Assembly

Installing the motherboard is done by traditional means using spacers and screws. As you can see, the board sits right on top of the shroud and ends up fair high towards the ceiling as well. The corner grommets in the motherboard tray line up really well to allow for easy routing of cables that connect to the side edge of the board. Adding a GPU to the mix is straight forward as well and the GPU support bracket works well to keep it from sagging. As you can see, there is plenty of room towards the front of the case, even with a GPU of this size.


Adding storage to the build, the removable tray makes it easy to attach all the drives to it using the supplied screws. We managed to put a 2.5" SSD in the center spot which then still provides the room needed for the ARGB controller at the same time. The connections of the drives face forward, so that you should easily be able to manage your wiring as well.


Installing the PSU using the mounting frame itself is nothing new and works as intended. But as shown in the second image above, the aforementioned strips push the PSU up too high, which in turn block off that opening - in our scenario that pulled the HD Audio header off the pins and bent some of them in the process. Again, removing the foam pads solve all our issues without any negative impact at all.


Lastly, the top of the chassis, even in ATX configuration, can easily hold a 360 mm AIO. As you can see, while nothing collides, the heatsink of the motherboard along with the memory will essentially block you from reaching some sections of the top edge of the board.


With everything installed. the Aqirys XO-1 makes a very nice and clean impression on the interior. This is helped by the fact that the top AIO hides the wires in that area and is also a result of us spending a little extra time to make the most out of the wiring possibilities in the backside of the motherboard tray while focusing on using the provided Velcro strips as the main component of the wiring layout.

Finished Looks

Turning the Aqirys XO-1 on, you can clearly see the fans light up thanks to their hub-based ARGB LEDs and the fact that the front window does not obscure anything. The power LED around the main button on the top however seems very dim in comparison with the studio lights easily overpowering it.


Being a fairly wide case, the three fans in the front really draw your attention to the symmetry they provide. Thanks to the clear glass panel on the side, all the hardware, even with minimal additional ARGB elements, is clearly visible as well. In the rear, all the outputs are where you would expect to see them while also providing you with the glow of the rear exhaust fans. Thanks to the built-in ARGB controller you are able to cycle though lots of single and multi-color animations. On top of that there are 10 solid color options to pick from, as shown below.