MONTECH AIR 903 MAX Unboxing / Price/performance ratio updated again

I know a lot of people have already posted the unboxing of this chassis in the past few days, and you gamers might have gotten a little tired of seeing it, but I'm going to put up with it for a while and pull this chassis out as a prize! MONTECH has renewed its CP-value chassis again by launching the AIR 903 MAX, which comes with an E-ATX motherboard, a 40 cm graphics card, and 180 mm of air-cooled cooling tower mounting space at a very affordable price. The price is also quite affordable.

MONTECH AIR 903 MAX Case Specifications.
Dimensions: 478 (L) x 230 (W) x 493 (H) mm
Color: Black, White
Material: steel, tempered glass
Motherboard: E-ATX, ATX, Micro-ATX, Mini-ITX
CPU air cooling: up to 180 mm
Display card: 400 mm
Power Supply: ATX 240mm
Fan Mounting Positions (Front+Upper+Rear+Power Bay): 140 mm 3+2+1+0, 120 mm 3+3+1+2 pcs.
Water-cooled exhaust support: upper 360/280mm, front 360/280mm
Upper I/O Ports: USB 3.0 x2, Type-C x1, Microphone, Headphone, LED control
Hard drives and bays: five 2.5", two 3.5

MONTECH AIR 903 MAX unboxing

MONTECH is showcasing many new chassis at COMPUTEX 2023, one of which is the “AIR 903 MAX” chassis that we are going to unbox today. From the naming convention, it's not hard to realize that the new AIR 903 is actually the successor to the AIR 900 MESH that was launched in 2019. The new AIR 903 is in fact the successor of the AIR 900 MESH that was launched in 2019, which was introduced by many self-media in the unboxing and made the AIR 900 MESH a CP-value option of the generation.

Later on, MONTECH launched the AIR 100, AIR 1000 and other new models to reshuffle its CP-value chassis choices, and it was no surprise to see the AIR 903 MAX come back with a new look after almost four years.

The AIR 903 is available in MAX and BASE versions and in black and white. The BASE version of the AIR 903 comes with 3 pre-installed 140 mm HP140 PWM fans on the front; the MAX version comes with 3 pre-installed HP140 ARGB PWM fans on the front and an additional HP140 PWM fan on the rear, and the MAX version also comes with a pre-installed ARGB fan. The MAX version also has a pre-installed ARGB fan controller HUB.

The chassis size specification is 478 x 230 x 493 mm, in the case of providing sufficient space for expansion, the size is bound to be unable to be as thin as the compact chassis, belonging to the mid-tower chassis of the AIR 903 MAX in the placement of the use of the space will still occupy a portion of the large, the price part of the cheapest black version of the AIR 903 BASE for $ 1,590; the most expensive AIR 903 MAX white version is $ 2,090, each version of black and white price difference is $ 200. The cheapest AIR 903 BASE black version is $1,590; the most expensive AIR 903 MAX white version is $2,090; the price difference between the black and white versions is $200.

∆ MONTECH AIR 903 MAX white version.

The AIR 903 also utilizes a perforated front mesh panel for optimal air intake. The panel boasts a 51% ventilation rate and the mesh holes are small enough to block dust to a certain extent, which is a design often seen on recent MONTECH products. However, if you're an extreme cleaner, you can also purchase a magnetic dust filter from Shrimp Pi and other avenues to add on your own, which is really not that expensive for just a couple of dollars. It's really not that expensive for just a few tens of dollars.

The front side pillars continue the triangular arrangement of the AIR 900, with a quick release handle at the bottom of the front panel to remove the front panel for cleaning, and the front panel is secured by a dual fixing system of grooved latches and magnetic suction.

The ∆ ventilation rate is 51% perforated metal front mesh panel, which is a design often used by MONTECH in recent years.

∆ Quick release grooved handle.

The AIR 903 comes with fully transparent glass side panels in both black and white, but perhaps due to cost considerations, the glass side panels use a rear drawer type of installation, which is secured by two hand screws at the back, I still prefer the AIR 1000's refrigerator lift-up type of glass closure.

∆ Rear drawer full-transparency glass side panels.

∆ Two hand screws for fixing.

The rear of the chassis is honestly a normal configuration, with only the rear supporting 14/12 cm fan expansion, while other features such as the horizontal bar-less 7-slot PCIe expansion baffle and the lower power supply mounting position are common in mid-tower chassis nowadays.

If you want to display your graphics card in an upright position, the AIR 903 utilizes a non-crossbar and reusable PCIe bezel, which can be used in conjunction with the previously released MONTECH Upright Graphics Card Kit.

∆ The rear of the chassis is shown.

A magnetic dust filter comes standard on the top of the chassis to keep dust out of the air, but it is recommended to use a dry cloth to wipe it off rather than washing it, and the fan mounting holes on the top of the chassis have been shifted outward a little bit to support a maximum of 360/280 mm for the water-cooling exhaust and fan mounting expansion.

The chassis' system I/O ports are mainly located on the top, and the I/O ports provide two USB 3.0, USB Type-C, microphone, headphone, and RGB HUB controls, in addition to today's standard 2x USB-A plus 1x USB Type-C expansion configurations, as well as power restart and RGB controls.

∆ Magnetic dust filter.

∆ Supports water cooling or fan mounting up to 360/280 mm without pre-installed fan.

∆ 2x USB 3.0, USB Type-C, Microphone, Headphone, RGB HUB Controls.

At the bottom rear of the chassis is a pull-out dust filter for the power supply, which can be pulled out from the back of the chassis for cleaning after a period of time, and at the bottom front are adjustable locking holes for the hard drive mounting bracket and a fixing groove, which allows you to adjust the position of the hard drive bracket to gain more space for the power supply to hide the cables.

∆ A view of the bottom of the chassis.

 

MONTECH AIR 903 MAX Chassis Core Hardware Installation Space

The AIR 903 supports E-ATX, ATX, Micro-ATX, and Mini-ITX form factor motherboards, which means that current consumer flagship motherboards are all compatible, as well as 180 mm tall air-cooled towers and 40cm graphics cards, and flagship towers as well as the NVIDIA RTX40 / AMD RX 7000 series graphics cards.

The ∆MAX version comes factory fitted with a 14 cm fan mounted in the front and three in the rear as standard.

∆ Supports E-ATX~ITX motherboards, 180 mm air-cooled towers, and 400 mm graphics card mounting.

∆ Two 12 cm fan mounts can be installed on the power compartment with four cable routing holes on the side.

The MAX version comes with three HP 140 ARGB PWM fans pre-installed on the front, powered by a PWM interface and 5V 3-Pin ARGB synchronized lighting effects, and are pre-installed on the included ARGB fan controller, with axial fan blades.

The front of the chassis supports 3x14 cm fan mounts as well as 3x12 cm fan mounts, but the water cooling is limited to a maximum of 360/280 mm.

The ∆ AIR 903 MAX comes standard with 3x HP 140 ARGB PWM on the front.

∆ 6 cm water-cooling depth in front of the power compartment, no problem to install a regular water-cooled hamburger steak.

∆ The top floor of the chassis was raised by about 6 cm.

A lightless HP 140 PWM fan is standard on the rear of the ∆ MAX.

The back of the chassis has a 2 cm cable depth, and the I/O and pre-installed fan-related cables on the top of the chassis are pre-wired. The AIR 903 MAX provides six fan controller hubs with PWM and ARGB ports, and the 14 cm fan in the front and one in the back already takes up a portion of the ports, leaving gamers with two PWMs and three 5V 3-Pin ARGBs for expansion. The player is still left with two PWM and three 5V 3-Pin ARGBs for expansion.

∆ A view of the rear of the chassis.

∆ Depth of alignment 2 cm.

∆ Upper I/O cable list.

∆ Devil's Felt Harnesses complete line included.

Since the controller HUB needs to power more devices, remember to connect the SATA cable to the power supply when installing the controller! The controller not only supports I/O buttons to set the lighting effect, but also supports motherboard lighting synchronization. Simply connect the controller's 5V 3-Pin ARGB and PWM cables to the motherboard slots, and you can adjust the lighting effect and fan speed through the motherboard.

∆ Attach the controller HUB.

SATA power supply for the ∆ fan controller and 5V 3-Pin ARGB connection cable.

The AIR 903 supports up to five 2.5-inch hard drives or two 3.5-inch hard drives. The 2.5-inch hard drive mounting space is centered on the back of the chassis, with two 2.5-inch drive locking holes and two mounting plates, and the drive mounting brackets in the lower power compartment are a roof-mounted style that supports 1x 2.5/3.5-inch (top) and 1x 3.5-inch (bottom) drive mounts.

∆ 2x 2.5" hard disk mounting plate secured by hand screws.

∆ 2.5" hard disk lock hole.

∆ Bottom hard disk mounting bracket.

∆ The contents of the accessory box are clearly labeled, and the screws are clearly labeled.

The AIR 903 is a modern, lower-mounted power supply mounting structure that allows for separate cooling ducts for the bottom power supply, and supports up to 240 mm of power installation with the front drive cage installed, and up to 41 cm of mounting space with the drive cage removed.

∆ Undermounted power pods.

∆ Up to 41 cm power supply installation space.

MONTECH AIR 903 MAX chassis installation and cooling performance test

The MONTECH AIR 903 MAX white chassis is also installed for gamers' reference. This time, it is paired with an E-ATX sized GIGABYTE Z790 AORUS MASTER motherboard, i9 12900K processor, and a 360 mm all-in-one water cooling top-mounted installation for the actual cooling performance test.

Rigging platforms
Processor: Intel Core i9 12900K
Cooler: darkFlash TWISTER DX 360 Ver2.6
Motherboard: GIGABYTE Z790 AORUS MASTER (rev. 1.0)
Memory: Kingston FURY Renegade DDR5 RGB 6000 MT/s 16GBx2
Graphics: MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GAMING Z TRIO
Power : Montech Century 850W Gold
System Drive: WD BLUE 3D NAND SATA M.2 2280 SSD 500GB
Gaming Disk: Intel 670P 2TB M.2 2280 PCIe SSD (Solidigm)
Operating System: Windows 11 Professional 21H2
Case: MONTECH AIR 903 MAX

∆ Actual installation demonstration.

∆ Glass penetration has good fire presentation.

∆ Upper 360 AIO and CPU power cable installation demonstration.

For the chassis cooling performance test, all fans are curved to run at full speed and the motherboard's default Optimization mode is used. R23 Multi-core and Furmark are chosen to simulate the temperature data of the two major heat sources under extreme conditions, while FireStrike from 3D Mark is used to simulate the gaming environment. Fire strike in 3D Mark is also used to simulate the gaming environment, while HWiFO64 is used to collect data and record the maximum temperature and power consumption.

In testing, the i9 12900K consumed up to 230W and reached a maximum temperature of 81°C in the R23 multi-core project test, the 3060 Ti reached a maximum temperature of 65°C in the separate Furmark graphics test, and the i9 12900K reached a maximum temperature of 62°C at a maximum of 172W in the Fire strike simulation of the gaming environment, while the graphics card temperature also reached a maximum of 65.6°C in the test. The i9 12900K in Fire strike, which simulates a gaming environment, was 62°C at a maximum power consumption of 172 W, while the graphics card also topped out at 65.6°C.

∆ MONTECH AIR 903 MAX chassis cooling performance chart.

Summary & Insights

MONTECH's first product to hit the shelves after COMPUTEX 2023 is the AIR 903 MAX. Honestly speaking, I thought the AIR 3000 and other more innovative products would be launched first, but the launch of the AIR 903 is in fact an update of the marketing strategy for its CP-value chassis product selection.

The AIR 903 MAX comes with a 14 cm axial fan with three front and one rear fans, and the front three are ARGB versions with lighting effects. With the ARGB controller hub and RGB buttons included in the MAX, you can easily set up lighting effects via I/O or connect it to the motherboard for software control.

With 180 mm air-cooling tower, 400 mm graphics card, E-ATX motherboard, 360/280 mm water-cooling, etc., the AIR 903, which is priced at just over $2,000 at the most, has an excellent installation space, and the thickness of the plate is not too soft, as we learned from the experience of the AIR 900.

However, there is still room for improvement in the AIR 903, for example, the E-ATX motherboard will cover the side cable routing holes and rubber rings after installation, and with the E-ATX installation, you have to pull the 24-pin cables from the motherboard from somewhere else, and the ARGB fan in the front is not densely packed with light bulbs, which leads to a heavy feeling of light bulbs on the visual effect (but I didn't take any photos of it on the camera and didn't bother to adjust the parameter). The ARGB fan on the front is not densely arranged.)