Page 3 - Physical Look - Inside
Removing the side panels is pretty easy as both sides are held with thumbscrews on the back. Unfortunately, these are not captive thumbscrews. While the steel panel has a handle to then grab onto to slide out, the glass panel does not have this sort of accommodation, so users will have to handle the glass when removing this panel. As mentioned previously, the glass is tinted to hide the internals, though you should be able to see light passing through, as we will see later on. Once we do remove the panels, we can get a better picture of the FSP CMT350 layout. From here, you can see we have pretty open case with direct airflow from the front to the back. It is mostly black, though we do have some gray branding with the FSP logo. As this is a mid-tower ATX case, you can fit ATX, mATX, and mITX motherboards. A power supply division exists at the bottom of the case with holes in this divider to allow air to pass through. The shroud facing the left side of the case also has a cutout so users can show off their power supply.
Before we venture in, I have removed the front panel to get a closer look at the front facing fans and cooling mounting options here. As you can see, the front panel comes off with a tug at the bottom as it is held on with plastic tabs. You cannot fully remove the front at first, as there is a header cable from the front light strip connected to another component in the case. As for the two fans in question, FSP does not provide any specifications as to what fans these are. Worse yet, they are wrapped with the condiment-colored, red and yellow cables to a strange set of 3-pin and Molex connections. As most fans can already be powered with a standard 3-pin connector, it looks like this allows users to use whichever connector they want to. Even so, it seems strange to me that we see any sort of Molex connector, especially with how outdated it is. Most users will not even use the Molex connection, rendering the additional plug useless and may interfere with other things during the fan installation. As for the cooling options, FSP does allow for spacing of up to three 120mm or a 360mm radiator. I do find the lack of accommodation for larger 140mm size of fans or radiators here a bit strange.
In the back of the case, you can see the large motherboard opening with one addressable RGB fan included at the back. Once again, we have no specifications for this fan. There are two cables that lead away from this fan. One is for the light header, but the other is yet another Molex connector. Once again, while this fan may have colorful lights, it seems this fan will be running at 100% all the time, especially as it does not have any connectors to motherboard fan headers. At the top of the case we have a nice large opening for 120mm or 140mm fans, or a radiator up to 240mm in size. Finally, all of the standoffs are already installed with expected placement for an ATX motherboard. If you have a different size, you may have to move these standoffs to fully mount your board.
From this angle, you can see a few more internal details at the front and bottom of the case. As we have mentioned previously, two pre-installed 120mm fans are placed at the front with their mustard yellow and ketchup red cables routed to the back. Moving further in, we have two vertical routing holes to let users pass their cables through. It is a shame they are not covered or have grommets, but at least they are rounded off to prevent cables or fingers from getting cut here. At the bottom of the case are two 2.5mm drive sleds attached with a screw. Finally, we have one more routing hole on the power supply shroud for miscellaneous cables like front I/O connections and other headers.
As for the back, we can see the cabling space made for additional wires. Most of this area is flat with a deeper valley formed at the front of the case for more cabling space. All in all, there should be enough space for cabling. The front connector cables include a USB 3.0 header, HD Audio, and the multiple pin connectors for the various buttons and lights. One of these include an LED pin connector that you can attach to the RGB controller at the back to control the lights. Speaking of which, I will say I am quite pleased to see FSP include an industry standard lighting controller using a 3-pin addressable RGB connection points instead of a proprietary one. This makes connecting other lighting products to this controller simple. As we have already mentioned, it can be controlled via the case RGB button or plugged directly into your motherboard to work with motherboard software like ASUS Aura Sync, Gigabyte RGB Fusion, MSI Mystic Light Sync, or ASRock Polychrome Sync. The controller is powered by a SATA connection. As for cabling, I think there are a decent number of tie down points, though I would have liked a few more for some organization along the top side.
In the basement of the FSP CMT350, we have two more items to talk about. First, we have a drive cage for users to store their 3.5" or 2.5" drives. For the larger size, users do not need to take out any screws, as the tray flexes enough to mount the drives with plastic pins. They feel a bit cheap, but at least it is tool-less. The cage, if you do not need to use it, can be removed as well. Finally, at the back we have the location for your power supply with an opening for the standard ATX format.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Outside
3. Physical Look - Inside
4. Installation and Conclusion
