Corsair Crystal 460X ATX Mid-Tower Case Review

The Crystal 460X stands out with triple RGB fans behind tempered glass panels, and stands apart with space for an EATX motherboard inside an 18” ATX mid-tower. Does it perform well enough to justify an upper-market price?

Early Verdict

Extreme builder patience yields great cooling performance and great looks from the relatively-compact Crystal 460X.

Pros

  • +

    Great looking RGB fans provide excellent cooling

  • +

    Supports a 3x 120mm front and 2x 120mm top radiators simultaneously

  • +

    Supports oversized motherboards to at least 10.7” deep

  • +

    Relatively compact exterior dimensions

Cons

  • -

    RGB controller has no “off” function

  • -

    Extremely limited space for cable management

  • -

    Extremely limited space around power supply

  • -

    Cannot support 3x 120mm radiator, long power supply, and 3.5” drives simultaneously

  • -

    Top-panel radiator extends fans 1” below the motherboard top, leaving only 1.4” of DIMM clearance

  • -

    Power supply shroud cannot be reinstalled with motherboard and power supply already installed

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Introducing The Crystal 460X

*Shared on 3.5" tray


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With all the parts choices and dimensional standards floating around, you’d think picking a case would be easy. An ATX motherboard fits an ATX case, and a Micro ATX motherboard fits a Micro ATX case. Yet high-end motherboards that were just a little larger than ATX have been around for as long as most of us can remember, and without a form factor of their own. Boards around one-inch deeper than the ATX standard are usually called EATX, even though EATX requires a fourth column of standoffs and 13.3” of clearance. While nobody is forced to buy a server-sized case to support a 10.6” motherboard, hardly anyone is able to remember which ATX cases will support them. Of course, that includes the Crystal 460X.

Designed with enough space to hold a 13.4” card, the case has no restrictions to prevent a builder from installing a 13.3” real EATX motherboard. Corsair even designed it specifically to hold 10.7” (272mm) deep motherboards by moving its cable passages an inch forward, and rates it that way. Yet without the EATX label (and the extra standoffs needed to support a 13.3” board), your local PC superstore salesperson is as likely as not to tell you that your chosen 10.6” deep motherboard won’t fit this ATX case.

Those three Corsair SP120 RGB fans are certainly powerful enough to cool a big motherboard and graphics card, and the case is even designed with enough space to mount a radiator up to 16.4” tall and 1.4” thick behind them. Since triple-fan radiators are available at 1.375” thickness, that’ll usually do.

Hidden under a magnetic dust filter, the top panel also has room for a radiator. Unfortunately, the 1.1” of space above the motherboard doesn’t leave room for a radiator and fan stack, and the 140mm fan mounts are offset only around 0.6” from the motherboard’s surface. Those limitations will usually limit the top panel to a pair of 140mm x 25mm fans, or a 2x 120mm radiator and fan set hanging 1.4” (35mm) from the motherboard’s surface. Keep this limit in mind when purchasing RAM, or liquid-cooled voltage regulator water blocks.

The front of the Crystal 460X top panel has power and reset buttons, headphone and microphone jacks, two USB 3.0 ports, and three mode buttons for the SP120 RGB fans. Strobing, breathing, and static lighting are available in a broad range of colors (and even mixed cycling colors), but there’s no setting to turn the fan lights off.

The Crystal 460X front dust filter is both magnetically attached and secured with the screws that go through its corners. Those screws secure the tempered glass face panel and decorative face-panel frame to the steel chassis.

The bottom dust filter protects a power supply air inlet, and slides out from the back of the case.

The Crystal 460X has a standard metal side panel behind the motherboard, painted in the same texture as the top and rear panels. It also has only the standard seven expansion slots, and an empty 120mm fan mount with screw slots (rather than holes) to ease 120mm radiator height adjustment.

Behind that metal side panel are three 2.5” bays with snap installation tabs and ejection springs, a drive cage with two 3.5” trays, the RGB LED controller with room for three more fans, and a redundant fan mode selector. Space behind the motherboard tray is limited to around 5/8” (16mm), and the 2.5” bays are of similar thickness. All cables must therefore be routed around the 2.5” trays.

The 3.5” trays feature vibration-damped drive pins on the side and a set of screw holes for 2.5” drives on the base. Secured with a tab on the bottom and two thumb screws at the top, the cage can be moved 1.1” (28mm) forward to fit power supplies up to 9” long while blocking front-panel radiator installation. Power supply length is limited to a mere 7.9” (200mm) by default. Builders who want to use a long power supply and a triple-fan radiator simultaneously may opt to remove the lower drive cage.


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Thomas Soderstrom
Thomas Soderstrom is a Senior Staff Editor at Tom's Hardware US. He tests and reviews cases, cooling, memory and motherboards.
  • a40ozofmickeys
    This thing is compact, but the rear panel is bulging out, about to burst with my power cables running behind the motherboard. Also, I did not have 3 reachable fan headers on my mobo for the three RGB fans, so I had to buy a hub. When under load, My enthoo evlolv is silent. This thing, in comparison, is extremely loud. Can be heard in the next room down the hall with both doors closed.
    Reply
  • a40ozofmickeys
    I will say, though, the thing looks so fine.
    Reply
  • Crashman
    19270038 said:
    This thing is compact, but the rear panel is bulging out, about to burst with my power cables running behind the motherboard. Also, I did not have 3 reachable fan headers on my mobo for the three RGB fans, so I had to buy a hub. When under load, My enthoo evlolv is silent. This thing, in comparison, is extremely loud. Can be heard in the next room down the hall with both doors closed.
    I would have recommended a splitter and an extension. These fans really do require regulation. And good luck to everyone with their cables

    19270046 said:
    I will say, though, the thing looks so fine.
    Heheh.

    Reply
  • WINTERLORD
    oh wow lol, i was just asking about this case in corsair forums and the crystal series 570x what the weight is from corsair cause i have a bad back i wanted to know the weight because sometimes i move things around and cant carry the antec 900 well anymore. newegg reviers and corsair all have/had different elisted wieghts. maybe toms can give us a wieght? with or without parts? put on a floor scale
    Reply
  • Crashman
    19270887 said:
    oh wow lol, i was just asking about this case in corsair forums and the crystal series 570x what the weight is from corsair cause i have a bad back i wanted to know the weight because sometimes i move things around and cant carry the antec 900 well anymore. newegg reviers and corsair all have/had different elisted wieghts. maybe toms can give us a wieght? with or without parts? put on a floor scale
    :D
    It's in the table at the top of page 1, 17.2 pounds. That's 7.8 kg. It's a lightweight by glass-panel standards and would even be a middleweight by steel and plastic standards.

    We do our own measurements because we find that manufacturers often don't including protrusions, such as handles, side bubbles or thumb screws. All of these little things are important to people who want to put a case in a stand, for example.
    Reply
  • WINTERLORD
    oh ok, yea i seen that so the wieght there is the exact weight of just the case by itself? without say gpu cpu and such im assuming. btw thats alswome been dying to know the weight just posted in corsair forums bout it a day or two ago
    Reply
  • Crashman
    19271204 said:
    oh ok, yea i seen that so the wieght there is the exact weight of just the case by itself? without say gpu cpu and such im assuming. btw thats alswome been dying to know the weight just posted in corsair forums bout it a day or two ago
    Oh no, it's the weight of the case AND the screw kit that comes with the case.

    Reply
  • JamesSneed
    19270887 said:
    oh wow lol, i was just asking about this case in corsair forums and the crystal series 570x what the weight is from corsair cause i have a bad back i wanted to know the weight because sometimes i move things around and cant carry the antec 900 well anymore. newegg reviers and corsair all have/had different elisted wieghts. maybe toms can give us a wieght? with or without parts? put on a floor scale

    An Antec 900 is a beast to move around. If that really is an issue you may think about a micro ATX case that is all aluminum. For example a Lian Li PC-TU300 will weigh in at just over 8 pounds.
    Reply
  • tkellybl2008
    Personal opinion but,
    that intake grill is ugly
    Reply
  • jimmysmitty
    Just a tip, the HD120s look much better than the standard SP120s. I got the 570x, mainly for the extra room up top for radiators, and it looks fantastic with them. They are a tad brighter but man they look great.
    Reply