Hardware Installation
Hardware Installation
Since we’ve already commented on how small the B2 case looks internally, we’re holding our breath waiting to see how small it actually is. Sure it’s got a truckload of features, but those won’t mean squat unless we can get our gear to fit inside. With that in mind, we scrapped the original idea of displaying both mATX and an ATX motherboard installations. Quite frankly, if an ATX will fit you can be sure we won’t have any issues with a mATX. On top of that, we’ve also thrown in an aftermarket cooler, aftermarket NB cooling, and in an attempt to completely plug up airflow, a relatively warm running IDE HDD paired with both an IDE DVD Rom and Floppy Disk Drive. If this set-up doesn’t plug up the works, we’re not sure what would.
Installation Hardware;
MSI P6N SLI-FI
Intel E1200 @ 2800 1.5V
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro
Nexus NHP-2200 NB Cooler
2X1 Gig Buffalo PC2 8500 Firestix
Sapphire Radeon HD 3450
HIS Radeon 3870 IceQ3
Maxtor MaXLine Plus II 250GB ATA/133
Pioneer DVR-110DBK
Ultra X-Pro 600W EE
Without any further ado let’s throw it all up in the air and see how it fits!
Well, what do you know? Not only does it all fit, it looks pretty good to boot and it would seem that our original concerns about a tight fit were unfounded. Installation of our hardware into this case was straight forward and and didn't result in any show-stopping issues but there were a few speedbumps. The pictorial manual follows logical steps and covers everything we needed to know in more than enough detail. Since installation of the motherboard in this case was no different than any other case we’ve used, we’ll focus only on those aspects unique to the B2 Stealth Bomber case.
In order to gain clear access to the motherboard tray, it’s best to remove the VGA tunnel. While this is not absolutely necessary (and not suggested in the manual), since this step only requires the removal of two screws, it’s well worth the small effort.
Installation of the optical and floppy drives requires the removal of the front panel but once again, this is quite an easy process which only requires a few tabs to be unlatched. Special kudos go to IN-WIN for using easy release connectors on the front bay wiring harness. It’s a small touch, but it saves us from needing to re-route the harness when we re-install the case front.
As you can see from the above image, even with a full slate of rounded IDE and Floppy cables, there are still plenty of nooks and crannies to allow us stuff them out of the way. Ample space is also available above the motherboard to tuck PSU cables out of the way with a direct line to the upper 5 ¼ bay for stowage of unused cables.
Also worthy of note is the placement of the rear 120mm fan. Situated directly above the card slots, it’s perfectly positioned to draw air over the CPU and NorthBridge coolers.
Folks planning to use extra large CPU cooling should have a close look at this picture and take heed. As you can see, the AC7 Pro is almost tight against the PSU casing. Keep this in mind when choosing an after-market Air Cooling solution for installation into this case since space is at a premium. Given the tight fit directly below the intake for the PSU, it might also be prudent to consider a PSU which uses a rear exhaust fan rather than the more common 120mm intake fan of the Ultra we used for this build.
Using IN-WIN’s patented “Shock-Free Railing System” to install HDDs, FDDs, and optical drives couldn’t be easier. Metal posts on the rails fit into the screw holes on either side of the drive and the whole unit slides into a slot in the HDD cage. Not only is the action silky smooth as it goes in, the latching mechanism has a satisfying click and the drives seem to be secured just as well as they would have been if we had used screws.
During our initial look at internals of the case, we mentioned leaving the rail storage bin out and some of you may have noticed that it isn’t installed in a few of the images above. As you can see in this image, this is purely a point of personal preference. The bin doesn’t take up much more room than a standard optical drive, however some may wish to leave it out to allow for a few more wire management options.
Knowing that most Hardware Canucks members won’t be running a small passively cooled Video Card in their system, we’d be doing everybody a disservice if we didn’t check clearances for today’s larger cards.
At 9” long, the Radeon 3870 pictured above is on par with Nvidia’s 8800GT series cards so you can be sure that the 1 ½“ clearance from the HDD bay will provide plenty of room for mounting PCIe power connectors on the rear. Even with the HDD bay rotated to allow for removal of the 120mm intake fan, there is still well over ½ “ clearance.
That said, cards like the 9800GTX come in at an eye-popping 10 ½“ so even with top mount PSU connectors it would be an extremely tight fit.
Speaking of different length video cards, now is probably a good time to demonstrate the different configurations of the B2’s VGA tunnel fans.
On the left, you can see that we’ve got the rear fan extended so that it blows air down the full length of the Radeon 3450. As you can imagine, directing airflow this way is of great benefit to a passively cooled video card.
Pictured on the right, it’s obvious that this configuration just will not work with longer cards; however that’s not much of an issue with this style of cooler, so having fresh air directed down from the top works just as well.
So there you have it, IN-WIN’s B2 Stealth Bomber Mid-Tower case took all of the gear we threw at it and wrapped it up in a nice neat package. All of the tool-less designs worked quite well, with only the removal of the VGA tunnel requiring us to pull out the screwdriver. Wire management possibilities abound, and IN-WIN has provided all of the elements for good airflow.
Chalk up another mark in the win column for the B2 Stealth Bomber Case.