The Inside

Taking the side panel off, we're greeted with an all black inside. This looks great but we tend to find that because it's more expensive to get the inside painted, it's not seen on cases that don't have a window. While you can't really see it from the outside, the all black inside is a nice touch and adds an extra bit of quality to the case.

At the bottom of the case we can see where the power supply will squeeze into and while a bit of a muck around getting a unit in place, there isn't really any dramas. Above here we can see where the motherboard sits. With my last few cases being full towers it does take a bit of time getting used to the smaller quarters a midi tower design offers, but again, with the install probably only having to be done once you shouldn't have any problems.

(Click the above image for the large version)

To the right we have all our bays for ROM drives and hard drives. Across the top we can fit in three 5.25" drives while across the bottom we can get a grand total of seven hard drives installed.

(Click the above image for the large version)

One of the coolest features on the case is actually on the side panel and it's not the fan. Instead of having to muck around trying to get a molex connector into the fan and then have a cable running across the middle of your neat setup, there's a little connector on the side of the panel. When you close the panel it hooks up with the other part and provides power to the fan. While something quite simple, it can make a big difference to the overall neatness of your cable management.

As mentioned, being someone who is used to working in full towers, the mid tower based Element S does feel like a bit of a squeeze at first. It doesn't take long to get into the swing of things, though, and the whole setup of a PC doesn't take too long.