Interior:

Well Protected 250mm Fan	A Bit Quiet Here	HDD Cage
CDROM/Floppy Mounts	No Motherboard Tray	Expansion Slots

    The interior of the Chakra is fairly spacious. It comes without a removable motherboard tray, but has features like tool-less installation instead. The Chakra was designed quite similar to most cases these days, with spots for 5.5" removable media drives on top, then 3.5" removable media drives underneath, and lastly the hard drives at the bottom. All of the removable media slots feature plastic locking latches, allowing for easy installation without screws. Within the tools included with the Chakra come the screwless side rails that allow the hard drives to be snapped into the hard drive cage with ease. At the back there are the seven expansion slots, each with an easy-to-remove clip, making for yet another screw-less feature.

Installation:

Motherboard In!

Front Panel Off

CDROM

    Thanks to the tool-less design, all that was required for installation was a phillips/star screw driver. Installing the motherboard was a breeze, by first screwing in the leveling screws then securing the board to them. Then, I proceeded to take off the front panel which required me to take off both side panels so that I could access the clips that held it in place. Once I removed the front panel, I slid the drives in with ease, and locked them in place.

Necessary Procedure

Finally In

Cage Reinstalled

    After that is where I ran into problems. To mount the front case fan required me to remove the hard drive cage. While that posed no problem for me, getting the fan into place certainly was. The bottom hard drive mounts were in the way, and with no way to remove them without causing permanent problems for the case, it took quite a few attempts at maneuvering the fan in different positions before I finally got it in. Once screwed in I reattached the hard drive cage and off I was to wire it all up!

Back Case Fan

Zip Tied

Secured

    Fortunately Enermax thought about the cabling when they put that massive 250mm fan into this case and included a zip tie to secure the wires so they wouldn't be chewed up by the fan. After turning on the power I was happy to see that everything worked as I had anticipated it too, but I didn't hear the fans running. After a quick look I noticed that they were working as they should be, and running very, very quiet, including the 250mm side fan.

Conclusion:

Chakra!

    The Enermax Chakra is a very stylish case. From it's outside look to the tool-less interior, Enermax has really put a lot of effort into making the Chakra relatively easy for the end-user to like. Add to that the monster 250mm side panel fan, which runs EXTREMELY quiet, and you've got yourself a cool case. The optional 120mm Enlobal Fans would put this case over the top, if it wasn't for the problem installing the front fan. If you can overcome that difficulty as I was able to, you will be very happy with the Chakra.