Riotoro CR1080 Review

  

Up Close:  Interior

The CR1080 is a dual chamber case, so let’s start with the motherboard side first shall we.  The first thing to note is that there isn’t a CPU cut out.  Now this might not seem like a big deal, but it does mean that if you’re going to mount a CPU cooler, which you kinda have to, then you’re going to need to do this before you fit the motherboard into the case.  The problem is that, the other side of the CPU area, is where the PSU lives, and support needs to be given to the PSU so the case couldn’t really have a cut out.  A solution to the problem would have been to mount the PSU higher up in the case, thus leaving this area free to have a CPU cut out.  Moving on from this issue, we can see that there are a fair few cable management holes, but that none of them are grommeted.  To be honest, in this day and age in an £65 case, we’d expect the main ones to have rubber grommets. 

  

 

From a ventilation point of view the CR1080 comes with a single 120mm Blue LED fan.  There is though a space up front for a second 120mm fan if you want to mount one.

  

 

As this is a dual chamber case, round the back there’s plenty of cable management space. 85mm in fact, so you should have no problem making everything fit in.

  

 

As mentioned before, the PSU lives in this rear chamber area, and is mounted oon its side in the bottom left hand corner.  Aside from the screws and some metal springs panels, there’s no rubber pads or damping.

  

 

In the top right hand corner we can see the bracket that houses a side mounted 5.25″ device.  Over the top of this fits a bracket that is designed to hold a 3.5″ drive, but can also be used to mount a 2.5″ drive instead.  To the left of this is a swing open panel that will take a 3.5″ and a 2.5″ drive at the same time.  In our opinion it would have been better to have this swing open panel at the bottom of the case allowing for a CPU cut out, and the PSU at the top of the case.

  

 

 A hefty tug removes the front panel, which is the only plastic part of the case.  This affords us a better view of the front ventilation, and the mounting area for the 5.25″ device.  We’ve also noticed a front 80mm fan mount, which goes unmentioned in the Riotoro specs.

  

 

Looking inside the front panel we can see that a bit of work is required to remove the blanking plate for the 5.25″ drive and mount it to the front of your drive.