A look inside
Now that we've had a look at the Aria's exterior, it's time to lift the lid and see what's inside.

Lifting the lid is easy enough—just remove a single thumbscrew and pop the top—but it will take more than that to get a meaningful glimpse of what's inside. Fortunately, the Aria's lid is one of several components that easily pop off to make the case's internals more accessible. The case's side panels are next, and they slide off without putting up much of a fight.

While we have all the Aria's panels off, it's worth taking a closer look at their unique construction. The panels are nearly a quarter of an inch thick and made up of layers of aluminum and plastic to dampen vibrations. Antec has obviously done their homework, because the panels don't vibrate at all. In fact, knocking on them produces little more than a dull thud.

The Aria's thick panels should also insulate the case's internals, and the Aria could run pretty hot as a result. The panels' sparse venting won't do much to cool the Aria, either.

Back to disassembly, the Aria's drive cage is the next component to be pulled out. The cage slides in and out of the case with ease on a couple of metal rails, revealing one 5.25" drive bay and room for three 3.5" hard disks. One of the hard drive mounts is located under the 5.25" drive bay, while the other two are cocked at 90 degrees so that drives hang from on either side of the 5.25" bay.

Hanging drives on their sides is a neat trick, and I like the way it doesn't sandwich multiple disks right on top of each other. Antec even ships the Aria with special screws that feature rubber washers to dampen any vibrations that hanging hard drives might create. Unfortunately, the screws that Antec provides for the standard 3.5" drive bay and optical drive don't get any rubber washer love.

Before I move on, I should mention that hanging hard drives must be removed to access the screws for the 5.25" drive bay and the 3.5" bay directly beneath it. It's a minor inconvenience, especially since the drive cage is so easy to remove and handle.

With the panels and drive cage removed, the Aria opens up, making it easy to swap out internal components. Well, almost all internal components. Installing or removing a motherboard can be awkward unless the case's power supply is removed. Unfortunately, taking out the PSU requires removing six tiny screws. It would be nice if the power supply were only held in place by a couple of thumbscrews.

Once you squeeze a motherboard into the case, mounting it to the posts is a snap. Well, more accurately, it's a hook. All but two of the Aria's motherboard posts use hooks to secure the board to the case, with screws securing the board to the remaining two posts. When combined with the two screwed posts, the hooks hold boards tightly in place and save users from having to screw down hard-to-reach posts under the Aria's power supply.

While we're looking at this handy top-down view, note how the Aria's front panel is riddled with holes. That's pretty much the extent of the Aria's venting, and given that the plastic front panel has only thin air intakes, it's another clue that the Aria could get toasty with a system inside.