Raijintek Paean Open-Air Mid-Tower ATX Case Review
Contents
Which case feature best defines quality? While the typical user might be looking for something they can set up and run for years, there are always those who constantly tinker. Things that mean a great deal to the former, such as easy-access dust filters, are meaningless to those who would be appalled by a spec of dust on such filters. Open-Air cases are designed for show!
As a mid-tower, the Raijintek Paean is obviously going to be much larger than the shipping box might imply. That’s because it’s made of flat sheets and can thus be broken down and flat packed. Opening the box reveals two glass and one aluminum panel, along with eight round spacers, a power supply mounting plate and strap, an expansion card support plate with eight slots, a front-panel port module, a six-drive hard drive mount, and a rather large box of screws.
The “chassis” is nothing more than a 4mm-thick, black anodized, brushed aluminum plate. Side panels are 5mm-thick tempered glass.
Front-panel ports include a USB3 Type-C with an internal Gen2 connector, two USB3 Type A with an internal Gen1 connector, and separate headphone and microphone jacks. The power button is LED backlit, and the front-panel cable for that includes only power button and power LED leads.
The Raijintek Paean’s installation kit includes five self-adhesive cable ties and an enormous bag of small hardware. Inside the bag are four rubber bumpers, eight large side panel screws, an Allen wrench for the side panel screws, nine brass standoffs, enough thumb screws to attach all the brackets, the power supply and all expansion cards, and exactly enough screws to attach the power supply and six hard drives.
Rubber-covered aluminum posts space the side glass from the mounting plate, threading together through holes in the mounting plate’s corners. A large hole is seen behind the CPU socket area to ease cooler installation, three more holes are located beneath it for running the front-panel audio cable to ATX, Micro ATX, and Mini ITX motherboards, and two large holes in the middle are grommeted to hide most of the length of larger cables. All the holes at the front edge are designed to hold radiators at 140mm-patterns (up to dual-fan) and 120mm patterns (up to triple-fan).
The main plate includes mounting points on both the top and front edges for the front-panel module, and we started by placing it facing upward to leave plenty of room for our liquid cooling system. The card bracket, power supply bracket, power supply strap, and hard drive bracket all attach using thumb screws, and Raijintek even includes four self-adhesive rubber bumpers to keep the power supply from wiggling around.
Here’s how the assembled Paean looks empty, with the front-panel module facing the top edge and the darker side panel on the “back”.
| Raijintek Paean | |||
| Type | Mid-Tower (Open Air) | Included Fans | X |
| Motherboard Support | EATX, XL-ATX, ATX, Micro ATX, Mini ITX | Front Fan Mounts | X |
| Max Motherboard Depth | ~16″ (406mm) with radiator installed | Rear Fan Mounts | X |
| Dimensions (HxWxD) | 417x345x587mm | Top Fan Mounts | X |
| Air Cooler Clearance | 188mm | Bottom Fan Mounts | X |
| Card Length | ~16″ (406mm) with radiator installed | Side Fan Mounts | X |
| Power Supply Format | PS/2 (Full ATX) up to 16″ (406mm) with radiator | Top Rad. Clearance | X |
| Weight | 21.2 lbs (9.6kg) | Front Rad. Clearance | X |
| External Bays | X | Front Filter | None |
| Internal Bays | (3) 3.5″, (3) 2.5″ | Top Filter | None< |
| Card Slots | 8 | Bottom Filter | None |
| Ports/Jacks | (1) USB3 Type-C, (2) USB3 Type A, Headphone/Mic | Damping | None |
| Other | 2x140mm / 3x 120mm Internal Radiator Mount | Price | $180 |
