Pros: This is a 17x19 inch case - 17 inches high, 19 inches deep - which is a 'sweet spot' because this pushes the motherboard back, away from the HDD cages for easier HDD maintenance and easier cabling. This case almost allows full thru-the-front removal of all 3.5 hard drives, which is what we were looking for. Unfortunately, the 120mm fan-brackets protrude over Bays 3 and 4. So, without modding (folding those brackets out of the way), those two bays are blocked. But we simply folded them out of the way so those 6 bays allow drives to be slid out by popping off the front-facia and removing the forward fans.

Cons: A lot of Design cons so it's not The Perfectly Designed Case (and stupidly so). All of these are nit-picky and personal pet-peeves. First, the Front Facia has all IO port cables hard-attached. If you remove the Front Facia (as is our constant use), then taut "cable-managed" IO port cabling is a problem. If the IO Panel was part of the Case Frame instead of the Front Facia, this wouldn't be any issue. A curious issue is the lack of Quick Release Clips for all drive-bays. The engineers designed the drive bays to be used yet the Marketing or Accounting Department says, "No, we won't include Quick Releases for all of them." What?!! Well, we prefer screw-downs for drive holders anyway, so if someone wants ours, let me know! (The case includes 5 quick-release clips for the 10 bays.) The top edge of the motherboard is placed so high that radiators will overhang the 8-plug CPU electrical connector, some fan connectors AND the RAM release clips. These are almost against a standard 25mm fan, too, so RAM maintenance is uselessly more difficult. If you use a dual radiator, you've got to install and test the motherboard first, and test if completely or you may be removing the radiator to test different RAM modules, or if you need to replace the power-supply. The bottom dust-screens are inside the case, and one is UNDER the power-supply so a thorough cleaning requires substantial disassembly. Uselessly difficult - the same clips that hold those in place could have been folded outward, instead of inward, for easy, outside-the-case access. Making cleaning more difficult BY DESIGN always results in less cleaning, than more. "Why bother at all, Cougar?!!" The motherboard tray's forward edge is an inch forward of the motherboard, and slightly recessed so using fingertips to counter the pressure of inserting the 28-pin electrical connector is uselessly difficult. CoolerMaster old-style 330 & 430 have their MB trays cut and rolled to the edge of the motherboard, allowing very easy access (from the back) to the stacked SATA pedestals. This rolled-edge is a structurally stronger design that all MB designers should use. This case also violates two of my pet peeves: (1) the Case insists we cannot use our motherboard's dual USB 3.0 front-panel connector. "Sorry, WE are in control - WE decide you can only have one USB 3.0 connector. You are unworthy to decide that - WE decide what you can use from your motherboard!" Grrrr. The front-panel IO is an easily unscrewed circuit board for replacement, but jeepers, Cougar, just give us TWO. Stop deciding what WE can use from our motherboard's capabilities! The Second Pet Peeve is that this case demands we use a Slot-Cover Cover - some piece of metal that overlays the screws used to hold down back-of-case slot-covers. Why? Is there some massive upsurge of having our eyes poked out by slot covers flying off the cases at night? This IS a needless manufacturing expense.

Overall Review: This is one of the more Perfect Cases for our uses because of the large number of easily accessed drive bays. If this case was designed with another inch of height (or even half inch?), then Top Radiator installation would be a breeze. Add another inch of depth (for an 18x20 inch case) then this would become a Perfect Case. For us. Especially if they'd give us dual USB 3.0's (or simply dual USB 2's - either way. There are plenty of useful 3.5" drive-bay converters that allow SSDs to be stacked behind add-on USB 3.0 ports.) If the Front Facia would hold the fan-brackets, then no case modding would ever be necessary and the same air-flow benefits would be easily accomplished. Also, we use a 5.25" drive-bay converter that turns two 5.25" bays into three 3.5 drives. This case works with the two cheapo converter kits perfectly.

Pros: We've installed six dozen of these in RAIDs and arrays as data and system-backup drives, and haven't had significant failure rates on them. These are slow-to-access but once that occurs, the data-transfer is a good value considering the price (not as fast as a 7200rpm but better than their half-the-price cost).

Cons: These are slow-to-access. Users report waiting "a long time" waiting for these drives to display folders and files, or accept any access-command. Open up a file-manager, click on one of these drive, take a few breaths and the seconds tick by and finally the User can do COPYs, etc. If a User has 7200rpm data-drives side-by-side, the complaints mount simply because of the constant comparison. The trick is to give those users all of one speed or all of the other!

Overall Review: Data Transfer rates may be a few percentage-points lower than their 7200 brethren, but considering these are oftgen 50% less expensive, the "value" of data storage and backups should be considered.

Pros: Cabling is coated so it's thicker, more sturdy. Instead of thread-like wires, these are well-protected albeit stiffer. Everything about the construction is sturdier.

Cons: None. Except a 2-week receipt time.

Pros: I expected lower-end quality, which would have been fine, but I received a top-notch, cleaned inside & out product.

Cons: None.

Overall Review: I will buy from this vendor again.

Pros: We've installed a dozen of these and each is a 3 HDD, 2 SSD and 1 BluRay drive each - a lot of drives, a lot of cables. This case handles all, so it's a great luggable server for our clients. For drive-capacity, this should get at least 4 stars. Finding short Left- and Right-Angle combo SATA cables (both Power & Data, and 6-10" lengths) is needlessly difficult, too, but with those, cable management and installations/maintenance is much easier. Very good CPU Cooler space as well... and top marks for the ability to use just about any size ATX power-supply, although the "compact" models give more 'tuck room' for cables.

Cons: The outer case is horrendous for each reinstall or parts maintenance. This is a less-than-1-star rating - this ultimately removes this from a "useful case" to a "worse than worthless" status because it takes so much time to refit the outer shell. All MiniITX cases suffer cable management and cramped quarters but this is the ONLY case that has such a horrible clamshell outer case that begs for 4 hands to slip it back on. Plus, the Optical Drive 'cage' is like a Chinese puzzle box - a variety of parts must be slipped on, fastened and only one certain order.

Overall Review: The OOD re-installation 'ordering sequence' should not have been designed like this. This is a 2-star rating. But the true bummer of this whole case is the nonsensically difficult clamshell slip-over-fit-in outer sheet metal case cover - it makes this fine-sized case worse-than-worthless - it takes far too much time for every maintenance episode. We have dozens of other cases with similar sheet metal coverings (Coolermaster Elites, for example) and not one of those presents nearly the frustrating hours of re-fits. We do not purchase these cases anymore. If I knew I'd only do one case-shell removal in the life of this computer, I'd consider this a good choice for MiniITX installs. But woe to the consumers who have to pull or change out parts, add HDDs or anything else inside simply because the outer case-shell is such a needlessly horrible re-installable.

Pros: Our first two units achieved the fastest USB 3.0 transfer speeds of any of our external backups, consistently hitting 170-190mbs on 7200 rpm drives and 170 on the SLOW Seagate Archive8's, in fact. It's faster to use these for hours-long transfers than it is a SATA cable to those incredibly slow-write drives.

Cons: The fantastic speeds make us want to use these constantly for all of our backup drives. The bad thing is - plugging and unplugging drives into the SATA connectors has GOT to create a wear-and-tear death-by-usage situation.

Overall Review: The 'fit' of the 3.5" drives is outstanding and seemingly a perfect 'alignment' each and every time. We just don't know how long these units can survive continual Pull's and Re-Inserts. Do we end up buying dozens for customers so they can use one and leave the HDD inserted. That's one idea. Which isn't so bad, because all drives get HOT when used, and for someone to attempt an immediate removal after use can create a "too hot to hold" situation, and the subsequent Drop. Ouch!

Good product.

This is a long time favorite supplier for us because they are a "GoTo" business when buying HDDs, especially HGST Refurbs but also these recently purchased 2.5" portables. Most excellent service and shipping speeds from this company.

Good product, good price, Customer Service often seemed unknowing in solving the delivery confusion, but this was a problem aggravated by email censorship.