This is an extract from what SilentiumPC has to mention about their Aquarius X90 mid-tower case on their website:

Real water cooling support:

Straight out of the box, the Aquarius X90 supports up to three thick radiators. There's space for a 120/140 rad in the back, a 240/280mm version in the top and maximum a 360 rad in the front. Even with all 3 rads in place there is still enough room for the pump and reservoir and tubing arrangement.

Smart design:

Even while retaining mid-tower dimensions the Aquarius X90 accommodates large E-ATX sized motherboards, dual power supplies, graphic cards up to 355mm in length and CPU air coolers up to 180mm in height. The X90 is also ready for multi-GPU configurations. With room for up to 4 3.5" HDDs, two 2.5" HDDs and two 3.5" drive bays for optical drives, the X90 will live up to most storage demands. Optional are two brackets to install an additional eight 3.5" hard drives.

Efficient airflow:

An efficient airflow is generated thanks to the unobstructed design and the standard usage of three 120mm fans in the front and one 140mm fan in the rear to expel the heat. Two 120/140 additional fans can be added to the top compartment for even more airflow. A six-port fan hub is also included to provide easier power to all of them installed fans.

Classy looks:

A simple yet elegant design, thus with no frills provides this SilentiumPC Aquarius X90 a classy look; an optional side windowed panel allows the end-user to show off his hardware setup.

As mentioned in the introduction, no fancy box art, just the bare minimum to allow the enclosure to be safely shipped to your favorite hardware store. After removing both the side panels, one directly spots the numerous cut-outs for easy cable management.

The Aquarius X90 is equipped out of the box with three 120mm front fans and a 140mm rear fan to expel the heat out of the case. Pretty impressive for a mid-tower case in this price range.

Specifications:

• Dimensions: 535(H) x 440(L) x 230(W) mm
• Motherboard support: mATX / ATX / E-ATX
• PSU: ATX standard (not included)
• Expansion slots: 8 + 1
• Construction: 0.8mm steel, ABS
• Net weight: 8,5 kg
• Drive bays:
  • External: 2 x 5,25″ / 1 x 5,25” + 1 x 3,5″
  • Internal: 2 x 2,5″+ 4 x 3,5″
• Maximum VGA card length: 355mm (with WC radiator installed in front)
• Maximum CPU cooler height: 180mm
• Cooling system (up to six fans in total):
  • Front: 3 x 120mm fans included (1200rpm) / option for 2 x 140mm fans
  • Rear: 1 x 140mm fan included (1200rpm)
  • Top: 2 x 120/140mm fans (optional)
  • 6-port fan hub pre-installed inside the case
• Front panel interface:
• 2 x USB 3.0
• 4 x USB 2.0
• 1 x Headphone jack (AC97 audio)
• 1 x Microphone jack (AC97 audio)

The rear 140 fan as the three 120mm fans spin at a maximum rpm of 1200rpm, which should provide decent airflow at a very respectable noise level, especially the standard triple front fan setup is surprising for a case in this price level. If needed one can opt to replace the triple front fan setup with two larger 140mm versions; adding extra cooling is possible via the optional addition of two 120 or 140 models in the top compartment.

Since so many fans are included out of the box, it is pretty neat to see the inclusion of a six port fan hub. Too bad this isn't an adjustable one to allow the end user to have complete control on the rotational speed of up to six fans.

Some of the water cooling options will be covered in the build part, nevertheless how does a triple rad sound for the front, a double rad in either a 240 or 280 version in the top compartment. Plus to top it off the possibility to mount a 120 or 140 rad in the rear of the case; impressive stuff not?

Storage capacity looks at first glance sparse, with only two removable tool-free brackets. The provision to install either two 5.25" optical drives in the front part or one optical drive and a floppy drive or card reader.

Even though SilentiumPc advertised support for up to four full blown 3.5" HDDs. The below animation tells the tale... again a very compact solution provided by the SIlentiumPC team.

To enhance the compatibility when installing a thick front radiator, the position of this particular HDD cage is adjustable.

The power supply is supported by four rubber grommets and one bigger version on the motherboard tray; the latter reveals the possibility to route cables between the power supply and the motherboard tray.

Talking about cable management, the numerous large cutouts facilitate things big time; also the two lower cut-outs feature a clever protection to avoid damaging them precious power cables. The 8 pin CPU power plug can easily be routed through the over-sized cut-out.

The plastic front and top panel can be removed without using too much force. Both feature a clip-able dust filter which on its turn can be removed after first unscrewing one securing nut, then a gentle push and the panel pops up.

The front I/O panel is well equipped for a case in this price category. How about four USB 2.0 ports and two USB 3.0 ones? Well dimensioned power on and reset buttons with white LED illumination and of course the two mandatory audio jacks.

The hardware comprises of the following parts:

• ASUS Rampage IV Extreme X79 mainboard
• Intel i7-3960X OC'ed at 4.5Ghz 1.37Vcore
• Corsair Hydro100i cooling and Noctua DH15
• 32GB CORSAIR 2400C10 RAMs
• 1 x ASUS 780Ti DCII OC GPU (pictures) and ASUS HD7970 for the temp tests
• 2 x Western Digital 1TB Caviar Green Hard Drives
• 1 x SAMSUNG 840 PRO 256GB SSD
• Corsair HX1050 Power Supply.

The build was completed in under half an hour, without any real complications. The cable routing is normally a breeze thanks to the numerous cutouts and ample space between the motherboard tray and the side panel. Due to the usage of the ASUS Rampage IV motherboard, which is an E-ATX sized board, we however couldn't route the 20+4 pin connector through the provided cutouts.

 

 

Clearance between the DVD optical drive and the Hydro H100i cooler is only a few millimeters. Take note that the Aquarius case is fully compatible with all 240 and 280 AIO coolers out there. In our book a big plus for a gamer oriented enclosure where these AIOs are pretty popular.

 

 

 

 

 

To verify air cooler compatibility we also opted to install the monstrous Noctua DH-15 air cooler. The SilentiumPC Aquarius X90 has room to spare for this whopping air cooler. Secondly the GPU has got more than ample breathing room too.

 

 

 

Temperature tests:

For the IDLE tests we allow the setup warm up during a 30 min period. The temperatures of the CPU cores are monitored by the Realtemp software. For the stress test we go flat out and test our the six cores of the overclocked i7-3960X CPU (4500MHz) with the Prime95 64bit software with a custom 12-12K setting. For the GPU test we ran a 3 time loop of the Futuremark Vantage 3D bench software to heat up the graphics core.

During the temperature tests the humble Aquarius X90 stood up to the two high end cases of rival Corsair. Interesting are the slightly lower GPU temperatures, aided mainly by the front triple fan setup. Great cooling at a very affordable price tag! Nevertheless the main target for this case is the Do-It-Yourself water cooling builds.

The included 120 and 140 fans are low spinning rpm version (1200rpm), pretty balanced as these still allow them to shift some decent amount of air while remaining close to inaudible.

 

Time to put SilentiumPC's quote, designed for water cooling enhusiasts to the test.

We removed the entire AIO cooled setup and went for a brand new build based on MSI's latest Z97 flagship motherboard the Z97 XPOWER. Cooling gear was provided they the crew from Slovenian's water cooling die-hards, EK Waterblocks.

Assembly was pretty straight forward as the Aquarius X90 has got room to spare. The movable HDD cage facilitated the installation even more; just position your favorite 240/360 radiator in the front and if really required there is still room for up to a 240 rad in the top of the X90 case.

The hardware we used in our DIY build is:

• MSI Z97 XPOWER motherboard
• Intel i7-4790K@4700MHz 1.35Vcore
• 32GB CORSAIR Vengeance Pro 2400C11 kit
• ASUS GTX 780ti@1200Mhz cooled by EKWB full cover waterblock
• 240GB Plextor M.2 mSSD
• 2 x 2TB Western Digital Caviar Green HDD
• EKWB L360 complete water cooling kit
• CORSAIR HX1050 PSU

The ASUS GTX 780ti DCII OC graphics card was watercooled by a nicely crafted EK WB full cover waterblock including the black backplate. the latter passively cools the back of the powerfull GTX780ti

One of the strong points of EK WB L360 complete cooling set is the small dimensioned pump with integrated reservoir, allowing easy installation even in the most cramped cases.

We wish to thank EKWB for supplying the required parts to show of the cooling capabilities of the SilentiumPC Aquarius X90 enclosure.

Without a doubt the Aquarius X90 lives up to its name. SilentiumPC managed to create an excellent all-round mid tower enclosure, offering good build quality, a monstrous out of the box triple front fan setup, awesome hardware compatibility, even offering full support for E-ATX motherboards and ultra long graphics cards (+360mm).

At first glance the storage support seems sparse, though one can fit up to four HDDs on the adjustable drive cage. Two solid state drives can be mounted on easy removable trays on the backside of the motherboard tray. Space has been provided for up to two optical drives and even the provision for a floppy drive or small card reader is there. An optional drive cage for a mere 10 Euros can double your platter storage capacity.

The cooling potential is out of the box amongst the big boys from Corsair. With the latter costing easily half as much then the retail price of 85 Euros of this SilentiumPC Aquarius X90. The included six fan port hub is a nice addition, too bad it doesn't allow any fan speed control. The statements for the water cooling enthusiasts have been confirmed when installing our own do it yourself EK Waterblocks 360 kit. The ease of installation was fabulous alike the thick radiator compatibility, dual and even triple radiator support out of the box, without any required modding is just plain awesome.

Last but not least one can order separately a windowed side panel. SilentiumPC again will not be breaking the bank as this modded side panel should be retailing around maximum 15 Euros.

The Aquarius X90 is definitely a case that will put SilentiumPC on the map. Good build quality and out of the box cooling configuration is top notch; add to that awesome hardware support and massive AIO or DIY water cooling potential to satisfy even the diehard enthusiast crowd. Best off all this X90 case retails at sub 85 Euros, which is an absolute steal for the provided features and specs. Only drawback is the availability outside Poland, though once orders come in this should improve rapidly. Therefore MadShrimps happily awards both the value and performance award to the SilentiumPC Aquarius X90 mid-tower case!

PROS:

• Low retail price
• Great out of the box cooling potential
• Hardware compatibility
• Six fan port hub
• Build quality
• Easily removable dust filters
• Water cooling upgradability
• low cost optional HDD cage and Windowed panel

CONS:

• Limited availability (click link for distributors)

We wish to thank the following persons who made this review possible:

Marcin from SilentiumPC for the Aquarius Pure black X90 sample

Sven from ASUS for the Rampage IV Extreme motherboard and the GTX 780ti Direct CII OC

Niko from SKWB for the L360 and full cover GPU waterblock

The nutty crew from Tones for the provision of the i7-3960X CPU