The external drive bays are tool-free and use dual locking mechanisms to secure the drives. The internal 3.5 inch hard drive bay can hold five drives and uses rails for installation. One rail must be clipped to each side of the hard disk, then it can be pushed into the slot where it will clip securely in place. We appreciated the vent holes punched into the side of the hard disk chassis, though it would have been nice if the whole drive bay was removable.

HDD drive rails shown up close and personal with an ultra fast Western Digital WD740 serial ATA hard drive. Insert the two tabs into the appropriate holes on both sides of the HDD and it's ready for installation into the rack. No tools required.

The seven rear expansion ports at the back of the 3D Aurora 570 case also have a screwless way of holding those pesky PCI brackets in place. The black locking tab above the ports flips back to loosen a securing mechanism, allowing videocards or other devices to be inserted or removed. To lock all the PCI brackets in place, just rotate the lever back into position and everything will be held securely in place. By this time you've just got to love tool free cases!

Installation of peripherals is tooless. Flip up expansion lock to the left, insert your card then lock it back into place. This system is very durable and should not come loose even when the PC is being moved too and from LAN parties.

Motherboard and peripheral installation

Before inserting the motherboard into the case, do not forget to install the motherboard spacers onto the tray (included with the case). The large amount of room to work with is definitely appreciated. Tweakers will find it easy to play inside the Gigabyte 3D Aurora 570.

The expansion slot covers are locked into place by a single black locking tab which secures a swivelling locking mechanism. When this is opened, you can easily remove the slot covers and install your PCI Express and PCI hardware. Closing the tab then locks the expansion cards into place. Oooo tooless design. ;-)

To install 5.25" drives, simply slide them in through the bezel, look through the circular holes on the locks and wait for them to match up with the drive. Once they do, move the lock forward and that secures the 5.25" drive into place. I love this method and it's much easier to do than screwing in the drive.

Installing 5.25" devices is a snap with Gigabyte's rail system. First remove set the optical drive locking mechanisms to unlock, remove front bezel and slide the optical drive into place. Once that's done move the beige plastic retention mechanism to the locked position. The space is tight, so if the drive sticks give it a good whack! Follow with however many optical drive sized devices you have, again this is completely tooless too.

Installing the hard drives requires the use of drive rails. Line the inserts up with the HDD holes and insert. Once that's done, slide the hard drive into the open slot until it clicks in place. This method is very simple to use and I wish more case manufacturers would adopt tooless designs!

To remove the HDD you must squeeze the two locks inward as shown then the HDD slides out easily. The drives are positioned so connecting power and SATA or IDE data cables is easily accessible to the user.