Raijintek Styx Review

Raijintek Styx Review

Manufacturer: Raijintek
UK price (as reviewed): £62.99 (inc VAT)
US price (as reviewed): Currently unavailable

At the start of the year, we looked at the dinky Raijintek Metis. Despite some cooling issues, it was hard not to be a little in love with the super minimalist aluminium cube case, and we're sure it's made a nice home for many HTPC builds. Now, the company returns with the Styx, which scales the design up to micro-ATX. As before, it's available in numerous colours (six to be precise, with three more inbound according to Raijintek) and we've been furnished with a gold sample. To be honest, it's a bit blingtastic and we can't see it being as popular as red, blue or black, for example, but having the choice is no bad thing. More importantly, the brushed finish applied to the outer shell is again lovely.


Panel alignment is very good for the most part and, similarly, build quality is solid overall for a £60 aluminium case. The thick front panel is a real highlight and feels very meaty; the side panels are thinner but still feel fairly sturdy thanks to the material they're hewn from. You may notice a few marks on the panels, but this is only due to the case being an early sample – we know from the Metis that Raijintek cases arrive in good condition when they're new.

There is easy access to the front IO panel atop the chassis, which includes the usual dual USB 3 ports and audio jacks. A minor niggle is that the USB jacks are not perfectly centred within their cutouts, and the power button is a touch loose but does have a nice action to it.

On the roof is a large mesh section that doubles up as a dust filter. Unfortunately, it doesn't have a push-clip removal mechanism, so you need to open the case up to unclip it. Still, it should be useful as in the Metis our GPU all but suffocated due to the lack of roof ventilation. The downside, of course, is aesthetic, as it stands out from the brushed aluminium quite markedly. Then again, you can't have it both ways, and the Metis is available for small, HTPC builds while the Styx is a bit more of a performance chassis. Beneath the mesh is a pair of empty 120mm fan mounts, with room also for 240mm radiators.


The side panels are plain except on the right one where there is a cutout suitable for mounting a slot-loaded slimline optical drive. This is a good way of maintaining a feature that's becoming less and less relevant without letting it impact much on the rest of the design. You can also purchase a version of the chassis with a windowed right side panel for just £2 extra, an offer likely to prove popular.

Looking at the back reveals an upside down motherboard orientation, hence why the window would be on the right of the case – few people are particularly enamoured with the back of motherboard trays. The Styx has five expansion slots, so you can use dual slot cards in the bottom PCI-E slot of your motherboard. There's also a plastic clip-on PCI-E bracket cover.


The Styx is fitted with just one fan – a 120mm exhaust. In the Metis, this was also the case, but it was far more effective when we remounted it as an intake fan. Hopefully, Raijintek hasn't made the same mistake again – we'll be testing both orientations.

Lastly, turning the case upside down unveils four rubberised corner feet, ensuring decent grip on smooth surfaces. There's also another 120mm fan mount here and a large cut-out for the front-mounted PSU. Clearly, this is not going to be your standard build, so head over the page to find out what's on the inside.

Specifications

• Dimensions (mm) 210 x 360 x 335 (W x D x H)
  
• Material Aluminium, steel
  
• Available colours Black, silver, blue, gold, red, green
  
• Weight 3.8kg
  
• Front panel Power, 2 x USB 3, stereo, microphone
  
• Drive bays 1 x slimline ODD, 3 x 3.5in/2.5in, 2 x 2.5in
  
• Form factor(s) Micro-ATX, mini-ITX
  
• Cooling 1 x 120mm rear fan mount (fan included), 2 x 120mm roof fan mounts, 2 x 120mm side bracket fan mounts (fans not included), 1 x bottom 120mm fan mount (fan not included)
  
• CPU cooler clearance 180mm
  
• Maximum graphics card length 280mm
  
• Extras None