A Closer Look - Outside

The chassis uses a mixture of steel, aluminum, and glass to create a very clean design. It is quite simple and understated, which is perfect for these materials. Even though it is called Asterion, it looks like a big Thetis or even bigger Styx variant.


The entire front is constructed out of a straight piece of aluminum with diamond-cut edges. In the rear, you can clearly see the steel construction with some unused mounting holes. These are used for hinges if you picked the Asterion Plus, as it features doors that may be flipped open. These are not needed here since the glass panels are held in place differently in the Classic variant.


Both sides of the Asterion Classic are made out of tempered glass and are held in place by thumbscrews. The only difference not only being in the material, another between the Classic and Plus is the vertical slot-loading ODD drive bay that is missing in the glass version. I am not sure why Raijintek has chosen to omit it since you now need pick between the material or drive bay, but cannot have both. That is also the reason why there is a foam plate on the front as you unbox the chassis, as the Classic is slightly shorter, but uses the same packaging as the Plus.


In the bottom of the brushed aluminum panel is a simple, silkscreened Raijintek logo. Above that, as the front is one solid piece, are no traditional 5.25" drive bays. All you will find in the top half is a circular power button with a white power LED ring around it.


The PSU bay in the rear is on the very bottom and comes equipped with a mounting frame. This means that you will have to slide the power supply in through the rear of the chassis. Above that, you will find eight motherboard expansion slots, each protected by individual, reusable covers. Raijintek has also placed four grommet-covered openings here so that you may route liquid-cooling tubes out the back. Above that is a 120 mm LED-ring-equipped fan. As you can see, there is plenty of space above this area, which means you should have no issues installing thin liquid-cooling radiators alongside some fans.


Raijintek has skipped the USB 2.0 plugs in the top and instead offers four USB 3.0 variants alongside the usual audio I/O. However, as we will see later on, the USB cables offer a USB 2.0 plug as well, which makes utilizing all four regardless of your motherboard's capabilities possible. In the top, you will also find a large, metal-mesh-covered opening. As the mesh is not easily removable from the outside, we will take a closer look at this later. As an interesting sidenote: The top case cover is also made out of aluminum, which is a very nice touch. Tipping the Asterion over, we can see two dust filters which are screwed down in place. This means you will have to get a screwdriver should you want to clean them properly. It would have been nice if Raijintek would have found a different solution - ideally one that does not require you to tip over your system or at least employs filters with clips so no tools were needed.