I tend to use this section of the article to point out both good and bad points when it comes down to the system installation. Many enclosures can look good, but their features leave a lot to be desired when it actually comes time to start putting the parts together. Let’s see what the Aguila has to offer, shall we?
To start things off, I’ll begin at the front.
In this day of everything being disposable, it is very common to find those little metal plates that you twist out and throw away in this location. One of the benefits of having something more permanent here is structural stability. If I remove two of those throw away metal plates and later decide to use only one optical device, I lose a small amount of stability with the missing plate. With this setup, I remove the covers I need, but can replace them if I decide later to use a different setup. While this is a small detail, I like the fact that Thermaltake is paying attention to these details to begin with.
After the covers have been removed, you use a simple rail system to mount the optical devices. This is a tool free rail design and they have even marked the rails L and R to make the installation even easier. Simply place the rail studs into the device and slide it into place.
This gives you an idea how the rail system works. Once you insert the optical device into the bay with the rails attached, just slide it until you hear the click. This indicates the device is locked into place. The lower drive is fully mounted, the top device is getting ready to be. Since the rail works on the industry standard placement of the mounting screws on the device, you don’t have to worry about how far the drive hangs out of the bay.
Once the drives are mounted, just close the front bezel and the drives are lined up properly. It is just that easy.
We talked earlier about the hard drive tower and the grommets used. This shows you a drive in place. Just a word of caution for those like myself with large fingers, you may have a little difficulty with the screw insertion. The oval you see above is recessed and made it a bit of a chore installing the hard drive. Once installed, the drive was very secure and the sound dampening effect of the rubber made for a very quiet operation.
Here is something that I have never encountered before, the requirement to add a protective material to the motherboard tray before system installation. Seems that since this case design is compatible with the new BTX standards, the motherboard tray has some high areas that need to be covered with a mylar sheet to keep the system from shorting out. Not a big deal, but one that I’ve not seen before.
The plastic tabs shown above are made of the mylar material and are non-conductive. Make sure to pay attention to the directions at this point to make sure you get these pads mounted in the right spot. Let me show you how it will look once they are in place.
I removed the hard drive bay to show you the layout. I think that the two smaller pads you see on the right will only be necessary for those using a server-sized mainboard. I went ahead and installed them, but they were not in lay when I installed a standard ATX motherboard into the system.
Besides the features shown above, there weren’t any other areas of system installation that were out of the ordinary. While this enclosure doesn’t have a removable motherboard tray, the installation of components went without a hitch. As a side note, I had no problems with sharp edges in this model. At no time did I receive any cuts from areas when adding components. Overall it is a very nice layout and the features included are done in good taste.
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