I picked up this case a few days ago with a bundled EA 430 PSU.
The installation of a regular-size ATX motherboard with one 5.25" device and one 3.5" drive was completed without any trouble. In the place of one of the brass standoffs which must be installed for motherboard mounting, there was a pre-installed standoff with a pin that fits into one of the screw holes of the motherboard. This pin helps locate the rest of the screw holes by allowing the motherboard to pivot around it. Great idea.
The hard drive mounting system, in particular, is a fantastic design too because it allows for easy installation and uninstallation of individual drives and also damps vibration-caused noise very well. The 5.25" slots require only two screws, not four. Not toolless, unfortunately, but pain-free nonetheless.
The length of the cables of the EA430 unit was acceptable. I'm not too fond of mesh-jacketed power cables (the stiffness increases), so I was a little disappointed when I saw that the ATX power cable was jacketed in such a fashion. The additional 4-pin connector that makes a 20-pin plug into a 24-pin plug was "hinged" on the 20-pin plug. It worked fine for me but I think such a hinge would fail from fatigue fairly easily.
No word about aesthetics since pictures of this unit are available everywhere. However, what may not be apparent in pictures is the quality of the paint job. No scratches or any QC issues like that, but there is tons of orange peel. Definitely not up to par with my P150, for example.
Not much else to note except that the side panel retention mechanism was a little over-the-top. To close it, you snap the side panel on and then you can choose to tighten the rear thumb screws. Because neither the latches nor the thumb screws are of the locking type, it doesn't make sense to put both sets in. Also, the area near the video card vent in the side panel was bouncy/denty. Not quite sure how to describe it except you get the same kind of effect pushing in on thin sheet metal that's slightly convex and wants to return to that shape. I think thicker sheet metal would solve that issue.
I didn't install any extra fans.
Recommended
p.s. I didn't check spelling or grammar
The installation of a regular-size ATX motherboard with one 5.25" device and one 3.5" drive was completed without any trouble. In the place of one of the brass standoffs which must be installed for motherboard mounting, there was a pre-installed standoff with a pin that fits into one of the screw holes of the motherboard. This pin helps locate the rest of the screw holes by allowing the motherboard to pivot around it. Great idea.
The hard drive mounting system, in particular, is a fantastic design too because it allows for easy installation and uninstallation of individual drives and also damps vibration-caused noise very well. The 5.25" slots require only two screws, not four. Not toolless, unfortunately, but pain-free nonetheless.
The length of the cables of the EA430 unit was acceptable. I'm not too fond of mesh-jacketed power cables (the stiffness increases), so I was a little disappointed when I saw that the ATX power cable was jacketed in such a fashion. The additional 4-pin connector that makes a 20-pin plug into a 24-pin plug was "hinged" on the 20-pin plug. It worked fine for me but I think such a hinge would fail from fatigue fairly easily.
No word about aesthetics since pictures of this unit are available everywhere. However, what may not be apparent in pictures is the quality of the paint job. No scratches or any QC issues like that, but there is tons of orange peel. Definitely not up to par with my P150, for example.
Not much else to note except that the side panel retention mechanism was a little over-the-top. To close it, you snap the side panel on and then you can choose to tighten the rear thumb screws. Because neither the latches nor the thumb screws are of the locking type, it doesn't make sense to put both sets in. Also, the area near the video card vent in the side panel was bouncy/denty. Not quite sure how to describe it except you get the same kind of effect pushing in on thin sheet metal that's slightly convex and wants to return to that shape. I think thicker sheet metal would solve that issue.
I didn't install any extra fans.
Recommended
p.s. I didn't check spelling or grammar
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