The Riotoro Prism CR1280 Case Review
by E. Fylladitakis on April 26, 2016 9:01 AM EST
Today we are having our first encounter with Riotoro, a manufacturer of personal computer cases, power supply units, cooling-related products and peripherals. Riotoro is a company that came to be from former NVIDIA and Corsair employees. The current number of products they offer is small, consisting of just a couple of cases and mice, but we expect that to change rapidly in the not so distant future.
Introduction
Riotoro is somewhat of a new company, as they came into business in 2015, however they originally made their products available into South America first. These markets are set to be the primary focus of the US-based company in the near future as well, which might explain the Spanish name (Riotoro roughly translates to "Bull's River" in English, and there is an actual river in Puerto Rico that is sharing the same name).
Nevertheless, the company is now making their products available in the North America and is marking their debut with the Prism CR1280, a large (58 cm, ~23-inch) tower case with RGB lighting. Riotoro is claiming that this is the world's first full RGB case, capable of 256 colors. The company is also claiming that the Prism CR1280 also has "unprecedented cooling performance", high durability, "improved cable management" and a "unique, powerful design". With the MSRP of $140 and a retail price that is likely to be lower than list, the Prism CR1280 seems to be a very interesting product if it can deliver half of what Riotoro's marketing is claiming.
| Riotoro CR1280 Prism | ||
| Motherboard Size | EATX, ATX, Micro-ATX, Mini-ITX | |
| Drive Bays | External | - |
| Internal | 4 × 3.5" (internal drive cages) 4 × 2.5" (Rear of motherboard tray) |
|
| Cooling | Front | 2 × 120 mm (2 × 120 mm RGB LED included) |
| Rear | 1 × 120 mm or 140 mm (none included) | |
| Top | 3 × 120 mm or 2 × 140 mm (none included) | |
| HDD | - | |
| Bottom | - | |
| Radiator Support | Front | Up to a 280 (2 × 140 mm) |
| Rear | Up to 140 mm | |
| Top | Up to a 280 (2 × 140 mm) or 360 mm (3 × 360 mm) | |
| Side | - | |
| Bottom | - | |
| I/O Port | 2× USB 3.0, 2× USB 2.0, 1× Headphone, 1× Mic | |
| Power Supply Size | ATX | |
| Clearances | HSF | 184 mm |
| PSU | Up to 200 mm | |
| GPU | 400 mm | |
| Dimensions | 580 mm × 225 mm × 475 mm 22.83 in × 8.86 in × 18.7 in |
|
| Prominent Features (as per the marketing spiel) | · World’s 1st Fully RGB CASE with unparalleled personalization options. · Taking up the best and adding our own improvements to cases most successful technologies. · DAT (direct airflow technology) built from the ground up to cool the most demanding and hotter product providing unprecedented cooling performance by directing air where it is most needed. · ICM : improved Cable management design! For the most demanding users and configurations. · Durable and strongly built to last many years. · Next generation Full Tower design. Unique and powerful design, that takes your rig to the next level and to the future. |
|
| Price | $140 (MSRP) | |
Packaging & Bundle
Riotoro supplies the Prism CR1280 in a very large and sturdy cardboard box that instantly hints the actual size of the case. The artwork is very simple, with only the company's logo decorating the main sides of the box. There is no picture of the case itself or any significant information printed on the box itself. Inside the box, the case is well secured between thick Styrofoam slabs and wrapped in a soft nylon bag. The packaging ought to offer more than sufficient protection during shipping.
As we received an early production sample, we have no clear view of what the bundled items will be. The company supplied us with just the basic screws and a few cable ties, with no manual or accessories to speak of. Since Riotoro is coming into a highly saturated market is going to have to strongly compete in terms of value, we do expect that the bundle will be kept to a minimal, although a basic manual is obviously going to be included with retail products.
It is worth noting that the font being used for Riotoro looks eerily similar to the ASUS Republic of Gamers' font. We're not sure if this is intentional, or if there the original font is owned/licenced by one of the two or an external entity. It's an interesting thing to mention at least.
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jasonelmore - Tuesday, April 26, 2016 - link
If i was making a case today, i'd have a array of 2X USB type c's on the front panel. no way i'm buying a case without them these days, when next year, pretty much all mid-range to high end will have it.subtec - Saturday, April 30, 2016 - link
Where would you plug them in?Taristin - Tuesday, April 26, 2016 - link
The interior reminds me a lot of my Phanteks Evolv full ATX case. But those similarities are probably common to many cases, eh?Galcobar - Tuesday, April 26, 2016 - link
The site's copy editor seems to go missing every few months, I fear he or she has disappeared again. There's a few extraneous word, or just the wrong ones (albeit correctly spelled), used in a few places on the first page already.Otherwise, an interesting read so far. The flow of these case and PSU reviews is notably smoother than they used to be, without diminishing the amount of information.
Impulses - Tuesday, April 26, 2016 - link
On a slightly pedantic note, Riotoro (ignoring the fact that it's two words mashed together) doesn't translate to Bull's River but to Bull River... Rio Del Toro would be Bull's River (de being the possessive).On a slightly less pedantic note... I'm not aware of a Rio Toro here in Puerto Rico, there's a Rio Toro Negro (Black Bull River) and a park under the same name tho (and Toro Verde too, which means green).
Quick Google search reveals there is a Rio Toro in Costa Rica tho, common rafting destination apparently. Could be what the name alludes to if the company has a South American distribution arm, since Puerto Rico isn't in SA and all...
E.Fyll - Wednesday, April 27, 2016 - link
I actually was not aware of the one in Costa Rica. I learned something new today.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%ADo_Toro
Also, I specifically wrote that "Bull's River" is a rough translation, because "Bull River" just does not make any sense to me. Well, not any more sense than any two random nouns placed together. I do not pretend to be a linguist though and my Spanish is pretty horrible, so you are probably right.
Lolimaster - Wednesday, April 27, 2016 - link
Rio Toro / Bull River make sense in spanish.And "rio toro" and "rio del toro" can be assumed as the same thing for a spanish speaker but semantically it is not and they know.
Impulses - Wednesday, April 27, 2016 - link
BTW, wasn't criticising or taking issue with your writing Fyll, just making a note since I found it interesting... It's just semantics in the end.DominionSeraph - Wednesday, April 27, 2016 - link
No external bays?I want Anandtech to start benching these cases against the cardboard box they came in.
darkfalz - Wednesday, April 27, 2016 - link
No airflow over the HDDs too...