A Closer Look - Outside

With the Corsair Crystal 680X RGB out of the box, we see that it consists of plastic, steel, and slightly tinted glass panels. The latter are protected with a small layer of plastic out of the box. Overall, the 680X RGB looks essentially exactly how you would assume a larger 280X to look, with the same design details and fully packed fan array in the front.


Looking at the front, the 680X RGB is visually divided with the fans on the left side behind the glass panel and a solid piece on the right side to complete the front.


The main side panel is made out of glass to give you a clear view of the larger compartment within the enclosure. It is also framed in black and hinged, which makes swinging it open easy. The opposite, smaller compartment is covered by a steel panel with a large air vent around the area of the PSU bay. It is covered by a black, magnetically attached dust filter.


Looking at the rear, the bottom left holds the PSU bay, while the top acts as an air vent for the hard-drive cages. There are mounting holes here for you to install custom liquid cooling for example, but Corsair's manual does not go into detail on the actual purpose of these mounting holes and openings.


On the right, the main compartment looks very much like a traditional chassis with 8+2 expansion slots on the bottom and a 120 mm exhaust fan in the top. Unlike the cooling units in the front, this one lacks any RGB, but is still retail-grade, which is just fine.


In the very top, a third glass panel covers the opening for liquid cooling or additional fans. Overall, the 680X RGB offers excellent room for numerous liquid-cooling radiators in top as well as the front of the chassis. The separately packaged dust filter can be placed here as well to keep at least bigger dust particles out of the interior. The I/O consists of two USB 3.0, the usual pair of audio plugs, and a USB 3.1 Type-C Gen 2 connector.