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Motherboard Installation
The motherboard area also has some unique features. The non-removable tray
has a reinforcing panel with 4 standoffs that correspond to the heatsink mounting
holes on P4 motherboards. The plate serves to stiffen the motherboard when
a heavy heatsink has been attached. Since I don't own a P4 motherboard, and
the standoffs don't align with anything on a socket A board, I removed the
stiffener plate. Two screws hold it on.
Immediately upon beginning the process of installing the motherboard you'll notice the other interesting feature in this area: The standoffs. Or lack thereof. The 330 uses only one normal screwed standoff, on the far right side of the board. The rest of the mounting holes are filled with plastic standoffs that push through the motherboard's mounting holes and then get clipped onto the tray.
Once you understand what's going on the process is pretty simple:
1. Fill all the mounting holes on the motherboard with the plastic standoffs,
except for the hole on the center right. That hole you leave empty for the
one standard screw-type standoff, which you install into the corresponding
hole on tray as you would in a normal case.
2. Align the motherboard with the square openings on the tray. Once aligned, you slide it to the left, and the standoffs engage in their slots with a reassuring click.
3. A single screw into the one remaining hole provides the final bit of security.
Although I'm sure some people will be made nervous by only using one screw
to install their motherboard, this is very secure, very fast, and really pretty
slick. As I am always swapping motherboards about, I wish all cases would
adopt a system like this.
I tested this mounting system with 4 different motherboards, ranging from
old M-ATX to brand new ATX, and had no trouble. A problem could arise if your
motherboard does not have the hole in the one spot where the screw standoff
must go. Without this screw, the board could pop loose when you shove connectors
in from the rear.
At one point, I intentionally left the screw off and attached all the connectors.
The board did not move. But the possibility definitely exists. It's also noteworthy
that if your motherboard doesn't have a screwhole in that location, it does
not technically meet the EATX, ATX, or Full AT motherboard form factor standards,
which Fong Kai depends on to meet its compatibility promise.
Rear Panel
Continuing the theme, the rear 120mm fan also has a tool-less mounting system.
The black plastic cage snaps open, and has internal pins to friction-fit a
120mm fan. But considering that the chassis also has conventional mounting
holes, and the fact that I generally dislike extraneous fan grills, I just
discarded it and mounted the 120mm L1A conventionally. There are no mounting
holes for smaller size fans, although the grill holes are perfectly good for
that purpose.
Following "tool-less-ness" to its logical conclusion, Fong Kai
has also made the securing of the PCI and AGP cards a barehanded affair. The
cards are locked in place by a pivoting mechanism, which is raised up out
of the way for installation, then locked down to secure. Although not the
first tool-less card holder I've seen, it is one of the better thought-out
ones. With most, unlocking the mechanism will let the cards shift, so you
end up needing to sprout extra hands to hold all the cards in the proper alignment
as you re-lock the mechanism. The Fong Kai system keeps the cards in place
even when unlocked. Although this system did work well with nonstandard back
planes, such as with the Arctic
Cooling VGA Silencer, it did not work with a Zalman
fan bracket.
Visible just to the left of the AGP/PCI slots is the mounting point for tension
arm that helps support large and heavy AGP and PCI cards. For heavy cooling
apparatus on VGA cards, such as the Zalman heatpipe, this is a useful thing.
Here are some photos that illustrate how the tension device works.
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