ADATA XPG Valor Air Test

The name XPG stands for a sub-brand of the memory manufacturer ADATA from Taiwan, which was founded in 2008. The background for the foundation of the XPG brand was a stronger focus of the products on the gaming sector. XPG states that its goal is to develop high-quality components that improve the gaming experience. At the beginning, the portfolio included working memory modules and SSDs. However, this was quickly expanded to include PC cases, power supplies, input devices, and other gaming peripherals. Today we have the ADATA XPG Valor Air case in review, which was introduced in August 2022.

Inhaltsverzeichnis / Table of contents

The ADATA XPG Valor Air is a compact midi tower that is supposed to convince with its stylish looks and four pre-installed case fans. The latter are supposed to provide a particularly high airflow in combination with the open front panel. In addition, there is a side window made of glass, dust filters and a relatively low purchase price. The manufacturer offers a white and a black version as color variants. The price for the ADATA XPG Valor Air is currently € 68.49 *. Whether it's worth it, you’ll find out in this review.

XPG packs the Valor Air in a cardboard box made of simple brown cardboard. In addition, schematic drawings of the midi tower as well as all the technical specifications and the most relevant features have been printed on the cardboard box with black paint. Inside the cardboard box, XPG wraps the Valor Air with two blocks of regular Styrofoam and a sheet of plastic.

XPG stows the accessories inside the case, or rather there above the power supply compartment. The accessories package includes the HDD cage, which is not pre-installed, a bag with all mounting materials, an installation guide, and some black cable ties. Also included are four pre-installed 120mm fans and three dust filters.

Unpacking the ADATA XPG Valor Air, one immediately notices the fairly light weight as well as the significantly reduced depth of the midi-tower. We’ll see in the next chapters where cutbacks are made or where this leads to problems.

On the ADATA XPG Valor Air, things start off right on the front panel with a mix of simple elegance and a hint of gaming. This look is achieved by a panel made of plastic, to which a steel plate has been glued, which in turn has been provided with large ventilation slots. XPG itself speaks of a streamline carving design. The red XPG logo can also be seen in the lower left area. If you remove the magnetically attached front panel using the thumbscrew, you get a clear view of a fine dust filter with magnets as well as the three pre-installed 120 mm fans.

Typical of modern midi-towers, the lid on the Valor Air is also airy in design. A large fan opening with mounting points for two 120mm and 140mm fans allows warm air to be blown out or cool air to be drawn in. To filter the air, XPG implements a mesh dust filter with magnetic mount here. The I/O panel has been aligned on the right side and has two USB-A 3.0 ports, two jacks for headphones and microphone, respectively, and two buttons for power (with a white power LED) and reset (with a red HDD LED). You still have to do without USB-C in this price range.

The left side panel of the Valor Air is mainly made of tempered glass. However, it only spans about 80% of the left side. The remaining portion is made of steel and is part of the power supply compartment at the bottom of the midi tower. The tempered glass was glued to a steel frame for easier mounting, which is attached to the rear with two thumbscrews. The right side panel is made of steel, but a very thin material thickness was chosen for it. For this, knurled screws are also used here and the panel has a recessed grip.

The back of the Valor Air has a classic design. The mounting position of the power supply can be found in the bottom area. Above it, there are seven reusable slot bezels, which is not always common in this price range, as well as the fourth case fan in 120mm format. There is relatively little space above the fan. This could well complicate the installation of a radiator in the lid.

The Valor Air gets a secure stand from four rubberized feet made of black plastic. In addition, a mesh filter mat and mounting rails for the HDD cage can be seen on the underside. Unfortunately, the filter mat is only locked via steel lugs. This makes removal and cleaning a bit more complicated.

As you can already guess from the outside, things are a bit more compact inside the Valor Air. For example, the mostly flat motherboard tray is surrounded by six cable management openings, but is barely wider than a classic ATX board. On the right side, however, there is an elevation behind which the cable channel is hidden.

Since the Valor Air was built so short, it should be obvious that no hard drives can be accommodated in the front area of the main chamber. Instead, there is a clear path for airflow from the three pre-mounted front fans. The fan in the rear then moves the heated air back outside.

If you lower your gaze, the power supply panel immediately catches your eye. This almost completely covers the lower area, but has numerous ventilation openings on the upper side. If you look closely, you can also see eight holes for fan screws. However, the manufacturer doesn't provide any further information about this and the necessary screws aren't part of the scope of delivery. Finally, there is a recess in the area behind the front, which allows the installation of radiators.

Below the PSU cover, one encounters an empty tunnel without an HDD cage from the factory. The PSU can be placed at the rear end of the tunnel and rests on four thin foam rubber platforms for decoupling. In front of the PSU, the included HDD cage can be mounted by sliding it under the corresponding retaining lugs. Afterwards, it is fixed with a thumbscrew. Due to the small depth, you should choose a correspondingly short power supply with the HDD cage installed.

Otherwise, there are a handful of eyelets for cable ties on the back of the motherboard tray, a cutout in the motherboard tray for the backplate of large CPU coolers as well as the already mentioned cable channel. This is about 1 centimeter deeper than the mainboard tray, so a total of 2.5 centimeters deep. There is only 1.6 centimeters of space directly behind the motherboard tray. This is quite little space for thicker cables.

The Valor Air also has to make do without data carriers. Thus, two 2.5″ SSDs can be mounted behind the mainboard tray and two 3.5″ hard drives or one 3.5″ and one 2.5″ in the HDD cage. The mounting is always undecoupled and requires the use of tools.

If you compare the size of the Valor Air to its weight, it quickly becomes clear that XPG must have cut back on the steel thickness. This is particularly noticeable in the side panel as well as in the torsional rigidity of the body without attachments. However, the paint and general build quality are okay for a case in this price range. There are no sharp edges or noticeable paint defects. On the other hand, the full-fledged slot covers, which don't have to be broken out, are praiseworthy.

Now we come to the system installation in the ADATA XPG Valor Air test. For hardware, we’re using a AMD Ryzen 5 1400 on a ASUS TUF Gaming B550M-Plus with 16GB Crucial Ballistix Sport LT gray DDR4-2666. The Ryzen is cooled by a Alpenföhn Brocken 4 and is overclocked to 3.8 GHz (1.175 V). A GTX 1060 6GB from Gigabyte AORUS is responsible for the image output. The power supply is handled by the fully modular LC-Power LC550 V2.31 Platinum.

Despite the compact interior, the installation of all components was done quickly and did not lead to any problems. A large part of the spacers was already pre-installed, for all others XPG includes a practical nut for screwing in the accessories. Depending on the power supply or its cable design, the cabling can get a bit trickier. There is only really a lot of space in the cable channel, and it is not particularly large. The installation of sleeved cables could be quite a challenge. At least the power supply compartment offers enough space to hide superfluous cables. The overall result looks clean and tidy.

The compact dimensions are also partially reflected in the hardware compatibility. Where 166 millimeters are relatively lush for CPU coolers and are enough for even stronger high-end coolers, 305 millimeters (with front fan) are rather borderline little for graphics cards these days. With a front radiator, the maximum length is even shorter. A maximum of 360 mm radiator is supported, which should not exceed a depth of 35 millimeters. Finally, the PSU should not be longer than 180 millimeters if the HDD cage is to be used.

XPG installs four XPG Vento 120 fans with a frame width of 120 millimeters each in the Valor Air ex-works. The design of the fans is extremely simple: black frame, black fan blades and a black connection cable with a practical Y-switch. In addition, all eight corners have gray decoupling rubbers. XPG specifies 450 to 1600 rpm as the speed range of the fans. Our specimens spun between 600 and 1500 RPM.

Lastly, we come to the temperatures that were reached in the ADATA XPG Valor Air. During the stress test, Prime95 and FurMark were run for 15 minutes at a room temperature of 20 °C. Furthermore, the test was performed with two different fan speeds.

The measurement results immediately show that the four pre-installed case fans, depending on the speed, can unfold their potential well. At minimum speed, the temperatures jump up a bit, but do not reach critical values. In return, the system remains very quiet and the background noise is also kept within limits. Between 800 and 1200 revolutions, the fan noise unfortunately increases and at maximum speed, the fans make quite a bit of wind, but are clearly audible due to the air noise. However, the achieved temperatures can be described as very good.

The XPG Valor Air knows how to convince in many areas. For example, despite its compact dimensions, it offers space for full-fledged ATX motherboards as well as power supplies and large CPU coolers. It also comes with three dust filters and four rock-solid 120 mm case fans ex works. The overall package is rounded off by a glass side window and an attractively designed front panel made of steel, which ensures a high airflow and behind which RGB fans should also look good.

It should be clear that with such a collection of features, some sacrifices have to be made. Among other things, the ADATA XPG Valor Air has cut back on the material thickness of the side panel and certain body elements. Furthermore, the shallow depth of the Valor Air automatically means that a maximum of 305 millimeters long graphics cards will fit when a fan is installed in the front. The lack of a USB-C port in the I/O panel is a shame, but it is still unusual in this price range.

Finally, the price of only € 68.49 * has to be remembered. If you’re aware of the ADATA XPG Valor Air's trade-offs and don't plan on installing particularly long graphics cards, this especially compact midi tower is a good case with an excellent price/performance ratio.

The ADATA XPG Valor Air is a particularly compact midi tower that impresses with four pre-installed fans, a chic look and mostly good hardware compatibility. However, you have to make concessions in terms of material thickness and the maximum space for graphics cards.

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