Installation
Installation for the Diablotek Fly isn’t anything out of the ordinary. You start out with your typical motherboard standoff installation and then securing the motherboard to that via the included screws.
I did come across some problems at this point in the installation. My CPU cooler, Cooler Master Hyper 612 PWM, was too tall for the case. The top of the cooler rubbed up against the top of the case and would not allow me to properly close the side panel. This is something you might want to take into consideration when purchasing this case.
Installing an expansion card was pretty simple and quick, just simply unscrew and remove slot covers, install your card and fasten screws.
Moving onto the drive installation in the Fly we start by installing 3.5” drives. The case only supports three, 3.5” drives, all of which can be easily installed with the plastic drive rails included with the case. I’ve seen several drive rails over the years, but the quality of these aren’t very high. While they are sturdy, they do look cheap. Like any other rail, simply attach it to the sides of your drive. You’ll want to make sure rails are hanging out the opposite side of the connections to the drive. The drives will be connected on the right side of the case.
Like I mentioned before, there was no 2.5” drive installation for this case. Even though some cases don’t have 2.5” support you can usually find a way to install one. It’s a little harder to find one with cases with rails, but since this case has a 3.5” external drive we were able to make use of it for our 2.5” installation. We used the 2.5” to 3.5” converter which came included with our SSD.
We were able to install it in the 3.5” external slot, by attach it via screws, like you would for an external drive, except that we’re using it as an internal drive. Perhaps it would have been better for Diablotek to reduce the 5.25” drive slots and include a 2.5” slot somewhere or even make room for more 3.5” drives.
Installing the 5.25” drives is pretty simple. Just remove the front panel, remove the cover, and then slide your drive into place. It will click into place in the top two slots, but if you use the bottom two, you will have to manually attach them with screws.
The case really isn’t that great in terms of cable management. The slots are too small and too close to the motherboard to really be of use for larger quantities of cables. Not to mention there’s hardly any room behind the motherboard tray to feed your cables through.
