Casings Guide

Cooler Master ITower 930 review

Cooler Master ITower 930 Casing

Compare This

Exterior Design

Exterior Design

Cooler Master seems to be churning out casing after casing recently at such a fast pace that we couldn't help but notice the recycling of ideas and designs from the vendor. The curved front bezel seems to be recurring on almost every Cooler Master casing nowadays as some sort of 'trademark' wavy front door design. Personally, we have nothing against that design other than it getting stale. What's more aggravating than the design has to be the actual door itself.

The construction of the front door is undeniably solid and for that we have nothing but praise. Instead, it is the locking mechanism, consisting of two magnetic latches that we are not too pleased with. They are too weak and insecure for our liking so the front door is prone to popping open under the slightest disturbance. If you intend to carry the casing around, we recommend that you get some tape to secure the door first. This is an issue that we have highlighted before in the Cooler Master Mystique 631 but apparently, like the curved front bezel design that was also present then, it has been unfortunately translated to other models.

The focus of the ITower 930 has to be its front hot swappable drive bay compartment. There is a separate smaller access door at the front, which can be opened to reveal the four drive bays. Grills are present to allow air circulation through to the hard drives located within. A lever like mechanism will pull the drive out from its bay, allowing users to change their hard drives easily. The interfacing PCB at the back of the hot swap bay supports up to SATA 3Gbp/s standards so the bay is compatible with the latest technology and motherboards. LED lights are also present to indicate the status of the hard drives though this was done with a neat application of optics such that no wires are needed between the removable rack and the PCB containing the electronics and the LED lights. With many motherboards since last year featuring SATA 3Gbp/s standards and have storage ports that are even hot swap ready, the ITower 930 does well to capitalize on the serious users and enthusiasts that already embrace or are thinking of harnessing the technology to its best with ease.

The side panel door was secured using thumbscrews but a plastic locking mechanism found at the rear of the casing could do the same job. We liked it so much we never did use the thumbscrews again since that lock seemed sufficient by itself. If only more casings used such a method, tool-free may be a reality sooner rather than later. Of course, we couldn't tell now if the lock will break from wear and tear after prolonged usage but it did feel quite solid.

Those intending to load up this comfortable mid-tower should also note that it may be quite hefty once all the drives and components are installed. As it is, the ITower 930 weighs around 16kg when empty, most of it due to the steel chassis. This will definitely exceed 20kg for most users so consider yourself warned before you start piling on the kilos. We would have preferred more aluminum but that probably would have added to the cost and compromised on its rigid build.