Installation was largely straight forward. Only the optical drive proved time consuming due to the sheer number of screws that needed to be removed before you could even extract the caddy.
Once out of the case the entire caddy and consists of the metal frame and the stealth cover for the drive. This is useful since you're able to align the drive so the eject button is in the correct position.
The DVDRW caddy.
This is the DVDRW and motherboard (with CPU) in place. The I/O plate fit nicely and all the motherboard standoffs were in the correct position.
DVD, Mobo and CPU installed.
I installed the HDD by removing the cage and using the thumbscrew outside of the case. It's then a simple process of sliding the cage into place and voila! If you only have up to three HDD's to install then you won't need the lower cage meaning the PC-V354 will now accept a couple of high end GPU's up to 35cm in length.
Here you can see the install progressing with the CPU cooler mounted vertically to blow straight up and out of the 140mm exhaust. The HDD and DDR3 is in place and a GTX260 has also been installed. What's surprising is how much space there is beyond the GPU which I would already describe as large.
Cooler, HDD, memory and GPU installed.
An extreme user might even consider watercooling here since I'd say you'd have space between the dual front fans and the GPU for some kind of pump reservoir. Add one or two 120.1 radiators to the rear fan mounts - perhaps even one where the lower front fan resides and you could build quite a high spec compact machine.
Space in front of that GTX260.
Here's an image to show the final stage of the install - as you can see there's just enough space for the PSU to clear the Cooler Master heatsink. I know it's not quite as tall as a performance tower design but I certainly wouldn't describe it as small so that's pretty impressive. I can imagine some of the larger non tower designs like Noctua's NH-C12P working in this case unhindered by the PSU.
Clearance is pretty good.
Once screwed together and powered up I'm very impressed. The fit and finish is top drawer and besides that optical drive installation it's very easy to work with.
Case rear.
The 120mm red LED fans look particularly good in their matching colours!
Case front.
