Opus Technologies MT-200 Mid-Tower Titanium Plated Case

Looking Inside the Case:

Removing the left panel reveals a swing-open side bar with an 80mm fan basket, PCI card stabilizers, and a mount for a hidden 3.5" hard drive. On the floor of the case is an accessory kit where drive rails and other hardware are stored. Inside the rear is a plastic bracket to hold the 2 80mm rear fans, and also an innovative toolless PCI retention mechanism using sliding locks to secure PCI cards. My Thermaltake Xaser had a toolless PCI retention mechanism as well, but it was poorly designed and probably 50% of AGP/PCI cards would not lock properly.  I tried the cards in this case that would not secure properly in the Xaser and they fit perfectly. Opus has really done a great job designing the retention mechanism to support all types of cards. Included with the case is a blue CCFL (Cold Cathode Fluorescent Light). I looked at the light and it has very bulky end caps with no predetermined mounting position in the case...this is a small oversight in my opinion. I'd like to have seen a mounting position predetermined to allow a clean installation of the light in the case. Another thing you'll notice inside the case are instructional decals all over the place. They detail many procedures from drive installation to the use of the PCI card stabilizers.

 In the drive area all of the side walls are filed with ventilation holes to improve airflow. Apparently only the top 3 5.25" bays feature the toolless drive rails, whereas the lower 3 require screws to insert the drives. I'm not sure what the point of mixing and matching the mounting system was, but I suppose it will ensure that the drive bays are 100% compatible with all types of drives. You can see that all the wires for the front panel are routed in a special space behind the 3.5" bays, and there is also an 80mm fan basket there, which is accessed by removing the right side panel.

The case also features a removable motherboard tray, which I'll discuss in just a minute.

Removing the right side panel reveals two main features: a 80mm fan basket that swings open for fan insertion, and a removable motherboard tray. The motherboard tray is held in by two sliding plastic tabs, and one quick flip of the tabs allows you to swing the tray open and pull it free from the case. The motherboard tray uses some very cool motherboard standoff snaps that will allow you to install a motherboard on the tray by just pushing it down on the snaps. These snaps replace the usual threaded standoff with screws method and the snaps hold the motherboard securely in place. There is a small plastic tool attached to the tray that assists in the removal of a motherboard from the tray. The tray also sports some recessed areas with cutouts. I suppose these are to allow more air behind certain spots of the board (like the CPU socket). There is the ventilation grill on the side panel behind the CPU socket, but there is no fan there so I'm not entirely sure there is even a benefit to the feature.