Corsair 680X RGB – A Closer Look
The chassis is constructed of sturdy steel, plastic, and tempered glass. I really like the weight to size ratio of the Crystal 680X RGB, since it is pretty large. The almost cube shape is reminiscent of the Carbide Series from Corsair, similar to the Air 540, which I owned and really liked! The matte black finish is superb and actually somewhat fingerprint resistant, or easier to clean and maintain at least.
The main side panel is tempered glass which is all but the standard these days. The glass used in these panels seems to be thicker than panels I have seen in other chassis. The front of the 680X also houses a tempered glass panel which shows off the RGB fans and lighting when powered on. What is so great about tempered glass you say? Firstly, it is much easier to keep clean than plastic. Secondly, tempered glass is less likely to scratch. Those are great enough reasons for me to like tempered glass for sure! The back side panel is vented for power supply as you will soon see in the installation portion of this review. The back side panel is secured with thumbscrews, of course. Contrastly, the tempered glass side panel is hinged on the backside of the chassis, which is secured with a magnet system up front.
Also worth to mention are the dust filters that are installed in each and every intake of the chassis. The front panel I/O consists of a single USB 3.1 Type-C port, two USB 3.1 Type-A ports, a combination 3.5mm headphone/microphone HD audio jack, a power button, as well as a reset button. At the rear of the chassis, we find a standard layout with plenty of expansion ports, ten in total to be exact. The main tempered glass side panel opens like a door with a nice hinge system. The door closes and secures with a magnet setup. The magnet is surprisingly strong, so one does not have to worry about it opening unintended. Around the back side of the chassis, we find a typical layout supportive of the ATX form factor. In addition, there are two vertical expansion slots at the rear of the chassis. This feature allows for the showcasing of your fancy RGB PCIe hardware such as graphics cards, sound cards and more. An optional extension cable is available from Corsair as well.
The interior of the Crystal 680X RGB is very spacious. Supporting up to an ATX form-factor motherboard and 330mm graphics adapter, there will still be ample room for various system configurations. The Crystal 680X RGB is also wide enough so that most CPU coolers (under 180mm) will sit comfortably inside without clearance issues. It is a welcome feature that all of the cable management holes to supply cabling to your motherboard have rubber grommets. The Crystal 680X RGB comes with four fans preinstalled, three of which are the RGB flavored LL120 model. The lone SP120 is installed in the rear of the chassis.
The amount of available space should not be understated. Many, even extreme liquid cooling, configurations can be supported with room left over!
The wonderful thing about this cube style chassis is that your storage drives, power supply, and cabling will be in the secondary chamber of the dual chamber design and can remain hidden so that only your sweetest looking components are visible!
Now let us move on to the Installation portion of this review!
