A Closer Look - Inside

On the interior, the Valkyrie VK02 Lite provides a pretty traditional layout with the front section intended for cooling and an upright motherboard. If you look closely, you can see that there are covers on the motherboard tray in case you are not planning to use a BTF board of any size. Interestingly enough, there is no mention of supporting this format in any of the materials, but as you will see later on, the VK02 Lite is fully compatible with that standard. The VK02 Lite comes equipped with grommets on the left and top of the motherboard, which should allow you to keep things clean and tidy, but they will all be partially blocked by any wide motherboard. The reason for these oversized openings is once again due to providing openings for the reverse connectors of a BTF motherboard. There are a few additional cable routing openings that could really benefit from grommets - especially the ones on the shroud and at the front edge of the interior. Looking at the backside, all the surface area is used well behind the motherboard tray.


On the interior, there is a shroud which is intended to hide the PSU. There is a grommet equipped opening for PCIe cabling at the front edge and the surface can hold up to three 2.5" drives. These are the ones you need rubber rings and special pin screws for, of which Valkyrie only provides eight, not the necessary 12. If you look closely, you can also see mounting holes which seem to allow for two 120 mm fans to be placed here instead, but the VK02 spec sheet does not mention this either, but these are visualized in the installation guide. On the floor, you will find a third spot, this one being able to hold a 120 or 140 mm unit. There are some additional mounting holes in the center, but we don't know what those could be for.


Looking at the front, you can see the entire mounting bracket for fans or radiator. Something similar can be found on the side, both with the exact same capability as the frame in the ceiling, meaning that you can install up to three 420 mm radiators inside the chassis. Alternatively the case can be equipped with a whopping eleven 140 mm and two 120 mm fans, which is pretty over-the-top.


In the rear, the eight expansion slots reside completely inside the case and have classic screws holding each cover in place. In the top, there is that Valkyrie V14 fan. It has ARGB LEDs in the hub for illumination. It also sports the brands old logo, which is something we see from time to time as companies use up existing stock after rebranding.


To rotate the expansion slots, you have to unscrew the four screws holding the plate in place and then simply reinsert it, so the slots are upright. It would have been nice to have thumb screws securing this, but odds are you won't be changing your setup repeatedly anyway.


The backside of the VK02 lite provides some interesting soft plastic clips at the left and right edges to easily route cables, which will certainly come in handy. On top of that, there are two Velcro strips which we will use for the thicker power cables during the assembly process.


While most cases of this layout and size opt to have one mounting plate alongside an HDD cage, the VK02 Lite provides two mounting plates. You may install two 3.5" drives here or opt for up to four 2.5" variants instead. This means you can have between a very healthy four and six drives as part of your setup in combination with the provided mounting hardware when using the VK02 Lite.


All the wiring within the Valkyrie VK02 Lite is sleeved black. Both the USB wires are sturdy, which also makes them a bit bulky, making their utilization a little tricker in combination with BTF motherboards. The front panel connectors have been unified into a single header, which is great to see.