Raijintek Agos

The Raijintek Agos is fairly cheap, although it’s packed with features that enthusiasts who don’t want to spend lots of money will appreciate. These include mostly tool-free drive bays, support for 240mm liquid-cooling radiators and lots of cut-outs for efficient cable management.

The Agos isn’t particularly attractive, mostly due to the pinch-clips used on the 5.25in drive bay covers. Our review sample was a rather sombre black, but a mostly white version is available. Either way, it’s best suited to someone that prefers function over style. Those looking for a cheap PC case that you could get away with having in your living room should check out the Bitfenix Neos instead.

The Agos has six internal drive bays that can be used to house either 3.5in or 2.5in drives. The drive rails can be pinched out, and 3.5in disks can be installed without screws. Optical drives are a breeze to install thanks to easily removed covers and a tool-free locking mechanism.

The Agos can accommodate ATX and microATX motherboards and, although there’s more space than in the BitFenix Neos, ATX motherboards will still be a fairly tight fit once a power supply is installed. You’ll need to use a standard PS/2 ATX power supply as there isn’t much space for anything larger. You can fit processor coolers up to 16mm in height, and we had no trouble fitting our SilverStone Argon AR03 air cooler, which makes the Agos a suitable case for those who want to overclock their systems but don’t want to pay too much for a case. A surprisingly large cut-out makes the installation and removal of third-party processor coolers much easier.

You can also fit a liquid cooling radiator to the Agos’s top panel, but you’ll have to mount it externally and route the pipes through the holes at the back of the case, as there’s very little room inside. We couldn’t find room for our SilverStone TD02 all-in-one liquid cooling system in the Agos.

In its default configuration you can fit graphics cards up to 290mm in length, but you can remove one of the drive cages to accommodate graphics cards up to 410mm long.  You’ll lose three 3.5in or 2.5in drive bays if you remove the cage, but it’s good to have the option, and three internal drive bays will be plenty for many users. We had no trouble installing our Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 reference card with the drive cage in place, but it did feel snug. Unlike those on the BitFenix Neos, the expansion slot blanks on the Agos can be unscrewed and reused, which is handy if you regularly swap cards between different PCs.

At first glance it appears that the drive cage is held in place with thumbscrews only, which would mean that you can remove it without a screwdriver. However, you also need to take out a standard screw to remove the cage, which is annoying. We’d prefer to have either thumbscrews or normal screws; a mixture of both doesn’t make sense.

The Agos has a decent selection of front-panel connection ports for a cheap PC case, with one USB, one USB3 and two 3.5mm audio jacks. The USB3 port uses an internal USB3 connector rather than a pass-through cable. We’d prefer the USB ports to be on the top rather than the side of the Agos, as a case of this size is more likely to be placed under desk rather than on top. We also found the orientation of the USB ports a little odd, as you have to insert cables at a slight angle to the front of the case.

We enjoyed building a PC in the Raijintek Agos, and it’s a good-value base for a mid-range enthusiast PC. It isn’t particularly good-looking and the connection ports would be better placed on the top panel, but the Agos makes for an easy build and pretty stress-free upgrades.