Appearance - External
The whole case is brushed aluminium and is thus silver. There are no painted sides, as you would find on the ATCS201.
The case is very well laid out at the front. There are 4 5.25” bays and 2 external 3.5” bays. Cooler Master still persist in their somewhat annoying habit of leaving out the top 5.25” bay – when paying this much for a case you expect it to be there. It’s a bit of a nuisance for people who wish to stealth their drives, but most people will be unaffected by it. Beneath the 3.25” bays are the Power and Reset buttons, and the Power and HDD LED. A subtle change from the front of the ATCS210b is the removal of the Cooler Master lettering from the front of the door beneath the 2.35” slot, and it’s replacement with a small ATCS logo between the Power and the HDD LED on the case itself. In my opinion this looks better. Beneath the reset button Cooler Master have positioned 2 USB ports, which are very stylishly recessed into the case a touch. Another nice feature is that the door has a small cut-out at the bottom – this means that even with the door closed, the front USB ports are fully accessible. The ports are incredibly useful – I use them daily on my 201 for installing USB devices you don’t usually want connected at all times, such as a Gamepad, Joystick or Digital Camera. The ports handle USB2.0 with a suitable motherboard.
The one thing you cannot help but notice is the door on the front of the case. It makes what is already a good-looking case look absolutely superb. The door is made from Perspex, but you cannot tell it isn’t glass unless you touch it. Down each of the door is a thick strip of aluminium – this gives the door strength. The door is held in place whilst closed by two very small magnets – just powerful enough to hold the door in place, but not powerful enough to cause problems with hard drives.
On the front of the door is the Cooler Master ATCS logo. The door actually lights up – the letters light up as does the side of the door right the way round. This looks very nice indeed, and is especially impressive when it’s dark. My initial thoughts when reading about the case was that this would be a tacky feature, but I can assure you it isn’t – it really does look good.
People often express concern that doors are an inconvenience and hamper the use of CD drives etc – I disagree, the door is so easy to open on this case that it takes very little time, and most people will not be constantly changing CD’s anyway.
