Installation:
The first steps to installing a system in this case are to remove the two braces, and install some motherboard standoffs (as shown below). The braces each clip in at one end, and are held by a single screw at the other end. The design is rather secure despite the simplicity, but it would be even nicer to have the simplicity of a tool-less method for installing these.
This installation will consist of the following components:
»
Foxconn 865M01-G-6LS mATX motherboard
» 2.66 GHz Intel Celeron D processor
»
1024MB Crucial Ballistix PC3200 dual channel DDR memory
» 80GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 SATA hard drive (for OS and applications)
»
300GB Maxtor DiamondMax 10 SATA hard drive (for media files)
» Lite-On DVD/CDRW combo drive
» Eumax 2U server style CPU cooler
» 128MB ATI Radeon 9600 AGP graphics card
» ATI HDTV Wonder tuner / capture card
» Microsoft 802.11g wireless card
» Kingwin Alpha Power 350W power supply
» Windows XP Professional, SP2
The images below show the motherboard, CPU, memory, power supply, and optical drive installed into the system. Everything dropped in easily, and in general I had plenty of room to work as I installed each component. The below right image shows one area for concern... The 5.25" drive bay is particularly close to the edge of the motherboard (keep in mind that this is an mATX board), and I would say the bottom drive bay is unusable. As it is, it takes a rather flexible motherboard power connection to complete the installation and use an optical drive in the second drive bay.
If tackling this installation for yourself, I would recommend connecting the power connector to the installed motherboard before placing any optical drives into the case. You may even want to connect the IDE ribbon to the motherboard first too, and route it to the approximate location of where it will meet the drive once installed.
The images below show the one brace re-installed and the three expansion cards installed, as well. Nothing difficult here, but again, tool-less would be preferred!
Below you can see the other brace re-installed, and carrying the two hard drives. I generally don't like to have two drives right next to each other without some direct cooling, but it is about the only option. The 3.5" drive cage in the middle of the case isn't really deep enough for hard drives to fit without getting in the way of the motherboard, so they have to go over here. The 80mm fan will push a bit of air under the drives, but I doubt the cooling impact will be much, especially on the upper drive.
