Installation:
First let's list the system specifications that we will be installing in the Aluminus.
» DFI NFII 400 AL motherboard
» AMD Athlon XP 2000+ processor
» Kingston HyperX PC2700 512MB memory
» Tyan 9500 Pro video card
» IBM Deskstar 30GB 7200 rpm hard drive
» Creative 16X DVD
» 3.5" internal flash memory reader
» Case Gear Acrylic 450 Watt modular power supply
» Onboard sound and LAN
This system has been living in a Raidmax Ninja case we reviewed back in October of 2005, which has a very similar cooling set up to the Aluminus case.
The 5.25" drives mount into the Aluminus case via drive rails, but the drive rails need to be secured to the drive with screws so I hope you have not put your screw driver away just yet. We installed the Creative DVD drive, the includeed bay device which contains USB, Firewire, and audio ports, and a multimedia card reader in a 3.5" drive bay. The 3.5" drive bay slides completely out of the case for easy installation of any 3.5" device. We also added a blue LED 120mm fan to the front intake fan holder.
Mounting of the hard drives could not be much easier. As mentioned before, each hard drive has its own tray that slides out of the case. You simply screw the hard drive to the tray facing the direction of your choice, with the cables facing the window for easy access or toward the back so they are hidden but harder to get to. We mounted ours with the cables to the back.
