Installation
So what are we going to be installing in the Banchetto? Our test system is comprised of the following components…
Intel Core i7-965 Processor
ASUS P6T Motherboard
ATI Radeon 4870 X2 Video Card
2 750GB SATA Hard Drives
ICY DOCK MB672
Thermaltake Evo_Blue 750W Power Supply
Optical Drive
NOTE: This cases did not come with installation instructions. We e-mailed Microcool and they provided us with these installation instructions.
Ok so the first thing you want to do is remove all of the hard drive and optical drive cages. Each of them have a small thumbscrew that when removed allows you to slide them out. The hard drive cage can fit up to 4 hard drives. The drives are secured with thumbscrews so that makes installation pretty easy.
The 5.25-inch drive cage can fit up to 3 devices. You also use thumbscrews to secure your devices in the cage. There are 2 different types of thumbscrews included with the Banchetto, the larger ones will be used to secure the hard drives and power supply and the smaller ones will be used for the motherboard, optical drives, and your expansion cards.
The power supply housing was a bit bent when we received it, but it was easily bent back into place. Just slide your power supply in and secure it with the thumbscrews.
Once you have everything installed in the cages you can go ahead and slide them back into place and secure them with the included thumbscrews.
Next is your motherboard which easily fits on the top of the case. You secure it with the smaller thumbscrews. While I do like thumbscrews because they make installation easy and make it so you don’t need to use a screwdriver I’m not sure if I like thumbscrews to be used on a motherboard. The main reason is because they are larger and get in the way of capacitors and other sensitive components on your motherboard as you can see in the photo below.
Before we install our video card we went ahead and ran all of our cables. The holes in the case make it really easy to run all of your cables. Also since the back of the case is open your can easily plug in your cables to your devices.
Ok so now for the video card installation. You first need to install the “poles” that will hold your video card in place. These screw into the case, although they are pretty hard to get in. Once you have them installed you can then place your video card and secure it with the smaller thumbscrews.
When I went to plug my power supply up to the video card the cables JUST reached. I had to have one cable go to the end of the case then come up through one of the holes and the other one come out the front of the case. If I had a dual-card setup there would be no way the cables would reach at all. That is something to definitely think about.
