Page 2 - Physical Look - Outside
At first glance of the FSP CMT340 without turning on the RGB fans, the case is a virtually perfect cuboid. The whole chassis is made out of steel and glass. More specifically, except for the two panels that are made out of tempered glass, the rest of the case is made out of pure steel. The only exceptions are the four pieces of plastic stands and maybe some of the clips and switches. Unsurprisingly, there is no opening for an internal 5.25" drive, which means internal CD/DVD drives cannot be installed. I think it is a good idea, since nowadays almost nobody uses these things on a computer. The front panel looks much cleaner without the openings for drives. The dimensions of the CMT340 are 206mm in width, 471mm in height, and 368mm in depth, which is interesting in a way that the depth is significantly less than the height. This configuration reminds me some of the old 486 full towers.
Both of the front and side glass panels are tinted black, matching to the rest of the case in appearance. A side effect of this is it decreases the brightness of any LED lighting you may have. I find the glass is pretty high quality. Firstly, the glass panel is 4mm thick, which is good for noise insulation, and secondly, there is no distortion I can observe. To hold the glass side panel in place, three pieces of sheet metal clips are attached to the glass, so the thumbscrews can be used. To remove the glass side panel, there is no need for any kind of tools. As for the glass front panel, it also relies on thumbscrews for attachment. Behind the front panel, there are three RGB fans. From the above picture, you can have a preliminary idea of how those fans look like. If you want to see the actual RGB effects, the internals of a computer will have to be installed first.
As you can also see from the above picture, the top panel has a giant ventilation opening and it can all be covered by a plastic mesh net dust filter. The dust filter is magnetically attached to the case such that it is easy to clean. Please note even if the mesh dust filter is used, there is no guarantee it will keep all the dust out when the computer is not on. Therefore, if you are not using the computer, you may put a magazine or something on top of the case to prevent dust getting into the case.
A power switch, RGB control switch, two USB 3.0 ports, and a pair of 3.5mm headphone/microphone jacks are located on the top panel. There is no USB Type-C port. The LED control switch is a very nice feature on this computer case. It controls the color of the four RGB fans that are installed from the factory. You can use it to cycle between colors, activate the lighting effects, or turn it off completely. On the other hand, if you do not want to control the RGB fans, you can also use that switch as reset button. All you need to do is to disconnect the RGB control switch from the controller and connect it to your motherboard. This does mean if you cannot have a reset switch and an RGB LED toggle switch at the same time.
The back of the CMT340, like the rest of the case, is simple and clean. There are four major sections at the back of the computer case; namely, the power supply mounting bay, motherboard I/O backplate, rear exhaust, and expansion card slots. According to the shape of the power supply mounting hole, the power supply is horizontally mounted at the bottom section of the chassis. Since the power supply has already taken this bottom position, the motherboard can only be located above it, meaning the I/O backplate opening is at the top. There are seven expansion slots available on the CMT340, which is standard for an ATX mid-tower. You will not be able to install a graphics card at the bottom slot though. Note that the expansion slot covers are ventilated, which I really doubt how much it can improve the cooling performance of the case. Instead, I prefer to have solid covers to prevent dust. As for the rear exhaust, as you can see from the photo above, there is a 120mm RGB fan included from the factory.
There are four plastic stands on the bottom of the case to support the CMT340, rising the case up about 2 cm on top of the resting surface for better ventilation. These stands are extremely strong. However, all stands do not have rubber bricks. The good side is, you can easily drag the case on any surface. The downside is, the case may not have enough friction if you want it to firmly stand in one position. You can also see from the above photo a washable filter is attached to the bottom grille of the chassis. Note the power supply of this case is bottom mounted, therefore the ventilation area behind the filter is actually designed for the power supply. The filter is not reinforced by any hard plastic structure, so it is not firmly attached to the case. I would like to see a reinforced PSU ventilation dust filter with proper clips for a better cleaning experience. Unfortunately, the front fans do not have a dust filter, which is a strange omission.
Overall speaking, the CMT340 is a good looking computer case that is made out of metal and tempered glass in my opinion. The gaps between panels are small and even, which shows a high level of assembly quality. The tempered glass panels also exhibit quality attributes in terms of distortion, or lack thereof. The only suggestion I can make is to provide a reinforced PSU ventilation dust filter with proper clips, such that the filter can be firmly attached to the case and the cleaning experience will also be improved. As for the interior, let us read on.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Outside
3. Physical Look - Inside
4. Installation and Conclusion
