APNX V1-W Dual Chamber Mid-Tower Case Review

TweakTown's Rating: 90%

The Bottom Line

APNX has released its second mid-tower ATX case, and boy, is it a visual pleaser. Offering support for dual 360mm radiators, the V1 might be the perfect compromise for system builders and water coolers alike.

Pros

• Wood accents on the side intake
• Supports up to ten 120mm fans or six 140mm fans
• Very well built
• Great cooling potential

Cons

• No included fans
• BTF/reverse motherboard support is absent
• Must remove the PSU to change the CPU cooler
• $120-150 depending on color and front panel

Should you buy it?

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Introduction, Specifications, and Pricing

The last time we looked at an APNX chassis, the C1 made quite the impression for APNX's entry into the case market. Now, with its second case to the market, the V1, APNX has sent over the white model for us to look at. Priced from $120 to $150, our model comes in at $140 with no included fans. Can the V1 can live up to the C1's value and reputation? We'll find out.

A quick look at our build in the APNX V1-W

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Packaging

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Here we are with the external box of the APNX V1-W. It is made of brown cardboard and has a V1-W sticker on the side. The specifications on either side in various languages are not pictured.

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When the V1 is removed from its packaging, we are greeted with top and bottom open-cell foam pieces. One clever thing was that the APNX had packaged the V1 upside down, which meant that when I opened the box, I had to flip it over, and it was already in the correct orientation.

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When I opened the external box, the accessories and the user's manual were on the bottom or the top.

Outside the APNX V1-W Mid-Tower Case

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Now we have the V1 with all its shipping materials removed. Although it looks like a traditional mid-tower ATX case, the V1 differs.

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Ahh, there is an angled side panel with actual wood slats.

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APNX also sent an additional black front panel just in case I didn't like the wood.

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The black front panel was installed; it looks quite sleek.

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The top half of the rear side panel has mesh venting, which helps the PSU take in cool outside air.

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Moving to the rear of the V1, we see a more conventional dual chamber design with the PSU mounted behind the motherboard tray. All the ventilation is cohesive; even the PCIe slot covers match. APNX also considered external cable management with an adjustable clip between two locations.

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The top panel has an angular design, which reminds me of other dual-chamber fishbowl-style ATX cases, like the Hyte Y60.

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The bottom of the V1 has six decently sized rubber feet to keep the V1 from slipping around.

Inside the APNX V1-W Mid-Tower Case

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Now, the tempered glass side panel has been removed, revealing the spacious interior of the V1. There is lots of room for activities; however, there is no support for BTF/reverse motherboards. Depending on the motherboard position in the roof, side, and bottom fan locations, up to a 360/280 mm radiator can be installed. The motherboard position can be shifted either towards the ceiling or further down to accommodate larger AIOs or liquid cooling radiators.

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Pre-installed is a GPU support bracket, which is a nice touch.

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The bottom of the V1 has a slide-out dust filter that slides out on the tempered glass side, making it highly accessible.

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The top of the V1 supports up to a 360/280mm radiator and or corresponding fans. This mount is also removable by unscrewing three screws along the mount itself.

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Now, moving to the back, remove the steel mesh side panel, which shows the second chamber in the V1. The PSU is mounted directly behind the motherboard cutout, so keep that in mind when changing CPU coolers. A swing-out SSD/HDD bracket is held in place with two screws but is not needed due to the two powerful magnets keeping the bracket in place. This SSD/HDD bracket supports up to two 3.5" HDDs or up to six 2.5" SSD/HDDs.

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Swinging the SSD/HDD bracket out of the way shows more cable management of the V1, complete with several Velcro ties throughout. Blacked-out front I/O cables are also nice to see. Finally, there is no more ketchup and mustard. Yay!

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We find some 2.5" and 3.5" HDD installation hardware inside the accessory box and a baggie of PSU installation hardware. APNX has also included two additional POGO pin brackets, a standoff installation adapter, and two silver thumbscrews.

Test System, Installation, and Finished Product

Final Thoughts

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The final build is now complete. The rear has good cable management, and the storage bracket now covers any mess in the bottom.

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APNX also sent along their vertical GPU bracket, including a PCIe 5.0 riser ribbon cable.

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With the build complete, here is a final view. APNX does a great job visually and, for the most part, in performance.

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The APNX V1's most notable feature is the 45-degree side intake, but it really comes alive when some ARGB fans are lit up behind it.

Testing APNX's V1 ATX case, I used the Intel Core i5 12600K on a Z690 AORUS Pro motherboard. For the memory, two DDR5 sticks of Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB ran at DDR5-7200M/T. The test GPU was the Zotac NVIDIA RTX 3090 Trinity, which was run at stock power limits and clocks via MSI's Afterburner GPU Overclocking and Monitoring utility. In stock configuration, the V1 does not include any fans. However, APNX did send some 120mm F1 fans over for the build; with that said, I will be doing two thermal tests, one with the fans off to simulate a stock configuration and the second with the fans enabled. For exhaust, triple 120mm Mobius fans mounted on the Cooler Master PL360 Flux, mounted to the roof, along with an additional APNX F1 fan mounted in the rear, provide exhaust.

All testing was completed using Aida64 Engineer's System Stability Test version v7.35.7000 for over 3 hours; the ambient temperature was 24.6C. Other monitoring software used was HWiNFO64 v8.07-5515, TechPowerUp GPU-Z v2.60.0, and CPU-Z 2.10.0.x64.

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In the stock configuration (no included fans), the test CPU, intel Core i5 12600K, which has 10 cores with 16 threads, had temps only rise to an average temperature of 63C while maintaining average boost clocks of 4.5GHz with 1.2v for vcore. In contrast, the Zotac NVIDIA RTX 3090 Trinity's GPU core only averaged 80.5C while keeping an average frequency of just about 1.8 GHz for its boost clocks.

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With the seven 120mm F1 fans that APNX also sent along, having three 120mm fans on the side intake, three more 120mm in the bottom as intake, a single 120mm on the rear for exhaust, and the three 120mm Cooler Master Mobius fans on the AIO make for a total count of 10 120mm fans. The test CPU, the Intel Core i5 12600K, which has 10 cores with 16 threads, had temps only rise to an average temperature of 54C while maintaining average boost clocks of 4.5GHz with 1.2v for vcore. In contrast, the Zotac NVIDIA RTX 3090 Trinity's GPU core averaged 78.3C while keeping an average frequency of over 1.8 GHz for its boost clocks, which seems like one additional notch on NVIDIA's boost table due to the extra cooling.

Wrapping things up, I found the APNX V1 a pleasing case to work in. The cable management was pretty good, with careful thought about where cables would be run from. Aesthetic-wise, the V1 is almost a cross between a Fractal Design North and the HYTE Y6. The V1 differs from those two cases in functionality. Neither case supports dual 360mm radiators, but the V1 does. Now, the other two include two 140mm or three 120mm fans for around the same price as the V1, so that is something to consider when comparing. In the end, if a different case is what you are after, the V1 will not disappoint but will still deliver the traditional features of a typical Mid-Tower ATX case.