The Raijintek Ophion Elite may remind you of other SFF cases that employ an upright GPU layout at first. However, on closer examination it is clear that the case is quite different in simple but decisive ways, resulting in a chassis with improved cooling and plenty of hardware compatibility. Priced at $130, it is right where you would expect to see an enclosure like this. Some of those alternatives at the same price range employ PCIe ribbon cables to make the layout work, while Raijintek has managed to stay clear of that. That said, in its stock configuration the layout hotboxes the motherboard quite a bit - so much so that it is uncomfortably warm for some elements inside the chassis, so the savings of a lack of riser cable could have been put towards adding a a few extra fans for the customer.

There are two main aspects of the Ophion Elite that really set it apart: on one hand is the sheer amount of fans you could install without getting in the way of anything on the interior. It can take a total of four 140 and one 80 mm while still employing a 240 or even 280 AIO, as long as you stick to NVMe storage. The other is the unique underside lighting which manages to provide a subtle enough effect for those who want it, while not being to distracting for those who don't care for it. On the interior, as already mentioned, being able to cram a 280 mm AIO and a triple slot GPU into the case is also something you don't tend to see often for a case of this type.

Even with its clean exterior, well designed interior and that attention to detail, there are a few oddities. First and foremost, the Ophion Elite ships with only one fan, which in turn is really restricted in terms of air intake. However, the chassis really needs more active air flow to perform well which is very obvious with the thermal tests. Fortunately, that additional cooling is something it is capable of, especially when jam packed with hardware. As such, Raijintek should have gone as far as to include that 80 mm in the ceiling and one 120/140 mm in the rear as added value & to aid performance. On top of that, on the one unit that is present, a Molex connector is used, which is a pretty big blunder these days. While you could go ahead and switch out the unit for one that is adjustable, that is not a possibility with the Molex powered ARGB controller unfortunately. Besides that, there are a few smaller annoyances, none of these are truly impactful on your daily use of the Raijintek Ophion Elite, but could have easily been avoided. This includes the weak magnets for the top cover, the blue USB-A ports or that square USB-C I/O.

In the end though, the Raijintek Ophion Elite manages to impress with its ability to hold triple-slot GPU's, a large AIO, and ATX PSU, thus offering you the possibility to build a compact power house of a system, topping it off with nifty ARGB lighting. Its biggest issue is the lack in cooling prowess out-of-the-box meaning you will have to invest in some fans and swap out the existing one, which puts a dent into the overall cost when using this chassis. but with that in mind, the Raijintek Ophion Elite has plenty of potential. That potential is why this case is recommendable. If you like the design, room and layout, you are fortunately able to overcome the issue of thermals with a $30 dollar investment into some quality fans.