XPG Defender Pro Mid-Tower PC Case Review

Complete System

There’s no doubt about it, this is one sexy looking case. I absolutely adore that front panel design and it looks fantastic even with the RGB powered off. The tempered glass is perfect for showing off your hardware too, it’s not tinted either, so best make sure your cable routing is on point.

Fortunately, my routing is on point, as this case has many cable routing holes, grommets, and cable tie points. So, even a first time builder should be able to get something pretty competent on their first try.

The vertical GPU mount looks great, and while I put a 1080 Ti in here, there’s obviously room for something much, MUCH, bigger.

The same is true of the CPU cooler, there’s a hilarious amount of clearance on all sides. I should have really put the larger Noctua D15S in here just to fill the void a little, but I’m a bit of a fanboy of the U12 now.

Plus, at least there’s room for a decent radiator and fans combo in the top, be that AIO or custom loop, I don’t think you’ll have any issues.

The vertical GPU looks great, but I love that I can pass the PSU cable directly up from the shroud rather than from the right side of the motherboard.

Clean and tidy.

The E-ATX board will cover the ATX grommets, but there’s a secondary set to get the job done. As you can see, even wider boards will fit too, such as some workstation and dual-socket solutions.

The front fans look amazing, with their frosted blades catching the light nicely. I should add, it’s super bright in here today, the sun is pounding the windows, so the fact there’s any vibrancy to be seen here is impressive.

What I didn’t expect is a set of RGB lights hiding in the top part of the front panel.

There’s also a strip on the bottom, helping fill out the overall colour scheme, neat!

It’ll cycle through colours on its own, and depending on how you connect them to the controller, all of them will be synchronised too.

There’s a little button on the front I/O, tap that and you can cycle through all the usual colours and effects.

The front fans are mounted a little higher up, allowing them to blow directly over the GPU and CPU cooler. As you can see, there’s room for a third fan, but also for thick radiators if that’s what you really want.

Overall, I couldn’t be happier with how this looks, it’s very smart, and clearly a case that’s capable of so much more.

Pop the glass back in place, and it looks very smart indeed.

Plus, the fact the fans light up the front panel without throwing too much light pollution out into your room pleases me greatly. I want a funky PC case, but not a disco ball.