Article index
Author
Installing the components
Motherboard and component installation.
Fitting the PSU
PSU
Fitting the PSU proved to be easy. The PSU should be fitted with the PSU intake fan facing the bottom of the enclosure, as this is where the air intake is located. Before mounting the PSU, one should check that the PSU air intake is not going to be obstructed by a thick carpet. The feet on the bottom of the enclosure raise the case by approximately 1.4 centimetres. This of course won’t matter on a hard surface such as a desk or wooden floor, but do check if the enclosure will be standing on a carpet.
The PSU is fixed by the usual four screws, via mounting holes at the rear of the enclosure.
Installing optical drives
Optical drive installation
The P280 can accommodate up to three 5.25" optical drives. As I described already on the previous page, you simply slide the drives into place and they will lock in securely. We can also see from the screenshot how the power and data cables are connected to the drives. It’s all very neat and tidy thanks to the excellent cable management.
Installing HDDs and SSDs
2x 2.5" and 6x 2.5"/3.5" drive trays
At the top of the drive bays we can see the space dedicated to 2x 2.5" HDD or SSD. These simply grab the drive holding it in place, and are ideal for mounting SSDs. Below the 2x 2.5" bays are the 6x 2.5"/3.5" drive trays. Each tray is easily removable, and you can mount either a 3.5" HDD on the silicon mounts, or if you prefer you can move the mounts to the 2.5" position and mount a 2.5" HDD instead. If you wish to mount a 2.5" SSD, then there is no need to move the mounts, as you can fix them directly to the tray and not worry about noise, as SSDs have no moving parts, they produce no noise or vibration.
Once fitted to the tray, you just slide the tray into guides and it locks securely into place.
Installing the motherboard and cable management
Installing the motherboard is very straightforward. The P280 has stacks of room inside. The motherboard fitted here is an Asus P8Z77 V Deluxe which has a standard ATX form factor. It is simply a matter of first fixing the nine brass motherboard stand-off posts, and the motherboard’s I/O plate. Simply slide the motherboard into place and fix the screws. The P280 has a large CPU cut-out on the motherboard tray, so there is no need to mount the CPU cooler before mounting the motherboard, as the cut-out will easily allow the CPU cooler to be fitted once the motherboard is in place.
Cable management
Cable management in the P280 is excellent. There is a 3cm space behind the motherboard tray to accommodate all the cables, with genuinely well positioned rubber grommets and access holes to be able to route the cables in a very neat and sensible manner as you can see from the screenshot above. I hope you will agree that the cable management allows for a very neat PC build, and remember, a neat build means you maximise the airflow around the case.
Let’s head to the next page where we take a look at our test system and testing methodology….
