Is imitation the sincerest form of flattery? If so, the V1 ($139.99 MSRP) from newcomer Advanced Performance Nexus (APNX) delivers it from the heart. The first PC case we’ve tested from the company brings together some of our favorite functional and aesthetic features from other makers. We’re mostly okay with that, because APNX spreads out the “borrowing” from a lot of sources. Take, for example, the dual-chamber design that places its power supply bay behind the motherboard; the design has certainly brought plenty of fame to early adopter Lian Li, even if that prominent brand wasn’t the first to do it. The same goes for the slanted side-facing radiator mount: NZXT was among the first to angle it for improved airflow. The big feature we can pin down as the true hallmark of another brand, though—the V1’s wood-slat accents—is an option that users can save $20 by not getting. Our take on the V1? It’s a clever hodgepodge of some of the best trendy bits in recent cases, but accessorizing it to the full puts the price into premium-case territory. It’s a good case, but if you like the wood specifically, stick with one of the Fractal Design North cases linked above.
Design: An Aesthetic Smorgasbord
As hinted above, the V1’s optional wooden slats are the most recognizably copied feature, but this $139.99 case is also available without those wood pieces for $20 less. (APNX even sent along a basic-black plastic grille for us to try in place of the wood.) We tested the black version of the case; APNX also offers a white model (V1-W, with matching, optional lighter wood accents) for $10 more. Other vaguely familiar features like the vent patterns for the top and right side panels, the use of dual chambers to reduce overall height while maintaining radiator space, and the semi-wraparound glass all hint at other brands’ inspiration less directly.
Located at the front of the top panel are a headset (headphone/microphone combo) jack, two USB 3.x Type-A ports, a USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 Type-C port, and two unlabeled buttons. Leading to the power pins of a 9-pin front-panel combo connector, the larger button is made of translucent white plastic and has a black sticker covering its central power-on indicator LED. Meanwhile, the smaller button follows the same cable bundle to a separate two-pin receiver that’s labeled for use with a lighting controller.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
A dust filter that covers the entire bottom-panel intake slides out from the side of the V1 for easy access.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
The dual-chamber design is more apparent from the back, where we see seven slot covers on the motherboard side and a power supply bay on the opposite side. A 120mm fan mount sits to the side of the motherboard I/O, its screw holes slotted to allow vertical adjustment of fan placement.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
The V1’s rear panel has what APNX calls an “Adjustable Motherboard Position Mechanism.” It’s a little band of metal above the power supply and motherboard I/O panel holes that covers the gap in the I/O cutout that the motherboard would leave if it were to be moved upward. An alternate set of motherboard-standoff holes makes up the remainder of this unusual feature.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
With the side panels off, we can see the extra holes that are about 20mm higher than those used by the factory-mounted standoffs. That the motherboard tray ends 9.75 inches forward of the I/O panel explains why APNX made no mention of motherboards larger than the 9.6-inch ATX spec, but the cable-passage panel that angles away from it extends more than 80mm to the angled front radiator mount. Some careful measurements showed us just enough space to mount a 10.7-inch board behind a 70mm-thick radiator. (Those needing more room for cables could use a thinner radiator; just shop carefully.) Oh, and there’s also enough room on the outward side of the angled front mount to add a 30mm-thick set of fans, so there’s no need to deduct fan thickness from that radiator space.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
Then again, since the front-mounted radiator space overlaps with the front corner of the top and bottom radiator mounts, some math may be required if you intend to install more than one. For example, since we found 431mm of space between the top- and bottom-panel mounts, mounting a 28mm-thick 360mm radiator to the top panel would leave just 403mm to mount a second one to the front/side mount. And that radiator had better be 28mm thick or less if you want it to clear the top radiator’s fans.
Also notice the adjustable graphics-card support, which sits in the inner corner between the front and bottom fan mounts. It uses dual screws that correspond to a height-adjustment slot, while its single screw allows builders to lock the distance and angle at which it protrudes. That’s pretty flexible.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
Let’s circle back to the adjustable-motherboard feature. This is what the so-called “Mechanism” (cover) we showed a few photos ago looks like from the inside. As mentioned, a second set of standoff holes allows builders to move the motherboard up (20mm closer to the V1’s top, to be precise), and moving the Mechanism to its corresponding position at the opposite end of the I/O cover will fill the opposite gap. Now, if you’re wondering what becomes of the motherboard’s top PCIe slot, well, most motherboards don’t have a card slot in the top position. Those that have a needed PCIe slot there don’t qualify for the “adjustment.” In fact, you can see something that looks a bit like a slot cover occupying the portion of the space adjacent to the “Mechanism’s” alternative position. That’s a no-fly zone for slots.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
Behind the motherboard tray is a power supply bay that measures 258mm to the nearest obstruction, though APNX says the maximum power supply depth is only 220mm. Beneath it is a hinged tray that holds four tiny 2.5-inch drive cages.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
The drive tray lifts off its two hinge pins easily. Note: The big round holes in the tray are for sticking a screwdriver through, while the smaller ones are for the threaded portion of the screw to go through. The basics are that a single 3.5-inch or 2.5-inch drive can be attached across the lids of two adjacent drive cages. But because filling a cage with a drive blocks access to the lid’s screw holes, any lid-mounted drives should be installed first.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
All the removable panels on the case have dust filters over their vents…
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
The top panel’s filter is captured between screwed-together sheets and, thus, trickier to clean, but if you’re using the case top as an exhaust zone, you probably won’t be cleaning this filter often. The front panel’s dust filter is magnetically attached to its underside for easy removal and cleaning, and the vent on the upper-right-side panel is covered in a flexible-framed dust filter that must be bowed to remove.
Building With the APNX V1
The APNX V1 includes a bundle of zip ties, two chrome knurled screws with Phillips-head grooves on the top, a Phillips-to-hex standoff adapter socket, two replacement plastic catches for panel snaps, a bag of #6-32 low-profile panhead screws for the motherboard and 3.5-inch drives, a bag of M3 flange-head screws for 2.5-inch drives, and five hex/Phillips combo head screws for attaching a power supply.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
Note that the “LED SW” header is used to turn the top panel’s smaller button into an ARGB controller’s mode selector. It’s part of the same cable bundle as the F_PANEL connector, as you can see. That makes sense because they originate in the same place, but it also makes sense because that button would have traditionally been a reset button, and the reset pins are part of the Intel-standard 9-pin combo header APNX uses here. Other case-header cables include HD Audio for the headset jack, USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 (Type-E) for the panel’s Type-C port, and 19-pin for its USB 3.x Type-A ports.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
Inside the actual header connector, those little plastic fingers hold cable ends in place, so the first thing I did for this build was to remove them from the LED SW connector and slide them into the Reset pin positions of the F_PANEL combo header. (But that was my own bit of build flair.)
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
Even with our 240mm cooler mounted to its lid, the V1 has excess space surrounding every one of our full ATX build’s components.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
Closing up the build makes its emptiness much less noticeable.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
Testing the APNX V1
The full-size components of our current case-testing configuration create consistent amounts of heat and noise for us to measure in our performance evaluation. Here’s a recap of the parts we use for ATX builds.
APNX must have felt a little naked going into a competition that included cases that were already equipped with fans, so it sent along a set of its FP1-R (reversed) and FP1-120 PWM ARGB fans. The reversed fans have the frames on the intake side so that they’ll be hidden beneath the lighted blades when used on the bottom panel as intakes. (On ordinary fans, the frames are on the exhaust side.) Both versions take advantage of a 30mm thickness to improve airflow compared with standard 25.4mm fans, but we only found the standard (non-reversed) version for sale at our usual stores.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
APNX also sent its $80 vertical card adapter and riser cable, which should allow nearly any case that has a bridgeless slot panel (i.e., no bars between the slot covers) to host a PCIe x16 graphics card in this alternative orientation. The adapter is designed to hold cards with coolers up to three slots thick, and we were keen to see how its two-slot-wide port hole would affect our card’s tested temperatures.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
The fully accessorized build looks a little less empty versus the baseline configuration. Assuming that the reversed fans will be available for the same $6 price as the standard flow fans (hardly a safe assumption), we’re looking at $116 in upgrades. If we include the $20 that the wooden grille accents had already added to the base model, builders with this fully kitted-out configuration will be paying more for the added parts than for the base case itself.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
Despite lacking any pre-installed fans, the as-delivered APNX V1 still reached a fourth-place tie in CPU temperature among our competitive set below due to its fairly good passive airflow. Adding six fans pushed it to first place, but that’s more of a theoretical proposal since we didn’t test every case in such a maximally accessorized configuration.
The measured noise levels are interesting, with the APNX V1 taking second place to the warm-running Cougar FV270 from the left side. (It’s more of a middling result from the right.) Filling the V1 with fans brings us our highest noise reading because…well, more fans make more noise, all else being equal. (Let’s not overthink this.)
Verdict: Inspiration From All Over
How to assess the V1’s performance considering all the optional accessories? The quick summary is that users are welcome to fill their cases with as many fans as they’d like within the chassis’ limits, adjusting their ventilation needs in accordance with their noise-control desires. The APNX V1 supports one or two more fans than the average case, and it even has room for a pair of 360mm-format radiators. So, the thermals and noise control are a sliding scale here that is up to you to arbitrate.
Regarding the wooden accents, though, who among us hasn’t at some point spent $20 on aesthetics? The APNX V1 we evaluated is also available without those, and the removal of that feature makes the cheaper version look like a more reasonable value but a much plainer case. Deciding whether or not you like the rest of the case will help you determine whether or not the wood is worth the extra money. But as is, you can gain a reasonable mix of the latest case trends in the V1 for a moderate price even if you go for the wood. Just know that if you want to kit it out to the max, the V1 ends up in a price zone that competes with some of our best-rated PC cases of all shapes and sizes.
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The Bottom Line
The APNX V1, an ATX PC case from a new maker, combines some of the better ideas from several other case makers, including wood-slat highlights, in a good rookie effort.
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About Thomas Soderstrom
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