Next, let’s take a peek at another unique feature of the 930. . .fresh air ducting for the CPU. As you can see from the photographs, the ductwork is attached to a removable frame rail that extends from the top of the case to the bottom, over the motherboard. Not only does the entire assembly move up and down, you can also pop the ducting apart, and rotate the eccentric portion to accommodate the specific location of your CPU cooler. Finally, each side of the ducting is spring loaded, so it fits against the vented side panel as well protecting the HSF and motherboard in the event of tight clearance.

This feature seems like a no-brainer…why not introduce fresh air from outside the case directly to the CPU cooler? I was very glad to see this feature so well implemented here, and would like to see it used more widely.

Another interesting feature can be seen by looking closely at the rail supporting the ductwork. There is a small assembly mounted below the ductwork which consists of an extendable and slotted piece of plastic. When extended, the edge of an expansion card can slip into the slot offering extra support for a heavy video card or similar. As you can see, this assembly has a number of positions available, to adjust its position relative to your mainboard. Nice!

Finally, it was time to install peripheral cards, again using screwless retainers. The system worked flawlessly, installed in seconds, and held my video and sound cards securely.

All in all, the process was quite smooth. I have included a picture below of the complete assembly, less the CPU cooler and ducting.

Check this picture out carefully…there is one possibly major problem here that anyone considering this case ought to be mindful of. See the hot swap assembly (drives and cooling fan) at the right center of this view? It takes up an awful lot of space. If my X1900 video card was just a touch higher, the power connector would be blocked, and I would be looking at a bad choice between using the lower PCIe slot or removing the fan assembly and letting my Raptors slowly bake in their own, poorly ventilated oven. Additionally, if you look closely, you can see a very close clearance between the black floppy cable and the fan housing. . .way too close for comfort. Granted, Coolermaster made these design choices to accommodate the main purpose of this case (the SATA enclosures) but those choices could lead to problems for some users.