Installing the motherboard was a breeze, thanks to the case’s mounting hole road map that is stamped into the motherboard tray.  Following the code, I screwed the standoffs into all the necessary holes for an ATX-style motherboard and installed my ASUS A8N.

All the expansion card slots have removable covers, and a “uni-clamp” that holds them in place.  To install any card, you must release the clamp by pulling the lever on the top, and take out the corresponding slot cover.  When the cards are all installed, The lever is moved to cinch the clamp down onto the cards.  I found this design lacking due to the clamp having to apply pressure to the entire row of card slots, with the lever on one end.  The top slot (video card) got the most pressure because it was right below the lever, whereas the bottom slot (audio card) got little to no pressure at all.  I had to assist the clamp just to get it over the card.  A lever on both ends of the clamp would have worked better.

Installing the hard drives was simple and tool-less, thanks to the “tried-and-true push-in” drive rails and snap-in drive cage. 

After removing the metal drive cover plate (accessible once the front bezel is removed), the DVD drive went in without any hitches.  Again thanks to the “tool-less slide-lock” mechanism on the sides of all the bays, 5 ¼” and 3 ½” alike.

There was plenty of room for the power supply, and here you can see the pre-grommeted pass-through holes for your water-cooling hoses.  Makes me wish my rig was water-cooled just so I could make use of them!

As for cabling, the Mystique makes them disappear!  I was able to thread most of the wires and cables down channels behind the drive cages to keep it all out of sight.  I could have made hid all the cables, given more time and patience. 

As for the IO cables, I wasn’t able to hook up the firewire cable because it was too short. All it needed was another couple inches.  A bit of research on Cooler Master’s part could have determined the maximum length of cable needed to cover any motherboard.  For the record, I have an ASUS A8N SLI Premium, a very common and widely used model.