Xigmatek Aquila Micro-ATX Chassis Review

Introduction

It’s rare we see a Xigmatek chassis roll through the eTeknix office, but it’s certainly always a pleasure when one does. Xigmatek has a good reputation for creating uniquely designed chassis, with good build quality and competitive prices and it looks like they’re above to tick all those boxes once agin. The Aquila is a Micro-ATX cube type chassis, perfect for those who want a big system in a small box; perfect for LAN gaming, a HTPC setup or for those who are just short on space.

Cube style chassis are a big hit right now and virtually every major manufacturer has launched a new product in this category over the last couple of years. The biggest, or should that be the smallest, innovation in this part of the market is that the smaller chassis have been crammed full of high-end features that make them very competitive when compared to their mid-tower and even full-tower counterparts; a smaller chassis no longer means smaller performance.

The Aquila comes loaded with all the features you could need for a good gaming chassis. You’ll find USB 3.0 support, room for a Mini-ITX or micro-ATX motherboard, a full-size ATX PSU and graphics cards of up to 330mm; more than enough room for many of the biggest cards on the market.

The chassis has a really funky design that means that chassis is slightly raised at the front. The cube form factor is kept nice and level by the sloped handles on the top and bottom of the chassis. The side panel has a tall window that gives you a view of much of the chassis interior.

The right side of the chassis is a similar design to the left, this time of course, skipping the window panel; both side panels are held in place by a pair of thumb screws.

The chassis has a very bold design from the front, with the thick borders on the left and right side formed from the upper and lower supports, giving the chassis the appearance of being suspended between them. There’s a single 5.25″ drive bay at the top and the rest of the front panel is ventilated to allow air flow to any front mounted fans.

Around the back, you’ll find a pre-installed 120mm fan, although the mount will support a 140mm. On the right you’ll find four expansion slots, perfect for those running a multi-GPU setup. There’s a PSU mount at the bottom, with options for regular or inverted mounting, and there’s also a little extra ventilation in the bottom left corner; this is just behind the dedicated 2.5″ drive mounts on the interior of the chassis.

There’s a full-length lift-up dust filter and cover on the top panel, this is to provide airflow to any top mounted cooling such as radiators.

On the top of the chassis, you will find a power button. The button is quite large and contrasts nicely with the black panels of the chassis.

There’s a dust filter for the PSU mount, with benefits from excellent ground clearance thanks to the chassis full-length feet.

Interior

The interior of the Aquila has been treated with the same high-quality powder-black paint job as the exterior, giving it a nice uniform look throughout; it’s just a shame they left those garish cables on the front and back fans, after making the effort of having all the other cables finished in black.

In the back of the chassis, you’ll find a good quality 120mm fan is pre-installed and mounted as an exhaust.

The motherboard is mounted horizontally in the top compartment of the chassis; there’s also a small CPU cooler cut-out to help with backplate compatibility.

There’s a large orange fin fan pre-installed in the front of the chassis; perfect for providing a lot of airflow at low RPM.

The PSU is mounted in the bottom section of the chassis and there are four rubber mounts to help reduce any vibrations.

The top fan mounts have space for up to 2 x 120 or 2 x 140mm fans and comparative size radiators. Dependant on your configuration, you may have to remove the 5.25″ drive bay to install radiators longer than 140mm. Removing the 5.25″ drive bay should be relatively easy, as it’s mounted to the chassis with fairly standard screws.

With both side panels removed you get a vast amount of working space within the chassis; this should make it super easy to get all of our components installed.

Complimenting the two 3.5″ trays in the front of the chassis, you also get two dedicated 2.5″ bays in the rear of the chassis; these are very handy if you wanted to removed the large bays at the front to make room for water cooling equipment.

Complete System

The Xigmatek Aquila has loads of space on the interior for a long graphics card, the Sapphire R9 270X is a huge card and it fits in the Aquila with room to spare.

One thing that I did struggle with is PSU clearance. The Seasonic power supply I’m using is a little longer than most ATX PSUs and with the addition of the modular cable connectors, it was a real struggle getting it into place; although I did finally manage it.

There’s a vast amount of space for a large CPU cooler, or even a water cooling loop with radiators in the back, top and front of the chassis.

Cable management looks a little scruffy here, but it’s actually pretty good. All excess cable is located in the base of the chassis, leaving airflow nice and clear in the top compartment; you could easily tidy this up with a few extra cable ties.

There is no cut-out for routing the motherboard CPU power cable, although despite the fact it looks a little scruffy trailing over the board like this, you won’t actually see this from the side panel window, so it’s no big deal.

With the side panel back in place, you can see the graphics card, the PSU and the bottom hard drive bays. I’m not so sure I want to see the PSU and would have preferred a wider, less tall window instead, but that’s just my personal preference.

Final Thoughts

Pricing

The Xigmatek Aquila Micro-ATX chassis does come with a high price tag and will set you back around £74.99 + shipping from Overclockers UK. This makes it more expensive than the Aerocool DS Cube, Thermaltake Core V21, several BitFenix offerings and put’s it alongside some of the high-end Lian-Li products.

Overview

I do like this chassis, it’s a got a unique design that I’ve never seen before and I’ve always been a fan of Xigmatek products in general. There are a couple of small issues I have with the chassis, but fortunately nothing major. The PSU mount feels a little restricted and could have been made longer given the excess space near the front of the chassis, the side panel window isn’t the right size and shape to best show off the build and finally, the price is quite high.

When you pay this much for a chassis, you want a good return on your investment. Fortunately, you do get a lot for your money as this chassis is very well made, it’s stylish and it’s capable of housing some very impressive hardware. The Aquila is a very good chassis overall and it’s a great choice for those who want to install custom loop water cooling in a smaller chassis, thanks to its multiple fan and radiator mounts and removable storage bays.

Pros

• Great build quality
• Unique design
• Room for extra-long graphics cards
• Water cooling support
• Removable storage bays
• Dust filters
• Side panel window

Cons

• PSU mount can be cramped for modular PSU cables
• A little expensive compared to rival offerings

Xigmatek Aquila Micro-ATX Chassis Review

“Xigmatek have proven once again that they can make a very capable chassis, with great build quality and unique style. If you’re looking for a chassis for a LAN gaming rig, you’ll love the Aquila and the easy to carry design.”

Thank you Overclockers for providing us with this sample.