on a piece of the device cage. Not a big deal to me, so I just moved both drives down one space.


The above right image is a shot with everything installed. There is a lot of room to manage the wires and cables. With such a large case someone might have issues installing DVD/CD ROM drives if the location of the IDE connection on their motherboard is on the bottom. Not that this case really needs it, but there is room for a 120mm fan in the rear. I expect there should be more than enough airflow with the 25CM fan blowing directly over the main area that will cool the video card, CPU, and chipset.

With the system powered on (and the lights turned off) it is quite a sight to see.


The neon blue light is very bright and for some people might be too much. The side window shows off the hardware, but the fan blocks out most of the more interesting components. In my opinion, I think if you have a window and blue lights you would want to look at something other than cables and the 5.25" device bay frame. The front of the case does look pretty sweet with the Xclio name lit up, and the front 25CM fan does look like a "jet engine".