Sharkoon rgb flow review in Spanish (full analysis)

The minimalist chassis and with clean lines are in fashion, and the Sharkoon RGB Flow is what the manufacturer proposes for the final stretch of 2019. A mid-tower chassis that opts for a directional front and side lighting perfectly integrated behind the tempered glass compatible with all major board technologies.

It is a very economical chassis and good finishes that supports up to 6 fans of 120 mm, as well as RL AIO of 240 mm. As well as high-end hardware and up to 4 SSDs and 2 HDDs from the factory with quite optimized space and used compared to other entry-level chassis.

We will see what this chassis offers us, but before we must thank Sharkoon for his trust in professional Review when he gave us this chassis to analyze it thoroughly.

Sharkoon RGB Flow technical characteristics

Unboxing

This Sharkoon RGB Flow is presented to us in a neutral cardboard box painted in black and white as usual in manufacturer's boxes. On the two main faces we have the same: a sketch of the box and some of its main characteristics and capacity. To this we add a table of benefits in several languages in the side area.

So we open the box to see that the chassis comes inside a plastic bag and between two corks of expanded polystyrene (white cork). Nothing especially striking for the sole purpose of having a top plate of this material to protect the front, a great detail.

The chassis bundle has the following elements:

Sharkoon RGB Flow box Instructions Bag with screws

The rest of the cables for lighting control are already pre-installed in the chassis, which makes our work easier.

Exterior design

And of course, one of the main reasons to buy a chassis is the design, and this Sharkoon RGB Flow is at a great level for the price at which it has come onto the market. It is dominated by simple and minimalist lines that make up a completely rectangular chassis on all its faces and without an aggressive front as in other cases. We will see that its lighting section is very original and complete for this price range.

The format used is the standard half-tower, with quite wide measurements in depth and height, with 424 mm and 481 mm respectively, although a little narrow for what we are used to, with 206 mm that will limit the ability to install fans bigger than 120 mm. The empty weight is 6 Kg, which is also low for these measurements considering that it has glass. This means that the chassis will not be the most robust precisely.

We start with an in-depth study of the design with the left side, which of course has tempered glass that occupies only the main compartment, with a design and installation similar to that of NZXT. This glass has darkened frames for integrating a metal frame that serves to attach it to the chassis, and fix it with two screws on the back. And we liked this a lot, since it greatly improves aesthetics by not having visible screws.

But on that side, stuck to the inside cover of the PSU we see a white strip that is obviously RGB lighting. Very subtle and perfectly integrated in this area, it will give us good lighting as we will see later.

The right side area of the Sharkoon RGB Flow is occupied by a completely opaque sheet metal and painted in matt black. In this case they have also innovated in the installation, since the grips are made with 4 internal screws integrated into the chassis and later two manual thread screws hold the sheet behind to prevent it from falling out. However, we would have preferred it to be a traditional system, since it is a little more tedious in its placement and the aesthetic result does not vary.

We deal with the front, one that is made of hard plastic in matt black. In it we see another perfectly integrated lighting strip, which separates an open area for the passage of air and another closed one.

In this case it is not a completely removable front, since we have the lighting strip integrated into it. This front supports three 120mm fans with one already pre-installed. If we go inside, we will see the corresponding magnetic medium grain dust filter that will stop the larger dust spots. Physically there is no space available to install the fans on the outside, so we will have to choose to place them inside.

We now continue with the upper area of the Sharkoon RGB Flow, which has the I / O panel in the most forward part through a plastic frame. In the rest of the area we have a huge opening that supports 120 and 140 mm fans as we see in the installation spaces. To protect it from dust, we again have a perfectly removable medium grain filter in magnetic installation.

Let's take a closer look at the ports and elements of the I / O panel:

1x USB 2.02x USB 3.1 Gen12x 3.5mm Jack for audio output and microphone input Power button Lighting control button Power and disk activity LED

So let's not confuse the smaller button with the RESET, because fortunately it is to select one of the large number of animations that we have for the system.

We finally move to the rear and bottom of the chassis. Starting with the first, we have a hole in the top for a 120mm fan, although this one is not installed, a shame. Below we have the slot area with capacity for 7 slots and with metal plates welded to the holes. This means that they will have to be removed before installing the plate, otherwise we will risk damaging it.

The lower area is completed with the space for the PSU, which we will have to put in on the right side. Next to it we have a lower opening protected with a medium grain metallic dust filter and installed with a basic groove system. As a mere anecdote, we have very large and poorly worked legs, especially on the contact surface that is very small for its size.

In the most advanced part we can perfectly identify the four screws that hold the HDD cabinet located in the area. We have a fairly large range of motion so we can easily insert the PSU or even remove it if we deem it necessary.

Interior and assembly

We finish with the exterior and we go inside the Sharkoon RGB Flow to see what it offers us for the assembly of hardware and cooling. Being a medium tower chassis, and quite high we can say, it supports ATX, Micro ATX and Mini ITX boards as normal.

If we can highlight something from this internal part, it is how well it is used in terms of hardware capacity. On the cover we already see space and brackets for hard drives, as well as a hole in it for liquid cooling assemblies. In total we have 7 holes for pulling cables well distributed and quite discreet despite not having any protection. Finally, on the side there is also space for hard drives, and a huge opening to work on the CPU socket.

And speaking of CPU, in this chassis we can install heatsinks with a maximum height of 165 mm, quite a lot if we consider that it is a chassis that does not reach 210 mm. Similarly, it supports graphics cards up to 350 mm in length.

We now go to the back, where we have a space for cables somewhat narrower than usual (4 mm specifically) due to limitations in the thickness of the chassis. It's not too much, and we still have enough space to store cables behind the board and in the compartment.

But surely we are in trouble if we install a lot of hardware, since the lighting controller is also located in this area and we must be very careful with the headboards because they are quite fragile. As it is from the factory, we can fit a 160 mm power supply without any problem, but by moving the HDD cabinet to the side, we can fit PSUs of up to 210 mm, and if we remove it, then practically the size we want.

Storage capacity

After seeing the general aspects, we have good news for users who have enough SSDs to mount. In fact, the total capacity of this Sharkoon RGB Flow is 2 HDD hard drives and up to 6 SSDs as we will now see.

Starting with the most obvious, we have that metal cabinet located on the PSU deck for two 3.5-inch drives. In addition, it has removable plastic trays to facilitate installation, which is a sensational detail for the price we pay.

Now dealing with 2.5-inch SSDs or HDDs, we effectively have space for 6 drives, although the factory comes with capacity for 4. We explain: on the cover of the PSU, main compartment we have two brackets installed for two units. Next to these, we have two vertical holes next to the plate to install them in the old fashion in a fixed way. Finally, in the back we have holes to install two other brackets for two other units. They will be identical brackets to those located on the PSU, so we can move these to the back if we consider it appropriate.

In this section we see a couple of problems. The first is that the cable space is not too big, so the more discs the higher the saturation. The second is that the vertical holes do not have an opening to pass the cables, so we must make sure that the connection is not at 90⁰ and think very carefully about how to carry the power cables because for two units together it will be difficult.

Refrigeration

Despite being a large- sized chassis, this Sharkoon RGB Flow does not have a too large serial capacity, which we also see as normal in this price range.

When it comes to fan capacity we have:

Front: 3x 120mm Top: 2x 120mm / 2 x 140mm Rear: 1x 120mm

As we see, there is little presence of 140 mm fans to the effect of only 2 in the upper area. In any case we have a capacity of up to 6 fans, which is not bad and practically at the level of the chassis that are worth double.

However, we only found a pre-installed 120mm fan, and above it is located in the lowest area of the chassis and part of the air flow is eaten by the interior of the PSU. We strongly recommend moving this fan one step above and placing another one at the rear to extract air if we have relatively powerful hardware.

Once again mention that there is no possibility of installing fans between the front and the chassis, since the lighting will be taking up part of the available space.

The cooling capacity will then be:

Front: 120/240 mm Top: 120/240 mm Rear: 120 mm

Technically there would be possibilities to install a 280mm system on top if the I / O panel was located closer to the edge, but the extra space the radiator has to redirect the water limits its capacity. And exactly the same goes for the 360mm setups on the front, as there is physically no room for the radiator ends.

These small details are what differentiate an entry-level chassis from a superior one. In any case, the Sharkoon RGB Flow is more intended for mid-range or medium / high-end mounts without extreme cooling. What's more, there would even be the possibility of installing a water tank in the vertical area for SSD, but with 240mm radiators it doesn't make sense.

Lighting system

It is worth studying the lighting system proposed by this Sharkoon RGB Flow more carefully because it is at an excellent level. It consists of a microcontroller and two LED strips, one located on the front and one on the PSU cover. The system has a total of 14 lighting modes, so we will have a choice.

These two strips are not necessarily sequentially synchronized, since each of them is connected to a separate input on the controller. Although if we look inside the front, we will see a free header to be able to connect the second strip or an extension, since it is female-terminated.

Focusing now on the controller, it is built by NuvoTon, and has a total of 4 lighting channels. It also allows control using the button on the I / O panel or directly from the motherboard, since it is compatible with Asus AURA Sync, MSI Mystic Light, Gigabyte RGB Fusion and ASRock Polychrome RGB technologies. The header that we must connect to the board is already pre-installed on the controller. We will only have to connect the SATA port to supply the PSU for the system to start working.

Installation and assembly

We leave you now a few captures of the assembly process that we have carried out in the Sharkoon RGB Flow with the following accessories:

Asus Crosshair VIII Hero motherboard AMD Wraith Prism heatsink AMD Radeon Vega 56 graphics card Corsair AX860i power supply

An important question before starting the assembly is to remove the plates of the expansion slots that we need, which will normally be the 2nd and 3rd for an ATX board and a dedicated GPU. They are welded so force must be applied.

Likewise, a modular fountain with this 160mm Corsair fits perfectly without removing cables or moving the HDD cabinet, but the interior space for cables is somewhat limited. In any case, the result is acceptable even without using the included clips. In any case, we must be careful with the headings of the lighting controller, since they are very exposed and we could break them.

The wiring that we have available in the chassis to connect will be the following:

USB 3.1 connector (blue) USB 2.0 header (black) Front audio header (black) Separate connectors for F_panel SATA power header for controller 2x lighting strip headers (already installed) Header for front strip extension 5V-DG RGB header for motherboard

Final score

Finally we leave you with some screenshots of the assembly of the Sharkoon RGB Flow finished and in operation to see in action the chassis with its lighting.

Final words and conclusion about Sharkoon RGB Flow

Once again, we come to the end of the analysis of a chassis that has left us with very good feelings in terms of design. The user does not have to go to boxes close to 100 euros to have a current, minimalist and very elegant design. Manufacturers like Sharkoon, NOX or Silverstone give us a lot for very little and this is another example.

We have a fairly decent lighting system built into this Sharkoon RGB Flow, consisting of two thin strips but very noticeable in terms of lighting power and variety of animations. In addition, it integrates a microcontroller for this with up to 4 outputs and compatibility with own board technologies.

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The finishes are also pretty good, with a hidden, quality mounting system for the glass and a good-sized chassis to fit high-end hardware. We will only have problems if the wiring becomes very dense, since being 206 mm thick the rear space has been affected. The storage capacity increases up to 6 SSDs and 2 HDDs, being the space very used.

Similarly, it supports up to 6 120mm fans, although only two 140mm fans. We would have liked a higher factory capacity as we only have one fan pre-installed and not in the best position. Also, the liquid cooling capacity is reduced to 240mm mountings despite the chassis being considerably large.

The chassis that we have analyzed is already available in the market for a price of 56.90 euros. For this cost we can not get too demanding either, since it is still an entry range although with a very elegant design and lighting as its main asset.

ADVANTAGE	DISADVANTAGES
+ WORKED DESIGN	- SOMETHING UNDERLY CHASSIS
+ TEMPERED GLASS AND VERY COMPLETE LIGHTING	- ONLY ONE FACTORY FAN
+ GOOD HARDWARE CAPACITY	- LITTLE SPACE FOR CABLES
+ VERY ECONOMIC
+ ENOUGH SPACE