Introduction
Manufacturer: MONTECH
Product Page: Air X
Purchase Price: $76.99 at Amazon at the time of review.
Today I am taking a look at a new company MONTECH and their new AirX mid-tower case. The AirX is a mesh front case that will house anything from a Mini-ITX to E-ATX size motherboards proudly sporting a uniquely designed mesh front case to back up its AirX name. As for MONTECH as a company, they are a fairly new brand to myself, but the company was started in the summer of 2016.
-Born for gamers! Since 2016-
During the summer of 2016, then General Manager and Engineer of Telon distribution Steve Chang found that a certain major brand’s PC Case was not only expensive but also had very poor wire management design. At that time although only a distribution company, Telon purchased even more PC cases and PSUs from numerous manufacturers for study. Only to find that they were either poorly designed or overpriced. That was when Telon decided to create a new brand of their own focused on engineering, design, quality, and reasonable pricing to better serve their consumers.
I like to grab and share the brand story from each new company I work with to share their stance and view on the industry upfront of the review. The above is quoted directly from the MONTECH website, with all this said let us dive into this one. I am rather excited being I have worked with mostly closed front with limited airflow cases this is looking to be a breath of fresh air!
Spec Sheet
Closer Look
Pulling the Air X out of the box reveals a well-vented case with a mesh front and tempered glass side panel. On the front, there is a small MONTECH logo other than that the case is devoid of any other brand markings which are nice.
Here on the front, you can kind of see through the mesh front to the 2 200mm aRGB fans behind. You also get a clearer view of the logo/branding on the front of the case.
Here on the backside of the case, you can see the two thumbscrews per door which hold them in place, as well as the 120mm fan port on the rear of the case with a little room to move the fan up and down to help optimize airflow. Below the fan are the standard 7 expansion slots and below that a static PSU mount that you will have to access from the rear/side panel.
Popping the front off reveals the cooling power hidden behind the mesh front of the AirX. Here you will find the two included 200mm 800rpm aRGB fans. These will provide more than enough airflow to keep practically any build cool and even when left running at 100% fan speed or what was about 800-810rpm on my fans left them absolutely silent. The massive overdesigned cooler on the GTX 980 Ti used in the test build was far louder.
Here on the inside f the AirX you can see a few of the cable management routing holes provided, the three that run along the front of the case have rubber combs and the lower ones that run along the PSU shroud are bare and more minimal. These are a little tough to get SATA power cables through but are manageable if not a little tight.
Here on the Power Supply Shroud, you will find two locations to install the included 2.5″ SSD/HDD trays included with the case. This is always a really nice option to have if you want to display your storage.
Flipping the case around we can take a closer look at the included aRGB/Fan Controller included. Yes, that is right a sub $100 case is coming with a 6 port aRGB, 6 Fan combined controller for you to manage all of your cooling needs from one location if you would like. Now I am not a huge fan of how the controller is implemented but I have had no issues with it either. I would like to see the controller housed in a plastic case at the very least especially if just double-sided sticky foam is the mounting method used as currently is. Even if this was to hike the cost of the case $5-10 this would still be one solid deal on a budget high airflow case full of extras.
Pulling out some here shows the entirety of the backside of the AirX as you can see there has been plenty of cable management added to help you keep your final build clean, there are two Velcro straps and plenty of depth to put all of your cables neatly bundled behind the door. In the bottom, there is a 3.5″ mounting bay for Hard Drive installation and in the tray, you will find all of your accessories like spare screws, zip ties, and more. Always find this packaging no matter what case you choose they all have one for the various needs of the case design.
RGB
The included aRGB and Fan controller are a really nice addition to see at this price point. Yea the implementation of it is a little bare-bones being just a circuit board stuck to the back of the case with double-sided sticky foam, but this is a far shot better than anything else I can think of offered at this price point on the market. If you are into RGB and don’t want to break the bank acquiring it then this will plug right into your motherboard via compatible ARGB (5v 3pin) motherboards or can be controlled by the button on the top of the case.
Pulling the front off the Air X once more with a complete build shows the nice and not overly bright lighting capabilities of the two 200mm fans MONTECH has included with the case.
Final Build
Fleshing the build-out with one more MONTECH aRGB fan to the CPU cooler and some additional RGB strips really show how this case can shine. There is more than enough light from the 3 included aRGB fans but if you are into RGB then you understand that more in the right places can really help your build pop.
Pulling out the shot some here will show just how nice the MONTECH Air X is in a complete setup. It is truly a really stunning case with lots of features for its price.
Conclusion
Performance
The performance of the MONTECH Air X was exactly what I expected from a mesh front case with dual 200mm 800rpm fans to help move air freely across the installed components. Across the board, my GPU, CPU, VRMs, and even Solid State Drives remained 4-8c cooler than in what is a more traditional restricted airflow case like my daily case the NZXT H710i. Everything in the MONTECH Air X performed exactly as expected allowing optimal airflow and build option while doing so.
Design
If I were to rate this section on a scale of 1-10 I would give the Air X a solid 8. The build quality is what is expected from cases at this price point. The metal is not too flimsy and everything fits together really well with more than enough room for various build options let it be air or water cooling. My main gripe would be mainly the lack of USB 3.0 on the top of the case and a more user-friendly front air filter. It is not a decision ending factor but having a removable filter in the dustiest part of your case is really nice to have. In the case of the Air X, you will have to pull the front of the case off and just clean the filter from there best you can, since the filter is attached to the mesh of the case itself. There are two removable air filters one on the top of the case that is magnetic and one on the bottom for the PSU intake.
Now off of the front air filter and onto the USB 3.0. It is 2020 and today more than ever high-speed data access is pretty important to most and arguably USB 3.0 is a feature most “gamers” will not use. Gamers do not access their game data via portable storage devices they tend to opt for the fastest storage they have which is always an internal drive of the HDD/SDD/m.2 variety. Now with that said gamers just don’t game a lot of them these days are content creators and streamers and a lot of that is stored on external devices, so easy to access high-speed USB ports is a pretty important feature I would say.
Value
At $76.99 the Air X is a mid-tower case that is coming with 2 200mm aRGB fans and a single 120mm aRGB fan as well as an included aRGB/Fan Controller and with tempered glass, this is honestly a steal if you are looking for a sharp case with RGB for a budget price. The build quality is great the included fans are quiet and have aRGB features that work straight off of compatible motherboard headers and their software and or off the button on the top of the case. There is plenty of air filtration included as well even if the front air filter is non-detachable and lots of options for installing your entire build let it be air or water cooling with plenty of room for storage. Honestly, I cannot find reasons to not consider the MONTECH Air X as your next case purchase this is one heck of a solid deal.
I want to thank MONTECH for sending over the Air X sample for review.
