Raijintek Asterion Mid-Tower Chassis Review

Introduction

Raijintek has created many incredible chassis over the last few years, and while I fell in love with and have made several systems for people with the lovely Styx micro-ATX and the Metis mini-ITX chassis, Raijintek are about to take things to the next level. Their latest chassis, the Asterion, comes in an E-ATX mid-tower form factor, but it retains that lovely aluminium front panel design that we loved so much about the Metis and Styx. Of course, they’ve scaled up the chassis for high-end hardware, and to add the perfect complement to all that brushed aluminium, they’ve slapped a couple of tempered glass panels on their too! Droooooool.

“ASTERION – The new RAIJINTEK E-ATX aluminum series. The ASTERION series supports up to E-ATX motherboards, with a maximum of seven fans, including 3×120mm fan options (2pcs 12025 O-Type White LED fan are pre-installed) at the front, 3×120mm fan options on the top and pre-installed 12025 O-Type White LED fan (140mm fan option) at the rear. Additionally, the ASTERION series supports 240/280/360mm radiators in the front and top, and also includes features such as tool-free drive installation, max CPU cooler height up to 180mm, max VGA length up to 340mm and regular ATX/EPS PSU compatibility.”

As you can see from the features below, the Asterion offers up support for E-ATX motherboards, up to 7 fans, 6 hard drives, large CPU air coolers, extra long 340mm GPUs, and 240/280/360mm radiators in the front, 240/280/360mm in the top, as well as a 120/140mm in the rear! But enough of the lovely bullet point lists, let’s get it out of the box and take a look for ourselves.

• Aluminum chassis series for E-ATX/ATX/Micro ATX/Mini ITX
• Aluminum color hair-silk anodized appearance design
• 4×USB 3.0 super speed port
• Full 5mm tempered glass side window on both sides of the case
• 3pcs 12025 O-Type White LED PWM fan pre-installed
• Black coated interior
• Dust-control filters at bottom
• Accommodate an internal 360 mm radiator at the front and top.
• Tool-free system for PSU and 3.5″HDDs
• Supports up to 7 fans and 6 HDDs (3.5″ + 2.5″)
• Supports 180mm height CPU cooler
• Supports VGA card up 340mm

Specification

• Colour: Matte Black
• Internal colour: Matte Black
• Body Dimension (D/W/H): 470*230*525mm
• Body Weight (N.W.): 8.5 KG
• Body Weight (G.W.): 10.3 KG
• Material: Aluminum, Tempered Glass
• M/B Type: E-ATX/ATX/MICRO-ATX/Mini-ITX
• Graphic Card Support: 340mm
• Power Supply: ATX PS/2
• Power Supply Integration: Internal Bottom PSU
• 3.5″ Hidden (removeable): 3 (or 2.5”*3)
• 2.5″ Device: 6 (max.)
• I/O Panel: USB3.0*4 + HD Audio*1
• PCI Slot: 8
• PCI Slot Tool-free: YES
• HDD Tool-free: YES
• CPU Cooler Height: 180mm max.
• Side Panel Style: Flat / Vent
• Cable Management: Regular
• Front Radiator Support: 240/280/360 mm radiator (120mm *3)
• Rear Radiator Support: 120/140 mm*1
• Front Cooling Fan pre-installed: 12025 White LED fan *2pcs
• Rear Cooling Fan pre-installed: 12025 White LED fan *1pcs
• Top Cooling Fan: 240/280/360mm fan & radiator options (120mm *3)

A Closer Look – Exterior

Straight away we can see that the entire left side of the chassis is just a huge sheet of heavily tinted tempered glass. It sits flush into the frame of the chassis too, giving it a flowing design from the edges of the front panel and the curvy top section.

Flip to the other side, and you’ll find the Asterion looks just as sexy from the other side, with another huge cut of heavily tinted tempered glass here! Both panels are mounted on metal pegs with rubber washers, held in place by four aluminium thumb screws for easy access.

The front panel offers up a full-height piece of black brushed aluminium, which certainly gives it a premium quality look and feel. As we said before, this is a very similar design what we’ve seen in the past from Raijintek, but when it looks this good, why change such a great design.

Tucked away at the top, there’s a small power button with LED edge lighting. If you look closely, you’ll also see that the edges of the front panel are cut to give it a silver edge, which just adds a stylish bit of trim to the otherwise black chassis design. There’s a decent front I/O too, with four USB 3.0 ports and HD audio jacks right where you’ll want them.

Around the back, everything looks pretty straight forward, with passive ventilation at the top, a 120/140mm fan mount, 8 expansion slots, four cable/water routing holes, and a bottom mounted PSU cut-out.

The top panel is nice and tidy too, with a clip-in mesh filter cover that sits flush with the aluminium top panel.

Pop that panel out, and you’ll find room for 240/280/360mm worth of fans/radiators, and the same again behind that tall front panel.

On the base, four hard-wearing rubber feet, as well as two slide out and washable dust filters. The rear filter feeds air to the PSU, while the front one is the main intake for the front mounted cooling.

A Closer Look – Interior

With that huge side panel removed, we can see there’s a vast amount of room on the interior of the chassis, as well as a dark black finish to almost all of the hardware, which should make it vanish through that tinted window, only showing off the highlights and LEDs of your system build.

There’s a near-full-length PSU shroud in the base, which features mounts for a few extra hard drives, and the rubber grommet covered screws to mount them are included in the box.

All of the eight expansion slots come fitted with reusable and ventilated metal covers; none of those cheap snap-off ones here!

Further up, we’ve got a pre-installed 120mm fan, which delightfully comes with ring LED lighting that’s sure to look stunning when powered on, but we’ll get to that shortly. You’ll also notice very generous headroom above the motherboard; perfect for those who want to put thicker radiators up top.

In the front of the chassis, a removable mounting bracket for your fans and radiators. Just undo the thumbscrews, lift it out, and you can very easily fit your cooling hardware. The PSU shroud stops short of the front too, so full-height radiators won’t be causing any conflicts with the chassis interior. There are also two more of those lovely LED fans here, bringing the pre-installed total to three.

On the back plate, four large, thick, and durable cable routing grommets, as well as more key-hole mounts for storage drives should you need them.

Around the back, you’ll find plenty of room for cable routing, although you’re unlikely to need much give that there’s a huge PSU shroud in the base, so lots of room to cram excess cables out of sight.

Tucked out of sight under that shroud is a HDD bay, with room for 2 x 3.5″/2.5″ drives. Again, this is set away from the front to allow room for a full-height radiator. Screws on the base of the chassis also mean you can strip this bay out completely should you need to.

Finally, the PSU mounting area, which comes with lots of clearance for extra cables and connectors, as well as two large mounting stumps to ensure a level fit for the PSU.

Complete System

Building a system in the Asterion couldn’t have been easier, as there is an embarrassing amount of room on the interior for our hardware. Cable routing is sublime, with those huge cable routing grommets and various cut-outs exactly where you need them to feet cables to all edges of the motherboard with ease.

The HDD mounts on the lower section are great too, giving you a place to display your favourite SSDs, and they even have their own cable routing holes at the back to keep things looking neat and tidy.

The 270X Tri-X Toxic isn’t a small GPU by any measure, yet there is still has a vast amount of room for something bigger if you really need it (unlikely). Of course, this extra space can also be used for thicker radiators and push/pull fan configurations, giving you lots of options to play around with.

There’s lots of clearance above the motherboard too, and this means you’ll have zero issues fitting the biggest air coolers on the market, but also all the room you need for rear and top mounted fans or radiators.

With eight expansion slots and E-ATX motherboard support, you’ll not be left wanting for space in multi-GPU configurations either, and the extra width left over is perfect for water cooling hardware on your expansion cards.

Neat and tidy cable routing throughout, and don’t worry if you’re using E-ATX, as there’s a handy second set of grommets over to the right to deal with the wider board design.

All panels back in place, and you can barely see anything inside the Asterion thanks to that dark tint to the glass.

The same goes for the right side, barely see anything through it, which means that all those cables you’ve routed are very nicely hidden.

Powered up the chassis, for now with the side panel removed, and there’s a soft cool-white light from those three pre-installed fans. It’s not too much, nicely understated and is certainly quite classy compared to some LED fan lights.

The ring of light runs right around each fan, giving them a floating halo appearance.

With the panel back in place, the bulk of the hardware vanishes against the inky black interior, with just the motherboard LEDs, GPU and the fans glowing through. Of course, the more LEDs you add, the more you’ll see, but any LED/RGB hardware should look incredible in the Asterion.

Final Thoughts

Price

Huge sheets of beautifully finished aluminium, thick and tinted tempered glass and those lovely fans don’t come cheap, and the Asterion will set you back £152.99 from OCUK. While that’s not cheap, you certainly get what you pay for and for a premium E-ATX chassis of this standard, we think it’s pretty fantastic value for money.

Overview

There’s only so much I really have to say about this chassis, as for all intents and purposes we think it’s perfect. That’s not something I say often here at eTeknix, but I really can’t find a single fault with this chassis and that’s something for Raijintek to be proud of.

The build quality is exceptionally good, with a thick and durable frame that feels heavy and rigid, with no squeaky panels and rattles throughout. Of course, it needs to be strong, as those lovely glass panels are pretty heavy on their own and once you think about adding heavy-duty water cooling radiators and other hardware, you’ll better appreciate the reinforced nature of the chassis.

Tempered glass is nothing new these days, but it’s a giant leap in quality over plastic window panels that we’re used to seeing. Add that glass over a few sheets of aluminium with a lovely black brushed finish, and you couldn’t ask for a more premium looking or feeling chassis design. We’ve got Lian Li levels of finish at Raijintek prices, and even at £150 you’ll struggle to find much of anything that comes close.

With room for radiators, E-ATX motherboards, exceptional cable routing capabilities, premium quality LED fans, washable dust filters and seemingly everything else we can list on this chassis, it’s certainly set to appeal to enthusiast system builders who want a high-end build, but also want something that looks professional and mature over the usual high-end gaming chassis on the market.

Pros

• Gorgeous aesthetics
• Brushed aluminium exterior
• Dual tempered glass windows
• PSU shroud
• Excellent cable routing
• 3 x LED fans pre-installed
• Water cooling support
• Washable dust filters
• E-ATX motherboard support

Cons

• None

“The Raijintek Asterion packs everything you could want in a chassis. With premium build quality and a flawless aesthetics that are sure to compliment everything from a mid-range desktop system to an enthusiast water cooled gaming rig or workstation.”

Raijintek Asterion Mid-Tower Chassis Review