Cooler Master ITower930 Review - Installation
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Upon removing the side panel from the chassis, the first thing you will notice is the side duct, and support arm for the graphics card. This is removed by pushing the blue clip and sliding it down. This will allow the user to install the motherboard into the chassis. Motherboard installation is the same as for any other chassis.
Installing the power supply can be a little bit tricky. The iTower930 has an enclosed bay for the power supply, designed for heavy power supplies; it may also limit some heavy power supplies. The bay is designed for a power supply with a 120mm bottom fan, or 80mm fans in the rear of the power supply.
Given its design I decided to install my OCZ GameXstream in the iTower930 first. In order to install, I removed the thumbscrew from the rear of the chassis and removed the plate that holds it in place, then fed through all of the power cables into the rear of the chassis and out the back of the power supply bay. Inside the bay there is an adjustable rubber support which holds the power supply in position towards the rear of the chassis. Longer power supplies may have compatibility issues with this, and will just have to be secured to the back of the chassis.
The down side of the power supply bays is that some power supplies may cause incompatibility. I had recently acquired an Enermax Galaxy power supply. This power supply is the combination of both a high end server and gaming power source. It is 240mm in length and has a larger 130mm fan located close to the middle of the power supply. If I installed this supply inside the power supply bay it would prevent air flow to the power supply. This issue can be resolved by removing the bay completely.
Another down side of the rear plate being removable is that it actually screws into the enclosure. So a small screw and bolt are needed to secure the back plate to the chassis.
Installing the hard drives in the system is nice and easy. With the hot swappable drives you simply remove the cradle from the chassis and install a SATA hard drive into place using four bolts. Attach the SATA cable connecting the motherboard to the controller board and attach two power cables to the controller board.
Mounting a DVD burner into the chassis is pretty easy. Removing the front bezel to remove a face plate is the trickiest part; there are a few plastic tabs which need to be pushed and swing the front bezel open. The faceplate is held in place by a tab as well. Then you can swing the bezel back into place and slide the drive into position. With the the tool less design you just unlock the clip and lift it up, slide the drive in place, line up the holes, put down the clip and put it in the lock position. The drive should remain securely in position.
With all the cables connected to the motherboard and all cards installed, you can reinstall the side duct and card support to the chassis. The fan duct is designed for coolers similar to the stock Intel and AMD coolers and can be raised and lowered according to their location on the motherboard. This design is great for providing fresh air to the processor. The 90mm fan near the hot swap bays moves air toward the rear of the chassis, and the 120mm fan removes exhausted air to the outside of the chassis, providing excellent airflow.
Next: Using the iTower930 >>
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