Riotoro introduced the CR1080 mid-tower case in early April, and back then I really wanted to see how they could fit an ATX motherboard into what is essentially a mini-tower height case while still allowing for tall heatsinks and full height video cards. I have seen implementations of this concept in other cases of course, but they either restricted cooler and video card size or they were very wide.

With a dual compartment design, the area normally used to mount the motherboard is instead occupied by drive bays - two 3.5? and one 2.5? (or three 2.5? drives) - and the power supply area, all mounted vertically with room to run cables and even space for a lower front mounted 80mm fan. Moving to the normal cable management side of the case, we find the motherboard mounting area with the I/O panel at the bottom and the PCI card slots at the top. What makes this setup intriguing are the two 120mm fan mounts at the front and an 80mm fan mount at the rear that should make for a direct air flow path across the motherboard. The case includes one 120mm fan out of the box to provide good cooling potential.

The front panel only has one very thin foam filter, which means more cleaning of the case panels and interior could be required compared to other cases that come with dust filters. On the bright side, the Riotoro CR1080 is lightweight and the side panels are easy enough to remove that keeping your computer system clear of dust and dirt shouldn't prove to be a chore.