Modecom Volcano Amirani ARGB test: Better without protection

Exterior

The Amirani ARGB is a larger case, the second in our office to be fitted with oversized 200mm fans. So there will be no shortage of cooler air from the surroundings, although the case has a kind of double filter and the position of the second one is quite unusual. And consider that the remote control is not only used to regulate the lighting as it is usually possible, but also allows for speed control.

Basic parameters

Exterior

In addition to the case packed in a cardboard box with polystyrene filling, you get a bit more than usual in the accessories. For example, you’ll be pleased to find a remote control or an adapter for mounting the graphics card in a vertical position. Also included are screws, single-use pull-tabs, simple manual, and a motherboard buzzer for reporting errors.

Out of the box, the case looks massive. The left side panel is made of tempered glass. This is anchored in grooves, while it is secured from the back by two screws. These stay in the panel once unscrewed, so you don’t have to worry about losing them. Worse is the actual removal of the glass. There’s nowhere to grab it, so the only option is to “slap” onto it and push it towards the back of the case. This, of course, leaves fingerprints/debris on the glass.

The tempered glass is four millimetres thick. On the inside, it has a slightly protruding foam on top, probably due to the pressure and the smaller amount of vibration transmitted.

The entire front panel is perforated on both the front and sides. The perforations are 1.3 mm wide. What I miss most about this perforation is the fine dust filter, but we’ve had cases like the Lian Li Lancool II Mesh Performance, which also didn’t use a filter of this type, and in fact none at all.

Amirani has fitted a thin filter in an atypical location, on the inside of the case directly behind the fans. That means on the other side as is usually the case when the filter is in front of (and not behind, as it is here) the rotor. It’s strange, but you can’t rule out the possibility that Modecom figured out that it’s more efficient from a dust-capturing standpoint. The fans themselves do get clogged (with dust) sooner, but again, it may not be that critical since there is a metal mesh screen in front of them. Although its efficiency won’t be that amazing, the holes are a bit bigger than on the removable filter (with 0.9 mm holes) behind the fans. The latter is attached, by the way, magnetically.

Once the front panel is removed, you can access the fans. There are two 200 mm fans mounted with four screws. I got to the edge of the internet in my search for more specifications, but it led nowhere – if you manage to find anything, be sure to post it in the comments. These are probably OEM fans from some Chinese factory. What we can say for sure, though, is that you have ARGB backlighting available. For someone, that may be the deciding factor.

However, if you don’t like the original fans, you can replace them with two 140 mm or three 120 mm fans. If you have a liquid cooling radiator up to 360 mm, you don’t have to worry about its placement in the case, there’s plenty of room for it in the front.

The top of the case has the same filter against larger debris as the fans on the back. This fits into a deeper trough and is held in place by magnets all around. So there is no risk of unwanted sliding out. You can fit two 120 or 140 mm fans on the inside of the ceiling. If you’d prefer a liquid cooling radiator, you can fit up to a 280 mm radiator under the ceiling without restriction.

The top I/O panel does not impress but does not disappoint either. There are three USB ports including one Type-C, two 3.5mm jacks, a power button and also a reset or backlight change button, depending on how you plug it in. The power button is comfortable to press, but the one for reset is without tactile response. So you don’t know if you pressed it or not. There are two small LEDs in between. One indicates disk activity and the other indicates power on status. If you plan to have the case somewhere under your desk, you need to be careful not to have them directly under your eyes. They shine quite brightly.

The back of the case reveals the ATX power supply slot at the bottom of the case, which is now standard. Seven covers for PCI Express expansion slots indicate that you can fit an ATX motherboard format into the case. Of course, there must be a hole for the I/O panel of the motherboard and next to it, room for an exhaust fan. Only a 120mm fan will fit here, which is a big difference from the two 200mm fans in the front. Just below the ceiling you can notice the beehive-shaped perforations, which suggests that there will be plenty of clearance between the ceiling and the motherboard.

Since the entire bottom of the case is perforated, a filter is attached along its entire length to prevent larger particles of dirt. It is the same on the front of the intake but also on the top of the case, so I would rule out placing the case somewhere on the ground. The handling here is slightly worse than with the previous two filters. It’s attached via eight points to the structure and has to be wiggled when removing/installing it. The silver feet with pads add elegance to the case. I do have one complaint about the pads though. They don’t secure the case very well in place and it slips easily.

The Amirani ARGB is a larger case, the second in our office to be fitted with oversized 200mm fans. So there will be no shortage of cooler air from the surroundings, although the case has a kind of double filter and the position of the second one is quite unusual. And consider that the remote control is not only used to regulate the lighting as it is usually possible, but also allows for speed control.

Interior

For larger cases, it is assumed that you will also be fitting a larger motherboard. Here, you will first need to reposition the mounting posts for the motherboard if you want to use the ATX motherboard format. However, there is a tool for this in the package, so you don’t need to get anything out of your home workshop other than a screwdriver. Of course, you can also fit smaller boards such as M-ATX or ITX. The longest card you can fit into the case must not exceed 380 mm in length otherwise it would already interfere with the fan mounts. For a tower-shaped CPU cooler, there is a mismatch between the stated parameter in the manual and the manufacturer’s website. The manual indicates a maximum height of 161 mm and the website 165 mm. While both are sufficient nowadays, the correct parameter is 165 mm of space for a tower cooler.

On the tray, all grommets are fitted with rubber caps. In them you have a space of 27 mm for threading cables. That’s enough room to thread every type of cable through. Thanks to the larger space under the ceiling, it is very convenient to plug in the cable to power the processor.

From the bottom, the grommets are slightly smaller and without rubber caps, but that doesn’t matter. The bottom is not so obvious and no large holes are needed to plug the case into the board. More interesting though is that a large part of the tunnel ceiling is perforated. This is because you can place two 120mm fans on the tunnel. This can help lower the temperature on the graphics card by a couple of degrees, which is what the Torrent case demonstrated for us. But that’s on the condition that you give up the bracket for one 3.5″ or two 2.5″ storages. With it present, you can only fit one fan.

On the manufacturer’s website, the maximum number of fans in the case is given as six, but this is not true and they probably forgot about the two positions on the tunnel.

If you’ve ever dreamed of mounting your graphics card vertically instead of the standard way, Amirani can make that dream come true. An adapter is included in the accessories to make it possible to mount the graphics card in this position as well. You simply remove the six bottom covers of the expansion slots and place the adapter there.

There are five Velcro straps (one to hold cables together) for easier cable organization, and seven open positions for single-use pull-tabs from accessories. For cable management, there’s 22mm of space to squeeze everything into. It’s not too little but it’s not too much either. The sheets are 0.8 mm thick as stated by the manufacturer. They are a bit more flexible, but still strong and can handle anything you put on them.

For easy control of the fans and their backlighting, a controller is attached to the case with Velcro. After you supply it with power from a SATA cable directly from the power supply, you can connect six fans – out of a total of eight – that can be placed in the case. The same number applies to the ARGB backlighting. Even though it has buttons on it to control the speed of the fans, change the backlight mode and also its speed, it’s pointless to keep removing the side panel because of it.

Fortunately, Modecom decided to use a remote control for convenient use of the controller. With it, you can switch between 62 different backlight modes or even change the speed of the fans. The latter can be changed but only in two preset modes, slower speed and faster speed.

Next to the controller there is the same bracket as on the tunnel. Although it can accommodate 3.5″ storage, it will not fit in the space between the tray and the side panel. So it automatically becomes a holder for two 2.5″ storage devices.

The tunnel fits probably every ATX power supply. With the fitted drawer for two 3.5″ drives you have 23 cm for cables and power supply, without the drawer the tunnel is free along the entire length of the chassis, which is almost 40 cm.

The hardware installation went without complications. Even with the lower drawer in the tunnel, I was able to shove the cables in without having to move it or remove it. Anyone can organize the cabling in the 22 millimeters of space near the Amirani case, even if there is a bit of fiddling. I have to say, though, that it works better with classic Velcro strips that just wrap around themselves. These can be looped over themselves so that one end is wider than the other. Therefore, it is almost impossible to wrap them around each other. Because of this, the two top strips also stick out.

The Amirani ARGB is a larger case, the second in our office to be fitted with oversized 200mm fans. So there will be no shortage of cooler air from the surroundings, although the case has a kind of double filter and the position of the second one is quite unusual. And consider that the remote control is not only used to regulate the lighting as it is usually possible, but also allows for speed control.

Test methodology

Through the remote control you can control the speed of the fans but only in two modes. The slower mode pulls the fan speed down to a nearly inaudible 33.8 dBA noise level. In the faster mode, get ready for a noise level of 38 dBA at a distance of 10 cm from the case. We need specific noise levels to test though, so we’ll control them via the motherboard.

A filter placed directly behind the large 200 mm fans will most likely throttle cooling performance. Therefore, with a noise level of 39 dBA, we will remove the filter and compare the component temperatures without it as well.

For testing purposes, we always leave the fans in their original positions.

Testing is done in a home environment where I strive for the most accurate results possible. In the room during testing, the air temperature in front of the case is 23 degrees Celsius and the minimum noise level I can measure with the Voltcraft SL-100 noise meter is 32.4 dBA. The sensor of the noise meter is aligned to the center of the top of the case at a distance of 10 cm, for the best measurement of the speed difference of the fans, which I change using the motherboard. For easy comparison to other cases, they are always regulated to fixed noise levels.

Individual components are heated for 10 minutes in FurMark synthetic stress tests and with Prime95 (custom settings) at the same time. This time is long enough to allow all components to warm up sufficiently. There are then 15-minute cooling breaks between tests, during which the component temperatures (and the case air temperature as well) are brought back to default.

Modes noise levels:

• 36 dBA
• 38 dBA
• 39 dBA

The Amirani ARGB is a larger case, the second in our office to be fitted with oversized 200mm fans. So there will be no shortage of cooler air from the surroundings, although the case has a kind of double filter and the position of the second one is quite unusual. And consider that the remote control is not only used to regulate the lighting as it is usually possible, but also allows for speed control.

CPU and GPU cooling tests

The Amirani ARGB is a larger case, the second in our office to be fitted with oversized 200mm fans. So there will be no shortage of cooler air from the surroundings, although the case has a kind of double filter and the position of the second one is quite unusual. And consider that the remote control is not only used to regulate the lighting as it is usually possible, but also allows for speed control.

Motherboard cooling tests

The Amirani ARGB is a larger case, the second in our office to be fitted with oversized 200mm fans. So there will be no shortage of cooler air from the surroundings, although the case has a kind of double filter and the position of the second one is quite unusual. And consider that the remote control is not only used to regulate the lighting as it is usually possible, but also allows for speed control.

SSD cooling test

Temperatures underneath the ceiling

The Amirani ARGB is a larger case, the second in our office to be fitted with oversized 200mm fans. So there will be no shortage of cooler air from the surroundings, although the case has a kind of double filter and the position of the second one is quite unusual. And consider that the remote control is not only used to regulate the lighting as it is usually possible, but also allows for speed control.

Conclusion

Although the Amirani’s cooling performance isn’t the best of the cases we tested, it didn’t disappoint. The CPU cooling is the worst offender, occupying the last ranks of the charts. However, cooling can be improved by a few notches by removing the filter that is located directly behind the fans. This will lower temperatures on both the CPU and graphics card or critical motherboard components, and some dust will still be trapped by the front perforations.

The strength of the case is ensured by thick metal plates. These are also used appropriately with regard to the large fans, which are certainly a source of some vibrations, but they do not significantly worsen the functioning of the case as a whole / do not increase the noise level. I didn’t encounter any difficulties while installing the hardware, neither when threading the cables through the tray nor when connecting the cable to the CPU power supply. There is plenty of room under the ceiling for handling. The two positions for the two 120mm fans on the perforated tunnel are also a big plus. This is an unused space with a lot of cases. With a case in this price range, one can already have a complaint about the use of a cheaper plastic filter in the position below the power supply.

Working with cables behind the motherboard is convenient. One small minus belongs to the Velcro strips, which cannot be reasonably wrapped around when moving a small number of cables. The IR controller to change the speed of the fans and their backlighting will please anyone who likes colour. Fan speed can only be switched between two modes – fast and slow. This will be especially appreciated by those who are not so adept at adjusting fan curves.

For 90 EUR you get a case with a very reasonable layout and a wide range of installation options. When you open the case, it is immediately clear inside what plugs in where and there is plenty of room for manipulation. Even though it pulls the short end of the stick in cooling effectiveness, it manages to make up for it with the convenience you get thanks to the remote control. Although the Modecom Arimani ARGB has some flaws, it deserves the “Approved” editorial award.

English translation and edit by Jozef Dudáš

• Contents
• Exterior
• Interior
• Test methodology
• CPU and GPU cooling tests
• Motherboard cooling tests
• SSD cooling test and temperature underneath the ceiling
• Conclusion