Closer Look: Interior

Finally, here is, as the military would put it, "Case, Computer Side Open" like "Meals, Ready to Eat (MRE's) because this case, again, just reminds me of something CIA, Secret Service, or military:
(1) This might be the most important aspect of this section. These are side inlet gills. Remember I was saying that the case is pretty well sealed? Well, Cooler Master must think so too because they created these gill vents specifically for cooling purposes. The fans will literally suck air in from these slits, which are on both sides of the front bezel, and through the filter we saw in the last section.
(2) This is the removable hard drive cage. It glides inbetween the top 5.25" non-removable tray and the bottom 5.25" non-removable tray. Well, I guess they could be removable if you drill out the rivets.
(3) This is the back tray CPU hole, nice and large and pretty unexciting.
(4) The top non-removable 5.25" bays with the bottom taken by the hot swap SATA docking tray. There are sliding lockers, as you can see, and they work well and feel solid. You can take them off if you want to bolt in your drives, or double them up on each side. You only get two of them though.
(5) We have here the bottom non-removable 5.25" drive bays.
(6) Can you see it? It's the front fan.
(7) Here again we have the back fan. Note here that besides the power supply fan and the front fans, this is the only fan you can mount in this case.
(8) Moving back again to the front of the case, we have an empty slot where the additional, optional fan mounts. Hey, I just noticed something. I have you jumping all over the place with the numbering. Instead of going back and redoing every image with numbers on it, I promise next time I'll start with (1) on the upper left and descend to the right. Sorry about that.
(9) Anyway, last we have the very interesting power supply air-flow entry perforations at the bottom left of the case. Very interesting, indeed.

The reason I went to the trouble with the numbering scheme and details is that there may be those starting out on their computer education, and thus the detailed explanations might prove helpful to them. That, and I myself find that sometimes I wish I had a little more detail when things like drive cages and mounting methods are discussed.

No numbers here. This is the same picture but with the hard drive cage removed. You can clearly see the fan in the front now. The optional fan mounts directly underneath it. You have to slide it down between the front of the case and the bottom drive cage.

Here we have the hard drive cage going solo on us. This is nice. There are no screws or clips or other stupid homicidal inducing design flaws. You slide it in, it clicks, and you're in business. It fits nice and tight too and the nylon guides prevent rattling.

Here is another look at the permanent and removable aspects of the drive bays: (1) the back of the SATA hot swap bay; and (2) the removable hard drive cage. Everything fits together nicely.

For you fan aficionados, I wanted you to be able to see what Cooler Master is using. Here you get a clear shot of the numbers. Report back in the comments section and let us know. Is it any good? It looks like your basic fan to me.

Cooler Master tossed in one one drive converter, shown here with the back panel thumb screws (You get four thumb screws for the panels). Last, we have the most exciting item yet--an internal speaker. Are you kidding me? I haven't seen one of those in decades. I got a little chuckle out of that. I think some engineers have a sense of humor, not unlike Easter eggs in software. So here is a hardware Easter egg for you: An internal speaker. I wouldn't recommend playing "Taste the Bass" CDs through it though.

I'm happy to report that, indeed, all of the interior edges are rolled and there are no sharp areas to cut your fingers off. I hate nothing more than finishing a system build and then bleeding out because of cuts on my fingers and hands due to sharp edges. So let's get inside of this thing and see what the Silencio 550 has cookin'.

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