We’ll begin the exterior tour with a look at the front panel area of the Raidmax Raptor. There are two vertical “Wings” attached to each side of the Raptor. Both wings have been decked out with an upper and lower rudder with red accents. The wings serve no practical purpose other than to provide aesthetic value. Looks are obviously subjective to one personal taste, but personally I’m so-so about the looks of these wings. I did notice however, that these wings are removable by relieving a few screws located on the back side of the front panel.

The bottom area of the front panel is comprised of a louvered design and has a 120 mm LED fan located behind it. There is an option to add an additional 120 mm fan if desired.

The top area of the front panel is home to the three 5.25″ drive bay covers. The covers are a snap to remove by just sliding the lever to release.

The left side of the Raidmax Raptor has a stamped design applied to the panel, and a large mesh area capable of accepting an optional 120 mm or 180 mm fan.

The right side of the Raptor has the same design stamping as the left, but without the mesh area.

The rear of the Raidmax Raptor features a bottom mount power supply opening, and seven red ventilated expansion slot covers on the lower section. There are three rubber grommet holes for a water cooling system’s tubes to pass through, and an included 120 mm black exhaust fan.

As you can see by the pictures below, each side panel is equipped with a handle to assist in removal.Additionally, each panel is attached with two thumb screws.

The top of the Raimax Raptor has some unique qualities incorporated into the design. The front area has the power and reset buttons, the HDD activity and power LEDs, and the fan speed control knobs for the built in fan controller. Just behind that is two USB 2.0 ports, one USB 3.0 port, and the headphone/MIC jacks.

The rest of the top panel area is made up of what Raidmax calls the “Airfoil Top Panel” design. While the design is appealing to the eye, my first impressions were that it hinders air flow to the top panel fans. Fans are designed to gather air flow in a straight pattern, but the Airfoil design will force the fans to grab air from a side direction. The fans will undoubtedly have to work harder to draw air through the Airfoil design. Much of this issue could have been avoided by adding a much larger mesh area to top of each Airfoil.

Concluding our exterior tour is a quick look at the bottom of the Raidmax Raptor. The four feet are outfitted with rubber strips to aid in anti vibration qualities as well as protecting the surface the case sits on. Also at the bottom of the case is a slide out filter for the power supply’s intake fan.