We take a look at GAMDIAS Apollo E2 Elite alongside the CPU Cooler Boreas M1 610, find out if its worth getting or not In 2022.

Texon-Ware has recently launched GAMDIAS in Pakistan. Texon-Ware has introduced a complete range of products from GAMDIAS including coolers, cases, PSUs, and Gaming furniture, and peripherals. They have sent us the Apollo E2 Elite and Boreas M1 610 air coolers for testing.

The salient features of Apollo E2 Elite include:

The salient features of Boreas M1 610 include:

The chassis is shipped inside a standard brown color cardboard box.

Salient features of the case are:

Following are included in the box:

There is no user manual provided in the case. The user can download that from their website.

The cooler is shipped inside a colorful packing box which I must say, is quite attractive and it draws one’s attention quickly

The specifications and contents of the box are printed here along with the ARGB lighting info.

The yellow color scheme is quite effective. The ARGB lighting on the cooler is compatible with the motherboard onboard lighting headers from various manufacturers.

Same information but in black background.

Here is what GAMDIAS is saying about the chassis, “The APOLLO E2 Elite’s internal volume is 15% larger than it’s predecessor, capable of supporting high-end CPU coolers, VGA cards up to 340mm and PSU up to 180mm long. An additional 3 Slot Vertical VGA Slot is also now available.

The APOLLO E2 Elite inherits the same front dual 200mm ARGB Trio ring fans and with the newly added swinging tempered glass side panel is out to impress. Superfluous airflow from the giant front fans delivers the cooling performance needed for the most powerful gaming setups. Handy I/O port on the top of the case featuring an ARGB fans control button, allowing you to cycle through all the lighting effects by simply pressing a button.

A 3-sec hold of the button will sync the fans to your RGB motherboard 5v 3-pin. A high-speed USB 3.0, two USB 2.0 ports, an HD audio jack, and a power button can also be found on the I/O port.”

The GAMDIAS APOLLO E2 ELITE is a compact mid-tower case available in black color. It has a dimension of 392x260x467mm. It is made of steel, plastic, and tempered glass. The chassis has a net weight of 6.6Kg.

Let’s start by taking a closer look at the exterior of the chassis.

We have a tempered glass panel on the front side which is fixed on the front plastic frame. We can spot the 2x 200mm A-RGB fans behind the tinted glass. The fans have a dual-ring design offering a stunning lighting effect during operation.

Put your hand on the underneath section of the front panel and pull to take it off. Be gentle as not to break anything. We can see the rail system behind the 200mm fans for easy installation and height adjustment of the fans. There are three cutouts on the right side. The cables are routed from the middle cutout to the backside of the case. We can’t regulate the speed of these fans.

The above picture shows the inside of the front panel. There is no dust filter on the front side. GAMDIAS branding is in white color at the base of the glass.

The GAMDIAS APOLLO E2 ELITE has a tempered glass panel on the side. The thickness of the panel seems to be 3mm so take care during handling. The panel is not tinted. Kudos to the GAMDIAS design team for the easy handling of the side panel. The panel is hinged hence the glass will simply swing instead of falling out. It has two powerful magnets to attach to the frame of the case. Another cool design is the hook style to pull the panel out.

There is a metallic hook door handle on the glass panel. The hook ring can be opened and sit in plain sight with the base of the handle. I appreciate the attention to detail here.

The above picture shows the swing style thanks to hinges on the frame of the case. It makes the life of the user/builder easier.

There are two magnets on the front side of the side panel to firmly secure it with the steel frame of the case.

We have a standard layout on the rear. There is a cutout for the IO shield of the motherboard. On its right, there is a vented area for the 120mm/140 fan mount. One non-RGB 120mm fan is preinstalled. There is no height adjustment for the fan.

We have7+3 design which would definitely catch the eye as this case has 3 vertical PCIe slots to vertical mount. There are 7x PCIe slots in the horizontal layout. The slot covers are not reusable and they need to be snapped off before the graphics card installation. These slots are implemented with raised ends outside of the chassis. There is a PCIe cover secured using a 1x thumb screw. You would need to lose the cover to install/remove the PCIe devices.

The non-glass side panel is secured using 2x thumb screws which are not captive. There is an ATX PSU mount on the bottom.

There is a removable non-magnetic dust filter under the PSU vented portion. The black color feet give sufficient lift to the chassis from the bottom for better ventilation.

There are two button-head screws. These can be removed to take out the HDD cage.

Looking at the top side, there is a vented portion on the right side with a magnetic dust filter. We have 120mm/140mm fan mounts (rail system for placement adjustment) here. The front IO panel is also located on the top section. One good aspect is that GAMDIAS has implemented the top mounting in an offset design making more room towards the motherboard tray. This will give more RAM height clearance.

I/O panel is located on the top frame of the chassis. Following connectivity options are on the I/O panel.

The side panel is made of steel. It is finished in black color.

The side panel has two dents. One is in the middle and one is towards the left base. I am not sure if it is a quality control issue or something happened during shipping. There is no sign of any hit or damage on the packing box.

The above picture shows the side of the front panel. We have large cutouts in the frame. This is done to make some room for air-intake. The fans sit closer to the glass. In my opinion, this would not help with the air intake and this is a classy air-restrictive design on the front. Surely, the 2x 200mm fans give us a hint as to why they are there!

Let’s take a look at the interior of the chassis.

The inner frame’s height is 340mm and its length is 350mm. Clearly, we are dealing with a compact design here. Overall tooling is pretty basic and standard. The PSU shroud has a large cutout on the side to show the side of the PSU.

Only 6x standoffs are pre-installed. To make things more complicated, GAMDIAS has not provided a socket wrench in the accessory box to install the remaining 3x standoffs for ATX size motherboards. The case can souse mini-ITX, micro-ATX, and ATX size motherboards.

We have a large size cutout to install the CPU cooler conveniently. There are two large-size cutouts on the top to pass the EPS and other cables. Then there are 2x cutouts in vertical layout on the right side of the motherboard tray. The far-right area is not usable from this side as 2.5” drives can be installed on this area but from the backside.

There is a 35mm gap between the top of the chassis frame and the motherboard’s top. Similarly, there is a displacement of 45mm from the fan/radiator mount to the side of the chassis. This displacement shows the compatibility with respect to the RAM height. The case has support for 240mm and 280mm on the top.

The PSU shroud has a vented cover. We can see 120 and 140mm fan mounting holes but GAMDIAS has not mentioned anything about the fan placement on the PSU shroud and clearance as such. This is yet another factor giving a hint of standard tooling. We have two cutouts near the motherboard tray to pass the cables through.

There is a black color non-RGB 120mm fan on the rear. The fan has a 3-pin connector to power it.

The case has a 7+3 PCIe slot design. The covers are not reusable. This is a let-down and I am seeing a lot of other cases in this price range coming with the same design. Some of the cases have two reusable covers which is a bit better implementation than no reusable covers. The 3x PCIe slots sit closer to the glass panel. This could have thermal implications on the graphics card. Also, note that there is no riser bracket or cable provided with the case.

The above picture shows the close-up of the front fan mount provision. We have a rail mount system which is good but this mount is a bit flimsy so take care when installing the radiator/fan there. The pre-installed Rainbow RGB 200mm fans have a dual loop for some brilliant RGB lighting.

The pre-installed 200m fans are using Hydraulic bearing and have a current rating of 0.2A with a power rating of 2.4W at 12VDC. This is for the fan’s motor only. There is no A-RGB LEDs power rating mentioned. The fans are designed in Taiwan and manufactured in China.

There is a 38mm gap on the PSU shroud upfront. The 360mm radiator mount would be convenient using this gap. Though we have tight space constraints in the lower chamber where the PSU mount and HDD cage are. Since the cage can’t be relocated so this gap is definitely for the radiator only.

Following is the support for the cooling in this case:

Let’s take a look at the other side of the chassis.

The GAMDIAS APOLLO E2 ELITE is a compact mid-tower chassis. The above picture shows the side after opening for the first time. The cables are tucked and secured on the cable tie points. We have roughly 15mm cable management space.

The above picture shows the side with a bit more clarity. We have a total of 11 cable tie points. The user can install up to 3x 2.5” drives. There is a 2.5” drive bracket on the back of the motherboard tray. This is a dual-chamber layout.

The lower chamber has an HDD cage and a PSU mount. We have the following clearance for the PSU with the cables:

PSU length limitation is specified as 180mm.

There is no tool-less mounting in the HDD Cage as there is no caddy provided. The user can install 1x 3.5” drive and 1x 2.5” drive (on top) or 2x 3.5” drives in the HDD cage.

We have the following cables coming out of the front IO panel:

The IO panel has an RGB controller which is powered by a SATA connector.

The cables of the front-mounted 200mm fans are daisy-chained. The A-RGB cables are using proprietary connectors.

GAMDIAS has provided a standard 3-pin A-RGB connector along with the GDV labeled connector. This connector is for older GIGABYTE motherboards.

Here is what GAMDIAS is saying about the cooler. “BOREAS is the VERY FIRST Air-Cooler Series to ever be produced at GAMDIAS. Not only does the M1-610 model retain an exceptional Thermal Conductivity & Airflow Control via its Extra-Thick Aluminum Base Plate, 6 Copper Heat-Pipes with integrated Direct Contact Technology, Uniquely Engineered Y-Shaped Fan Case Cover, and a PWM Case-Fan, the M1 is also capable of initiating its very own RGB Motherboard Synchronization alongside the software designated to the Motherboard for a myriad of LED customizations.

With his superior performance and elegant demeanor, BOREAS will be joining the ranks of your grand fleet while bringing the Winter back into battlefields alongside him!”

The cooler has a dimension of 123.9x76x162.9mm. It is compatible with AMD AM4/AM3+/AM3/AM2+/AM2/FM2+/FM2/FM1 sockets. On the Intel side, it is compatible with LGA20xx, 115x, 1200, and 775 sockets.

The cooler has a single 120mm dual-ring A-RGB fan on the front. We have housing in a black color covering the entire and the top.

The fan is using Hydraulic bearings and is rated for up to 2600 RPM speed with a healthy air pressure rating of 3.9 mmH₂O and air pressure of 74 CFM. The noise rating is up to 32 dBA. We have found this fan making more noise at a higher speed roughly reaching 54 dBA at an ambient of 32 dBA.

The black color frame is not covering the sides of the heatsink entirely. We have a dense heatsink with an overall height of 162.9mm. The fins are joined together on the sides of the heatsink. The heatsink combined with the frame has an offset design to provide maximum RAM clearance.

The cooler packs 6x copper heat pipes which are in nickel coating inside the heatsink whereas they are in their natural color on the base.

The base of the cooler shows the heat pipes making direct contact with the CPU. There is a gap between any two pipes making it non-continuous direct contact. The aluminum base also has a surface area for heat dissipation.

There are two tabs on the housing which can be rotated to secure the frame to the heatsink. They can be rotated otherwise to release the frame from the heatsink and sliding it upward would separate the frame from the heatsink.

The top of the frame has an angular and cutout design which speaks for itself. We have diffusers running on the sides giving the cooler a vivid presentation.

The 120mm fan is enclosed in the frame. In case the fan develops any fault, the complete frame or otherwise the cooler needs to be RMAed which is definitely not a good design.

The fan is powered by a 4-pin PWM connector whereas the A-RGB LED lighting has a standard 3-pin connector.

The installation of the cooler is quite simple. We need to place the backplate on the socket area behind the motherboard.

Next, we need to install the socket’s compatible brackets to the base of the cooler and after putting some thermal paste on the CPU, place the cooler on the CPU by aligning the spring-loaded screws on the brackets with the standoffs on the backplate and secure the cooler.

Rest is the connectivity of the cables and you are done. You would need to take off the frame from the heatsink before the installation.

We started with snapping off the number two and third PCIe slot covers. Then, we needed to install 3x standoffs. Thankfully, we are equipped with proper tools. GAMDIAS has not provided any socket wrench for the standoff installation which is required.

Then the motherboard was installed. This was an easy task and the rear fan did not obstruct the motherboard’s rear I/O panel’s shroud. We installed the GAMDIAS BOREAS M1 610 coolers and the T-Force NIGHTHAWK RGB 16GB DDR4 RAM out of the case.

One of the key points is the EPS cable. Since we have installed the cooler out of the case, it restricts the space available to connect the EPS connector. Since we have used a modular PSU, we connected the EPS cable to the motherboard out of the case as well and pass it through the top left cutout during the motherboard’s installation.

PSU was an easy installation. The cables were routed easily as well though we may run into tight space for the extra cables particularly when the PSU is not modular. We have a space-constrained area in the lower chamber. If you are not using any HDD and don’t need an HDD cage then we recommend taking it out to make some room for the cables.

We connected the front panel system cables, USB and HD Audio cables before installing the graphics card.

The graphics card was installed. I would suggest connecting the SATA cables to the motherboard before the graphics card’s installation.

We did not do any cable management as we wanted to see if we can close the side panel as it is. The panel closed without any trouble.

The above is a picture of the test build with a quick power-on test for the POST.

Here are some pics of the build.

Following test build has been used for thermal testing:

Noctua NT-H1 is used on the CPU IHS. ASUS RealBench 2.56 and MSI KOMBUSTOR 4 are used to stress the CPU and Graphics card. Following configurations have been tested and reported in the graph:

Please note that we can’t regulate the speed of the pre-installed fans. The cooler’s fan was set to run at AUTO PWM. The rest of the settings were on Auto, Stock in the UEFI/BIOS. A stress test of 30 minutes was done with an idle time of 10 minutes. System was powered off between all runs for a minimum of 30 minutes as well.

Let’s take a look at the results.

The ambient temperature was 26°C. We have reported absolute temperature. The average of the CPU cores temperature values was taken. The difference of the CPU temperature with and without the front panel is 2.1°C which is within the acceptable margin.

So, in terms of the CPU cooling with an air cooler airflow restriction is not that aggressive. For graphics card, the result is the opposite. We are seeing a 6°C delta between both configurations. The narrow gap between the front glass and the mesh dust filter is affecting the temperatures overall. Part of it seems to be coming from the low static pressure, and low airflow-oriented fans.

The BOREAS M1 610 has performed well keeping the Intel i9 9900k at 4.7GHz using 1.27V cool reasonably. The fan was not operating at their full speed either. The fan is very loud at the full speed making 55 dBA sound on an ambient of 32 dBA. At its full speed, it was the only factor contributing to the high noise output of the case.

The GAMDIAS APOLLO E2 ELITE is a mid-tower chassis available in black color. This is our first ever product from GAMDIAS. Texon-Ware has launched this brand in full bloom here covering almost all of their product lines. The chassis has a dimension of 392x230x467mm. It is made of steel, plastic, and tempered glass.

The chassis has a net weight of 6.6Kg. The chassis supports the motherboard up to standard ATX size with some good provisions for the cooling gear and the storage.

One of the key highlights is the tempered glass on the side and front panels to showcase your build. Another feature is the provision of 2x Rainbow RGB 200mm fans on the front. The next keynote is the hinged side panel for easier handling of the Tempered glass along with the magnetic door closing. Lastly, the case has onboard RGB controller.

Following are the fan mounting possibilities:

Following is the radiator mounting support:

In terms of filtration, we have a magnetic dust filter on the top and a non-magnetic dust filter on the bottom. There is no dust filter on the front. Since we have a glass panel on the front and the fans sit closer to the panel, the case has an airflow restricted design despite having large cutouts on the sides of the front panel.

The PCIe slots are in 7+3 configuration but the slot covers are not reusable. Also, the 3 vertical slots sit closer to the glass panel. There is no riser support bracket nor riser cable provided with the case.

There is a bit of flex in the motherboard tray but nothing too flimsy to highlight. The front rail and the top mounting rails are not fragile. The back panel has two dents on it. Still, the overall build quality is better than we have seen on a few other brands recently.

The speed of front fans can’t be regulated which is a let-down in my opinion. GAMDIAS is using proprietary connectors for the A-RGB though they have provided a support cable with a standard 3-pin 5V A-RGB connector. The user can connect the fans to the supported motherboards or use the onboard, pre-programmed lighting effects.

The GAMDIAS BOREAS M1 610 is an air cooler with 6 copper heat pipes and dense aluminum fins (not soldered). The cooler is using the direct contact method. The cooler has a black color housing with stunning A-RGB lighting on the top and on the encapsulated 120mm A-RGB fan with dual-ring lighting.

The cooler is compatible with almost all leading sockets from both camps excluding the TR4/xTR4. The installation is relatively easier as well. The fan is encapsulated in the housing. This implies that in case the fan develops a fault, the complete cooler would need to be replaced, or at least the plastic housing would need replacement. Since there are no clips provided with the cooler, say goodbye to your chance of using any other on this cooler.

Another important observation is the lack of an Ecosystem. We just can’t connect the BOREAS M1 610 A-RGB lighting to the APOLLO E2 Elite as one single (simple cable) cable is not provided to connect them. BOREAS has a standard 3-pin A-RGB connector whereas APOLLO E2 ELITE has proprietary connectors. There is a standard 3-pin A-RGB cable that can be used on the motherboard.

Build experience inside the APOLLO E2 ELITE was smooth and easy though your mileage would vary depending upon the configuration. We have tested the chassis using air cooler and reference design graphics card. Airflow is restricted in this case. The PCIe slot covers are not reusable and they need to be snapped off before the motherboard’s installation. 3x standoffs were required to be installed for which no socket wrench is provided.

The GAMDIAS APOLLO E2 ELITE is retailing at around Rs.13,850/- and BOREAS M1 610 at Rs. 6800/- at the time of the review. This is a good price point for the features set offered by the case and the cooler albeit with certain overlooks and restricted airflow. At the end of the day, this chassis would serve its purpose in quite a style. The cooler was able to tame the i9 9900k at 4.7GHz using 1.27V with a maximum temperature of 74°C. This was obtained without the full speed of the fan. The temperature could have been bettered but the fan is quite loud at full speed so keep that in mind.

We are grateful to GAMDIAS Pakistan for the provision of APOLLO E2 Elite and M1 610 for review.

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