Little by little, the microATX motherboard market is gaining in variety of models, and, due to this, chassis manufacturers have taken action on it. This is the case of Asus and the tower that concerns us, the Prime AP201.
Today we have the pleasure of bringing you the analysis of the first microATX tower of the Taiwanese brand, a whole declaration of intent under the premise of a contained volume accompanied by the best possible cooling.
He Asus Prime AP201 ranks as one of the best towers in its segment, available in Two colorscompatibility for large graphics cards, liquid cooling up to 360mm, support for ATX power supplies… come on, practically everything you could ask for in a tower in a volume of only 33 liters. In addition, we will also find a version of the chassis with a tempered glass side panel available, as well as some small aesthetic differences.
Before we begin, we thank Asus the transfer of the chassis to carry out the review.
The Asus Prime AP201
We will start with the basic data of the tower. We are dealing with a microATX format chassis, despite the fact that it also supports mini-ITX motherboards, with a compact and minimalist design. It is available in both white and black and has dimensions of 205 x 350 x 460mm and a weight of 5.8kgwith a volume of 33 liters total. In addition, all its panels are perforated forming a quasi-filter mesh made up of more than 57,000 1.5 mm holes, so we will ensure perfect airflow in this regard.
Continuing with the unboxing of the set. Inside the tower we will find a bag with all the accessories included: the user’s Guide and warrantywhich we will talk about in a few moments, the screws typical for the installation of the power supply, motherboard and storage drivesas well as some flanges to facilitate cable management.
According to the user’s Guideis a very good help for mounting on the towerwith the order of the steps to be carried out, clear diagrams and good descriptions of the options for ventilation, cooling, etc.
We will start the breakdown of its characteristics by its front, where we will find a more than correct assortment of ports: USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C2 usb3.0, 3.5mm jack for separate audio and microphone and power button with leds. All this is located in the upper part of the front, giving us a comfortable and direct access. We will find the rest of the panel fully meshed to help cool our power supply.
Let’s continue with the chassis. Once we remove the panels, we find a structure made entirely of steelquite robust and with an amount of quite large possible configurations. It should be said that all panels that make up the tower They are fully removable without any tools., since they use a pressure point anchoring system. On the side panels we will find a small notch that will help us to disassemble both more easily.
Regarding the ventilation options, in the upper part we can use up to three 120mm fans or two 140mm fans. Instead, in the bottom we can only use two 120mm fans. This is a decision that we found a bit strange, as we could easily install a third 120mm fan without problem but, for some reason, Asus did not include the holes for its mounting.
In addition, in the back we will find a fan of 120mm Asus already pre-installed. This is from 3 pins and fixed rotation speedssomething that we believe should be improved for future revisions of the tower and include at least one PWM adjustable fan.
Finally, comment that we will not find any dust filter in the entire tower except in the lower part of it, so our equipment will need more frequent maintenance to remove possible accumulated dust.
Let’s continue with the cooling options, one of the strengths of this tower. As for liquid cooling, either in All in One format or as a custom liquid cooling circuit, we will not lack options to cool our components.
In the upper part we can install radiators 120, 240, 280 and 360mmwhile in the bottom we can use radiators up to 240mm. On the other hand, in the rear we can add a radiator 120mm.
On the other hand, if our intention is to use air cooling, we are in luck, since the tower supports heatsinks of up to 170mm. A real exaggeration that will allow us to use the most powerful heatsinks available to cool our cpu without any problem. In our case and as you can see in the images, a bequiet has been used! Dark Rock Pro 4 without any inconvenience on the part of the tower for its assembly.
Let’s continue with it GPU support, another of its strengths; we can use graphics cards up to 4 slots and 338mm longalways keeping in mind that our card does not touch the power supply if it is longer than 140mm.
Speaking of power supplies, we are faced with another of its most positive features, support for both SFX and ATX format sources, allowing the installation of the latter. with a length of up to 180mm. The installation of the fountain is extremely simple, we will only need to unscrew the metal frame that will hold our fountain from the front of the tower, screw the fountain and re-fit the assembly in its corresponding place. We can choose between three different heightswhich will give us more room at the top or bottom if we need more space either for our cooling, or for our graphics card and storage.
Finally, let’s review the storage options and of cable management that the Prime AP201 gives us.
In the lower and frontal part of the tower we can install up to three 2.5″ or 3.5″ drives, varying its frontal position based on the length of our power supply. In addition, we will find space for another unit of 2.5″ on the back of the motherboard. All of them will be installed with the included screws and anti-vibration rubbers.
Regarding cable management, it is admirable that in a tower of this size we can find a Dedicated space to route all of our cables in an orderly manner and thus achieve a neat and tidy assembly. At the back of the tower we will find a space dedicated to it, with a 32mm hole and four velcro straps already pre-installed to help us. In addition, we will find the power extension cable already routed to connect to our power source.
User experience and conclusions
With the Prime AP201Asus has got a tower very close to touching full as to what a chassis must have to be the best in its class. The user experience is excellent, partly thanks to a very good assembly guide. If it is not our first time building a computer, the tower will feel like any other ATX format tower in that sense, and that is still an achievement considering that we are dealing with a compact computer for everything it offers; let’s remember what they are only 33 liters and in these we have excellent support for graphics cards and air coolers, use of ATX power supplies, liquid cooling up to 360mm… We have seen ATX towers from other manufacturers that are much more expensive and with fewer possibilities than this small one, honestly, and that is to applaud And it is that we have not commented on it in the entire review, but the tower is available for €99.95 in the official Asus storea price that, for the moment, makes it the microATX tower to beat.
All this being said, the tower is not perfect, but almost. We’d like to see the included rear fan upgrade to a 4-pin fan with PWM, something that should be a must by now, as well as support for 140mm fans or a third fan at the bottom, which would open up the possibility for us. to a radiator up to 360mm in that area. All of them viable options and that we would love to see implemented in subsequent versions of the chassis.
For all this, we grant the Design, Quality, Price and Recommended Product from Game It to the Asus Prime AP201.
conclusions
Asus Prime AP201
PROS
- Sober and elegant design
- Very good ventilation and cooling options
- great cable management
- Excellent hardware compatibility
- very competitive price
CONS
- Three-pin included fan
- Does not support a third fan at the bottom
