Wire Management:

Once we opened the case to dig into the wire management portion of testing, we got worried. There are no pre-cut holes to route wires through and figured it would be an ugly installation, but like always, we will hold off final opinion until we install the system.

Once we installed our system, we were correct about it being a mess inside the Blackstorm. As you can see, our PSU wires are bound up in a bundle along the right side of the motherboard behind where the optical drive(s) would reside. This is definitely the opposite of what we like to see after finishing with installing a system. Yes, if we spent a few hours with some zip-ties we could have made it look a tad better, but overall, there is not much we could do to improve and clean up the installation.

Installation:

Test System:

• Abit IP35 Pro
• WD 500GB
• WD Scorpio 320GB
• Zumax 750w PSU
• Nvidia 560 Ti
• ASUS CD ROM

The hard drive cage is removable, which makes installing your hard drives quick and easy. To install your hard drives you will just need to insert the slider prongs in the hard drive screw holes and then slide in the appropriate slot in the hard drive cage.

Raidmax has installed the motherboard spacers for us, so all we needed to do is line up our motherboard and use the provided screws to secure it to the motherboard tray.

Installing our PCI card, we had to use screws, which is not all that bad if the company cannot provide a great locking mechanism for them. We have seen a few companies provide less than quality locking mechanisms  This really aggravates us, as it puts your PCI cards at risk from not being secured properly.

This is the neat one-click option you have for the other side panel to help make installing your system  much easier. The panel folds down, as you see above,  giving you access to everything…. except the back of your motherboard. If you’re doing a heatsink swap or a new build, you’ll need to unmount your mainboard to secure or change heatsink mounting brackets. For anything short of this, however, this is a very slick and convenient feature.

Installing the 5 1/4″ drives is easy with the tool-free design implemented on the Blackstorm. Turn the tab horizontal to unlock and install/uninstall your device, then move it back to vertical to secure your device in place.

Dust Filtration:

The front panel comes with nice dust filters lining the whole front to prevent any excess dust from getting into your system. However, the side panel does not come with any dust filtration for the 120/180mm fan.

Next: Air Flow, LED Lighting, and Conclusion

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