Raijintek Coeus ELITE TC

[testman78]

Introduction

The trend for high-end tempered glass chassis is booming right now, and while it's a trend that has been in motion for a few years now, there are some great designs hitting the market at much more competitive prices than we saw a few years ago, where the words "tempered glass" were often joined with astronomical price tags. The latest from Raijintek isn't cheap, but it's still within the reach of most consumers and high-end system builders without too much cause for your wallet to run and hide. What's really special about the latest from Raijintek, however, is that is has tempered glass on four sides, as well as their new RGB fans, so it's sure to look pretty special. Raijintek is no stranger to tempered glass computer cases, but one new chassis from the company is less "case" and more "glass." The Coeus Elite TC heats up the glass case market with tempered panels on the front, top, and both sides. We examine its extra features, functionality and performance.



Specifications.




Packaging & Contents

Alright, we dive straight into the photo-shoot. As always we start off with packaging. Here is the box, clearly denoting the Coeus ELITE TC. The simple packaging catches our attention, as you will noticed the chassis is well packaged with minimal risk to damage.



On the back we have more angles of case.



The specifications and features of the unit can be seen on the left side of box.



On the right side of the box, there's only an graphical image of pc case.



The chassis is protected in Styrofoam and a plastic bag. The first thing you'll see is that this chassis has lots of protective film on it, which is under the screws, so it takes a time a little while to unwrap, but if it means a nice and shiny scratch free chassis out of the box, I?m happy.



The scope of delivery is limited to the usual supplements in the form of screws and a brief manual.



Positive highlights are the reusable cable ties, which can be attached to the housing thanks to adhesive surface.




A Closer Look-Outside

The Coeus Elite TC comes with the dimensions 235 x 484 x 444 millimeters (W x H x D). Visually, the Coeus Elite TC makes a lot and is quite impressive. The material mix of aluminum, glass and steel on the body not only looks classy, ​​it also feels that way. The design of the Coeus Elite TC is quite special since the whole is all round. The rounded curves are present everywhere: glass panel, handles, control panel, etc. It's glass immediately pops out into your eye-sight, and hey both sides, top and front panel all are fitted with it. It looks terrific as you will later find out. A feast for the eyes alright. Simple, stylish and kind of mystifying. The glass panels has rubber mountings and are fixed by screws with a rubber seal. The left side gives a full view of the inside of the casing. The angular shape is elegantly and functionally lifted by rubberized rollers on all four sides - which act as a handle and stand.



The side panels of the Coeus Elite are made of tinted and tempered glass four millimeters thick. The right side of the COEUS Elite TC is also covered with tempered glass and offers a view of the cable lining. Because of this, during the installation of the system, the finishing and location of these cables must of course be taken into account to ensure that the view is not disturbed.



No artifice on the front of this case, only a Raijintek logo in the bottom directly painted on the steel!



There is no place for 5.25" drives, so optical units are a thing of the past.



There is spacing left in-between the glass on all edges for heaps of airflow.



In order to contrast with the rest of the facade, the control panel is highlighted by a black anodized brushed aluminum support. Here we get a close view of the I/O shield, and going from left to right. The power button, which has the white LED for power behind it, and also in the left of the ring is a small red LED that's used for the HDD. Moving over we have the mic, and headphone 3.5mm plugs. Then we have the USB 3.0 connectors, and the Type-C USB, which inside the case terminates at another Type-C USB.



The lid is similar to the front, which means that there is also a 4mm toughened glass. The top has slots for fans visible through a tempered glass plate.



The rear of the case is very classic. The Coeus Elite TC offers two hose feed throughs for external water cooling and five slots for expansion cards. At the bottom, we have the location of the PSU.



The rubberized bottom will help against any vibration. The feet are actually cylinders with a rubber part. At the bottom supply filter is screwed by four thumb screws directly to the housing. Here, for sure, it will be well maintained, but will not be very accessible: forced to lift the case and remove the screws for cleaning.



The grooves near it are intended for the HDD cage that can be adjusted to leave more or less length for the power supply.




A Closer Look-Outside

Once we strip away the glass panels with four flat thumbscrews each, we can have a look at the interior. The interior is black to go with the rest of the chassis.



We can put micro-ATX and mini-ATX boards(it is equipped with motherboard spacers already). On the right, two rubberized passages are present. In addition, we have enough openings to pass our cables.



A massive motherboard cutout plate is there as well so you can easily change / swap / switch the CPU cooler.



At the bottom of the housing we find a covered part which serves as a hidden place for the power supply. The top of this cover is covered with a dust filter which is magnetically attached.



2x120mm fans can be mount on the PSU cover.



The case has three pre-installed fans. They are provided with a white outline that will illuminate once the machine is turned on.



The watercooling capacities are rather interesting since the Coeus Elite TC will be able to accommodate a radiator of 240/280 mm on the front and at the top.



Attention to the thickness of the front radiator (60mm max).



Behind the tray there are mounting points that can be used for both 3.5 "and 2.5" HDDs.



In terms of components the Elite can fit up to three 3.5"HDD drives with room for an additional 2.5"HDD if needed or 4x2.5” HDD. Chamber position at the back of the case with two 3.5/2.5-inch Drive Bays.



Here you can spot the PSU compartment, it can be up-to 200 mm in length. Raijintek adds a dust filter to keep it as opaque as possible. At the bottom, you'll find a pair of rubber pads for the PSU mount.




Assembly & Finished Looks

It is time to gather some gear and build us a PC. The fans at the front are mounted on a bracket and are very easy to remove to make room for a radiator, for example. You could mount a radiator so extremely well in the front-side, and that would look great. The good thing about this design is that the radiator can be nice and thick (up-to 60 mm) as well bringing you that little extra performance. For the top side I could recommend a 240 mm and maybe 280 mm at maximum. Everything easily fits, the micro-ATX sized motherboard has plenty of clearance.



You just have to remove the brackets from the sides, mount the drive and then place them back in(Disks need screws for installation).



You'll spot that will support 3.5" drives ready to be inserted into the chassis.



We’ve got a 2.5″ drive fitted in the rear SSD mount, nice and easy and it’ll look great on show there through the right side glass panel.



The maximum height for the CPU heatsink is 175 mm. Graphics cards with a length of up to 35cm are suitable. The Nvidia GTX 1070 we use is fit.



As soon as everything is built in and the PC is started up, the pre-installed fans brighten up in white and the motherboard with RGB lighting radiates. The RGB LEDs are truly lovely, very bright but not at all irritating or something. The chassis is definitely lovely in all its ways and manners.



The power button is, like the fans, illuminated white.




Test System & Methology


Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 1400 (Retail) - Turbo off
CPU Cooling: be quiet ! Shadow Rock TF2
Motherboard: ASUS Prime B350M
Memory: Patriot Viper 3 Series 16GB 2400MHz
Video Card: MSI Radeon RX 580 Gaming X
PSU: Thermaltake Smart 750W
Hard Drive: OCZ Vector 120GB SSD
OS: Windows 10 Pro x64



Software:

CPUID HW Monitor 1.23
CPUID CPU-Z 1.65
Prime95 v27.1
Furmark 1.11.0

I am testing the Raijintek Coeus ELITE TC performance as follows:

Room temperature is kept at 22C throughout my tests.
The CPU Fan is set to 100% to eliminate inconsistencies as a result of PWM control.
Idle temperatures are obtained after booting the PC and idling on the desktop for 30 minutes.
CPU load temperatures are obtained after running Prime95′s Small FTTs test for 15 minutes.
GPU load temperatures are obtained after running Furmark's Burn-In Test for 15 minutes.


Temperature

Thermally the Raijintek Coeus ELITE TC puts in a superb performance.




Final Thoughts

The latest chassis from Raijintek isn’t perfect, but any flaws it does have are minor inconveniences in the grand scheme of things. What this chassis does do really well is make a statement, and having this beast sitting proudly on your desk is going to give you something to behold, something that will certainly get attention and is as much a piece of art as it is a box for your hardware. With new motherboards, graphics cards and virtually any other high-end hardware on the market these days having some stunning designs that you would want to show off, it doesn’t make sense to put them in a steel box where no one can see them. This is also true for custom loop water cooling hardware, no point in having that neon blue coolant with LED backlighting if you can’t see it… well OK, it’ll keep your system cool, but aesthetics are as much a part of high-end PC building as performance is these days. We appreciate its simple and sober design as well as the massive presence of tempered glass. If you are a fan of tempered glass, the Coeus Elite TC has everything you need to seduce you. However, as much tempered glass can be a disadvantage, we especially think of fingerprints, so prepare the microfiber cloth! Also the downside is that you can see the cabling at the back due to the glass. My brutal honest opinion on the Raijintek Coeus ELITE TC for me is simple, it easily is one of the best looking chassis that I have ever seen and tested. Next to that the build quality is just lovely. Now I do need to counter that first statement with the following, taste differs per person -- but this style matches what I like very much. The design is intricate with the tempered glass left, right, front and top side panels. The chassis is detachable for easy installation, with two rubber foot handles to make it easily transportable once secure. The airflow is absolutely terrific thanks to simple fact that there is extra space at the front to vent air at any corner. The dark inside and cable will complement your components and the LED RGB activated fans are done right as well, it's not tacky or lit up like a Christmas tree no you choose an animation mode (or still) and a color (sequence if you want to) and then your system color schema lines up with the PC. Despite it's majestic shape, the Coeus ELITE TC remains a fairly compact chassis, you can house an micro-ATX motherboard in there but anything larger on form factor would be an issue. The Raijintek Coeus ELITE TC has pretty much everything you need or require. The airflow is done right, the space (limited to micro-ATX motherboards) offers plenty of options, features like the SSD/HDD space, ease of use and USB 3.0 ports are all available as well. Lacking however is an integrated fan controller which is a bit of a miss with three fans. There's also nice space for liquid cooling on the front side and top side, the drive bay has sufficient space for two HDDs and at the motherboard back-plate two SSDs. The chassis has nice motherboard cutout and there's enough space left for cable routing through the grommet holes, all in that all-black interior.



I feel the Raijintek hit the bull-eye with the Coeus ELITE TC. The looks are pretty good on the photos, but in a real world setup just stunning. It is a chassis that will please many. It has an dark body and obviously complete see-trough design with the tempered glass side panels really kick things into 6th gear. Design wise I have very little to complain other then a missing fan controller or missing some dust filters. We recommend the Raijintek Coeus ELITE TC very much, it is a terrific looking product with proper build quality, good airflow and a nice feature-set. At 140 EUR/USD this chassis should be high on your short-list if you like the design. We feel a Outstanding award is well deserved here.