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External Features
   
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As with most aluminum cases, the ATC-201A is light. At a mere 12lbs (case alone), you should have no problem lugging the rig from place to place. Like most of the aluminum cases on the market, you're on your own when it comes to the power supply. In most cases (no pun intended), stock power supplies aren't of the best quality, and I'll bet most of you have an aftermarket PSU anyways.
 
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There are 4 external 5.25" drive bays, and 2 external 3.5" drive bays. This should be enough expansion room for most users, as being a mid sized case, you do sacrifice the number of drive bays when compared to a full tower.
Our Cooler Master, and from what I hear, most Cooler Masters, was missing one external 5.25" drive bay faceplate. I suppose the idea behind it is you'll have at least one optical drive to put in there, but for those of you who wish to stealth their CDROM drive, you'll have to resort to painting it instead, or picking up one of Cooler Master's aluminum bezels.
 
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The ATC-201 has a mesh grill (to allow for airflow for the fans), which will be a hit or miss for some people. Personally, I find it a nice aesthetic (and functional) feature, whereas there are people who prefer an untainted front panel. We will discuss why this vent placement is better than how most cases draw air later on in the review.
The power button and reset button are nicely recessed on the right side. The power button is a little "squishy" for my tastes, but that's a minor complaint on my part. On the left of the vent are the USB 2.0 ports. Personally, I don't like the idea of USB ports that "show" on the front, so the spring door to cover the ports is nice. I'm not sure if it was our sample or if it'll be a common issue for all of the production 201As, but the spring door doesn't really lock in an open position. A couple of times, it just swung shut, bending the cable to my USB device. No damage was done, but you'll need to take some care with the door.
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Taking a cue from home audio equipment, there's a nice gold trim around the 4 feet on the bottom of the case. I do question the colour choice though, as being a silver case, a silver trim would be a better colour match for the rest of the case. The feet are fairly spongy, and do a pretty good job at keeping the case from slipping around.
 
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As with past Cooler Master cases, both side panels are removable. There are three thumbscrews on each side panel, and each panel has a small grip on the back to pull them off. The side panel on the left side has a pre-cut blow hole, which is referred to as the "Air Guide". The case is available without the Air Guide, but as our tests have shown, it works prety good. We'll talk more about this in the cooling features.
 
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One nice feature is the painted side panels (as well as the top panel). The paint is of car paint quality, though under a special garage light, we did notice a sort of "dusting" over the surface. This is unnoticable under normal light though, so I doubt anyone will bother wet-sanding it any further. As you can see above, the paint is very reflective, and will certainly impress people (who are into these things at least). At this moment, only metalic silver (4 coats) is available, but you can expect a high gloss black (6 coats), as well as an aluminum colour in the near future.
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Cooler Master ATC-201A SX2: Cooler Master, pioneer of the aluminum cases, overhauled one of their most popular models, and released something enthusiasts should consider when shopping for a new case.
