Hi there, I am finding it interesting that ADD-RGB is what many manufacturers are doing to cases and relaunching them as new models, as is the case with this chassis. I’m back with a review of the Deepcool Matrexx 55 ADD-RGB.
Deepcool have made some big inroads into the PC industry in the last few years, with many types of products such as laptop coolers, cases and other PC cooling accessories.
Today we have a revision of their Matrexx 55 case which has Addressable RGB added along with some fans.
Deepcool Matrexx 55 ADD-RGB Case Specifications & Features
| System Board | E-ATX/ATX/Micro ATX/Mini-ITX |
| Case Type | Middle Tower |
| Materials | ABS+SPCC (Steel panel thickness: 0.6mm) Tempered Glass side panel, front panel (thickness: 4mm） |
| Product Dimensions (L×W×H) | 440×210×480mm |
| Net Weight | 7.65 kg |
| Gross Weight | 8.69 kg |
| 5.25″ Drive Bays | 0 |
| 3.5″/2.5″ Drive Bays | 2 |
| 2.5″ Drive Bays | 2+2 |
| I/O Ports | 1×USB3.0/2×USB2.0/1×Audio(HD)/1×Mic,1×RGB Button |
| Expansion Slots | 7 |
| Power Supply Type | ATX PS2 (Length less than 170mm) |
| Cable Management | 23mm Clearance |
| CPU Cooler Height Limit | 168mm |
| VGA Length Limit | 370mm |
| Cooling Fans Support | Pre-installed: 3×120mm ADD-RGB fans (CF120) at front. Optional: Rear: 1×120mm; Top: 2×120mm/2×140mm |
| Liquid Cooler Support | Front: 120/140/240/280/360mm radiator; Top: 120/140/240/280mm radiator; Rear: 120mm radiator |
| Carton Dimension (L×W×H) | 523×277×514mm |
| EAN | 6933412713685 |
| P/N | DP-ATX-MATREXX55-AR-3F |
Deepcool Matrexx 55 ADD-RGB Case Closer Look
Shipped to me directly from China with just some clear wrap around it, the case is provided in a pretty standard box with line drawn images of the product along with some specifications.
Unpacking the chassis gives us a pretty great first impression, we have tempered glass on both the side panel and front panel, tinted and quite classy looking. Design traits on the front panel taken from the high end ARK90 cases. Here we also see the plastic filtered vents enabling air to be taken in at the sides of the solid front panel, there is no door here.
The bottom of the case has a removable filter for the power supply and a cutout at the front which while unfiltered will let air into any front fans. Supporting the chassis are four very sturdy rubber feet which should do the job nicely. This angle gives us a good view of the four thumbscrews holding on the tempered glass side panel.
The back of the chassis reveals the bottom mounted PSU area, and above that some of those horrible spot welded PCI backplates, I will be scoring on this as it is unacceptable at this cases price point. In an odd move the top PCI plate is a removable one, I will wager it is too high for the GPU I am going to test this with which takes up two slots anyway. Top right we have a mounting area for up to 120mm radiator and or fan for venting and to the left of it the IO shield area.
The front of the case shows off a tidy design, a quality Deepcool badge is pre-applied at the bottom, you can see the dark tint of the glass hiding the unlit fans, next to the glass there is an LED strip and the last part is rather surprisingly plastic rather than metal which still looks good although brushed aluminium would look better.
Looking at the top of the case we see the regular but still pleasant sight of a removable magnetic dust filter to cater for radiators and fans. The top of the front panel features one USB 3 socket, two USB 2 sockets, Headphone and Mic Jacks, a Reset button, an illuminated RGB switch and an illuminated power button.
Accessories provided are some nice clear instruction manuals geared mainly towards the RGB setup, some extra cables for expanding the included Addressable RGB system and a bag of screws. Now lets see inside.
Firstly I removed the tempered glass side panel which is mounted on some very nice rubber lugs to prevent vibration, these are actually solid enough to hold the panel in place without screws, although I wouldn’t recommend it. Inside the Matrexx 55 ADD-RGB there is a spacious building bay, a large motherboard cutout at the rear to help with the backplate requirements of different cooling solutions. There is a mount for an optical drive just under the top cables, however with both a fan in the way and a solid front panel, this would be limited to fitting a 5.25″ reservoir or system monitoring panel. The bottom has a PSU shroud with holes for cabling, radiator mounting and a cut out that can show off whichever PSU you choose to use.
The cabling side has a generous amount of space for cable management, there are no rubber grommets in the cable holes however they are rounded so no sharp edges there. The front panel fires out a few cables; we have the usual motherboard and USB connectors, along with an extra power lead for the Addressable RGB controller which unlike many other upgraded cases is not a separate module simply mounted in the cabling area. To the left we see a bunch of cables for FAN power and RGB the latter are already connected to the controller. At the bottom we have a non-removable HDD case with two individual removable caddies and what appears to be a spacious power supply bay although we are restricted to 170mm in length.
Removing an HDD caddy is very simple and the mounting setup is very easy, I do like this as some cases can come with fiddly rubber mounting systems and plastic clips that can be troublesome.
I do own a rather large power supply which I use for reviews but this would not fit, if only that HDD cage were removable. A reminder here to check the specs of your components before choosing a case.
After some disassembly of my LAN rig, my other PSU installs easily and as with many other recent cases, slides in and out to allow for convenient cable management. Now onto the build.
First we will take out a couple of PCI backplates because they are welded on, yuck! You really don’t want to be messing about with these things while the motherboard is installed if you can avoid it. With so much wiggle and force involved you can easily cause irreversible and avoidable damage.
Somebody please get Deepcool a new tape measure, I was unable to mount this drive in a way that didn’t scarily put too much pressure on the power cable. I was lucky the cables on my power supply are quite pliable, there are stiffer cables out there that would not have allowed a drive to be mounted board side.
I encountered quite a bad problem, the Molex connector for the RGB Controller Deepcool have chosen to use is of poor quality, this should be a sealed plug, I had to make this safe with electricians tape to stop the connectors popping out and shorting. I don’t believe at all that this is a faulty part, these connectors are simply not suitable.
The Matrexx 55 ADD-RGB front fans include proper PWM connectors which is a big plus, other recent review cases have included terrible Molex/3pin connections which are terrible to manage. Bit of a problem that the cables are very short, only one would reach a header on the motherboard, so extension cables or a separate controller are likely to be necessary for the majority of builds.
With the components in place the Matrexx 55 ADD-RGB does look quite pleasant, save for maybe the odd green shrink tubing on the ends of some of the motherboard cables. One last snag is that even a standard M-ATX board covers the cabling holes for the motherboard, leaving Slim ATX the perfect fit for this case. Using the drive holes is possible although a little cramped. Deepcool claim the case supports E-ATX boards and while the physical board would fit, cabling would be a big issue and with an EVGA X299 FTW K at nearly 280mm you can forget board side mounting for your SSDs.
Looking at the clearance at the top for a radiator and fans, we only have 50mm to the top of the motherboard, meaning a standard 30mm thick radiator and 25mm fans would struggle to fit. 45mm at the front of the case in the shroud cut out however gives us ample room for a 30mm radiator.
Powered on, the fans light up in a multitude of colours, with many modes selectable from the top RGB button, which illuminates red to indicate hard disk activity. The RGB strip is included in these modes and the effect is very pleasant. More advanced addressable RGB functions can be added via a compatible motherboard connector or standalone A-RGB controller.
With the system completed and up and running, this is a very striking chassis. It borrows many common designs but stands out with an individual front panel. The steel construction is quite sturdy and the paint finish is fairly well done and resists light scratches.
The Deepcool Matrexx 55 ADD-RGB Case Review: The Verdict
I am a big fan of Deepcools products and the appearance of the Matrexx 55 is very appealing. A lot of effort has gone into designing an attractive chassis, however there are some concerns with the quality and internal design.
What’s hot:
- Attractive Design
- Spacious Interior
- Addressable RGB fans with standard connectors and PWM Power.
What’s not:
- Poorly designed motherboard tray/cabling cutouts.
- Short cable lengths on fans and a dangerous Molex connector on the RGB Controller.
- Non removable HDD cage restricts power supply compatibility.
Deepcool produce some truly amazing chassis, so I am disappointed that this one falls short especially at the £80 price mark at the time of writing. We find ourselves with a lovely design, plenty of tempered glass and a unique front panel reminiscent of the much more expensive ARK90.
The first issue I noticed was the welded on PCI back plates, some might not find this an issue, and I don’t either if I am only paying £30 for a case, but this is an upgraded budget case, and such things must be addressed when moving into the mid-range sector.
Next problem is the motherboard tray cutouts. These need to be redone, there are serious compatibility issues with cabling and mounting drives board side. The hidden hard drive cage is great but could do with being removable or adjustable as with the competition, this would allow greater PSU compatibility.
We then get to those short PWM power cables for the fans, While I am really happy that they haven’t supplied ugly and clumsy Molex/3pin combo connections, these cables are just too short.
Special notice to be given to the dangerous Molex connector used for the RGB controller. This must be addressed. I don’t know how this design passed safety certification.
Whilst the case itself looks great, I cannot grant any awards to the Matrexx 55 as at present it is not advisable to purchase it in it’s current configuration. Competition at this price point is fierce and more needs to be done to bring this case up to standard.
Thanks to Deepcool for sending a sample of the Matrexx 55 ADD-RGB in for review.
Way to not mention any thermals
how did you tape the rgb molex connector
Although I wasn’t the one who reviewed this case I gather from the write-up that Bo used electricians tape to force down the plastic that can come away from the rest of the plug so that it could be used at least temporarily. This would be a short-term solution and we would recommend that if this was to happen to you that the case be returned to the store as a defective item and either replaced or refunded if it was within the warranty period.
An alternative repair option if it’s no longer got warranty support would be to replace the MOLEX plug itself. This is quite an easy job as the pins are secured in place with simple metal wings that can be pushed aside to release each pin, however you need to be aware of the pin placement and put all 4 back in the right position when reinstalling the wires into a new MOLEX plug. On some cases this is easy since the wires are usually coloured but if it’s an all-black wiring loom then you should mark them with different colours using something like paint or nail varnish to keep track.
Does this come with a fan hub? My mb only has one fan header
My molex came faulty, can you tell me how can i replace it? i don’t know what model is this molex. ii opened the front panel and it is connected to the mini board of the frontpanel. i really need to replace it cause the LED keeps flickering and goes crazy after some time..
Hi, MOLEX plugs are notorious for becoming either loose and not giving a proper connection or too tight and the pins get pulled out of the socket, it’s why SATA is the preferred connector for the components like hard drives. However, if you are stuck with only a molex connector to power a specific part (like a case fan or lighting) and it has become faulty you can normally repair it with a little patience and some thin tools.
There’s a specific tool that’s available for releasing the pins in molex plugs, but all the tool does is close the ‘wings’ that secure the pins in place so that you can remove them from the plastic housing and you can do the same simply by poking the wings with a thin screwdriver or knife.
Once the metal pins are released from the housing you can check to see if they are damaged. the voltage involved is quite low and not a hazard but still good practice would be not to touch them when they are live. So, with the power turned off, connect the exposed pins to the appropriate pins in a working socket then power up the system and make sure it’s all working as it should.
If it is, then you can re-open the wings (again, a sharp knife will do the trick) and then insert the pins back into the plastic housing until you hear or feel the click of the wings locking in place.
The main things to be concerned about is that 1) the pins / wires should be labelled with a sticker or cellotape so that you know which wire belongs to which numbered hole in the MOLEX p[lug. It’s important that you don’t connect them to the wrong pin when testing or when reconnecting them.
and 2) that the wings on the pins do not touch each other either when testing the exposed pins or when reconnecting them to the plastic MOLEX plug because if that happens it will create a short circuit which can damage the components.
Hopefully the MOLEX plug will work just as well now as the first day you got the case, but if it hasn’t fixed the problem then you might have an issue with the female side of the metal pin, this could be that the gap has become wider over time and needs to be closed _carefully_ with pliers so that the connection between the plugs is tight. This is only a problem for a specific type of double-sided molex connector as the pins in the power supply cable which are also female almost never experience this problem.
If none of this advice helps, then I recommend that you contact a techy group on Facebook and share some photos of the case and maybe a video showing the problem you’re having and what the connectors look like – that way you can get suggestions which are more likely to help you fix the problem yourself without any need for the product to be sent away for repair. Of course if the product is still under warranty then the first point of contact should be the store you bought it from if you want to have it repaired professionally.