The external drive bays are tool-free and use dual locking mechanisms to secure the drives. The internal 3-1/2" hard drive bay can hold five drives and uses the included rails for installation. A rail must be clipped to each side of the hard disk, then it can be pushed into the slot where it will clip securely in place. We appreciated the vent holes punched into the side of the hard disk chassis, though it would have been nice if the whole drive bay was removable.

The rear expansion ports are also screwless; the black locking tab above the ports holds down the securing mechanism which swivels open, allowing access to all ports.

The 120mm fans are practically silent and are lit up with blue LEDs, making for a nice display in a darkened room.

Installation and assembly

Now let's go about installing components into the Gigabyte 3D Aurora to see just how this case works in practice.

As we said, the side panel is easily removed with the latch, opening up the interior. Motherboard spacers need to be installed on the tray, and these are included with the case. The extra height of the 3D Aurora comes in handy when installing a motherboard, as all but the last two external 5-1/4" drive bays are above the plane of the motherboard, meaning you can install at least three devices without overlapping or interfering with the board in any way. The drive bays are also quite long, so most CD drives should not overlap the motherboard regardless of where they are installed. Installing a motherboard proved to be simple, as we expected.

The expansion slot covers are held by a single black locking tab which secures a swivelling locking mechanism. When this is opened, you can easily remove the slot covers and install your PCI Express and PCI hardware. Closing the tab then locks the expansion cards into place.