XPG Starker Air BTF Chassis Review

Introduction, Specifications, and Pricing

Today, we have the Starker Air BTF mid-tower case sent from XPG. The original Starker had an MSRP of $90, and now XPG has the BTF version, which has increased the MSRP to $109.99, which is not bad in today's economy.

In terms of performance, XPG has opted to, like many of their other chassis, include four 120mm ARGB case fans alongside a fairly open mesh front panel, so hopefully, cooling performance is good. Now, moving away from pricing, let us focus on building inside the Starker Air BTF with a BTF motherboard and seeing what the ins and outs are. So let's go.

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	$127.99 USD	$127.99 USD	-	Buy
	$127.99 USD	$127.99 USD	-	Buy
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Packaging

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Now, look at the exterior packaging, which is pretty standard: a brown cardboard box with black lettering and the image of the Starker Air BTF.

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Going around the backside of the packaging, we now see a blown-out image of the Starker Air BTF and an itemized feature list of what it consists of; again, four included 120mm ARGB fans are illustrated.

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Now we move to one of the packaging sides, where XPG always displays the specifications in full view.

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XPG has opted to use open-cell foam for the top and bottom to help protect against damage while in transit. Two shipping air pads were also placed on the front and rear panels, and a plastic bag was placed around the Starker Air BTF to add protection against debris.

Further Mid-Tower Cases Reading – Our Latest Reviews

• Montech King 45 Pro Mid-Tower Chassis Review
• Cooler Master MasterFrame 500 Mesh Mid-Tower Chassis Review
• HYTE X50 Mid-Tower Chassis Review

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Outside the XPG Starker Air BTF ATX Case

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Once we remove all the packing materials from the Starker Air BTF, we can see that XPG has changed the overall design compared to the OG Starker Air. The front air intake is open enough to allow airflow, but it is still somewhat restricted compared to a full mesh.

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The side tempered glass panel does not span the full length of the case but stops at the PSU shroud. I don't mind this; I never need to stare at my PSU.

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The back side panel shows a triangular ventilation pattern, allowing for side air intake. This panel has an easily removable magnetic dust filter.

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The rear of the Starker Air BTF shows a typical 7-slot ATX design with a removable PSU bracket. The 7-slot PCIe bracket can rotate 90 degrees just by removing two thumbscrews. On the left-hand side, we spy three spots to manage your exterior cables, which is certainly nice to see.

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Moving to the top of the Starker Air BTF, we can see a full-length magnetic dust filter. According to the specifications, it can accept up to a 360mm AIO/radiator; however, it might be a tight fit.

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The front I/O, which is located at the top right corner, has a triangular power button, a small circular reset button, another circular LED control button, a combo 3.5mm headphone/mic jack, two USB 3.2 Type-A ports, and a USB 3.2 Type-C port.

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The bottom of the Starker Air BTF again has a full-length magnetic dust filter, just like the top, and four feet with rubber dampeners.

Inside the XPG Starker Air BTF ATX Case

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Peering inside the Starker Air BTF, we can see three of the pre-installed 120mm ARGB fans in the front.

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Now that we have a better view of the internals of the Starker Air BTF, we can see a lot of the tooling around the motherboard tray to accept BTF motherboards. The last of the four 120mm ARGB fans are located in the rear fan location, which can also accept a 140mm fan.

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Removing the rear side panel shows off more of the BTF-style motherboard tray and additional fan mounting for three 120mm fans on the right side, provided you remove the E-ATX cover on the other side.

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Lastly, XPG has included with the Starker Air BTF a bag of screws, standoffs, and a standoff installation bit. A few zip ties and the user manual are also included. Now, let's get on to the build.

Test System, Installation, and Finished Product

Case Test System Reverse Motherboard

Final Thoughts

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Building in the Starker Air BTF was about an average experience, mainly due to the lack of cable management needed to make a more presentable appearance. However, I still managed to pull off a decent approach. Now, using a BTF motherboard such as MSI's Z790 Project Zero certainly does make installing all the components that much easier, not to mention all the cabling that goes along with those components. I would like to see a fan/ARGB controller of some sort to allow for better fan control, ARGB lighting control, and better cable runs from fans.

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For testing, I used Intel's Core i5 12600K CPU on a Z790 Project Zero motherboard from MSI to test XPG's Starker Air BTF ATX mid-tower case. Two sticks of Corsair's Dominator Platinum DDR5-7200 RAM were run at DDR5-4800 M/T for memory stability. Zotac's NVIDIA RTX 3090 Trinity GPU was run at its stock power limits and clocks via MSI's Afterburner GPU Overclocking and Monitoring utility for the test GPU. The Intel Core i5 12600K CPU is being cooled by the Pure Rock Pro 3 heatsink from be quiet!, which has two 120mm fans in a dual tower configuration for optimal cooling performance.

For the fan configuration, XPG has configured the Starker Air BTF with 3 120mm ARGB fans mounted as the front air intake and another 120mm ARGB fan at the rear fan location. This kind of fan configuration creates a positive case pressure scenario, although the front is somewhat restrictive.

The Intel Core i5 12600K reached a maximum temperature of 80C but averaged 71C while maintaining a boost clock of around 4.5GHz. Zotac's NVIDIA RTX 3090 Trinity reached a maximum temperature of 82.9C but only lowered the average temperature to 82.4C. Overall, the temperatures were suitable for the CPU and GPU due to the sufficient cool air from the three 120mm front intake fans.

All testing was completed using Aida64 Engineer's System Stability Test version v7.60.7300 for over three hours at an ambient temperature of 19C. Other monitoring software used was HWiNFO64 v8.07-5515, TechPowerUp GPU-Z v2.66, and CPU-Z 2.15.0.x64.

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With that, the build and testing is complete. Overall, the XPG Starker Air BTF is a decent case offering BTF motherboard support and 4 120mm ARGB pre-installed fans. Being priced at $120 makes it a compelling option for builders on a budget who still want a slightly premium chassis. However, looking at its competition, the Phanteks XT Pro Ultra has a full mesh front panel along with 4 included 120mm ARGB fans while being around $20 cheaper; another contender is the Cooler Master MasterBox 600, which has three 140mm ARGB front-mounted fans and a single 120mm ARGB rear-mounted fan along with a mesh front panel for $10 less than the Starker Air BTF.

So, what does all of this mean? XPG must reduce the price of Starker Air BTF to stay competitive.