These are some images that did not make their way into the review. Some are redundant, some are silly. Any or none may shed further light on the ATC-600.
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Tour: INTERIOR
Removing the case cover reveals a very thoughtful interior. The case is visually cut in two by an aluminum crossbar. Ostensibly, its purpose seems to be to support weight. Upon closer inspection one finds that the bar is held in place by 6 small screws that would take all the vertical pressure, negating the function of the crossbar. It seems at this point that its main function is to prevent the front and rear of the case from buckling inwards.
There is no removable motherboard tray. This missing feature alone may cause the casual seeker to pass the ATC-600 up in favor of another case. At first glance, it may seem that the small space would be packed too tightly to have engineered a proper motherboard tray, but even after filling the case with hardware, there is plenty of vertical and horizontal (both width and length) space. A motherboard tray was doable. It occurred to this writer that structural integrity may be compromised if there were a removable tray, but not being an engineer, this thought was left strictly to speculation.
Here we see one of the side air-intake fans. Notice its proximity to the drive mount? This becomes an issue that I will address further below.
Taking a much closer look insides: on the left, one sees USB and Firewire cables, and PC speaker assembly. On the right, the bundled reset, power, LED, etc. wires.
The USB cables are standard and will attach to any motherboard that has the proper options. They are long enough to reach the back of the case with slack to route around PCI cards, the IDE cables, etc. The Firewire cable, on the other hand, is actually kind of a jury-rigged affair. It is a standard external male 6-pin connector. To connect the cable to a Firewire card, and assuming it does not have an internal female 6-pin input, one must route it OUT the back and into the proper card. This is how I was forced to connect the cable. Not pretty.
You may have noticed in some of the images that the mount points for the motherboard, the drive trays, etc. have actual bolts sunk into the aluminum. This allows you overzealous types to torque your heart away attaching the brass motherboard mounts. If instead you were forced to screw directly into aluminum, I am fairly certain one would strip the threading almost instantly.
One very minor design flaw reared its ugly head when I began installing the motherboard and its PCI cards. Careful inspection revealed that the metal shims have an about 1-2 mm give when pressed in, as illustrated in the picture. The chances of vibration or other annoyances can be greatly reduced by tightening the thumbscrews down with a screwdriver, rather than relying upon one's fingers.
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