Anidees Ai8 Black Window Case Review

Our friends over at Anidess sent us their Ai8 Black Windowed case a few weeks back. This case comes packed with some goodies, one example is 3 bright light up LED fans in the front. I will get more into those in a few. The AI8BW case is an ATX case. It comes with four fans already installed with room for more fans or even liquid cooling.  First, before we get into all these goodies let me show you the packaging and your first glimpse of the case.

I know what you are thinking, and above is not the best picture of this case but I felt you needed to be teased a little. As you may know, this is an ATX tower so it is rather large but how large is it really? Well, let me show you it sitting next to an InWin 707 full tower case.

From the photos you can see it is not as long is the InWin 707 but the Anidees AI8BW is slightly taller. This also gives you your first look at the windowed side.

Watch My Full Unboxing the Anidees AI8BW!

From the above photo and video, you get a clearer picture of the window side and much more. The window is clear in color. Some cases on the market come with tinted windows . I like the clear windows more myself. In the video, you can also see that Anidees includes a bag of screws, standoffs, and some other pieces for putting your Anidees AI8BW build together.

Specifications From Anidees Site

AVAILABLE COLOR

Black

MATERIAL

Steel body / Plastic + Mesh bezel

DIMENSION (D / W /H )

440*230*530mm

WEIGHT

Net Weight: 8.5 kg / 18.7 lbs

MOTHERBOARD TYPE

M-ITX,M-ATX,ATX,E-ATX(12″x13″ EEB)

5.25” DRIVE BAY

2

3.5” HIDDEN

4

3.5” EXPOSED

1(converted from one 5.25’’Drive Bay)

2.5” DRIVE BAY

4(2 from 2.5”HDD Cage)

I/O PANEL

USB3.0 *2,USB2.0 *3 ,Fan Controller,Audio* 1,Mic *1

EXPANSION

8

FAN CONTROL

H Mode=12V, S mode=0V, L Mode=5V

COOLING SYSTEM

Front:120mm Blue Led fan * 3,1100RPM (Included), 2x140mm
Rear:140mm x 1 (included)
Top:140/120mm x 2 (optional)

POWER SUPPLY

Standard ATX PS2 / EPS (optional)

MAXIMUM COMPATIBILITY

Graphics Card Length: 355mm (Remove HDD Cage)

CPU Cooler Height: 175mm

Water Cooling : 120/140/240/280mm Rad with on the top (Optional)
240/280/360 mm Rad in the front (Optional)
120/140 mm Rad in the rear (Optional)

As you can clearly see it comes packed with the goodies that most builders want in their cases. Including many cooling options. Beside the (3) 120mm blue led fans in the front you can add two 120mm fans on top. Or you can even swap the 3 120mm fans  in the front and change them to two 140mm fans instead. If that doesn’t peak your interest you can swap them both out for some water cooling.  I went with regular fans and I added two more 120mm 1st player fans. Let me show you the front 2 blue led fans and the back case fan.

The front fans are very clear plastic that lights up bright. I will show you that part soon. The back fan is black and does not light up.

I would have loved to see them match all the fans colors and lighting but this does not hurt this case. Here are the front fans light up!

Now let me show you the video of the fan install.

Watch the install video of 120mm 1st player fans Here!

Installing the fans was not as easy as some cases but it can be done. You just need to follow the steps in the video and you will be fine. It would be the same steps with 140mm fans if you decide to go with those on top.  This case also comes with a fan controller pre-installed which can control 5 fans! This is run by Molex power.

Now everywhere you place a fan you have the option to add liquid cooling if you would prefer.

Speaking of cooling, this case can fit the Hyper Evo 212 CPU cooler. So don’t worry if you go that route they have you covered. That is what I used in the case I have though. I have reviewed other cases where the Hyper EVO 212 would not fit due to side door clearance.

Now, I bet you’re wondering how loud this case is with all these fans cranked up right?  To be honest it is not that loud considering how many fans I have installed. Let me post a video so you can see.

Watch the video of how loud the Anidees Case Really Is Here!

Like I said, either way, your fine. The case is rather quiet with all the fans I used. To keep the dust off your fans the Anidees Ai8 comes with dust covers. The front, top and back can all come off to be cleaned and this really helps reduce dust build up in the fans themselves.

Just a little air should keep these nice and clean for you.  This also gives you a look at the top of the case where all your ports are. Like the fan controller and USB ports. This also has the power button and headphone and microphone jacks. Let me post a close up of those ports for you.

The power and reset button are circled in green. I circled the headphone and microphone in blue. USB ports are circled in yellow. While I circled the fan controller in red. The fan controller gives you the option of high and low speed. In the picture it is switched to low speed. I do however leave it on high most of the time. You will notice the case gives you two USB 3.0 and three USB 2.0 on the case itself for easy access.

Now the Anidees AI8 case has the standoffs pre-installed. You may or may not need to move them depending on your motherboard. I used the ASUS P8z77 pro so I did not need to change them. Let me show the inside of the case and the standoff screws.

These standoffs should be checked to make sure they are tight. If some are loose then tighten them with the provided tool. Do not over tighten them too much as you may strip the hole. You can see the board installed in the next photo. I will also post a close-up photo of the screws installed and circled in yellow.

The top photo gives you your first look at the expansion slots for PCIE connections. You have 8 plus the on sideways one which could be used with placing your GPU sideways. Or that extra piece for your Sound Blaster ZXR if you have one which I did.

I kinda like that I can install it this way it gives me a look of the underside which you normally don’t see.

The one thing this case offers that others don’t is a place for two Power Supplies. Or just placing one in two different areas. You can either place one on the upper half of the case. Or on the bottom half in the normal area. I will post a picture of the top placement with the screw holes circled for you in yellow.

They have a plate in place on the case but you can remove it to add the PSU. I’m sure if you chose to use the top slot just move the plate to the bottom. The case comes with the bottom PSU slot open already.

Now I was able to fit a large PSU in this case. The PSU I installed was a Top Power PowerBird 1150watt.

From here you can see it fits and you still have some space between the PSU and the hard drive bays for the wires. Speaking of hard drive bays, these are plastic and come with quick install options for 3.5-inch hard drives. I installed an SSHD in mine. As you see in the next photo you can install two 3.5inch drives.

The next two photos will show you the slide out and the drive installed.

Now you could just install SSD’s in these slots. Or hide two large SSD’s in the back of the case out of sight.  That’s right they give you the option to place to SSD’s on the back side where you can hide your wires.

I would have gone with SSD’s but my wife’s build does not have any. In the above photo, you can see the head wires are nice and tight and ziptied up. This makes for a clean looking build. You can also see that the header wires are all black. Which helps with hiding them in the background.

The header has the HD audio plug, 3.0 USB header, and your standard  motherboard header wires. Like USB 2.0 HD LED reset and power.

I guess you want to see the wire’s installed in the case? Well, let me show you that now.

If you notice the blue SATA cord hanging that is going to the DVD burner. Yes, that correct this case can house two 5.25 DVD drives or one bay can house 3.5 inch hard drive if you prefer.

The one issue I ran into with these DVD  bays is if you want to run the top fans you can not fit the DVD drive on top. it doesn’t leave enough room for the wires on the DVD drive. Now you could run the hard drive up top with no issue since it is smaller however.

Well, let looks at what she looks like with the side panel on and everything installed.

The Anidees AI8 case looks great. Now my wiring could use some cleaning up. Or a sleeved cable set to match the colors. The case looks even better when the lights are off.

Let me show you the case sitting  next to the desk.

As you can see the LED fans are rather bright and make this case stand out.

 

Final Thoughts!

The Anidees AI8 case comes packed with a bunch of options that most PC builders want.  The color is great and can fit most applications. If your not a fan of red you can always swap those fans out for another colored style. This case was very sturdy and had no flaws when unpacked. The standoffs were tight and in the right place. The fan controller works great and gives you options to add many more fans for Liquid cooling.  With the windowed side, you can see your masterpiece and stare at it all day. Coming in at around $110 it a great option to start your first build in. I would love to see them add a PSU cover on the bottom half to help cover the wire but you could always make that out of Plexi.

When all said and done I love the case and my wife loves it more.

 

Disclaimer: Anidees sent me their AI8 ATX Computer Case so I could do a showcase and share thoughts on the product. All opinions are 100% mine and mine alone. For more information visit http://bit.ly/dbdisclose