The Interior of the Riotoro Prism CR1280

The interior of the Prism is entirely black, including all screws and standoffs, with the exception of the semi-clear front intake fans. It is essentially split into two parts, one for the main system that is accessible from the left side panel and one for the PSU compartment/drives area that is accessible from the right side panel. The main system area is very roomy, as expected from a case of such proportions without external drive cages at all. There are many openings for the cables above and to the side of the motherboard, all with rubber grommets installed. There is also an opening leading directly to the PSU compartment. A hole is cut on the motherboard's tray to allow for the installation of aftermarket coolers without having to remove the motherboard, but we found the opening to be strangely small and is likely to cause compatibility problems with several of the newer motherboards, forcing the removal of the motherboard if the cooler has to be installed/removed.

The system area of the Prism CR1280 is littered with fan mounting slots. Riotoro installed two 120 mm RGB fans as a front intake, but 140 mm fans or up to a 240/280 mm radiator can fit there. Similarly, a simple black 120 mm fan is installed to the rear of the case, but a 140 mm fan can also fit. The rear mounting slot allows for the adjustment of the fan’s height by about one inch. Three more 140 mm or 120 mm fans or up to a 360 mm radiator can be installed at the top of the case. Finally, there is also the option of installing internal fans on the floor of the main system, one above the PSU and one above the 3.5” drives cage, providing additional cooling to these components.

 

Moving on to the right side of the case, we can see four 2.5” drive mounting frames along the side of the motherboard’s tray. Unlike most similar setups, the drives are not simply inserted to these plastic frames, but the frames have to be removed, installed on a drive and then reinserted along with the drive. This takes a few extra moments but it is far more secure, as the drive cannot be removed from the frame if the frame itself is not removed.

Another four 3.5” or 2.5” drives can be installed in the cage in front of the PSU compartment, using plastic trays. These plastic trays lock on 3.5” drives without the need of screws, but one screw can be added for extra security. 2.5” drives can only be installed on the trays by using screws.

The Speed/RGB controller can also be seen at the back of the motherboard’s tray, protected by a simple magnetic cover. The speed controller can power and control up to four fans, two of which are the two intake RGB fans of the case. If the user wants to, the two RGB fans can be replaced with other fans, but the case would lose the largest portion of its lighting capabilities.

For the means of this review, we installed a Corsair AX760i with the red cable set, for strong visual contrast. The PSU compartment is roomy and can easily house a PSU up to 200 mm long, so it fits inside the Prism CR1280 without issues. Do note that the distance between the PSU compartment and the motherboard is large and, as a result, the CPU power cable of the AX760i is barely long enough. High end PSU models with long cables are highly recommended, or an extension will be necessary for the CPU 12V EPS cable.

A standard ATX system fits inside the system area of the Prism CR1280 very comfortably. Massive cards up to 400 mm long can fit, even with the front intake fans installed. There is a lot of clearance above the motherboard, allowing for the installation of 25 mm thick radiators along with their fans. 38 mm thick radiators can still cause compatibility problems though, as the top panel openings are not offset to the left side of the case.

We would like to point out that the system area of the Prism CR1280 is clearly designed with ATX motherboards in mind, rather than EATX or larger. An EATX motherboard can be installed but it will partially block the cable openings next to it. There are no other cable openings other than those across the edge of the motherboard, so it could make the management of the cables a little troubling. This is also true for very long graphics cards, as they will run across the cable openings and the cables will have to the installed before the cards.

 

The Exterior of the Riotoro Prism CR1280 Testing and results
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  • SaolDan - Tuesday, April 26, 2016 - link

    Neat!!
  • Olaf van der Spek - Tuesday, April 26, 2016 - link

    You might be able to set the BIOS to power on after power loss and then use the switch on the PSU or an external switch.
  • plopke - Tuesday, April 26, 2016 - link

    Speaking about cases , anyone know of a 5.25"front panel expansion with a new power button/reset button. I know Lian li and Scythe used to have some models but either very hard to get or extremely expensive because comes with lot of extras.

    <rant on>

    Maybe I am just unlucky, or it is Antec but goddammit do power button on cases get crappier and crappier these days and every time I look at a review of cases these days the words "flimsy/weak" tend to be used or quality is ignored. On the plus side cooling and noise are properly reviewed.

    Also quiet common to find the problem on the internet with following solutions :
    -get new front panel if the case still made
    -get new case("I GO UUURGRH inside")Speaking about cases , anyone know of a 5.25"front panel expansion with a new power button/reset button. I know Lian li and Scythe used to have some models but either very hard to get or extremely expensive because comes with lot of extras.

    <rant on>

    Maybe I am just unlucky, or it is Antec but goddammit do power button on cases get crappier and crappier these days and every time I look at a review of cases these days the words "flimsy/weak" tend to be used or quality is ignored. On the plus side cooling and noise are properly reviewed.

    Also quiet common to find the problem on the internet with following solutions :
    -super glue
    -horrible mess because the enteir panel is one big hump of glued together plastics
    -get new front panel if the case is still made
    -get new case("I GO UUURGRH inside")

    So in the end I was thinking of drilling a hole in a 5.25"bracket and putting for example one of these in it
    https://www.amazon.co.uk/Phobya-system-cabinet-but...

    Sometimes I wishes the reviewer of a PC case put a robot on the button until it breaks :P.

    PS Luckely it isn't all bad , there actually still cases to be bought where the idea is not look as a neo lighted up brothel with a stealth fighter crashed into it.
    <rant off>
    Sorry I will stop being grumpy now , I tend to get grumpy when a easy problem turns into a day of googling !

    So in the end I was thinking of drilling a hole in a 5.25"bracket and putting for example one of these in it
    https://www.amazon.co.uk/Phobya-system-cabinet-but...

    Sometimes I wishes the reviewer of a PC case put a robot on the button until it breaks :P.

    PS Luckely it isn't all bad , there actually still cases to be bought where the idea is not look as a neo lighted up brothel with a stealth fighter crashed into it.
    <rant off>
    Sorry I will stop being grumpy now , I tend to get grumpy when a easy problem turns into a day of googling !
  • plopke - Tuesday, April 26, 2016 - link

    Woeps
  • plopke - Tuesday, April 26, 2016 - link

    I kinda went a bit crazy with copy paste after logging in
  • Murloc - Tuesday, April 26, 2016 - link

    yeah it kinda makes you look cray-cray.

    I don't push the button more than once a day but I've never had or heard of any issues with cooler master cases.
  • fluxtatic - Wednesday, April 27, 2016 - link

    That would have been pretty much exactly what I would have suggested, drill a hole in one of the 5.25" blanks and put in vandal-resistant switch.

    On another note, I think it's you - I've never had a problem with a power switch in any case I've ever owned.
  • JohnMD1022 - Saturday, June 4, 2016 - link

    I only power off/on once a month or so.
  • Valantar - Tuesday, April 26, 2016 - link

    Any idea if Riotoro will expand distribution to Europe in the near future? For my next platform upgrade, I want a smaller chassis, and their CR1080 seems to be the _only_ compact, full ATX + full length ATX PSU case out there that doesn't look like utter sh*t. I don't mind moving to mATX, but the selection there isn't that much better, tbh. The Kimera Cerberus looks awesome, but it's not available (yet, perhaps ever), and $250 is a lot for a case.
  • britjh22 - Tuesday, April 26, 2016 - link

    Wow, having just built a system in a Zalman H1, I really wish I had seen this case first. I love the placement of the 2.5 & 3.5 drives.

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