Anidees AI Crystal XL Review

Conclusion

It's quite normal in the conclusion of a case review for us to go through all of the technical specifications to bring you up to speed on what the limits and proportions of the several parts of the case are.  The Anidees AI Crystal XL however, is not a "Normal" case.  It is in fact, far far far from Normal.  It is though, by any stretch of the imagination, quite extraordinary.  On the surface it might look like just another large tempered glass case, of which we've seen so many.  Dig a little deeper though and you'll find that unlike other manufacturers, Anidees have pushed out the physical size of the case just a little bit.  But it's that little bit that enables the Crystal XL to do what others can't.  So many times we've criticised manufacturers for not adding those few extra millimeters that would have made all the difference.  So what is this "little bit" we speak of?  Well, those few extra millimeters on the chassis enable the XL to accept pretty much any motherboard known to man.  And when we say any we mean any:  HPTX, XL-ATX, E-ATX and SSI CEB, as well as the usual ATX, M-ATX and M-ITX.  I think that about covers it.  Let's now turn our attention to cooling.  The XL comes with 4x120mm RGB enabled fans on the front, and another in the rear, but will also take an additional 4x120mm in the roof.  If you lean more towards 140mm fans then of course the case will take 3x140mm in the front, 3x140mm in the roof, and 1x140mm in the rear.  From a water cooling perspective, the XL will find a home for a 480 or 420 in either the front or the roof, with very few caveats with regards to thickness, basically the AI Crystal XL is a water cooling enthusiasts wet dream come true.  Ah, I here you say, but what about storage?  Well, obviously there's an interplay between storage and water cooling, but you can still have up to 8x3.5" drives and 3x2.5" drives with all of the above water cooling options.  If you're willing to sacrifice a bit of front rad area then the sky is quite literally your limit, and, if we're honest, we're hard pushed to think of a situation where you'd need as much HDD or SSD storage as the AI Crystal XL can provide.

So what have we got?  well we have one quite large case that will, in very simple terms provide for your every need.  We usually like to find a bit of a negative in order to provide a degree of balance, and although it can't be denied that the XL isn't cheap, there are many, many cases that offer less than it does, at a lower quality, and at a higher price.

From an awards point of view, if we did an "I'm having this" award, the Anidees AI Crystal XL would win it hands down. If I was in a position to keep this case, and I had the hardware, time, and money to make it great, and to build a genuinely awesome water-cooling rig into it, i'd be hanging on to it with every ounce of strength I had.  What more can I say.  there doesn't come any greater recommendation than that. 

 

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