A Closer Look - Inside

To gain access to the interior, simply remove the pair of thumb screws holding each side panel in place. The entire interior is kept in black as well and makes a somewhat compact impression. There are multiple, smaller openings to route cables through, along with a large one to give way to a CPU cooler backplate. In terms of cable hiding space, the Raider manages to impress with around 27 mm, which should be more than enough for most scenarios.


Before we dive into the interior, there is the 2.5 inch HDD bay on the floor of the chassis. Such a drive can only be secured with screws running through the metal underbelly of the chassis, so this bay is probably best employed for a system drive - preferably an SSD. Above that are six 3.5 inch drive bays, each holding a plastic tray. These are easily removable and offer screwless installation of 3.5 inch drives, while 2.5 inch variants require the use of screws as we will see later on. Most other manufacturers offer the ability to remove the entire top HDD cage containing up to three bays, BitFenix has made things a bit easier. To make room for large graphics cards with up to 38 cm in length, simply remove a single thumb screw and pull the wall of the top HDD area off - that is it. Such a system increases the stability of the other remaining drive bays. Above that are the four external 5.25 inch bays utilizing a plastic locking system. We will see later on, if it will manage to hold an optical drive properly.


Turning our focus to the rear of the chassis, the PSU rests on four rubber pyramids as an anti-vibration measure. Above that are the afore mentioned, seven motherboard expansion slots, each cover held in place by a thumb screw. The cooling fans within the Raider are actually not simply a cheap OEM unit the factory offers to install when it assembles the chassis, as is usually done with most cases. Instead, BitFenix has decided to equip the Raider with three genuine 120 mm Spectre fans - the same kind you can buy separately in retail.


You may install two additional fans within the chassis. One in the floor with a size of 120 mm and one in the ceiling measuring 200 mm. It would have been good if the Raider offered the ability to install a watercooling radiator in the ceiling, which is obviously not the case.


All the cables within the chassis are black, which is a nice little touch. While the ones for the LED and buttons are of the traditional variety, the approach to guarantee compatibility with all motherboards for all I/O ports is a new one. BitFenix has chosen to go for the dual 20-pin connectors, even though many modern boards only offer a single such plug. On top of that each plug has an additional one for 9-pin USB 2.0 connectors. So no matter what constellation you have, may it be 2x 9-pin, one of each or two 20-pin connectors, you can utilize all four USB ports - pretty cool.