Review APNX V1 Case Review: Fish-bowl design done right, with excellent thermals

[Admin]

APNX V1 is a striking fishbowl-style case with excellent thermals. We tested it with Intel’s Core i9-14900K CPU and the Radeon RX 7900GRE GPU.

APNX V1 Case Review: Fish-bowl design done right, with excellent thermals : Read more

 

[YSCCC]

As well as it's look and functionality is doing, I personally have a reluctance to appreciate such an NZXT H6 (which is a mostly clone and slightly mirrored Hyte Y60) clone fusion with the fractal north panel.... personally I appreciate the innovator more (so as to I purchased a Fractal North back in the day

 

[-Fran-]

Beauty is always in the eye of the beholder, but that thing is ugly to me xD

I like my lil' Bitfenix all-metal small case (regular ATX), so I'll keep it for a long while.

Thanks a lot for the review and nice data as always, Albert.

Regards.

 

[UnforcedERROR]

As well as it's look and functionality is doing, I personally have a reluctance to appreciate such an NZXT H6 (which is a mostly clone and slightly mirrored Hyte Y60) clone fusion with the fractal north panel.... personally I appreciate the innovator more (so as to I purchased a Fractal North back in the day

The issue with the wood accent trend that the North started is that most companies don't understand why people liked them. The North felt like it'd go with mid-century furniture. It's a very classy looking case, but the wood isn't the entire reason it looks nice. This case just has a wood front, but it's a standard appearance otherwise and that's ultimately the entire problem. If there's one thing Fractal has gotten right it's paying attention to the design as a whole, not just the functionality.

 

[YSCCC]

The issue with the wood accent trend that the North started is that most companies don't understand why people liked them. The North felt like it'd go with mid-century furniture. It's a very classy looking case, but the wood isn't the entire reason it looks nice. This case just has a wood front, but it's a standard appearance otherwise and that's ultimately the entire problem. If there's one thing Fractal has gotten right it's paying attention to the design as a whole, not just the functionality.

Yea, surely that the north have that nailed much better, but even if this actually turned out nailing the design also I would hate these sort of "copy your high grade classmates and combine to hope for a higher grade with minimal effort" type of designs...

 

[bit_user]

IMO, the "right" way to implement an internal radiator is to segregate its airflow from the rest of the case. This resolves the age old debate of whether to put the radiator at the intake or exhaust.

 

[husker]

By orienting the intake fans at an angle, it does indeed improve the thermals. The problem is that the attractive angled side with the wood is now facing away from the large glass panel on the side where the user is most likely to be seated. In other words, the user can orient the computer to view either the glass side or the wood side, but not both at the same time. This is a compromise made in the interest of thermals, fair enough. But it is thermals done right, not aesthetics done right if you want to enjoy the beauty of your build properly. For comparison, this is why the Hyte Y70 has the gorgeous display panel adjacent to the glass side, not opposite it.

Edit: Also, the power and ports at the top is another design error (IMO). A location toward the bottom of the case would be easier to access and to run, say, a USB cable to a mouse or to charge your phone.

 

[HankSc0rpi0]

What about the fact when you remove the panels, the case is extremely flexible like the hyte cases. Rubbish build quality . Th Antec c8 has no issues with being flexy.

 

[BTM18]

Damn that is ugly. Hard pass.

 

[Albert.Thomas]

Damn that is ugly. Hard pass.

Everyone has their own preferences. If you don't like the wood aesthetic, there are other options available.

 

[MergleBergle]

Everyone has their own preferences. If you don't like the wood aesthetic, there are other options available.

I agree. I think the Fractal North is ugly too, the wood is too overdone for my taste. Reminds me of a 1970s station wagon with the "wood" paneling on the outside. Prefer the Antec Flux way of using it as an accent instead of a feature. And as you said, there are other models that don't feature the wood thing.

As for this case, I think it's a clever design that makes me wonder why none of the "big boys" thought of it first. I'm not a fishtank fan, but if you're going to do it, these guys may have found the right way to get the components cooled while retaining that whole.. fishtank thing. 😎

 

[thestryker]

When I saw the silver/unpainted look I thought maybe they were doing a special colorway like they did with the C1. I liked the design on this one more than the NZXT H6 Flow and they're in the same price/features range so the APNX V1 seems like the way to go (especially if you consider the shady stuff NZXT has done).

While I was narrowing down case choices I thought I had it figured until I realized how much wider all of the dual chamber cases are than regular ones. I have my computer sitting under my desk, because I have two side by side setups there isn't a ton of room, so I added a box next to my 5000D to simulate width and it just didn't work. I have a big case, but the APNX V1 is still over half an inch wider and it's one of the smaller dual chamber cases width wise.

With the commonplace of AIOs I'm somewhat surprised that nobody has designed a mass market case with a chamber just for liquid cooling. This could be done pretty easily by putting the PSU at the top and making the case longer (than currently typical). That would also allow for cases to have plenty of room for additional storage and intake without being really wide.

 

[YSCCC]

When I saw the silver/unpainted look I thought maybe they were doing a special colorway like they did with the C1. I liked the design on this one more than the NZXT H6 Flow and they're in the same price/features range so the APNX V1 seems like the way to go (especially if you consider the shady stuff NZXT has done).

While I was narrowing down case choices I thought I had it figured until I realized how much wider all of the dual chamber cases are than regular ones. I have my computer sitting under my desk, because I have two side by side setups there isn't a ton of room, so I added a box next to my 5000D to simulate width and it just didn't work. I have a big case, but the APNX V1 is still over half an inch wider and it's one of the smaller dual chamber cases width wise.

With the commonplace of AIOs I'm somewhat surprised that nobody has designed a mass market case with a chamber just for liquid cooling. This could be done pretty easily by putting the PSU at the top and making the case longer (than currently typical). That would also allow for cases to have plenty of room for additional storage and intake without being really wide.

For the wider but not longer part I believe it's more constrained by what "desktop" really means, to be on a desktop, which is typically 600mm in length, combined with the power cord protruding out from the back it could make it more reasonable to have 500mm long cases but being really wide, while those floor standing ones are like the old Lian Li full tower cases.

 

[Notton]

I'm not a huge fan of this case.
I can see they were trying to copy the O11/Y60, but cutting the corner on the opposite side to be different.

However, I don't think they bothered to consider why the Y60 cuts the corner on the glass side.
That wood panel is completely hidden because humans can't see in 4D.
The interior is cramped again. The whole point of the O11 was to move the radiator out of the way while shortening case length and maximizing GPU space.
The shortened case length improves GPU cooling because the fans are closer to the GPU, despite having to make a 90d bend.

If you are wondering why almost no one offers stretched out cases, it's because the design is bad.
Fractal Design used to sell a very stretched out case, the Define S (not R), made for thick radiators in push-pull. It doesn't work as well as you might think it does because the extra deep design causes poor airflow near the middle and back of the case, where all the hot stuff is.

I don't doubt the airflow works with this case, but I don't see it working well with a long GPU and CLC mounted to the diagonal.

 

[robsn]

Everyone has their own preferences. If you don't like the wood aesthetic, there are other options available.

I doubt that changing the front grill will defeat this level of ugliness. The whole case is messed up with different materials, textures and colours everywhere.

 

[thestryker]

Fractal Design used to sell a very stretched out case, the Define S (not R), made for thick radiators in push-pull.

The Define S isn't even remotely "stretched" it's just the length cases often were due to accounting for 5.25" bays.

If you are wondering why almost no one offers stretched out cases, it's because the design is bad.
...
It doesn't work as well as you might think it does because the extra deep design causes poor airflow near the middle and back of the case, where all the hot stuff is.

I'm assuming you're referring to what I said and if so you didn't understand what I was getting at in the slightest. I mean an actual chamber at the top of the case where an AIO could be mounted vertically. This would completely remove it from the case airflow while also providing optimal airflow to the AIO. Silverstone went big time height with the Alta F2 D1 so the overall design doesn't match what I'm getting at, but it uses this mounting with the top chamber for the case.

 

[husker]

I'm not a huge fan of this case...

I see what you did there.

 

[King_V]

I know this seems like Monday Morning quarterbacking, but I never thought that the whole fishbowl design with the 90-degree turn for intake fans made a whole lot of sense.

The airflow of most fishbowl-style cases have intake fans that push air from one side of the case, directly into the glass panel on the opposite side. I don’t like this type of design, because the strength of airflow gets reduced when it smacks into the side panel.

I mean, that always seemed like a very obvious problem. I'm not a fan of these types of cases, but the APNX V1 has obviously improved on it, in terms of airflow.

I'd actually wondered if either curved glass, or a curved panel inside, that would direct the air rather than the 90 degree angle.

That might make panel and/or glass manufacture more expensive/difficult, though.

 

[bit_user]

I know this seems like Monday Morning quarterbacking, but I never thought that the whole fishbowl design with the 90-degree turn for intake fans made a whole lot of sense.

It does let you get the fans out of the way, so the case length only needs to be enough for the longest possible GPU. That's the only non-aesthetic argument I see for it.

I'd actually wondered if either curved glass, or a curved panel inside, that would direct the air rather than the 90 degree angle.

That might make panel and/or glass manufacture more expensive/difficult, though.

Yes, although you could probably just have some rather small fins on the front fan mounts that mostly achieve the same effect. So, perhaps the main argument for curved glass would be aesthetic and to visually set it apart from the competition.

 

[YSCCC]

It does let you get the fans out of the way, so the case length only needs to be enough for the longest possible GPU. That's the only non-aesthetic argument I see for it.


Yes, although you could probably just have some rather small fins on the front fan mounts that mostly achieve the same effect. So, perhaps the main argument for curved glass would be aesthetic and to visually set it apart from the competition.

but quite frankly, these fishtank designs are mostly for watercooling builds, where the radiator placement isn't critical for the air turn around issues, and for those the fan and VRM cooling could be assisted by the top exhaust adequately.

While the front intake towers are fine for both water or air cooled builds