Component Installation

Overall, installing components into the Sword M is quite straightforward and went without a hitch. There are a few steps which are MIA in the instruction manual so while this section will not touch on every aspect of installation it will discuss some of the highlights and pitfalls you will encounter.


The first order of business is to install the motherboard onto the motherboard tray. Since there is place for on the motherboard tray for E-ATX motherboards, our Asus M3A32-MVP Deluxe looks positively tiny by comparison and this goes to show just how much space is actually available in the Sword M. You can also see that we have pre-installed a D-Tek Fuzion CPU block which in this installation was used in place of the included Thermaltake block.


The hard drive cage is easily removed by removing four thumb screws and come out with the front 120mm intake fan. However, installing the hard drives is easier said than done since trying to position the screws properly through the slots in the cage is extremely hard. There is also the distinct lack of any rubber grommets to cut down on hard drive vibrations.


Depending on the layout of your interior components you can choose to place the hard drive bay wherever you want on the front panel of the Sword M. In this instance you can see that it can be installed quite high but this can have a negative impact on the airflow within the case.


The installation of the 5.25” drives entails the easy removal of the front panel and the installation of the drive itself with four thumb screws. You may notice that we have installed our DVD drive in the bottom bay; this is because installing it into the top bay is completely impossible due to the length of the drive conflicting with the top fan placement.


The top 5.25” drive bay is held in place by two strategically placed conical thumb screws which make for easy removal when you need to replace the drive. The conflict between the top drive and the 120mm exhaust fan can be seen here as well which means that the top bay should only be used for a fan controller or something with a similar depth.


The installation of a power supply into the Sword M is very intuitive by way of a bracket which is then used to slide the whole unit into the case. Even a large power supply like the Thermaltake Toughpower 1200W shown here can easily be installed.