Riotoro Prism CR1280 Full Tower RGB review - Final Words & Conclusion

Final Words & Conclusion

The Riotoro Prism CR1280 Full Tower RGB is a nice chassis. The layout works, it is spacious and although subjective, has nice looks/ You can frown up-on everything RGB these days, but simply choose a color of your preference (e.g. if you have a motherboard in black/red) choose red and that will complement the looks of your build. Storage is plentiful, space to work in as well. The chassis excels at cable routing options. There is a bit of a miss though, I really would have liked tempered glass over plastic / plexi. You can see from the photos that plastic see through windows also are a bit more fuzzy. For a chassis in this price range (150 bucks) that would have been the better call to make. The fan controller while nice only has two settings, low and high. At low you will still be able to hear the fans, not loud but they are there alright. Ergo I would have liked to see more fan functions in relation to RPM. 

Despite its looks, it remains a fairly compact chassis for a full-tower, and hey, you can house even an E-ATX motherboard in there. You'd expect that airflow would be a conundrum, yet it works out really well by having a huge mesh air intakes at the front and bottom while the rear fan exhaust. And then the most important thing, the combination of dark brushed aluminum combined with a see through panel make this chassis a perhaps a bit mysterious to look at. The airflow is good enough, the space is great and offers plenty of options for cable routing, features like the SSD/HDD space, ease of use and USB 3.0 ports are all available as well. 

Aesthetics

The looks then, hey I like this model with its dark feel and see through finish side panel, you can't argue taste as it is the most subjective thing and does not make the job of reviewer any easier. Some will dislike it, and others will love this chassis for its looks. Each and every little aspect of the chassis has been thought through really well. The design of the chassis has been made to make your life a little easier while combining the best features an enthusiast crowd seeks in a chassis. But yeah, this is a well thought through product with okay cooling, dust filters, USB 3.0 integration and relatively tool free design. One could however argue the rather big Riotoro logo, but that as well is diffused a bit.

Features

The internals are pretty decent, up-to E-ATX form factor motherboards will fit, the more lengthy graphics card will fit as well. There's also nice space for liquid cooling on the front side and top, the unit offers space for four HDDs and also four SSDs. The chassis has nice motherboard cutout and there's enough space left for cable routing through the grommet holes, all in that all-black interior. Nice as well is the spacious PSU compartment for the power supply that you can hide, including its wires. 

The Verdict

The Riotoro Prism CR1280 Full Tower RGB tick most of the right boxes, but certainly isn't perfect. As stated I would have liked to see tempered glass and better fan RPM functionality. Also the motherboard tray gap for cooler access might be a bit on the narrow side, but that is small trivial stuff really. One could argue the looks, but taste and thus style is a difficult thing to rate.  Design wise I have very little to complain, the chassis is easy to use and fairly maintenance free. You have plenty of storage options alongside very good cable routing. Everything sits in the right place as well. The airflow is plenty enough for any decent build, the air intake at the bottom, front and top is extensive (the top covered by a dust filter with magnets). In the end, this chassis is nice, very nice even. However sits in a 139 USD/EUR price space and that is a tough segment to sit in. Whether or not the Riotoro Prism CR1280 Full Tower RGB is special enough for you compared to the competition, well only you can tell. As a chassis though we can recommend it as it does offer an nice combination of features, requirements and albeit arbitrary, nice looks. 

• Sign up to receive a notice when we publish a new article
• Or go back to Guru3D's front page