Akasa Raptor White Chassis Review
Andy Ruffell / 14 years ago
Exterior
From the front, this case is fairly striking. The white and black work well together and it makes the grill at the bottom very bold – almost teeth like – there is however a 120mm fan behind this. Further up, this is mostly what we expect to see, several 5.25″ drive spaces, but a nice addition of a 3.5″ bay as standard so will take those card readers and other similar devices. Unlike most cases there is also an e-Sata port at the front which could be very useful for some of you and others may never use it. It does only have 2 USB ports on the front which is a tad limiting in my view.
First thoughts after looking at the back are that it is a bottom-mounted PSU case, so the board itself goes right up to the top of the case. This has been proven to be fairly beneficial in terms of improved cooling but moreover it improves the stability of the case and helps reduce vibrations from the PSU. The addition of 2 holes for cables or pipes is very thoughtful and would allow you to use this case if you are wanting to watercool this system, or like me, need access to a USB 3.0 port which is only available at the back. We also see on the back a single 120mm fan space which is pre-fitted with a fan.
Taking a look at the left hand side of the case we see a rather plain and dull side, there aren’t even any grills to vent air in at the bottom which is fairly normal. An interesting (or not as the case is) design choice by Akasa.
Maybe the right hand side is designed to compensate for this by having 2*120mm case fans, these are for increasing your airflow and as such do not come with supplied fans.
The top has another space for another fan, but this time it can cater for a 140mm or 120mm fan allowing for some serious airflow through the case. This may also be a perfect place to put a watercooling radiator if you were to have one inside.
As the PSU is mounted at the bottom, there is an intake grill directly beneath it, this does however have a dust cover to stop the PSU fan getting clogged up easily. The rubber feet are interestingly spaced – whether this provides any benefit compared to the 4 corner feet we normally see.
