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The Okinos Aqua Uno is a small footprint fishtank case that comes in a good variety of colors. This case is very openly and honestly designed for budget or at most mid-range builds. They say prominently on the listing and product page that this build supports no watercooling radiators, and GPUs only up to 309mm, with ITX or mATX supported motherboards. That immediately eliminates the most robust, powerful, expensive hardware from being compatible. So with all that in mind we reviewed this from a framework of looking for a budget to mid-range build.
Now that that's covered, let's go over the same thing we always mention first; the packaging. Like other Okinos products we've reviewed in teh past, no issues whatsoever to report here. The cardboard box itself is thick, sturdy, and reliable. Double layered cardboard surrounds custom styrofoam inserts to carefully and safely cradle the case inside, which is also wrapped in a protective plastic bag to prevent scuffs or scratches during shipping. The case itself shows an exploded diagram with all the panels pulled away from the frame, and all the good technical info one would want on the box. Only thing missing is color, as it's all black print on brown cardboard, but they cut the budget on trivial things like this to deliver a better product inside.
First impressions after taking it out of the case were very good. The front corner where glass meets glass is a very tight seem and the case itself is very sturdy. We've handled MUCH more expensive cases with the fishtank style that do not come across nearly as sturdy. Even with the panels removed there is very little flex in the top and back. Part of that is size, less room to flex in the first place, but it still feels very sturdy.
Plastered right on the front of the case is a placard telling you the key features of the case. This is a very nice touch for Okinos, so that if their cases are on retail shelves somewhere, this sticker will outline the key details in a very nice looking way. This mostly makes up for the sparce design and bare specs printed on the outside of the box.
We ordered the "Canary" color, black and yellow, and the color is a very nice, vibrant show. This also comes in Black (all black), Polar (all white), Scarlet (black and red), Zebra (black and white), Yolk (white and yellow), and Silverback (black and silver). The Canary matches in reality what the photos looked like online. If all the photos match reality as well as the Canary, then it's a good mix of color options, more than most cases available lately.
Taking off the panels we get a look at the interior of the case. Inside the main body of the case we see the three Okinos fans, pre-installed in their preferred orientation. Let's look at these first.
These are two of their "annex" fans and one "main" fan. It's unclear what this means on the product page. So let's investigate.
In practice, what this means is the two annex fans have only a single 4-pin connector that has a daisy chain connector. This is neither a standard 4-pin PWN nor RGB connector, but some molex connector quite a bit less universal. The main fan has this same connector, plus a SATA power connector, a 5050 ARGB header, and a button header pre-connected to the case's reset switch.
In practice, this means the fans will only ever spin at one speed. We found this speed to be adequate, not too loud. But it's still very disappointing that they cannot use any header to control speed intelligently. The fans are chained together out of the box to make it simpler, and this setup no doubt cuts down the cost, but it's still not the best setup.
We don't like proprietary connectors. And we don't like fans that cannot be intelligently adjusted based on component temperature. This, like things noted earlier, is very heavily indicative of a system that cannot handle any high performance parts. Would very much like this to be noted clearly in the listing somewhere like the other things are.
When using and testing these fans, we found that the "main" fan has a built in ARGB controller. Pressing the case's reset button cycles through static colors (white by default out of the box) and then a small number of preset patterns (rainbows, flashing, etc.) before cycling back to white. If you press and hold this button for about 3 seconds, the lights flash and switch over to 5050 mode, where control over the lights is given over to whatever the 5050 header is plugged into (usually the motherboard). This is actually the best way to control lights like this, especially in a budget case where the build may not have native ARGB support. You don't lock the user into any one option, and give them a free solution for choosing a lighting profile instead of needing to buy any extra adapters.
As a final note on the fans, if you set an option you want to stay with or switch to 5050 mode, you can unplug the reset switch. The fans will remember the last setting, even after power off and restart cycles, so that you can use the reset switch for resetting the computer, if so desired.
Speaking of the reset switch, we'll look at the rest of the front panel header next. We've got a power button, a power LED, a combo Mic/Headphone aux port, one USB 3.0 Type-A, and a USB Type-C header on the front of the case. The Type C is labelled "5Gbps". This hints at the best outcome, where a Type C and a Type A are both split onto a USB 3.0 19-pin header. This does limit USB Type-C speeds from the 10 or 20 gbps on the Type-E connectors, but it does make a more convenient build experience, and save in the budget. A budget build like this doesn't need the fastest available speed on a port, typically. Making the call for a cheaper front end assembly is 100% the right call, in our book.
Only two minor complaints is the power LED is blue, and blue only, which clashes with the yellow profile of the case, and the front audio connector is a combo jack, which makes it less convenient for someone plugging in anything other than a headset with built-in mic. The audio jack is understandable as a common cost saving feature, but the LED would have been a nice touch to make yellow. Yellow LEDs don't cost differently than blue, just a possible bulk discount as the cost to order one color in enough quantity for 7 cases would be less than ordering 7 colors in for 7 different cases. Still, blue is an odd choice as it doesn't match any of the colors, whereas white would directly match 3 of the cases, cost the same as blue, and at least not clash with any of the other colors (red, black, and yellow) like blue does. Again, just a minor complaint.
Besides the front panel connectors, the accessories bag is also here. Inside are the screws necessary for everything this case supports, a handful of cable ties for cable management, a standoff tool if you need to move or remove the pre-installed standoffs, and two replaceable PCIe slot covers. This is a nice touch so that if you remove some of the breakaways, you can fill those holes if you later reconfigure the build. Nothing fancy or unexpected here otherwise, but good standard loadout.
Looking more closely within the back panel, we find the manual. A large, fold-out paper manual like this isn't even included in every high dollar case, so it's good to see in a budget build. Nothing too unexpected there, mostly details the specs seen on the outside of the box and on the product page, just a nice to have. We prefer to be able to avoid needing to look things up online, and this delivers that.
This case supports up to one 3.5" HDD drive and up to one 2.5" HDD or SSD drive. The SSD mounting solution is somewhat novel, with two steel pegs that slip somewhat firmly into the side mounting points of your drive, and then two holes at the bottom of the CPU plate cutout. This lets you mount your drive with only 2 screws while still having a fully secure drive. The worst part about this is the very tight clearance for your SATA power connector, which we found to be somewhat concerning.
The other thing to note is the cable management track on the bottom rear of the case. This is the classic, best route to secure your CPU power cable. There's a cutout right there, begging to be used. But... it's protruding to the outside of the case. For... some reason. This would be the perfect tie down point for this cable if only it was pointed inside instead of outside.
All the rest of the cable management is pretty well thought out and delivers more than expected in this small budget package. Plenty of room in the front side channel, pre-installed velcro tie downs, good places to attach cable ties, and adequate space to fit cables without stressing the back panel. Just this one small point of contention doesn't take away all the good cable management this case offers.
Only other issue is there's no intake. The bottom, front and back side have intake filtration cut into the case, but NOWHERE to mount a fan. This case relies 100% on passive intake and exhaust out the top/rear, which is a recipe for a lot of dust getting inside the case and mediocre cooling performance.
Overall the build experience in this case is great. Despite the small form factor, just about everything is very well thought out and placed. The top mounted fans are spaced a bit away from the motherboard to not pinch fingers, the PCIe power access is perfectly placed, and the side, top, and bottom cable access holes are nicely spaced out to make no cable path we found be too tight.
Building in it is a breeze. One of the better experiences on the smaller side of mATX builds, and we would highly recommend this case to a beginner who wants a smaller build.
Everything considered, Okinos is still putting out banger budget cases.
Really, it's another winner on the budget space. Good color options, cable management, and build experience. Mostly the only problems with this case is the cooling. If the fans included were controllable, and there was somewhere, anywhere, to dedicate intake, this would be a 5 star case.
For $50 with the understanding that it's a budget case designed for a budget build, it's a great value still, if that's what you're looking for, and you can read all about the more technical specs or order your own on Amazon here.
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