Ultra m998 Case - Ultra Handy - Closer Look at the m998

Closer Look:

When all the wrapping was removed, the first thing that I noticed was that everything was screwed in by thumbscrews. These thumbscrews are amazing little things that can be unscrewed using only a thumb and forefinger, so they don’t need a screwdriver. They are very handy when doing quick work inside the case.

Surprisingly no drive sliders came with the package and there doesn’t seem to be any way to use them either. This was surprising for me because most cases come with them because it provides easier access to the CD/DVD drive as well as hard drives. However the massive amounts of screws that did come made up for this lack.

Removing the side panels was a little different than what I had encountered before, the secondary side came off fine, but the main side panel with the window and air vents would not come off no matter how hard I tried. I finally was able to pry it off with a flathead screwdriver, and a bunch of leverage. After it was off I noticed that the clip thingy was bent and was causing the side to catch. It’s not so bad in the picture because I had probably bent it mostly back when I took the side off.

Side Clip Thingy

The front took a little longer to figure out, most cases just pull up on the bottom and the panel pops out. However with this one there are actually little tabs that need to be pushed in order to get it out. Not only that but they have to be pushed out from the inside of the case, in-between the drive bays cage and the side of the case. There is only a small space here and was a little tight even for my small fingers.

Front Panel Tabs

The main side panel's window had plastic wrapping on it to protect it from damage from the dangers of shipping. There were not filters in this case, however, vents were of no short supply with two built-in the window as well as a few integrated all over the front panel and at the back of the case. These provided good airflow throughout the case with two 120 mm fans inside the case helping out the air circulation.

Case - Main Window Panel

Back Fan

Front Fan

Probably one of the coolest features of this case is the power bar that is positioned between the drive bays and the motherboard - an excellent position to get power to every spot without as much tangling of cords. This is especially useful if you have multiple cd/dvd drives as well as a couple hard drives. Just in case there are not enough cables, the many power cords supplied in the accessories would make up the difference.

Power Bar - Top

Power Bar - Full

The best feature in this case in my opinion is the removable motherboard tray. Since this is my first time experimenting with this thingy, I had a little trouble finding all the screws to unscrew before it came out. The back screws were all big thumbscrews so those came out easily but there are two small black screws at either end of the power bar that are kind of hard to spot. After that it had an amazingly smooth take out and slid in. This is very handy when installing a fresh system in the case so then the motherboard doesn’t have to maneuver around stray cords and obstacles inside the case. It is so much easier just to remove the tray, install your system and then slid it back in smoothly.

Motherboard Tray - Removal

Motherboard Tray - Out

The front panel is very awesome in its black coloring. It had some small LED lights for computer power as well as two for hdd power and a few un-named/unlabeled lights. My last case had some very bright blue LED lights that were very annoying when the room was dark and I was trying to watch a movie, this case’s lights however did not have the piercing blue - it had a soft green color to it. The I/O panel on the front had a couple USB ports, a firewire cable, a headphone and microphone port, as well as an eSATA port. When not being used, this panel can also be covered by a door that clicks into place.

Case - Full

Case - Lights

Case - Clicky Door

There were plentiful expansion slots inside the case but the plastic things that clip onto the metal piece at the end of the card were not there, thumbscrews instead took their place. Thumbscrews aren’t a bad thing, but I couldn’t get these screws off with just my fingers, I had to use a screw driver for them. Once you got them off the metal piece covering fell off smoothly unlike some cases where you have to twist and bend metal to get them off.

Expansion Slots