Anidees AI Crystal Tempered Glass Chassis Review




/ 7 years ago

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Introduction


Anidees AI Crystal Tempered Glass Chassis Review

There’s a big trend in the chassis market this last year or so, as more and more brands shift from plastic side panel windows, to huge chunks of tempered glass. If you really care about having a system that looks like a premium quality product, and having a great way to show off your new build and hardware, then tempered glass is the way to go.

Equipped with durable build quality, 5mm thick tempered glass on both sides and the front panel, four premium quality white LED fans pre-installed, and room for a decent amount of hardware, the Anidees AI-Crystal sounds like a fantastic building block for any system build.

It’ll support up to an E-ATX motherboard, up to 360mm radiators, extra long graphics cards, ATX power supplies and plenty of storage, so high-end gaming rigs and workstations should prove no problem for the AI-Crystal, now, let’s get it out of the box and take a closer look at what it has to offer!

  • Supports E-ATX (12″x13″EEB), XL-ATX, ATX, m-ATX, mini-ITX MB.
  • High end comportments support.
  • Supports 360/280/240 mm on top or 360/280/240 mm Radiator in front
  • Dust filter in the front and top, and under the PSU for easy maintenance
  • Metal SSD cage behind MB tray
  • Air cooling support up to 7 fans
  • 5mm thickness tempered glass as side panels and front panel
  • Fan controller and Fan Hub included
  • Include 4 x 140mm White LED Fans
  • Available now
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A Closer Look – Exterior


Out of the box, we can see that the AI is quite large, and that’s not surprising given it’ll support a couple of 360mm radiators. Down the left side, you’ll find a full-size glass side panel with a bit of tinted finish.

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The panel comes mounted with aluminium screws over four rubber washers on metal stems. Easy to remove, and the mounting screws look stylish too.

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Down the right side, another identical glass panel and mounting system, so best keep that cable routing neat and tidy, as it’ll be slightly exposed on both sides!

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The front panel features more glass and gives the AI a somewhat monolithic look when the system is powered off.

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Around the back, you’ll find a 140mm pre-installed fan, with optional 120mm mounts. There are 7 expansion slots, each fitted with reusable and ventilated metal covers, and finally a PSU cut-out at the bottom with slide-out dust filter.

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Up top, you’ll find a large ventilated section with a magnetic and washable dust filter for quick and easy maintenance.

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Pull off the cover and you’ll find mounts for 3 x 120mm or 2 x 140mm fans, and that of course includes radiators of up to 360mm or 280mm.

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The front I/O panel is nicely designed, and it features a three-speed fan controller which hooks up to the internal fan hub. There’s the usual audio jacks and power controls next to that, and finally a pair of USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 ports.

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The base of the chassis has four hard plastic feet with tough rubber grips, and there’s a slide-out dust filter for the PSU too. Now, let’s get those side panels off and see what lurks within!

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———————–

A Closer Look – Interior


With the side panel removed, we can see that there’s a huge amount of space on the interior of the AI, and with all the HDD bays tucked under the shroud or behind the motherboard tray, we have the full length of the chassis for massive expansion cards and other cool hardware. There’s a good size cut-out behind the motherboard, and plenty of cable routing spaces too, so the build should be pretty straight forward.

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There’s good clearance about the motherboard for fans/radiators in the top, although you’ll likely want to stick with thinner radiators.

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There’s a large PSU shroud to hide all of your cable gore neatly out of sight, but also a horizontal cable routing grommet to ensure you can pass cables to the GPUs too.

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In the back, you’ll find seven expansion slots, so more than enough room for a couple or double slot graphics cards or any other expansion card for that matter.

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There are four pre-installed fans in this chassis, all of them are clear finish and feature white LED lighting, which I expect will look stunning through the glass side panels.

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There are three more in the front, although you could easily swap these out for 120mm fans, or up to a 280/360mm radiator if you wanted.

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Instead of the usual cable grommets, there’s a cable shroud with a pass through on the left, so it should be nice and easy to get neat looking cable management here.

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There’s a lot going on around the back too, with plenty of room for cable management, especially with that area in the base of the chassis to hide excess cables.

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Towards the front, there are two 3.5″ HDD bays, with durable mounting screws to keep them firmly in place.

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Behind the motherboard, you’ll find three 2.5″ HDD mounts, each with removable brackets for easy installation.

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Cable routing should be nice and easy, and to keep any trailing cables in check, you’ll find plenty of cable tie loops too.

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Up top, you’ll find a small fan hub which is powered by a Molex connector, and it hooks up to the front panel 3-speed controller so you can balance acoustic and cooling performance.

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Remove the front panel by pulling it off from the front, and you’ll find another large magnetic dust filter.

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Remove the filter, and you can easily access the front fan mounts. I’m sure some will swap these fans out, but I think they look pretty great.

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Complete System


Building a system inside the AI-Crystal was very straightforward, as there’s a vast amount space on the interior. Event our massive Sapphire 270X didn’t stretch the length of the chassis, so plenty of room to spare for a thick radiator up front.

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The horizontal grommet on the shroud works perfectly, so no need to do that ugly “trail over/under the card” thing with the power cables.

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The cable routing does a great job, making it easy to hide trailing wires out of sight around the motherboard.

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Airflow is not going to be a problem here, with those three fans giving us a wall of fresh air right through the chassis.

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And don’t forget that 140mm exhaust fan, as well as the passive exhaust you’ll get from the top panel filter.

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The HDD bays in the bottom will get some cooling too, thanks to three slots on the side that will allow airflow under the shroud.

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All panels back in place and the AI-Crystal looks absolutely stunning. You can still see the hardware inside, but the chassis is very reflective with the fans powered off.

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Same around the back, you can see some bits, but not much.

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Power on the system and the fans shine through beautifully, as well as any other LED lighting on your hardware.

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The lighting from the fans isn’t too powerful, so it’s giving the interior a subtle glow rather than lighting it up like a shop window. Throw an RGB motherboard and GPU in here, and you’ll have a great way of showing off the lighting effects.

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Overall, this is a fantastic looking build, and it’ll compliment any high-end system build with ease.

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———————–

Final Thoughts


Price

The Anidees AI-Crystal Mid-Tower Tempered Glass Chassis is available from Overclockers UK for £134.99. This isn’t cheap, but when you consider that you get magnetic dust filters, a PSU shroud, three sides of tempered glass, four high-quality LED fans and more, it’s rather good value for money. The only trouble for this chassis is that you can get a fairly similar Corsair 460X for £20 less, but that doesn’t come with dual glass side panels, and one has two pre-installed fans, so the price seems fair respective of build materials.

Overview

Anidees are still not a big in some regions, but they’ve continued to deliver great designs, durable build quality and competitive prices for years, and we’ve yet to review one of their chassis that we didn’t love. Fortunately for Anidees and anyone wanting to buy the AI-Crystal, the same is true today, and this is a fantastic quality chassis that’s going to go head-to-head with any of the other high-end tempered glass chassis that have been hitting the market recently.

The build quality is good overall, with plenty of tempered glass it looks and feels well made, and it certainly looks like a premium quality product too. There are a lot of little perks that make this chassis stand out too, no real innovation, but all welcome feature regardless. There’s a large PSU shroud, which makes it easy to get great cable management, and there are cable routing spaces right where you need them to prevent cable trailing. All of the HDD bays are tucked out of sight too, with the exception of the 2.5″ SSD mounts behind the motherboard, which you can see through the right side panel window. This means there’s lots of room up front for cooling hardware and huge expansion cards, so that should please the water cooling and gaming system builders out there.

Easy to remove and washable dust filters are on every intake, and with those four 140mm fans pre-installed, keeping your system cool isn’t going to be pretty easy. Add to that the fact it comes with a built-in powered fan hub, as well as a 3-speed fan controller on the front panel, and you’ll have no trouble getting the best cooling or acoustic performance from your system.

Overall, this is a very nice chassis, with all the features you would want while building a fancy LED lit over the top gaming rig, while still looking sleek and stylish for those who just want something cool to put in their office.

Pros

  • Durable build quality
  • Three sides of tempered glass
  • Built-in fan hub and controller
  • Four 140mm fans pre-installed
  • PSU shroud
  • Good cable routing
  • Dust filters
  • Water cooling support
  • Room for extra-long expansion cards

Cons

  • None

Neutral

  • Quite expensive, but you do get a lot for your money
Editors-Choice

Anidees AI Crystal Tempered Glass Chassis Review

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