APNX Creator C1 ChromaFlair Mid-Tower Case Review

TweakTown's Rating: 90%

The Bottom Line

APNX, a new brand from AeroCool, enters the market with the C1, which delivers on both cooling and performance at a competitive price point.

Pros

• + Four aRGB fans (three 140mm and one 120mm)
• + Fan/aRGB controller
• + Good build quality
• + Supports two 360mm radiators
• + Removable PSU bracket and supports BTF motherboards

Cons

• - The front fan mount does not officially support a front-mounted 420mm radiator
• - The rear fan mount only supports 120mm fans

Should you buy it?

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Introduction, Specifications, and Pricing

APNX, a new sub-brand of Aerocool, which stands for Advanced Performance Nexus, has sent over a new case, the C1. A Mid-tower case that is visually stunning. Available in white, black, and ChromaFlair colors. Also included are three 140mm aRGB fans in the front and a single 120mm aRGB fan for the rear exhaust. Priced at a staggering $139.99 for the black model and white for $149.99, while the ChromaFlair is the most expensive at $159.99. APNX wanted to make a splash in the PC case market.

So, let's see what the APNX C1 is all about and what everyone is raving about.

APNX AP1-V White Tower ARGB CPU Air Cooler

	Today	Yesterday	7 days ago	30 days ago
	$49.90	$49.90	$49.90	$49.90	Buy
* Prices last scanned on 4/26/2024 at 9:36 pm CDT - prices may not be accurate, click links above for the latest price. We may earn an affiliate commission.

Packaging

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The packaging on the APNX C1 is fairly standard: brown cardboard with a colored product case sticker on the side.

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The backside of the packaging shows all the specifications of the APNX C1. Dimensions are 230mm wide, 502mm tall, 464mm deep, and around 21.82 lbs or 9.9 kg.

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Removing the APNX C1 from the cardboard packaging shows good attention to detail regarding shipping materials, with soft, dense foam on both ends and a clear plastic bag to ensure ample protection while in shipment.

Outside the APNX C1

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Here is the new APNX C1 without all the packaging. Mesh is certainly the idea with the design of the C1.

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Behind the front mesh are three 140mm APNX PF1 fans, which are 30mm thick fans. APNX says performance has increased around 30% to 50% due to the increased thickness than the 25mm counterparts. The front intake has a fine mesh clip-in dust filter. The front panel wraps around to the rear.

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The rear side panel shows a wrap-around panel from the front of the C1 and another panel spanning a little more than half the back with a small square ventilation pattern.

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The rear of the APNX C1 shows a clear design pattern, with circular mesh throughout the design. They start with the top fan exhaust, which supports a 120mm fan. Seven PCIe slots, along with more circular mesh to the right. Three cable tie-down points on the left-hand side allow for tidy cables. Lastly, a removable PSU bracket helps ensure an easy installation.

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The top of the APNX C1 shows a fine square ventilation pattern, along with the front I/O consisting of an RGB button or can be rewired to a reset button, combo 3.5mm microphone/headset jack, USB Type-C port, square power button, and lastly two USB 3.0 Type-A ports.

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The bottom of the APNX C1 has a full-length dust filter, which is black, which could have been white, and slides out the front of the rear between four feet with small rubber dampeners.

Inside the APNX C1

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With the front wrap-around panel removed, it shows the three included FP1 140mm, 30mm thick, aRGB fans. These hydraulic bearing fans are rated for 86.9 CFM, which are PWM controlled from 500 to 1300 RPM plus or minus 10%. The noise dBA rating is 15.9 dBA at low RPM; when the fan RPM is at full throttle, the dBA rises to 32.9 dBA.The removed side tempered glass panel is held into place with two POGO-style push pins, making for a toolless removal.

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Moving to the internals of the APNX C1 shows a traditional motherboard configuration with a bit of a twist, support for BTF motherboards like ASUS's BTF series and MSI's Project Zero. These cutouts pass the cables from the main components to the rear of the case, reducing the cable clutter mess in the main chamber.

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APNX has also included a GPU support bracket that is adjustable from the rear via two thumbscrews and can relocated forward to support shorter GPUs. Removing this section to the right of the motherboard allows for three additional 120mm fans or supports an additional 360mm radiator.

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The top removable panel, via six screws, can mount up to a 360/280mm radiator or up to three 120 or two 140mm fans. The offset of this tray is close when installing a 360mm radiator to the top of the motherboard; even rotating this tray does not help either. The top panel has six POGO-style pin pins, which require little force to remove and install.

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The backside of the APNX C1 shows quite a bit of cabling, including a SATA-powered five-fan/aRGB controller and four slots occupied by the four included fans. The three front-mounted 140mm aRGB FP1 fans have their cable routing between the supports, making things tidier. Not pictured here is an SSD or HDD mount located on the right-hand side, held in with four screws, and can accommodate up to three 2.5" or 3.5" drives. The front I/O cables, visible here, include a USB 3.0 header, USB Type-C connector, HD Audio, and the motherboard power/LED pins.

Test System, Installation, and Finished Product

• Motherboard: B650 AORUS Elite AX (AMD B650) - Buy from Amazon
• CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7700X - Buy from Amazon
• Cooler: ARCTIC Liquid Freezer II 360 - Buy from Amazon
• Memory: Patriot Viper Venom 32GB DDR5 5600 RGB - Buy from Amazon
• Graphics Card: NVIDIA RTX 3090 Founders Edition - Buy from Amazon
• Storage: Corsair MP600 PRO XT Gen4 PCIe x4 NVMe M.2 SSD - Buy from Amazon
• Case: APNX C1 - Buy from Amazon
• Power Supply: be quiet! Straight Power 12 1000w PCIE 5 & ATX 3.0 Gaming Power Supply - Buy from Amazon
• OS: Microsoft Windows 11 Pro 64-bit Build 22621 - Buy from Amazon
• Software: AIDA64 Engineer 7.00.6700, CPU-z 2.08.0 x64. GPU-Z 2.56.0, and HWiNFO64 v7.66-5271

Final Thoughts

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The result is a clean system with a vertically mounted NVIDIA RTX 3090 GPU, thanks to the vertical GPU bracket that APNX also sent.

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Testing the APNX C1 is the same suite of the latest testing hardware. An AMD Ryzen 7 7700X with vcore limited to 1.1v running at the standard frequency of 4.5GHz on a B650 AORUS Elite AX motherboard. For memory, Patriot Viper at DDR5-5600M/T sticks work nicely. The GPU is the NVIDIA RTX 3090 FE, running at stock clocks and power limits. The APNX C1 did pretty well regarding total system cooling, mostly due to the large 140mm FP1 fand that drew in a ton of fresh cool air. The AMD Ryzen 7700X only raised to an average temperature of 63.1C, while the GPU, the NVIDIA RTX 3090 FE, averaged only 65.9C.

All testing was completed using Aida64 Engineer's System Stability Test version v7.00.6700 for over 2 hours; the ambient temperature was 19C. Other monitoring software used was HWiNFO64 v7.66-5271, TechPowerUp GPU-Z v2.57.0, and CPU-Z 2.0.0.x64.

So, the APNX C1 was a pleasure to build a system in. While there were a few issues, for example, the front intake was gimped in terms of its fan and radiator mounting flexibility. The APNX C1 also could have supported 140mm fans all around instead of having only 120mm fan support on the motherboard wall and the rear exhaust. Those issues aside, the APNX C1 is a fantastic chassis for its aims.

The current price point of the white ANPX C1 is $149.99, the ChromaFlair model is an additional $10 more, and the black model price is $139.99. Some have said the pricing is too expensive, while others say it's appropriate for the market. In 2024, PC cases with tempered glass side panels, four included aRGB fans with a fan/aRGB controller, all while having a unique design. The APNX C1 is well in check. If you are looking for something different and are tired of the same brands, the APNX C1 can house your hardware and add a bit of flair.