Review System

Assembly

Installing a motherboard is done by traditional means using screws and spacers. There is no room on the bottom edge, but thanks to the cutouts in the shroud, you should still be able to rout cables nicely. Adding a GPU is no issue either, but it should be noted that due to the shallow dimensions of the Valor Air, anyone utilizing an AIO in the front will only have around 278 mm in length. As such, you will be limited in the GPUs you get to select from. That said, considering that liquid cooling will fit in the ceiling and the case not being targeted at high-end users, that is just fine.


You may fit the HDD the cage with two 3.5" drives or one 2.5" alongside one 3.5" unit. The smaller variant screws into the top, while the spinning rust is secured within. Once filled, simply slide it into one of the two positions and use the two shallow thumb screws to keep it there. While this works just fine, it is still quite the workflow to get to your drives or to add them in the first place.


Adding SSDs is easily done as well. Simply take the plate, mount your drive, and put it back where it came from. Given the plate is fairly thick, the drive's SATA connectors are left with a bit more space than usual to connect bulky PSU connectors.


Sliding a PSU underneath the shroud is a bit tight, but things are fine once it is in place. There is enough room for mainstream units to fit, but if you - for whatever reason - want to go big, you may may have to sacrifice your HDD cage depending on your cooling setup.


While there are mounting holes for two 140 mm fans, XPG explicitly only communicates support for a 240 mm radiator in the ceiling of the chassis. Installing such an AIO, you can see why, as it already blocks off access to the top row of connectors on the motherboard. Anything bigger simply won't fit. On the bright side, the taller DIMMs are cleared nicely, so you are free to use any memory without having to worry about interference.


With everything in place, the XPG Valor Air looks alright internally. The cable management holes are a bit far from the left edge of the board as the setup needs to accommodate wider ATX ones. Also, the 240 AIO is quite close to the front fans, but it did not end up causing any tangible issues. In the backside of the motherboard tray, the cable management is alright but naturally focuses around the area where the hooks reside.

Finished Looks

Turning the XPG Valor Air on, there is not much to show you that the system is powered on besides a white LED.


You can see the black fans spinning through the white front panel and all the hardware within is clearly visible as well, thanks to the clear window glass. In the rear, all the connectivity is exactly where you would expect to find it for a chassis of this type.