I tested this PC case the only way I know how: building a gaming PC inside it and measuring how well it runs. For this build (full build log here), I opted for an ASRock Z890 Steel Legend WiFi loaded with an Intel Core Ultra 5 245K. To keep the processor cool, a Be Quiet! Dark Rock 5 air cooler. On the graphics front, one last hurrah for AMD's outgoing RX 7900 XT. All of these went together without issue inside the Shadow Base 800 FX. Like, zero issues.

There are a few ways that the Shadow Base 800 FX makes life easy for budding builders. First off, the motherboard tray is set back to leave ample space for a top-mounted radiator—you can fit up to a 420 mm radiator, or three 140 mm fans, in the top of the Shadow Base. That leaves plenty of room in the front of the case for another 420 mm radiator, or again three 140 mm fans, though any fans can be tucked neatly out of the way behind the front mesh.

Speaking of fans, you needn't worry about buying many more for this case. It comes with four 140 mm Be Quiet! Light Wings fans—three in the front, one as an exhaust in the back. They are supremely quiet in operation. That's a combination of both their size and construction—larger fans mean you can run slower RPMs while maintaining good airflow, and Be Quiet! claims a low-noise fan blade design with a lower-noise rifle bearing.

They're pretty smart-looking fans. There's RGB only around the circumference of the fan that looks superb through the front mesh of the case. The longevity of these fans is a little lower than some high-end options at 60,000 hours, especially compared to Be Quiet!'s own Silent Wings 4 at 300,000 hours, but a three-year warranty certainly isn't bad.

In my tests, these fans provided ample airflow to the components within. While largely dependent on the choice of chip and cooler used across both CPU and GPU, I measured the Core Ultra 5 245K at no higher than 65°C and the RX 7900 XT no higher than 69°C while gaming. The CPU reached 76°C during more intensive testing, such as Cinebench 2024. All of which is absolutely fine with me.

When it comes to noise reduction, this Be Quiet! case comes with insulation on the closed side panel. A layer of dense foam. There's none on the front, top, or tempered glass windowed side, however, which does make me wonder how much difference it really makes to the overall noise of the build. That said, it's hardly a loud machine with the fairly easy-going components and cooling I've put inside it.

Another reason I found building inside this case so gosh-darn simple is the serious amount of space behind the PSU. It's cavernous back there. You really don't have to worry about PSU cables or tidying them up all that much, especially when there's a couple of inches of room for your cables behind the panel.

The motherboard panel also has long, uninterrupted cable cut-outs across the top, side, and bottom of the motherboard plate, making light work of any cable tidying. My only small issue with the design is that, while there is a cable cover down the side, it does leave a lot of the cables still quite visible from the front.

In Be Quiet!'s defence, the whole cable tidy comes off with a single Philips head screw. In fact, most of this case is pretty accessible with minimal tools required—if any.

There's a controller included in the Shadow Base 800 FX, to control the included fans, the lovely RGB light rings on each, and the embedded LED lighting strips down the front of the case. This controller comes pre-installed on the rear of the motherboard plate, which comes away with a single thumbscrew for easy removal and access to a motherboard's rear.

With the front panel lighting and four fans connected, two cables a piece, there are still three four-pin fan headers and three 5-volt RGB headers spare to use for further expansion/add-ons.

The rear motherboard plate also has room for a 2.5-inch drive, and there are three total 2.5-inch SSD mounts within easy reach in the Shadow Base 800 FX. There's room for more, but there's only a single HDD (3.5-inch) cage included as an optional extra.

With airflow, cable management, lighting, and cooling sorted, I've only dust to deal with. Thankfully, very little inside the case itself, as both the top, bottom, and front of the case have built-in dust protection. The top and front are magnetically attached, and the rear slides in and out with ease.

Bonus points: the front panel can be removed with minimal force, and the RGB lighting on it is connected via a few stable contacts to a connection on the case proper. It goes back on just as easily.

The Shadow Base 800 FX is impressive for its largely tool-free, convenient, spacious build experience. And I say this as someone with a slight bone to pick with older Be Quiet!'s previous cases. I'm going back quite far here, getting near a decade (oh my god, I'm so old); though I own a Be Quiet! Dark Base 900.

This case has been in constant use over the years, from my PC to my partner's, and much of the time I've been slightly scared to open it and change anything drastically. It's well built and has stood the test of time, but trying to shift the PSU shroud or flip the motherboard mount is not worth the hassle.

By comparison, everything on the Shadow Base 800 FX falls away with ease, magnetically attaches, requires one screw, if any… case design has changed a lot over the past 10 years, and the Shadow Base 800 FX is one of the best examples of that.

Coming in at $190/£180, you wouldn't be putting a foot wrong with the Shadow Base 800 FX for the money. Especially considering the four 140 mm, RGB fans you're getting included for the fee. Though if you are looking to save money, the Shadow Base 800 DX is more or less the same with non-RGB fans for $135/£140, or there's the straight Shadow Base 800 with no RGB whatsoever for $96/£130. Any of which would work great for your next gaming PC build.

For many in the SFF (small form factor) enthusiast space, the majority of modern ITX cases just aren't small enough. Most are big, bulky juggernauts that fall more on the side of a being Micro-ATX setup, or some weird Frankenstein mid-tower, complete with dual rad support and GPU space larger than most keyboards.

Fractal Design has proven in the last few years that it very much adheres to that old-school way of thinking about SFF chassis. And, with the likes of its ridiculously small Terra, Mood, and Ridge cases, it has re-defined exactly what it is you can do with a chassis that has such a small footprint.

The Era 2 is a direct refinement of its initial Era ITX case, which launched way back in 2020. Aesthetically, Fractal has abided by an incredibly similar design language with it. It's got that curved anodized aluminum external housing, walnut panel lining the roof (albeit this time with ventilation), and intriguing perforated side panels, complete with an almost identical overall footprint. Yet, it's the internal layout that's had the biggest overhaul, by contrast. In fact, compare the two side-by-side, and what you're looking at are two incredibly different cases. It's this change which radically alters the build experience, and absolutely for the better.

Design shenanigans aside, it's not a particularly cheap chassis; the Era 2 clocks in at $200 US and £195 UK at launch, putting it in the more premium bracket for wee metal boxes of this caliber. It's got a lot to live up to with that kinda price tag attached, and honestly, it does a fine job of justifying that cost.

If you look directly at the internal layouts of both the Era and the Era 2, the differences are astounding. Everything from motherboard position to cooler location, power supply mounting and support, and more have changed. Mostly for the better.

Although the aesthetic and general design ethos certainly follow that of the Era ITX, its internal layout actually closely mimics that of Fractal Design's more recent SFF chassis, the less-costly Terra. Albeit with some slight tweaks and improvements here and there. Motherboard mounting, power supply location, and GPU solution are almost entirely identical, bar some minor tweaks that are mostly possible only due to the increased height.

The largest difference between them lies in the fact that the Era 2 supports AIO coolers. You can technically fit up to a 280 mm radiator in the roof, although admittedly even Fractal recommends you stick with a 240 mm there. You know, just for your own sanity, and I'm inclined to agree.

There's also been some additional changes to how the GPU is installed (the removable setup is gone). Plus, the PSU now mounts with a sliding bracket rather than the latch system the Terra uses. The adjustable internal backbone/motherboard tray design—which allows you to shift the entire internal layout backwards and forwards to give you more space on the CPU or GPU side—remains and is a welcome addition, albeit with some caveats.

From a glance, the Era 2 is just stunning. Its satin metallic finish on that anodized aluminum panel is outstanding to look at, particularly with the blue review sample I've got to hand. Combine that with the walnut top plate and the subtle Fractal Design logos etched here and there, and it definitely feels like a premium chassis; it feels like it's worthy of that $200 price tag.

The real challenge for any ITX case though, is the build process, and let me be clear: this is a true ITX case; it's not for the faint of heart. Going into it, component selection is going to be critical to your success. Although the Era 2 does support 'full-size' SFX-L PSUs, I'd highly recommend sticking with the shorter SFX design. Doing that gives you a lot more cable management room to play with. Although that is basically just an additional inch of space, it's an inch that seriously counts.

Similarly, you need to pay close attention to your power lead port location on the PSU you're using, as the passthrough cable Fractal has included is right-angled in one orientation. With my be quiet! SFX-L 600W PSU, it directly conflicted with the side of the case's shell.

You'd think, given you can move the entire internal mounting frame in the Era 2 back and forth, that would eliminate such a problem. However, the PSU mounting solution is on rails and secures to the case via a single screw and metal tab attached to the side of the entire frame. You can move the frame, but the PSU stays where it is. There is a workaround to bypass that metal tab, but to do it, you have to disassemble the entire front of the chassis, remove part of the plastic sledge rails, and jimmy the PSU into position. Something I did during my build, to get everything, including the AIO and its tubing, to fit.

The optimal build process in an ideal world goes like this: Tear the chassis down—removing as many panels as possible—then immediately install your power supply, getting as many cables routed and tied down as you can ahead of time. Once that's done install your motherboard with everything but the RAM in. Then plug in as many cables as possible, thinking hard about cable management as you do it, and where your GPU and cooler are going to sit. After that, install your RAM, then move on to your graphics card, and finally your AIO after that.

Opting for an air-cooler—something like Noctua's NH-L9 series—makes this build far simpler to produce and honestly is a setup I'd recommend, particularly if you're running a Ryzen 5 or an Intel Core Ultra 5, especially given how potent some of those low-profile cooler units are. That way, not only do you get more cable-management space back, but you can then install two 140 mm fans in the roof to help with exhaust. Combine that with the two included 120 mm fans in the floor, and you'll have a seriously potent cooling setup that takes advantage of convection quite nicely (it's worth pointing out you do still have this with an AIO, but the radiator does add additional air resistance into the mix).

Because of its limited form factor, you really do need to be on top of cabling. Take your time with it; you've got very limited space between the GPU and the motherboard tray, and there are cutouts there that you can run front I/O cables through, but they're quite narrow, and if you put too many here that are too thick, it's not possible to fully install the GPU, without potentially damaging the graphics card.

This is actually one area where the Terra has the advantage over the Era 2, as the GPU was installed via a removable bracket, which did allow you to compress some of that cabling if you ran it behind the graphics card, making it far easier to install.

Similarly, when you're installing your AIO, you need to be mindful about where you place its fans. I initially tried to install it with the fans on the bottom of the radiator acting as push, with the rad mounted to the removable bracket, but immediately came into contact with my armada of cables from the SFX-L PSU, stopping the fans from spinning. Swapping it around, so the AIO fans were acting as pull rather than push, proved a better solution, although it was still a tight fit.

That might sound like I had a hell of a time building in the Era 2, and to be frank, I did, but that's all part and parcel of working in a proper ITX form factor. What Fractal's managed to do here however is impressive. This is a remarkably small case with a ridiculously tiny footprint, and yet, I've got a full 240mm AIO in here, a healthy-sized graphics card, along with a fairly high-end CPU setup as well.

All running super smooth and seriously quiet in a stupendously good-looking case. With a bit of luck and the right GPU, if you had an SFX-L PSU, you could even potentially fit an RTX 4080 Super in here as well (MSI's Gaming X Slim series should technically fit according to the specs).

Is this one of the best cases of all time? The best ITX chassis out there today? Well, that still very much depends on your perspective. If you're looking for a super easy, done in an hour build with plenty of room to work in as you do it, this isn't for you. This is a challenging case, and at times frustrating, but that's purely down to how small a footprint this thing has. There's a lot to love here, and a lot of engineering prowess that Fractal's leveraged into it, but we'd probably stick with the Terra as the best ITX of all. For those looking for a nice sleek metal box for their latest rig that takes up minimal desk space, looks incredible, and still supports all the hardware they want, with a bit of a challenge built-in to it as well, the Era 2 is still by far one of the most impressive ITX offerings out there today.

Aside from being charmingly named, Geometric Future says this is a 'backpack class' case design that doesn't just look pretty on the outside but folds down flat to theoretically allow 360-degree access to your components (via Tom's Hardware).

I've always been a bit wary of Mini-ITX PCs. In concept, I love them. But when it comes to the task of building one myself, I know I'd end up spending hours cramming components that are far too large into a compact chassis, cursing merrily away as I go.

I'm not really sure this case design solves that issue, to be honest, as I can absolutely see myself stacking together a tower of components on its bottom panel, only to fold it together and realise I've messed up with the tape measure once again. It's a genuinely good idea though, and the finished case looks brilliant in the photos. The Model 0 Flamingo measures 3.2 x 8.1 x 8.2 inches when fully constructed, and comes in a matte black finish with some orange highlights.

And there are some interesting logistical possibilities created by this sort of design, too. Traditional PC cases are mostly empty boxes shipped inside, well, mostly empty boxes, so they're a bit of a nightmare for manufacturers to send all over the world when it comes to costs and environmental wastage. Never mind the warehouse logistics, for that matter.

Having a PC case that folds down to a flat pack means it should be much easier (and cheaper) to ship. I could be snarky here and say something about those saved costs being passed on to the consumer, but... well, I just sort of did, didn't I? Still, cheaper is cheaper, no matter who ends up gaining.

It even comes with an 80 Plus Bronze-certified 200 W dedicated power supply. That might not sound like much wattage on offer, but it should still be enough to power a decent APU for a bit of low-load gaming shenanigans.

Just be careful to measure up the cooler, ey? Japanese importer Dirac has said the case will release on January 30, so there's hopefully not long to wait before you too could be swearing at an entirely different kind of PC build experience.

The thing is, with some of the more mainstream companies, they tend to err on the side of caution when it comes to radically altering their chassis designs. Certainly over the years. Predictability in sales is far more important than radical features and ideas that might flop or cause a major loss. These things take time and money to design and manufacture, so return on investment is key. Hyte, sister company to the system builder iBuypower (one of the best gaming PC manufacturers out there currently), took that very idea and went "to hell with it", launching the Y60.

It revolutionized the scene at the time, with angled glass panels, default vertical GPUs, and a whole host of innovative new design tech and cooling solutions that really took things to the next level. It effectively created a whole new case segment and form factor known as "fishbowl chassis" that, although technically started by Lian Li and the now legendary PC O11 Dynamic, was really cemented in place by little ol' Hyte. In fact, even today, manufacturers are still playing catch-up with the idea.

Here's the thing: the Hyte Y60 is a seriously chunky case, and although highly successful and eventually leading to the equally wild Y70 Touch, complete with an in-built 2.5K vertical IPS monitor, it didn't quite pin the market for that traditional staple mid-tower form factor that PC gamers know and love. That's where the Hyte Y40 comes in.

A far more budget-oriented solution, the Y40 takes a lot of the design aesthetics of the Y60, and Hyte as a whole, and condenses it down into a more traditional form factor and design without compromising on airflow or functionality.

You still get the powder-coated finishes in black, white, or red; you still get those half-height PCIe slots and vertical GPU solution as standard; and you still get some epic cooling options as well. But the real kicker is the price. This thing starts at $100 in the US, and because of that and the wild amount of features it comes with, it radically pushed the price down of some of the staple mid-tower cases that held the majority of the market share for many years as a result.

So, what is it then that makes the Y40 such an interesting chassis? Besides it's price, of course. Without doubt, the first thing that grabs your attention is the overall design. The Y40 has two beautiful tempered glass windows front and side that line the thing top-to-bottom, even encompassing the entirety of the black plastic ventilated PSU shroud that saturates the bottom of the case. It almost borders the entire thing, and the shroud itself adds a unique element to the overall look and feel. It's also got what feels like a beautiful powder-coated finish. The white sample I have on review is a more traditional satin/matt styling, but the Cherry Red is very much a gloss option for those looking for something with a bit more punch.

Then there's the internal design. It's intake airflow is managed by effectively three fans. Two, that you fit on the side yourself, as either 120 or 140 mm options, and one 120 or 140 mm hidden away underneath that PSU cover, drawing air in from the floor (Hyte include a 120 mm here as standard, pre-routed, and cable managed for you). For exhaust, you've got three 120 mm in the roof (again, you'll need to buy and fit these), where ideally your AIO would go (although you can run it on that side-mounted location), and lastly, there's the option to theoretically install a 120 or 140mm in the rear as well (with a 120 mm coming with the case as standard).

The big party piece, however, is that vertical GPU setup. By default, Hyte includes a PCIe 4.0 riser with the Y40. There's no option to buy the case without it, and depending on which color you pick up, you'll get a similarly colored premium PCIe riser solution as well. The reason for that is the actual design of the PCIe slots. As standard, the Y40 houses seven half-height horizontal slots (one of which is taken up by the riser) and four vertical slots for your GPU. Without a riser solution, unless you're running a half-height card, you cannot use this case with a horizontal GPU.

That does mean that a lot of the builds you'll see in the Hyte Y40 are kinda homogenous with one another, the only major difference between them being which graphics card you've installed. But that does mean there's a phenomenal amount of clearance available for your GPU of choice; even the chunkiest of RTX 4090s will fit in this thing no sweat. Although, do bear in mind Hyte recommends you keep the height (depth?) of the card to 80mm for optimal airflow, so it doesn't get too close to that tempered glass panel.

As for building in the Y40, it's insanely easy to pull off. I've built in two of these multiples times now, both with air-cooled and AIO solutions, and every time the build has gone incredibly smoothly, and I'm mostly wrapped up in 45 minutes to an hour from start to finish.

That homogenous single-build style, although forcing the builder a certain route with their setup, effectively means Hyte has a lot of control over how you should build in this case. Because there's effectively only one 'way' you can build it, it can make sure that the way you build an ATX rig is as flawless as possible. Cable cutouts are perfectly matched; there's a cutout in the PSU cover that's ideal for 12VHPWR cables or PCIe power in older systems; fans are pre-routed and cable-managed, and clearances are ideal for any mid-range or premium ATX build. Although do bear in mind it doesn't support E-ATX or larger motherboards sadly, as you'd block off the cable cutouts for the 24-pin and those side connectors.

That vertical GPU in particular does a lot of the heavy lifting here too, hiding any front I/O cables, USB 2.0 internal cables, or HD Audio passthroughs located on the bottom of your motherboard, as well as blocking out those ugly GPU power cables I mentioned earlier as well.

Flip around to the back, and although cable management options here are fairly minimal (there really are only some cable tie-off points, and that's about it), it doesn't really matter, as everything is well hidden with fairly minimal effort.

In fact, it's the cable management that honestly is this case's only weakness. What it could use is some plastic channelling and velcro straps here and there to better route some of the chunkier cables, such as the 24-pin ATX and EPS power, and perhaps some rubber grommets, or a cable tidy bar, to keep everything else looking a touch more discrete from the front. Plus, if you're not careful and you just tuck all your spare cable length underneath the PSU cover, you can accidentally block the 120 mm intake fan located underneath there as well.

There's also some argument to be had that it could probably use a removable radiator bracket up top and potentially some integrated lighting as standard (something Phantek's latest XT View does remarkably well at an even lower outlay), but really, given the quality of the panels, the internal design, the sound-dampening baked into the rear, and more, it's easy to let those flaws go and just enjoy that sub $100 price.

Thing is, it's just incredibly easy to build a system in this—even a budget or entry-level rig—that looks radically good for very little outlay, and these additions could potentially bump up the cost on an already phenomenally affordable chassis.

The Y40 represents one of the best cases out there on the market today, particularly if you're looking for something that delivers top-tier quality on a shoestring budget. It's almost impossible to build a system in this thing that doesn't look good, and that is telling. With some slight tweaks and improvements here and there, the Y40 could be out of this world.

The Fractal Design Terra is a compact case measuring 343 x 153 x 218 mm. It can house a Mini-ITX motherboard, SFX PSU, and a graphics card—up to 322 mm in length. There's space for a single 120 mm case fan and two 2.5-inch drives. It's a dual-chamber design with adjustable width, though it's pretty slim for space whichever way it's laid out.

To put those measurements into perspective, it's dwarfed by the largest of my two cats.

To test the Terra, I set out to build a powerful yet compact mini PC powered by an RTX 4070 Super and Ryzen 7 9700X. I was expecting some hiccups, issues, or annoyances when setting out this build. It's a small form factor PC, I thought to myself, I'm destined for a couple cut fingers and mutter at least one curse word under my breathe. Maybe a few choice words, to be truthful.

But the build was a breeze. It came together with next to no issues. The only minor fault I ran into was of my own creation, in trying to stuff the fan on the Noctua NH-L12S on the outside of the heatsink rather than tucked between the cooler and CPU. Optimistic—but the Terra saw to a simple fix.

Besides the (real) wood panel adorning its front panel's lower quarter, the Terra's best feature are its gull-wing doors. That's overselling them—the side panels are hinged. Shifting the side panels up to one side is handy though removing them altogether is even better. That's easily done by just pulling a small locking mechanism on one of the two hinges and levering the panel off. Both panels remove in this way and, with them gone, you can access the innards like a crazed surgeon.

The central motherboard tray and mount for the PSU straddles the centre of the case. It's held in place on a sliding bracket, which can be loosened up very easily with a few screws. This can be shifted forward and backwards by a couple centimeters. You can do this mainly for two reasons: to make way for a bigger GPU or a bigger CPU cooler. With the slimline RTX 4070 Super Founders Edition prepared for this build, I only needed to knock back the tray on the GPU side to make way for the Noctua NH-L12S. That was about the biggest cooler I could fit in this build, too, as there's not much wiggle room. That's why the 9700X was a good choice with a 65 W TDP—anything more might get a bit toasty.

The motherboard is mostly easy to reach for installing cables, though I did struggle to get the CPU power connection in place. So, there's a piece of advice if you're planning your own Terra build: plug in your CPU power cable before you install the motherboard.

The case offers a PSU mounted vertically, which would be a pain to reach if the bracket holding it in place wasn't removable itself. That's done with a couple of tiny screws, which were a bit awkward to reinstall with the PSU fitted.

The power cables have ample but not roomy space to fall out of the unit into the base of the chassis. Right into the firing line of the only space available for a case fan. Fractal provides no mesh or form of protection from cables falling directly into a fan blade at full whack but it needn't have to with a little cable management. Using a modular PSU with freedom to remove unnecessary cables, Thermaltake's Toughpower SFX Platinum 750W, I wrapped the cables firmly out of the way in the little remaining space leftover on the motherboard side of the case. I should note I, rather foolishly, did this and then installed the Noctua NF-A12x25 fan. That was another mistake of my own making, but it worked out after a little push and pull.

The extra fan isn't a requirement but my temperatures were better than you'd expect from a cramped build such as this. I'd chalk up some of that to the extra air whizzing around the case. Both side panels are vented across most of the surface area for a little more breathing room and there's technically space for a tiny 120 mm radiator, though it requires massively cutting down to a low-end GPU. It's just not that usable for most.

The PSU is connected to the rear power port via an extension cable. The on/off switch on the PSU is therefore unaccessible without opening the case. Though, like I've mentioned already, that's as easy as lifting the side panel up and hitting the switch. The problem is not a problem.

Installing the GPU was about as easy as any PC build. The chassis comes with a PCIe 4.0 riser pre-installed, which only needs to be plugged into the motherboard and left in-situ on the GPU side. It's a pretty normal GPU installation from there, providing you have the room. There's plenty length at 322 mm, though width-wise you're more limited between 72 mm and 43 mm.

With a small case such as this, I was surprised how quickly it all came together. An empty husk of a chassis at one point in the afternoon, a functioning gaming PC later that very same afternoon. No fuss, no fiddly bits, and no breakdowns (the PC or myself). It's a bit of a magnet for marks in this black colourway but that's one of very few complaints I have with it. That's a tremendous badge of honour for a tiny chassis.

Oh, and did I mention this one is cute as all heck?

First off, Thermaltake has some PC cases in new colourways that are to die for. I'm struggling to pick a favourite, but let's start with the Tower 250 in Mint Strawberry.

This Mini-ITX case offers a gorgeous two-tone effect, will set you back $130, and will launch in February. The Butter Caramel option isn't my bag, but I can see it working for a whole lot of themed builds.

Then, the vast array of Tower 600 chassis lined up in Thermaltake's CES 2025 booth. Only two of these colourways are fresh for this ATX-size case, but they're two of the best and brightest.

The best is the Tower 600 in Future Dusk, which is a deep purple with grey accents on the inside of the case. As Thermaltake's spokesperson Mike was keen to point out, the grey really makes the whole thing pop. I'm inclined to agree with Mike there, it really does.

The Light-year Green option is the brightest. This thing is easily the most stand-out of the lot. I don't love the Buzz Lightyear green as much as the dusky purple, but damn do I respect the stick-to-itiveness to just go for it on this design.

We're not done yet. Thermaltake has three new compact chassis designs that are some of the smallest it's made in a decade. This is the TR100, and it's available in Mint Strawberry, Bubble Pink, and Hydrangea Blue, the last one being a more muted (but tasteful) colour Thermaltake had plastered all over its booth last year.

This compact chassis looks pretty wicked. It can house a chunky graphics card, as shown in the pictures, but even a 280 mm liquid cooler. The blue version of this case is coming out this month, though the pink and mint (the best version) won't be available until Q2, 2025. One of these will cost you $120.

Hyte, too, had some colourful cases to roll out at CES 2025. If you're an astute reader, you'll know it already announced its new brightly colour Y70 cases at its Computex booth last year (that's where the below images are from). Well, the good news is that these cases are officially happening now, as Hyte informed me at CES this year.

I had thought these already to be happening, but considering the response to them, it'd be silly to not give them a proper release.

There's pink, blue, and purple.

One of Hyte's genuinely new announcements at CES 2025 are these multicoloured processor frames. Made of CNC aluminium, they are available in a range of colours and fits for AM5, LGA 1851 and LGA 1700. For Intel users, they might actually come in handy to keep chip bending to a minimum, though Hyte says they're just for looks/easy thermal paste removal on AMD.

A few properly bright and colourful cases to choose from there, and I'm pleased to see these finally reach the market. It's all well and good lighting up your PC in a thousand RGB LEDs, but these paint jobs are pretty special.

Anyway, clocking in at 2,560 by 720 pixels, the Xeneon Edge has full touchscreen support and hooks up via either USB-C Alt Mode or HDMI. It's designed to be fitted inside your case using a 360mm radiator mounting point for a "sleek" look, or mounted externally with the built-in magnets for easy access.

The Xeneon Edge can also be plopped directly on your desktop using the included stand. The display supports both vertical and horizontal orientations, the latter perhaps offering a natty new way to feed your social media addiction. It could be perfect for scrolling through tweets and other pointless online posts.

Corsair claims the Xeneon's five-point multi-touch capacitive touchscreen offers, "an intuitive and interactive experience when used externally, functioning as a standard Windows touchscreen display for added versatility."

The horizontal resolution is pretty high for a panel measuring just over 14 inches across and works out to a heady 188 PPI. That's better even than the latest 27-inch 4K OLEDs. So text will be super crispy and the image quality should be great, even if there's no word for now on the precise panel technology used here or any specs like refresh, brightness or response.

Moreover, while Corsair doesn't go into much detail, we assume it will operate as a secondary display in Windows, albeit one with a slightly odd resolution and aspect ratio. But does that make it a fully fledged monitor? Or can it only really be considered as some kind of status display?

On that note, Corsair shows the screen displaying a suite of neat-looking tools and apps, which may or may not come bundled with the Xeneon. Corsair isn't quoting a price, but we doubt it will be cheap. On the other hand, we also don't doubt it will make a tower PC look like a million bucks. Money no object, I'd slap one in the window of my rig just for the hell of it.

Corsair says the Xeneon Edge is out in Q2 this year, which means you should be able to bag one by no later than the end of June. Watch this space for a price and maybe, just maybe, a final and definitive dissertation on that monitor-versus-status-screen conundrum.

Australian authorities have discovered a Malaysian man attempting to import 100 kg (200 pounds) of methamphetamine into the country, stashed inside a collection of PC cases (via Techspot). The offending articles arrived via an air cargo assignment, and on inspection revealed multiple large packages of suspicious white powder stashed inside.

A laboratory test confirmed that the substance was methamphetamine, said by the authorities to equate to "one million street-level deals" worth of the substance if it made it to the good people of Australia.

A 45-year-old man was arrested by AFP officials as he attempted to collect the shipment and has been charged with one count of attempted drug possession. As for the cases themselves, once stripped of their illicit cargo they were successfully delivered to a storage unit in Kingsgrove, New South Wales.

The cases look to be Dell Optiplex models, which should only weigh a few kg each. Adding 100 kg of extra, err, cargo to the shipment is likely to have been the tip-off here, although Australia is known for having particularly strict border processing controls for many items arriving into the country, so there are multiple ways the drugs could have been discovered.

“ABF officers monitor consignments closely for any anomalies to disrupt these criminal syndicates’ supply chains,” said ABF Acting Commander Matthew O'Conner.

“They will attempt to hide illicit substances in creative cavities to evade our detection.

“Our officers’ skills in detecting and disrupting this criminal behavior will continue to thrive through our collaboration and information sharing between our federal and state counterparts.”

Creative cavities indeed. While a substantial amount of dangerous substances have now been kept off the Australian streets, it's possible that these Dell Optiplex cases are now available for sale again, with their potential new owners unaware that their new cheap case purchase was the subject of a significant criminal investigation.

Sort of brings new meaning to the whole "rock in a box" debate with cheap GPU purchases, doesn't it? We're sent PC cases for testing here at PC Gamer on the regular, so here's hoping we don't end up with some extra cargo we'd really rather not receive hiding in our next shipment.

It's called the Havn HS 420. Unless you caught our story on this case from out at Computex, you won't be familiar with Havn. It's a new brand, head up by Pro Gamers Group (PGG). PGG is also behind Noblechairs, Ducky, Streamplify, Aerocool, and Endgame Gear.

The HS 420 is Havn's first creation. This is a mid-tower, fishtank-style chassis with space for ITX/ATX/E-ATX motherboards and includes a few standout features to try and justify its starting price of $199/£200/€230.

I say starting price, as the VGPU version I have here for review, and which comes with a mounting bracket, PCIe 5.0 riser cable, and fan mount to load up a graphics card vertically, costs an extra $70/£70/€60. That brings this case up to $269/£270/€290.

Let's get into the nuts and bolts of the case, then. Because that's a lot of money for a chassis. What's most notable about it is the panoramic glass panel that wraps around from the side of the case to the front—the glass being a single sheet, heat-formed to fit. Of course, it's a stunner. For a showcase build or just showing off all your RGB LEDs, there are few cases offering as much visibility into your PC's innards as this.

The VGPU version is even prettier in practice. This is the version I've had across my desk for review, and I took the opportunity to use almost exclusively white components within it. The glass facade offers a panoramic view of a colossally large Gigabyte Aero RTX 4080 Super I've tipped on its side and held aloft with the sturdy adapter provided. This mounting option looks absolutely superb with the parts I've picked, if I may say so myself.

This is a chimney-style case. That means rather than space to mount fans at the front, these sit on the bottom, sucking air through the vented base.

The VGPU version also includes a different fan mount to the standard version—this elevates three fans at a 45 degree angle and comes with a strange-looking piece of glass. This glass hangs in front of the fans, redirecting air away from the inside of the case and out towards the GPU fans.

I'm told the glass is a pivotal piece of airflow management. Though, in the name of science, I took it out and ran some tests to see what difference it really makes. The answer: not much at all. I ran all our CPU tests with the cover off and temperatures were more or less the same. There may be some benefit to using it in some configurations or with certain components but don't be afraid to ditch it.

With everything up-and-running, I measured the airflow from outside the case with an anemometer. This is a handy test for how much the dust filters or case design affect airflow in and out of the case. Since this case uses a chimney design, I can't measure the intake this way, but I did check the exhaust side of the top, above where the Hyte Thicc Q60 liquid cooler I've installed for testing sits. I measured airflow of 1 m/s without the dust filter and 0.9 m/s with—that's pretty good.

The CPU got a little toasty, which is somewhat expected from the Q60 in my testing with the 14900K, though is something to consider if you're buying brand new parts to go into this case.

In hindsight, I should've run a 360/480 mm radiator in the top spot. The VRM stayed reasonably cool, anyways, as did the RTX—the chimney design does a pretty good job of keeping the vertically-mounted GPU fed with cool air.

If you have no concerns about spending significant sums of money, a custom liquid loop would be ideal in the HS 420.

Mounting the GPU vertically inside this case did cause me a few headaches, namely in compatibility with the components I'd earmarked for the build. I was building the machine before I'd received the case to check compatibility, so most of that's on me, though sticking a GPU in front of your motherboard does not make for easy tweaks once assembled.

You have to pull the fans out to access the GPU, and once the GPU is gone you need to remove the VGPU bracket to really have any chance of plugging a cable in or adding an NVMe SSD. Though I guess the VGPU mount is for the aesthetic of it all, not convenience.

The worst picks of the lot are the Q60 and Thicc FP12 fans. Needless to say, neither really fit as intended. With the hulking Gigabyte graphics card hogging most of the space above the motherboard, the screen loaded onto the Q60—admittedly a guilty pleasure and a wild thing to stick on a CPU cooler—is too large to sit portrait as intended. Since it's not possible to rotate the widgets for the Q60 as of yet (Hyte tell me that might change in the future), I'm stuck with putting pretty pictures on the screen instead.

But that's more of a cooler issue than a case one—it's just something to think about if you're planning out a build to sit inside the HS 420.

The three 120 mm fans also didn't fit the VGPU fan mount. I could put a couple of screws in the holes intended for the 140 mm fans, but had to zip tie the rest. They're pretty secure, but not quite as clean cut as I'd like them to be. Plus, the specs sheet did suggest 120 mm fans are fine. I've spoken to Havn and the specs should state 140 mm only by the time this case is actually released.

Otherwise, the process of building into the HS 420 was made extremely easy by some of the best cable management I've ever used—dedicated and labelled channels that run around the rear of the motherboard. There are also sliding guides that can be moved into the best location for whichever motherboard is fitted.

There are also a lot of options with storage here and the case is a breeze to build in with lots of clearance (without the VGPU bracket installed) and easy to access screws.

I opted for three fans pulling from the underside of the case, along with one intake fan on the rear and another exhaust fan up by the CPU. Up top sat the chunky radiator of the Q60. Though there are a lot of options. Remove the white panels down the right-hand side of the motherboard and there's space for three fans or a large radiator. There's quite a bit of flexibility, as there are two fan controllers in the rear for neat communal control. Also there are dust covers for the underside, top, and optional rear intake.

A single screw holds in the VGPU fan mount, which cleverly clips into place, and the VGPU bracket is held in with a couple of thumbscrews that make for easy adjustment.

The weighty glass panel glides comfortably into place, too, and is held in place with four screws and the magnetically attached vented cover on the top. This top cover also wraps around the front I/O, more like top I/O, including a 3.5 mm jack, two USB 3.2 Type-A, and a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C.

The off-side panel leaves plenty of clearance for cables from the PSU, which is nestled away from prying eyes in the dual-chamber design. It's even one of the more striking off-side panels I've seen—the striped ventilation proving both practical for any fans mounted down the right-hand side of the motherboard and aesthetically pleasing.

I encountered no sharp edges during the entire build—it's pretty well put together like that—and ended up with no bleeding fingers. That's a win in my book. I'm thoroughly impressed by the build quality on the Havn altogether.

It is a pretty heavy case, however. I don't have any scales capable of measuring this much weight but Havn puts it at a net weight of 19 kg.

The Havn has been one of the easiest cases I've built with in some time. It's a combination of its size, dual-chamber design, simple screws, and generous cable management system. The few moments of frustration arose from the VGPU mount and how little of the motherboard is accessible with it in place, though that's a pretty common theme among vertical mounts—they're completely form over function.

Combine this with a stunning overall appearance and Havn is onto a winner with its first creation.

The mini cases, called North Pi, look fantastic when built. Take this one made by Reddit user manky_tw, a dinky little thing with a wood-panelled front, windowed side-panel, vented rear, and part-open top for port plugging. It's a handsome little rig, with all the class of a luxury ATX machine, but pocket-sized.

This isn't just a one-off project by a single Reddit user, either. No, this thing's got Fractal's proverbial stamp on it, and the company has an instruction manual (PDF warning) for making one. 

The manual seems pretty easy to understand and follow, too. There's little actual step-by-step instructing—it's more, "This part is 3D printed from this file name and fits into the chassis here."

Yes, unfortunately a 3D printer is required to make a North Pi chassis for your Raspberry Pi, and if you want the best finish you might want some extras like paints and fans. All the 3D print files are free to download, however, from the North Pi page above.

My North Pi from r/FractalDesign

And if you ask me, now's a pretty good time to undertake such a project with the latest Raspberry SBC to grace the consumer market, the Raspberry Pi 5. This is because, as I argued in my Raspberry Pi 5 review for a different site, in my opinion the Pi 5 is the first Raspberry Pi that can serve as a veritable desktop PC for day-to-day use. (My 8 GB version, at least, can certainly serve as one.)

Using a 1080p monitor, my Pi 5 has no trouble performing a standard slew of day-to-day tasks such as browsing with multiple tabs open, watching videos (even 4K ones, if they're downloaded), and text editing. And by "no trouble" I mean with no lag at all.

So, if you've got a 3D printer handy, a North Pi would make a wonderfully fitting home for your Raspberry Pi 5. Now I just have to cross my fingers that Fractal makes a wider case that can fit a Pi 5 donning an NVMe base and SSD. 

Automobili Lamborghini and Lian-Li are collaborating on a new limited edition PC Case inspired by the car manufacturer. The branded edition of Lian-Li's 011D EVO RGB case is quite sleek, for all that it's very much a derivative of Lian-Li's standard 011 model cases.

The limited edition of 6,498 cases has a prominent Automobili Lamborghini logo on the glasswork, and a coating of carbon fiber on the metals for that proper cutting-edge performance car look. Accents around the case, on edges and such, are in your much-loved Lamborghini yellow—Giallo Orion, as it's known. It also has a Lamborghini logo displayed on the interior high-res 5" display for your CPU/GPU clock temps, rate, and load.

I'm not down on the case as a whole, to be clear—the Lian-Li 011 has a spot on PC Gamer's list of best PC Cases as the best case you can buy for a show build. That is to say a build where you get a nice look at the insides of the tower. It's just funny to me how much like a normal 011 case the one looks. A bit of texture, a bit of flash, toss some branding on that built-in display. Done and dusted.

Like as not, that makes it the perfect case for a Lamborghini enthusiast who wants to put together a showy build for their own use or for their air conditioned garage slash hangout space. Which is something I am 100% sure many Lamborghini enthusiasts have. It'll also be something fans of Lamborghini's motorsport department will be thrilled to have, for a bit of team pride.

This is Lamborghini's second collaboration of note in the PC space in the last year, since we saw that absurdly expensive Razer laptop last year.

You can find the O11D EVO RGB Automobili Lamborghini Edition on Lian-Li's website.

It's becoming increasingly clear that you're absolutely nobody at the Computex show this year if you haven't got a panoramic goldfish bowl in your booth. However, newbie case specialist HAVN has gone one better than the competition with its new HS 420.

What most, if not all, of the alternatives in the panoramic case segment share, including the Corsair 3500X we featured earlier today, is a two-piece glass construction. Basically, two sides of the case are glass panels, and each of those two panels is a separate sheet of glass.

Not the HAVN HS 420. It has what HAVN is calling Unisheet Heatformed Glass. Put simply, it's a single sheet of glass with a right-angle bend. No seams, no joins, just one large sheet of glass for the front and side panels. What's more, the bend in the glass has been designed with as small a radius as possible, to reduce visual distortion.

The case measures 541 x 260 x 547 mm (21.3 x 10.2 x 21.5 inches) and supports up to E-ATX motherboards. You get 480 mm of clearance for graphics cards and 185 mm of CPU cooler accommodation. Meanwhile, there's space for three 420 mm radiators and you can fit a total of eleven 140 mm fans. It's also a dual-chamber design for optimal GPU cooling.

Along with the wrap-around glass, the HS 420 has a pretty neat, minimalist design with some unusually shaped vents on the rear and non-glass side of the chassis. It definitely has its own unique look—kitted with some clear-coloured custom water cooling, it looks very clean indeed.

The chassis looks well-engineered with some nice, tight shutlines between the panels. Overall, it looks like a high-quality bit of kit.

There's also a version of the case with vertical GPU mounting known as the HS 420 VGPU. If you're wondering who HAVN is, it's a new brand from Pro Gamers Group said be be staffed by former Fractal, NZXT, Wistron and Corning bods. The brand has a website, but it's so new it appears to still be in launch mode with few product details.

The HS 420 is their first release and for now, there's no word on pricing or launch dates. Here's hoping we can get our hands on one soon to see if it performs as well as it looks.

The Computex press event today wasn't just about new PC cases, as many expected. To many oohs and aahs, Fractal revealed not only a fabric covered, "chimney" style case that wouldn't look out of place in a posh hotel suite, but also a wireless headset and a gaming chair to go with.

That case though. Named simply "Mood", its fabric outer body not only looks great, but feels it too. The entire outer casing slides upwards off the top (which one journalist managed in two minutes flat, despite an attempt to screw it down) to reveal a huge 180 mm fan, with a sleek inner chassis keeping internal components neatly tucked into place. 

It supports up to a 280 mm AIO, comes in black or "Light" colours (looks like mostly grey to me, but what do I know) and goes on sale this June for $150. Having felt the outer casing and seen it for myself, that actually strikes me as cheaper than expected. 

It's still a lot for a chassis, but you really could stick it next to your TV in the front room with no-one being the wiser that it's actually a powerful gaming PC, and I can't think of too many case designs that can do that.

The headset was a real surprise, too. Called the Scape, its metal frame in combination with some remarkably soft earpads lends it a very high-end feeling, which it better do for the price—$200, which puts it into dangerous territory when you consider some of the competition.

Still, it feels light and very well-made, and comes with both a detachable microphone and both wireless and Bluetooth support. A very premium-feeling object, for sure, but I'd have to give it a proper testing when it becomes available later this year before I could tell you if it was worth that kind of money.

And then there's the gaming chair, the Fractal Design Refine. I'll be honest that, while it looked lovely, it did strike me as just, well, quite a nice chair really. There's a lot of adjustability though, alongside padded armrests, hollow wheels that make you feel as if you're "gliding on air" (supposedly) and a moveable memory foam headrest.

It's a nice thing, but again, pricey. $550 gets you one of the mesh or fabric models, while the Alcantara model is a jaw dropping $900. I like me a bit of Alcantra, but having spent a brief time with the mesh model, I'm pretty sure you'll be fine with the cheaper unit.

Still, this might take the prize for the most surprising of all my press briefings this trip. I expected cases, maybe even the odd lifestyle tie-in, but fabric coatings, an intriguing headset and a high-end chair was not on my list.

At one point early on, before anything was revealed, I heard someone say that Fractal was "the Ikea of gaming". A lazy analogy I thought, given the Swedish connection.

After the furniture-style and, well, straight up furniture reveals today though, maybe that was more accurate than I first thought.

Successor to the beastly 1000D, the new Corsair 9000D is ridiculous. We don't have measurements, but this thing is big enough to support two separate PCs inside, the second one a mini-ITX, enabling a secondary streaming setup without impacting your gaming rig's latency one little bit.

There's also enough room for multiple independent liquid cooling loops, up to four 480 mm radiators and, really, anything you can throw at it. We haven't got pricing, but if you're in the market for this kind of thing, do you even care?

Of course, we do tend to care about value, which is where the new Corsair 3500X comes in. It's a more standard-sized ATX tower which offers that wrap-around goldfish bowl thing with two sides of the case almost entirely composed of glass for maximum internal component exposure.

The good news is that pricing starts at a relatively affordable $89.99, making it one of the cheapest full-view cases yet. The 3500X measures 506 x 460 x 240 mm (20 x 18 x 9.4 inches) and is made mainly of steel and tempered glass. 

It also has full support for those trendy new reverse-connection motherboards with all the connectors on the bottom of the board, including ASUS BTF and MSI Project Zero. When you've got such a panoramic view of the internals, that's appealing.

Both of the glass panels are fully removable, so not only can you see inside the case easily, but access is great, too. For the record, the 3500X supports up to E-ATX motherboards, while the component clearances are 180 mm (7.1 inches) for the PSU, 170 mm (6.7 inches) for the CPU cooler and 410 mm (16.1 inches) for the GPU, the latter including support for four-slot graphics cards.

Radiator compatibility comprises 360, 280, and 240 mm at the top and side, with room for 120 mm fans at the bottom and rear of the case. Fully kitted out, airflow shouldn't be an issue at all.

The 3500X is available with and without a set of RGB fans, and it's the model with no fans that hits that lowest $89.99 price point. Oh, and it's available in both black and white. Sign us up!

Keeping all these hot chips cool is a problem everyone seems desperate to solve, and it seems most are throwing heatsinks and fans at the problem in increasing numbers.

In Intel and ASRock's case, however, a towel may be more than appropriate. At the ASRock booth, I spotted a PC immersed in what looked like a fish tank—with two GPUs merrily bubbling away, looking for all intents and purposes like they'd been the victims of a mafia hit.

Of course, what looks like conductive water is instead a dielectric liquid (in this case, a "perfluorocarbon coolant"), so while the components may look like they've been give a slow death, instead they're transferring all that heat into a cool bath.

The project is the result of a collaboration between Intel, ASRock, Thermaltake and Taimax. Supposedly the system is so efficient that wild overclocks are achievable, or in the case of modern Gen 5 SSDs, presumably sustained speeds over long periods without thermal throttling.

After some of the heatsinks and cooler designs we've seen this year, throwing your hands up and dunking the whole thing in a fish tank might actually be the most elegant solution at this point. Plus it'll look great in the background at a dinner party.

Speaking of "screw it, go big" cooler solutions, I'd be remiss if I didn't point out this beauty that our Jacob found at the Seasonic booth:

Yep, that oughta do it. If in doubt, chuck a huge radiator outside the case and cover it in high-powered fans. Job done, we can all go to lunch.

Some enthusiasts like a PC case that's all about functionality of form, sporting great airflow or lots of external connectivity. Others want it the other way around, with RGB so bright the PC could double as an air traffic control tower. But you can have both, you know, or at least that's what Hyte is suggesting with the new Y70 colour options and extra spiffy touchscreen, on show at Computex 2024.

Joining the four current colour options (Snow White, Panda, Pitch Black, and Black Cherry), you'll soon be able to get a Hyte Y70 case in Strawberry Milk, Taro Milk, and Blueberry Milk—pink, purple, and blue in everyday terms. Examples of each scheme have been on display at Computex 2024 and I have to say that Blueberry Milk is my favourite by far. It's bright and fresh-looking, and a great change from the usual straight black or white that the vast majority of PC cases come in.

The purple one—sorry, Taro Milk—is a little too dark in colour for my tastes. I think it'd be nicer if it was a tad brighter. The Strawberry Milk option doesn't float my boat but I should imagine that it's likely to be very popular.

One thing to note is that these new colours are only available, at the moment, for the standard Y70 case in Hyte's store. If you've been eyeballing the Y70 Touch model, with its 14.1-inch touchscreen, then you might be disappointed to know that this is still using the current colour scheme. 

Hyte has been displaying another version of the Y70 Touch with the new colours at Computex, so I at some point in the future you'll probably be able to select from all the new colours in the Touch range.

Speaking of which, Hyte also showcased its new Y70 Touch Infinite—apologies, 'touch infinite'—case at Computex. It sports a slightly larger screen (14.5-inch) than that in the Touch (and yes, it's Touch, not 'touch') but the resolution is a lot lower, at 688 x 2560, compared to the Touch's 1100x3840.

However, the new touchscreen is brighter (350 vs 300 peak nits), with a higher contrast ratio (1,500:1 vs 1,200:1), and slightly wider viewing angles (89 degrees vs 85). Weirdly, though, the touch aspect of the panel has been reduced, from 10-point multi-touch down to 5. Both panels have 60 Hz refresh rates, though the new one has a slightly faster response time.

So, is the Y70 touch infinite better than the Y70 Touch (gah, I really don't like how the name isn't capitalized)? That all depends on whether you like side screens, displaying cool animations or stats about your PC and games, needs to be high resolution or just bright and colourful. The Y70ti is $20 more expensive than the Y70t, with the pre-order price coming in at a cent under $380.

Yeah, you read that right. Nearly four hundred bucks for a case with a touchscreen is quite something. The standard Y70 case is a more palatable $220, even for the new colours, but the latter aren't expected to be shipped until September. If you fancy splashing out on a Hyte Y70 touch infinite, orders should start shipping in July.

Yes, they're very pricey and the design isn't going to be to everyone taste's but I have to say that I do like the new blue Y70 scheme. Dammit, Blueberry Milk.

You can configure your fans however you like, use as many dust filters as you can fit, and make sure your PC is well away from carpets and floor-bound fluff, but at some point, the dust comes for us all. 

You can't escape it, and it's a good idea to clean your PC now and then if you want to keep your components' temperatures manageable. Here are the methods we use to safely and thoroughly clean out our computers.

Dust is the enemy

Too much dust leads to higher temperatures and a loss of performance

The most important thing to consider when cleaning your case is that we want to make it possible for cool, fresh air to get into the case and hot air to get out. If dust filters are clogged or there's excess dust collected around the heat sinks, that's not going to be possible and your system could overheat. 

Along with overheating, dust buildup can cost you performance. As temperatures rise, your CPU and GPU will begin to drop below their maximum boost and turbo clocks. In severe cases it can lead to significant throttling, if not shutdowns when your system is under a heavy load.

To counter that, you want to do everything you can to eliminate dust and leave your system fresh and clean.

Note: Whenever cleaning your PC or its components, you need to take extra special care about static damage. Using an anti-static wristband is ideal, but if you don't have one to hand, make sure to regularly ground yourself by touching your case or PSU housing.

Before you start

Getting ready to clean your PC

One of the first signs of a significant dust buildup is when you can see it on the dust filters adjacent to your intake fans. It's best not to just wipe it off or point a can of compressed air at your PC and hope for the best. 

Before you begin, there are a few common sense things to consider.

• Turn off your PC and unplug the power cable from the rear. If you want to be extra safe, unplug everything.
• Wear a dust mask or respirator if you want to avoid breathing in any of the dust and dirt you remove from your case.
• Move your computer to somewhere well ventilated if possible, or at least open a window or door to let fresh air into the room.
• Remove the side panels and (if possible) the front panel of your case.

Tools to help

Get the right tools for the job

• Microfibre cloth - You might want to rub something in there.
• Compressed air - let's face it, if you want to clean anything on a PC one of these is always good to have on hand.
• A mini vacuum/blower - If you're sick of buying compressed air you can get one of these pretty cheap. They're not as direct or as powerful but they'll do the job and you can just recharge it instead of needing a new can. 
• Antistatic wristband - You can use your case to ground you, but one of these is never a bad idea.
• Actual tools - depending on your case and parts, you might need screw drivers or special bits to get things open.

How to clean your PC

Dust begone

1. Get rid of the dust — Dust is one of the biggest enemies when it comes to keeping a PC clean, and it can get everywhere.

You've likely already knocked loose a bunch of dust just moving your PC, use a vacuum cleaner to clean up any dust that ends up on the floor. However, don't use the vacuum directly on the interior of your case, as there is a real risk of static damage. 

Use your can of air, or blower to get as much dust out of your PC as possible. You can often do a pretty good clean without needing to remove any components this way.

If your PC hasn't been cleaned in a while, there's a good chance you have dust caked onto the fans, vents, and heat sinks. In this case, a quick dusting might not be enough.

2. Remove everything you want to clean —If you display your PC like a work of art as much as a functional tool or gaming machine, then you'll want to do more than just give it a light dusting. For that, we'd recommend removing everything from the case. That means redoing all of your cable management, draining the water-cooling loop, and unhooking all your drive caddies. The end result, though, is worth it.

Note: We still recommend an anti-static wrist band when handling any components. If you don't have one to hand, periodically touch your PC case to ground yourself.

If there's only a few things that need the intensive clean treatment, feel free to just grab those out. That being said, it's worth doing a thorough clean now and then and now's as good a time as any. Just make sure you reapply thermal paste if you remove the heat sync. If you're not sure how, read our guide.

3. Lay it out —Lay everything you've removed out on a non conductive surface. This should give you a good opportunity to see what really needs your cleaning attention. You can give them another once over with the compressed air or blower while they're here.

4. Wipe everything down — Grab your lint free cloth and wipe any dust build up you can still see. Pay particular attention to any crevices, plastic shrouds, and heat sinks. Thoroughly clean any dust filters too. For fans you can hold the blades still to give them a better clean on the individual blades.

5. Use some Isopropyl — If there are any fingerprint or oily marks or other stubborn grime, use cotton swabs and isopropyl alcohol or equivalent to wipe them clean. Be very careful and of course, make sure to leave them to dry before putting them back together.

6. Opening components — Some components, like a graphics card, can get dust build-up inside a covered area. Cleaning these may require disassembling the card, which is possible if you have the right tools (small hex and Torx bits are often required). Hopefully this won't be required, but if your PC has been extra dusty there might be some caked inside.

There are certain components, like the interior of your PSU, that you aren't going to be able to clean effectively without taking it apart and voiding your warranty. Doing so can be dangerous, too. Instead, we'd recommend using a can of compressed air with a long straw attached to give it a little blast to dislodge any stubborn dust. When you next turn it on, its own fan and natural airflow should blow any loosened dust out of the rear.

When you're finished cleaning, put everything back together. Take this opportunity to do a little cable management as it can help avoid dust build up by making for a cleaner passage of air through your system. 

We've seen racing style gaming chairs—now is the age of racing style PC fans. If you're having trouble picturing such a thing, just look to MSI's latest innovation in the PC cooling space—the "Floating Hub Cap" Suprim fan design.

Also known as the "Static logo" design, these fans were inspired by Rolls-Royce's hubcaps. Similarly to the Rolls-Royce design, the center of the fan always stays upright no matter how fast they spin. That means anyone whose PC case provides an unobscured view of the fans will forever be greeted by the MSI logo when they gaze lovingly at their setup.

"This structure creates a floating effect, enhancing brand visibility and aesthetics," reads the plaque next to the showpiece. And it really does work; we spent a good while mesmerized by the fact that the logo just sits in place while the rest of the fan spins at some silly RPM. It's not the most gorgeous design we saw at Computex, but it's a neat little feature that means no one can forget who made the fans in their PC case. Clever…

The design has a magnetic structure, which is how it manages its little logo stability magic trick. Not only is MSI implementing it on PC fans, it's also being used on the company's AIO coolers and some Suprim RTX 40-series graphics cards, too.

There was me thinking PC fans couldn't get any cooler than Lian Li's Infinity fans, but now you can style even more of your setup to match your love of race cars. It'll certainly give a little flair to any racing sim rig you decide to build.

Guess that's another one just waiting to be added to Jacobs's ever-growing collection of fans and other bits he's been hoarding.  

Milling about the show floor at Computex over the past week, it's clear there's less of a focus on boring black PC parts than we've seen in the past. Between the gaudy origami PC cases from InWin I spotted, and the plethora of incredible case mods scattered around the booths, it looks like the monotone monoliths of yesteryear could seriously end up taking a back seat against a wealth of colourful goodies.

Of course, colourful bits are often a clever way that companies draw people in at shows like Computex, and often they never come to fruition being written off as "show colours". I've been assured the ones I've seen, however, will actually be making it to market.

Some vibrant and others more on the pastel side, there's now so much to choose from when it comes to PC parts. In particular, matcha green has made an appearance at almost every booth I've visited this year.

Thermaltake's booth was very green indeed. Not only does the Ceres 300 TG and Tower 200 (the company's refresh of the Tower 100) come in Matcha Green, there's also a Turquoise and Racing Green option among the standard black and white. I'd have called the latter Forest green, actually, which would have made it all the more appropriate considering the swathes of green surrounding the host city of Taipei.

Sadly, the new CTE C700—a slimmed down version of the full-tower CTE C750 we tested recently—doesn't look to have been included in the tea-stained fad, but I can at least feel confident that this is indicative of a wider trend in the industry.

Fractal's new Terra PC case is a Scandi inspired Mini-ITX design that comes in a few colourways, but the best of all was "Jade". Essentially it's a matcha green that's a little bit shiny thanks to the anodisation process. It's gorgeous, refined, and totally has the potential to blend with modern, minimalist design trends.

"We had this epiphany in the office where we just realised we all play games. We're not making a product for 'the gamer', we're making a product for ourselves," Fractal's head of PC, Victor Elveljung, tells me. "With our products, we hope that more and more people will not hide it in the basement."

By steering away from only offering plain black colourways, companies are able to cater to the less RGB-inclined among us. I'm confident the industry as a whole is slowly starting to realise that PC gamers are much more eclectic when it comes to design trends today; we do care about matching our PC case with the sofa and the TV stand, rather than having our gaming PC stick out like a sore thumb.

And although the more subtle pastel colours appear predominantly to be coming in at smaller form factors, I can see it moving into the full-tower space once companies realise we're all serious grown-ups now. We've been seeing pastel peripherals a lot more recently, so to have PC cases to match is a logical next-step.

I did a little digging around this obsession with matcha green in particular, too. One spokesperson told me the trend is an "ode to Computex". Essentially, the green tea look is a nod to the host country of Taiwan's rich, tea-based history, currently being kept alive through the youths' obsession with bubble tea, and now in pastel PC cases apparently.

Sipping some green tea with a Taiwanese spokesperson from MSI after the show, she tells me "Only old people drink hot tea." And I have a feeling we're going to be saying that about owning stark black PC cases in the not-too-far future, too.

The Thermaltake CTE C750 Air is a member of Thermaltake's new CTE case family. CTE stands for Centralized Thermal Efficiency. The idea is to position the hottest components more towards the center of the chassis where they will benefit from the best possible airflow. It's a sound theory.

But shifting the motherboard placement a little isn't the highlight of this case. Its flexibility is. While not a new concept, the CTE C750 is designed to house a 90 degree rotated motherboard, meaning the I/O and GPU outputs are at the top of the chassis. Add that to that a huge range of possible fan and radiator placement options and it is something refreshingly different.

Here for review I have the CTE C750 Air version. It doesn't come with ARGB fans, unlike its slightly more expensive and aptly named CTE C750 ARGB sibling. It's a very big case but at $179 / £169 / AU$269 It's good value for money for such a large and flexible offering.

The CTE C750 is available in black or white versions. I received the black version for review. At nearly 600mm tall, it's already big, but its 327mm wide too, making it a truly big boi. At 16.7kg it's not as heavy as I would have expected given its steel construction, though some of the external elements are plastic, saving some weight.

The front I/O is worthy of praise. You get one USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port, four USB 3.0 ports and a HD Audio jack joining the usual power and reset buttons.

A big case like this means you get a vast amount of space inside. That'll be welcome for builders looking for a lot of space for tubing. It can house up to fourteen fans and radiators in five different locations. The mounting frames can be removed for easier installation. It's just crying out to house a mega water-cooled system. I used a 240mm AIO for my build. Shame on me!

The bottom of the case includes a HDD mounting frame though there are various mounting points for 2.5-inch SSDs as well. Thermaltake says the CT750 can house up to 12 2.5-inch SSDs. 

The C750 has extensive perforations to allow air to flow through the case unimpeded from any direction with the exception of the tempered glass side panel. All intakes have dust filtering.

One of my favorite features is the sheer amount of space behind the motherboard tray. This makes cable management a breeze, leaving plenty of space for thick and stiff PSU cables. 

However, some thought needs to go into your fan installation as it can be difficult to route fan and RGB cables for a rotated motherboard. At least it is if you're a fussy builder. Your cables might need to go to headers in locations you might not expect.

Overall the build process is daily standard. I appreciate the ability to remove the fan frames. That makes it a lot easier to install radiators or fans. Without that feature, it would be difficult to access them without taking out the graphics card. In the default position anyway.

In the end, the result is a clean and clutter free build. But I do have a criticism. the motherboard rear I/O panel is difficult to access. The CTE philosophy means the motherboard I/O is not flush with the top of the case, and in fact its underneath the top panel and air filter. 

There's a small slot for routing cables out the back, and that's fine for things like a Wi-Fi leads or USB cables, but my Corsair mouse has a ferrite bead on its cable and there's no way to insert it without leaving the top air filter and panel off. I'd like to see this gap widened to accommodate all possible motherboard I/O cables.

Thermaltake's choice to include just three fans is a wise one in my opinion. It helps to keep the cost down, and as this is a case designed for high end systems and watercooling, the chances are you'll deck it out with your choice of fans anyway, possibly leaving the bundled Thermaltake ones as superfluous extras.

A big case like this does deserve to be shown off, and to that end, I installed some Thermaltake CT140 ARGB fans, with three at the front and three at the rear.

They're very quiet! The airflow through the case is excellent and the MSI RTX 4080 Suprim I used for the test build was happy to hum along at under 60 degrees. In the end, who cares about a degree or two here or there. It looks great.

Personally I'm a fan of the big CTE C750 Air case. I like big cases for powerful systems and this one sure is big. Its flexibility is a highlight. That I/O is top notch too with four USB 3.0 ports being a welcome inclusion.

Its price is excellent. At $179 / £169 / AU$269 it's a lot of case for your money. It's only got three fans, but that's not a bad thing in my opinion. If you're going to add radiators, the chances are you'll be selecting your own fans anyway.

But it isn't perfect. Access to the motherboard's rear I/O is impossible without taking off the top panel and air filter. I also don't like the thin gap TT left for routing cables. Some cables simply won't fit.

I'd also like to see a small modification or two to assist with routing ARGB and fan cables. They can end up like spaghetti if you don't take care to route them properly.

The C750 is a welcome attempt by Thermaltake to innovate in the PC case market. With just a couple of tweaks, the C750 could go from being good to great. It's a unique case that offers flexibility and good value for money even if it's best suited to the most powerful builds with expansive water cooling systems.

But that's really no bad thing, and the classic phrase about imitation being the sincerest form of flattery would seem to apply here. Lian Li makes a case beloved by many PC gamers, so why shouldn't NZXT make its own version?

Well, the issue is that it's not bringing anything particularly new to the party, apart from a higher price tag. Though it's worth saying that this H9 Elite is just $10 more than the O11 XL chassis of similar dimensions, which is $230. The NZXT case also comes in H9 Flow trim, which eschews the tempered glass top panel and therefore completely matches the mesh topside of the O11 XL.

The H9 Flow is cheaper at $160, and all you're losing there is a triple-pack of F120 RGB Duo fans and that tempered glass top.

Either way, you get a PC chassis that's almost more of a presentation case. It will deliver the sort of system you'll see adorning stands at trade shows, or filling out the million or so 'check out my build' posts on every PC reddit from here to the heat death of the universe. 

Y'know, those build posts that invariably use a Lian Li O11 Dynamic chassis right now. Okay, I promise I'll only mention that case one more time from now.

One thing NZXT does well is make good chassis, and the H9 Elite is a really good high-end case. The tempered glass surrounds give it that presentation case/fish bowl effect that really shows off your supermodel components, and offers the chance for enough RGB lighting effects to make a real impact.

And all while hiding the more workmanlike PC parts in a separate partition behind the motherboard. This partitioning allows for some clean cable management, or will at least let you hide your wire-y sins behind some sheet metal. I'm a big fan of this kind of compartmentalisation, especially when done sympathetically enough to provide ample space for your power supply and its attendant cabling to live without being crammed in.

Corsair and Lian Li have been doing it for ages, and I've long been into it. I'm less into the sharp slice and dice of my fingers that fumbling around with Lian Li chassis in the past has resulted in. Case in point:

I haven't lost any flesh/blood from building a full PC into the H9 Elite, which is testament to the build quality of the NZXT chassis.

Though I will say I'm a bit puzzled by the placement of the PSU tray in this NZXT box. It's set in the middle of the rear side of the H9, set on its edge with the idea being the fan exhausts sideways through the mesh panelling. That in itself is fine, allowing a shorter distance for the cables to run from power supply to motherboard—and no criminally stretched CPU power cables—but means the PSU is set right behind the large motherboard cutout designed to give you free access to the rear of your processor and therefore the CPU cooler mounts.

Having the PSU there, however, means you don't have free access, and could also build up some heat jamming it in behind the processor itself. I guess the idea is that you build once and upgrades are few and far between, meaning regular access but I'm still unsure as to why NZXT hasn't provided some simple modular arrangement that will let you alter the position of the PSU like some other chassis I could mention.

That's my singular design issue with the H9 Elite in itself. The case has resulted in a really clean-looking build, and the bundled RGB fans look pretty great when all the LEDs in the chassis are working together. Which leads to my only other issue, but that's less about the case and more about the RGB fan controller NZXT has bundled with it, and maybe about the state of proprietary plugs in the PC world, too.

I'm not 100% sure who is the guilty party here, but sticking in Corsair's gorgeous new H100i LCD XT cooler—the one with the very NZXT-like display on it—meant I ended up with a pair of fan controllers jammed into the case on top of each other. One for the NZXT fans and the other for the Corsair ones. And it's all because the RGB cables from the fans have different plugs on them.

If they both used a standard plug for this there'd be no issue and I could just add Corsair's cooler to my build and control the fans from a single app. But no, I have to either opt specifically for an NZXT cooler to complement the NZXT case or suck it up and use both the CAM and iCUE software at the same time, with two different fan control boxes stuffing up my chassis. 

Still, it looks great in resplendent hot pink with everything lit up.

I've been really impressed with the ease with which I've been able to build into the H9 Elite, and with how it finally looks. Though maybe I'd have been just as happy with the H9 Flow; the extra RGB fans and tempered glass top aren't necessarily right at the top of my chassis must-have list. Though the floating radiator up top works for me, even if it's more for show than cooling effect.

Again though we finally have to come back to the fact that aside from those extra luxuries we are looking at a case unashamedly aping the Lian Li O11 Dynamic. Remember that whole imitation being the sincerest form of flattery thing? The full quote is actually less endearing, however: "the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness."

The H9 Elite certainly isn't mediocre, and now ends up as an excellent alternative to the classic Lian Li, and one that, in the H9 Flow version, can actually come in cheaper. I'm still unsure whether the extra glass panel, RGB controller, and triple RGB fans are worth the extra $100 or so for the Elite version, but it sure looks great when it's all lit up. Though it is still probably a secondary alternative to the Lian Li classic rather than an outright winner.

As these things go, the one you feed is the one that grows. Though that second does start getting mighty hungry after you hit about thirty. Thankfully, you don't always have to choose between either wolf, and Corsair is here to prove it with its new wooden PC case panels.

The panels are for Corsair's popular 4000 Series lineup of mid-tower sized cases. This includes the iCUE 4000X RGB case, which like the iCUE 5000T we reviewed, is known for its showy RGB lit prowess. This way you can have the best of both wolves with your toned down natural wood look backed by bright whirling lights. 

The lattice cut wood looks like it'd do a great job of still allowing visibility into the PC, much like regular venting does today, and Corsair insists it's still just as good for air flow. These new wooden panels have been tested against the 4000D and 5000D Airflow panels to ensure they deliver the same level of cooling on top of aesthetics.

These panels, which are reminding me more and more of my grandma's old front door the more I look at them, come in three different options. The darkest wood looks to be the Teak veneer, followed by the Sapele veneer. Bamboo looks like a much lighter bright colour, and is renewable sourced. You can get a good look at each by adjusting your preference on the listing website and checking out the pics.

The panels are available for preorder on the Corsair website for £49.99 or $54.99. Based on the listing, it looks like this will come with a complete set of front, top, and side panels so you can have your PC looking like the catholic confession box from every movie I've ever seen when they ship in four to five weeks.

If this has been all too much wood for you, but you're liking the idea of a rustic touch to your case, you're in luck. One of Fractal Design's newest cases is also rocking the wooden aesthetic but with a more modern looking front panel-only vertical design. It could be that a splash of tree is the new trend in gaming cases. For those who want to go all the way, check out this all-wood DIY beauty from simpler times.

The Thermaltake Ceres 500 TG ARGB is designed to maximize airflow and house the largest (and longest) graphics cards you can buy, without really going overboard on sheer size.

The Ceres 500, like most modern PC cases, doesn’t seek to reinvent the wheel. It's a mid-tower with a steel construction and tempered glass side panel and it's available in both black and white finishes. Our sample is the white one, officially known as the Snow version.

I wouldn’t say it's the most beautiful case I've ever come across. The gray section at the bottom front is a little out of place in my opinion, though it looks better on the black version. You be the judge. Personally, I like white cases. I feel they have a kind of cleaner look about them.

At 525mm x 245mm x 508mm, it's a big case, but it's not quite in full tower territory. It weighs in at 10.5kg. Its size and weight along with its good quality feet give it a really solid feel which is great for minimizing vibrations. 

It comes with a GPU sag prevention mechanism, or you have the option to vertically mount a GPU if you choose though TT doesn't include a riser cable as standard.

As is its wont, Thermaltake designed the Ceres 500 to maximize airflow. There are extensive perforations to allow air to flow through the case relatively unimpeded. It's able to house a 420mm top mounted radiator in addition to a front mounted 360mm one, meaning it'll have no problems handling the hottest components. Add to that a rear mounted 140mm fan and the Ceres 500 will house up to seven fans. The front and top areas have plenty of dust filtering.

The Ceres 500 is very much designed to be placed on the right-hand side of your desk, and it makes perfect sense. Cases with side windows are much more likely to be placed on the right-hand side of your desk anyway, and with that in mind TT positioned the I/O ports on the side of the case. They're easily accessible this way. On the contrary, it does mean that there are better options if you're looking for a case to put underneath your desk.

The ports consist of a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C, a pair of USB 3.0 Gen 1, a mic and headphone combo port and the power and reset buttons.

It's a small thing, but Thermaltake deserves special credit for the tempered glass side panel's excellent door hinge. With one simple knob the door is very securely held. It's the kind of little feature that adds to the overall excellent build quality of the Ceres 500.

Thermaltake didn't cheap out on the fans, either. They are very good CT140 ARGB spinners and the Ceres 500 comes with four. These alone make up a good portion of the chassis' asking price and they're rated at 30.5 dBA at 1500 RPM.

Thermaltake offers an optional 3.9-in LCD panel which can be mounted at the bottom below the I/O ports. It can be used to display things like monitoring information, the weather, or your own GIF images. It's controlled and synchronized with other Thermaltake components via the TT RGB Plus software. I could not find a listing for it in the USA but given the Tower 500 LCD panel costs $99, the Ceres 500 panel is likely to cost the same. It is available here in Australia for AU$169.

It's a nice-looking and functional product but it is nothing if not an entirely niche feature and I feel it's a little too expensive to be a throwaway additional purchase. If you have an AIO cooler with an LCD display, there is little need to buy the Ceres 500 panel as both will have the same kind of functionality.

The build process was easy, which is exactly what you'd want from a new case. There's lots of space around the motherboard and power supply area. It housed a 356mm long Zotac RTX 4080 Airo graphics card with lots of room to spare. There are plenty of cable management holes, and holes for Velcro ties and as many zip ties as you like.  The end result is a system that looks every inch a premium build. The LCD panel and ARGB fans really stand out in this white example, too.

It's a minor criticism, but I found the rear fan cables were not long enough to be stashed out of the way and routed to an appropriate fan header, though that's inevitably motherboard specific. The front fans can be daisy chained, however, which helps to keep clutter to a minimum. 

I like that there's enough area behind the motherboard tray so that stiff PSU cables can be appropriately managed. The Ceres 500 housed everything with ease.

The end result is a clean and functional build. There's no noise to speak of though its definitely worth diving into your motherboard BIOS to set appropriate fan curves. My Asus X670E Crosshair Hero set the front fans to an aggressive fan speed, but after adjustment, they ramp up and down gently.

The RGB is bright and vibrant and the TT RGB plus software provides an excellent level of control. Whether you like static colors, strobing or just about any kind of RGB effect you can think of, the TT software can do it. The colors of the rainbow – so pretty in the sky….

I came away impressed with the Thermaltake Ceres 500. It's very well built, it's heavy, sturdy, and has plenty of room for a high-end build. The fans are very good and the finished build looks great, even if I'm not entirely sold on the weird chin on the front of the case itself.

There's a lot of competition in this price range, but TT shows it can compete with the best of them. If you're after a white case that gives you plenty of airflow for a hot running year 2023 gaming build, the Ceres 500 is well worth a look. And then add the 3.9-in LCD for an additional touch of class if you've got a spare couple hundred bucks to drop on an aesthetic whim.

Showcase Holograms hopes that PC gamers are over RGB lighting and ready to embrace the future. The 'future' being holograms, obviously. At CES 2023, the company is currently demoing its brand-new Hologram PC side panel. 

Last year the company showed off a special PC case fitted with hologram tech. But this year, instead of an entire case, you can tack on a hologram side panel to any PC case that'll loop a custom 3D hologram of your choice.

The holograms themselves have a grungy retro-futuristic look, as if they belong in the background shot of a classic sci-fi flick. Obviously, if there were a hologram I'd choose to project from a PC it would be Princess Leia from Star Wars or Cortana from the Halo Series; however, not that Cortana.

Showcase says the hologram side panel can be attached to most PC cases, and the installation looks pretty painless. It essentially replaces the existing removable side panel. It uses magnets and brackets (no screws). The panel can use internal power from the PC or AC power from a wall outlet. 

The case in the video looks like a standard mid-tower PC case, but it seems you can do the same for a full-tower case as long as the side panel comes off. 

The holograms are actually created with hundreds of LEDs on a thin spinning fan blade. If you look closely enough at the video, you might be able to see fan whirling about, causing the image to flicker. The fan itself has internal storage pre-loaded with some holograms, or you'll be able to create some yourself and cycle through them via a remote. 

Showcase Holograms is, uh, showcasing other hologram products such as a large 'inside out' frame where the image 'escapes' the borders of the frame. Then there are hologram wall and desk clocks of various sizes.

The Hologram PC side panel will cost $249.99 and $149.99 for the smaller Panel Mini, but you can find more info on Showcase Holograms website. 

Designed for ATX, mATX and ITX motherboards, the North supports GPUs up to a length of 355mm, or 300mm with a 360mm front radiator. Out of the box, it features two 140mm Aspect PWM fans, three USB ports on top of the front panel including one USB-C port and drive mounts for up to four 2.5-inch drives and two 3.5-inch drive.

The design-savvy Swedes at Fractal say the case is easy access, with quick-release side panels and an integrated tab that allows the top panel to simply pop off. Inside, seven bridgeless expansion slots allow for extensive customization.

Cooling wise, the design includes an open front and integrated mesh top panel. The full mesh version of the case also includes a mesh side panel. A tempered glass side panel is optionally available.

Overall, the form and shape of the Fractal Design North is admittedly quite conventional. It is, ultimately, a rectangular box. Without the wood slats, it would not be hugely remarkable. But they do make for a very attractive design flourish.

At launch, four variants of the case are available. The two colorways are chalk white and charcoal black, with each option available with either a mesh or tempered glass side panel.

All told, the North weighs in at 7.6kg for the mesh version and 7.7kg for the tempered glass option. It measures 447 x 215 x 469mm including its natty little feet.

As for the sordid matter of money, you're looking at 150 of your Earth dollars, which seems pretty reasonable for what is a very distinctive and likely high quality bit of case engineering. It's also rather refreshing to see a case that majors on aesthetics but manages to do so without an RGB light in sight.

That said, if there is a feature that's slightly disappointing given the price point and overall polish of the design, it's the old school thumb screws used to secure the side panels.

Oh and for a lushly rendered video overview of the new case, head over here.

For its large storage capacity, the Bitfenix Nova offers a slightly less than optimal layout. A top-to-bottom storage cage takes up most of the front of the case, leaving a lot less room than some for your graphics card and no space for a liquid cooler or more than two fans. With a couple of drives installed the airflow can be restricted, too. 

That said, with only an NVMe SSD installed for testing, the CPU and GPU do run at okay temperatures. That lack of space up front is not a major issue in my testing, anyways.

It does rattle something fierce, though. The HDD trays are the main offender, as they wobble so much within the bays that they can quite easily fall out entirely. And that's without any weighty drives in them whatsoever. I wouldn't trust this case to hold up well during a move or while being transported.

Cheap case airflow test

The main ingredient for an impressive PC case is airflow, but you'd be surprised by just how many case designs don't get this quite right. Ideally, we want our case to draw in cool air from a handful of high flow intake fans at the front, over our PC's components, then out the exhaust. Cheap cases, however, don't always come with the ideal number of fans for this optimal setup, so it's extra important to find one that is smartly designed to work with limited cooling potential. 

To test the thermal properties of these six cheap cases, I built a PC into each of them. Then I ran a handful of benchmarks to put the CPU and GPU under day-to-day stress and collated the average results into this graph.

The lack of space for a radiator does mean there's nowhere to install a liquid cooler larger than 120mm, however. Since there's no top ventilation on this case, and the cages at the front are bolted in, it's not possible to install a 240mm radiator anywhere. That's likely not an issue if you're going to stick to stock cooling or a cheap air cooler, but something to bear in mind.

This large storage cage also means the PSU cables are a little tough to organise, which means that you might have to work extra hard to get your build looking neat and tidy with that large tempered glass window.

This isn't the prettiest case of those I've tested, even with the large tempered glass side panel or white colourway that was provided. The front of the case is plain and old-fashioned, and the white paint used on the case doesn't match across its entire construction.

The Bitfenix Nova is a case with a lot of room for storage expansion, and in that sense there are no others I've tested that are a match for it. However, it's a little bland to look at, and the ill-fitting nature of the drive bays, and the position of them, does make me wonder how practical this case will be once it's filled up with precious kit. Combined with the lack of options even for air cooling and I'm afraid this case doesn't make the cut.

Our group test: A budget PC case is a great way to trim costs on your next PC build, yet many of the brands we're used to seeing in the top case round-ups aren't anywhere near cheap enough for what we're after. That's why I asked our friends at Overclockers UK if it would lend us its cheapest cases to see which is worth your small pile of coins, and of the seven cases they sent my way, I made my conclusions.

The Tomahawk is a decent illustration of what to expect from a budget PC case. It's a mid-tower case with a boxy frame, a windowed side panel, a couple of simple fans, and some rough edges. Generally, though, it offers wide-ranging compatibility with modern PC components.

You may think you can't ask more of a budget case than a standardised home for your parts, but in testing a number of similarly priced budget cases today, I did find the Tomahawk's somewhat old-fashioned layout to be a bane on temperatures and likely not an ideal configuration for long-term use.

The Tomahawk has no top fan vents or mounts, insteading offering a spot for a PSU up top. This is something you might still see in a cheaper workstation, but rarely nowadays in a gaming PC. Since there are no vents on the top of the case, the PSU must be orientated in such a way to suck in air from the inside the case and exhaust it out the rear vent on the unit. That means hot air generated by the CPU, GPU, VRM, and other components will travel past your PSU's internal components, which may lead to these parts heating up more than usual, but more importantly does appear to lead to hotter temperatures for other key components.

The Tomahawk ran our Ryzen 5 5600X CPU hotter than most other budget cases in my testing. Unfortunately, due to the layout of the case and the Molex-powered fans, the speed of which cannot be adjusted, there's not much that can be done immediately to rectify the higher CPU temperatures. You may, however, find that a CPU with a lower power consumption may fare better in this case, and of course you can always replace the fans down the line.

Cheap case airflow test

The main ingredient for an impressive PC case is airflow, but you'd be surprised by just how many case designs don't get this quite right. Ideally, we want our case to draw in cool air from a handful of high flow intake fans at the front, over our PC's components, then out the exhaust. Cheap cases, however, don't always come with the ideal number of fans for this optimal setup, so it's extra important to find one that is smartly designed to work with limited cooling potential. 

To test the thermal properties of these six cheap cases, I built a PC into each of them. Then I ran a handful of benchmarks to put the CPU and GPU under day-to-day stress and collated the average results into this graph.

The Tomahawk may offer only Molex-powered fans but at least it has two. These come as standard mounted in the front and rear. This configuration does help in terms of graphics card temperature, with the dual-fan RTX 3060 I've been using for testing hitting a maximum temperature of 79°C. That's somewhere in the middle of the pack versus other cases I've tested.

These fans also light up, which does make for a more interesting-looking case with the windowed side panel on the Tomahawk. This is only a Perspex side panel, however, which I suppose isn't all that surprising considering the price of this case, but actually a few other cases in this price range do come with glass ones. Surprising, I know.

There are other cases that perform better, offer more options, and are still just as cheap as the Tomahawk. I'd actually recommend the Aerocool Zauron from my testing, as this case from the company delivers that same affordability but without the old-fashioned and restrictive layout.

Our group test: A budget PC case is a great way to trim costs on your next PC build, yet many of the brands we're used to seeing in the top case round-ups aren't anywhere near cheap enough for what we're after. That's why I asked our friends at Overclockers UK if it would lend us its cheapest cases to see which is worth your small pile of coins, and of the seven cases they sent my way, I made my conclusions.

However, there are still some tell-tale signs of its cheaper construction, and the actual innards of this case do bear much resemblance to many of the cheap cases I've tested. Plastic thumbscrews, single-use PCIe slot covers, and generally cheap materials make up the Nimbus, but I won't linger too long on these smaller complaints often shared by all cases in this price range.

The Nimbus features a solid layout that should be familiar to most PC gamers, and one that's tried and tested. It's also one of the Nimbus' best features because of the number of possible mounting points for cooling. You could install multiple fans in the front, each with decent airflow, or even a radiator. There's further space in the top of the case, and room for one 120mm fan in the rear.

Only a single fan comes pre-installed in the rear of the case, though you could move this wherever you like. In its default position you are lacking that airflow over your graphics card or CPU from the front and I recommend you install a second fan up front shortly after picking this case up. That does mean spending a little more, but you shouldn't need to spend much more than £5 for a half-decent fan.

I'm speaking in British pounds because this Kolink case isn't widely available in the US. You may be able to find someone importing it for a fee, but as far as I'm concerned it's not worth the added cost versus other cases that are freely available state-side.

If you're in the UK or rest of Europe, where this case is widely available, it's worth noting that this case isn't particularly cool for its single fan configuration out of the box. It absolutely appears another fan is required to push those temperatures lower.

Cheap case airflow test

The main ingredient for an impressive PC case is airflow, but you'd be surprised by just how many case designs don't get this quite right. Ideally, we want our case to draw in cool air from a handful of high flow intake fans at the front, over our PC's components, then out the exhaust. Cheap cases, however, don't always come with the ideal number of fans for this optimal setup, so it's extra important to find one that is smartly designed to work with limited cooling potential. 

To test the thermal properties of these six cheap cases, I built a PC into each of them. Then I ran a handful of benchmarks to put the CPU and GPU under day-to-day stress and collated the average results into this graph.

With the NZXT N7 B550 motherboard installed the RGB cable on the Nimbus also couldn't reach the correct header, which means you'll need to control this via the front panel rather than your motherboard. It's no major problem, just a little inconvenient if you had hoped for a sync'd up light show and run into the same issue. Your motherboard's RGB header placement may vary, of course.

The Kolink is definitely one of the finer cases I've tested in this batch of budget options. It's built to a high standard and comes with all the makings of a flexible PC case for a wide range of uses. However, it is a little let down by the single included fan, so should you live somewhere where this case is sold for cheap you might want to consider a second fan from the get-go.

Our group test: A budget PC case is a great way to trim costs on your next PC build, yet many of the brands we're used to seeing in the top case round-ups aren't anywhere near cheap enough for what we're after. That's why I asked our friends at Overclockers UK if it would lend us its cheapest cases to see which is worth your small pile of coins, and of the seven cases they sent my way, I made my conclusions.

For one, it has actually reusable PCIe slots. That needn't be such a big deal, but when you spend all day prying off pieces of metal from cheap cases, which you then have to throw away, it makes for a nice change. It also saves you from having a gap above your GPU if you ever move it down a slot or two. Though to be clear it's only the top three PCIe slots that are able to be screwed back in on the Inspire K11.

This is the only cheap case I tested that comes with a PWM fan that can be plugged directly into a motherboard for variable speeds—most come with Molex-powered fans that run at a set RPM. The included Umbra aRGB 120mm fan is installed in the rear of the case, which does leave you without a front intake fan for optimal airflow, but does light up all the colours of the rainbow. That's what the people want, right?

If you want that then you're looking at the right case. The K11 also comes with RGB strips down the left-hand side of the front panel, which can controlled via a motherboard's 3-pin 5V RGB header, alongside the RGB-enabled fan.

Cheap case airflow test

The main ingredient for an impressive PC case is airflow, but you'd be surprised by just how many case designs don't get this quite right. Ideally, we want our case to draw in cool air from a handful of high flow intake fans at the front, over our PC's components, then out the exhaust. Cheap cases, however, don't always come with the ideal number of fans for this optimal setup, so it's extra important to find one that is smartly designed to work with limited cooling potential. 

To test the thermal properties of these six cheap cases, I built a PC into each of them. Then I ran a handful of benchmarks to put the CPU and GPU under day-to-day stress and collated the average results into this graph.

There are tons of mounting options with the K11, including along the top of the case where a sizeable vent is covered by a half-decent dust filter. This has space for a 240mm radiator, which makes for plenty of room when paired with the space down the front for a 360mm one. There's even two 120mm fan mounts on the PSU shroud, if you need them.

Though it's worth noting that out of the box that single fan doesn't deliver particularly impressive thermal performance, and you probably will want to buy further cooling to keep your PC running at optimal temps.

One thing to note is that the front panel on the Inspire 11 features two USB 2.0 ports and just one USB 3.0 port, so you're down one speedier port compared to most.

The Kolink is best seen as a cheap case that makes a rock-solid baseline for further improvements. You can settle for this cheap case, build a functional PC, and when you're able thwack a great cooling solution in there too. It's pretty flexible, and if it wasn't for the fact that other cheap cases deliver a little more out of the box, this would be one of the best. It's definitely worth checking out, at the very least.

Our group test: A budget PC case is a great way to trim costs on your next PC build, yet many of the brands we're used to seeing in the top case round-ups aren't anywhere near cheap enough for what we're after. That's why I asked our friends at Overclockers UK if it would lend us its cheapest cases to see which is worth your small pile of coins, and of the seven cases they sent my way, I made my conclusions.

Let's start with why this case is prime candidate for your next budget PC build. For one, the layout of this case is exactly what is best for a case of this price tag and size, with plenty of ventilation and mounting for an optimal fan layout. The PSU is fitted neatly away under a shroud, and it can be mounted to benefit from underside ventilation for clean air intake. Also the front, top, and rear of the case offer space for multiple fans or radiators. 

You can fit up to three 120mm fans in the front of this case, while the top has space for two, and the rear just one. You could also happily install a liquid cooling radiator in any of those locations, too.

There's just one fan included, which is a bit of a knock to the Zauron because it's a single Molex-powered fan with a fixed RPM. This comes pre-installed in the front at the lowest position possible, which helps mightily with the graphics card thermal performance. Temperatures are surprisingly good for a cheap case out of the box as a result, with both CPU and GPU managing to stay within a healthy average.

A rear fan or another front fan would make a huge difference here, and if you want more in the box you might want to look at the Aerocool Hive. Yet the large ventilation on the top of the case appears to help keep that hot air venting outside of the case, rather than being trapped inside.

Cheap case airflow test

The main ingredient for an impressive PC case is airflow, but you'd be surprised by just how many case designs don't get this quite right. Ideally, we want our case to draw in cool air from a handful of high flow intake fans at the front, over our PC's components, then out the exhaust. Cheap cases, however, don't always come with the ideal number of fans for this optimal setup, so it's extra important to find one that is smartly designed to work with limited cooling potential. 

To test the thermal properties of these six cheap cases, I built a PC into each of them. Then I ran a handful of benchmarks to put the CPU and GPU under day-to-day stress and collated the average results into this graph.

On the side of the case is a real tempered glass side panel, which once again is a surprising thing to see on a case that costs so little.

Though there are a few things I've liked about other cases that aren't present here. Perhaps a worthy sacrifice for its cheap price. The Zauron doesn't feature removable PCIe slot covers, and you will have to bend these off for good whenever you want to install a GPU or add-in card into the machine. It also has a cut-out where a USB port should be in the front panel, though no such port is installed. In its place is a little piece of plastic. There are two USB 3.0 ports that you can use instead, but weird that there's a space for a 2.0 port that simply doesn't come installed.

Yet the Zauron package is impressive for its overall flexibility and value. It's a cheap case that looks decent and is easily upgraded if a builder wants to throw some more money at their build later in its life. It may still have some of those cheap case flaws, but when most of the others at this price also do, I can't argue with this case for the small sum of money demanded for it.

Our group test: A budget PC case is a great way to trim costs on your next PC build, yet many of the brands we're used to seeing in the top case round-ups aren't anywhere near cheap enough for what we're after. That's why I asked our friends at Overclockers UK if it would lend us its cheapest cases to see which is worth your small pile of coins, and of the seven cases they sent my way, I made my conclusions.

Generally, though, this is a safe bet.

That's not necessarily a bad thing. Like I say, there's plenty of compatibility here for building your PC inside this without hitting any pain points, and when it comes to cooling options there are lots of spaces for fans and radiators. That includes up to three 120mm fans in the front, two in the top, and one in the rear.

Though there is only a single 120mm RGB fan pre-installed in this machine, and it's powered by a SATA connection so the RPM cannot be controlled by the user. That's better than a molex-powered fan in my opinion, but not much better. Since this case is quite so well ventilated it does actually do a fairly good job of keeping temperatures down to a relatively low number, but I feel it could be mightily improved with another fan or two. That does mean throwing more money at it, however.

Cheap case airflow test

The main ingredient for an impressive PC case is airflow, but you'd be surprised by just how many case designs don't get this quite right. Ideally, we want our case to draw in cool air from a handful of high flow intake fans at the front, over our PC's components, then out the exhaust. Cheap cases, however, don't always come with the ideal number of fans for this optimal setup, so it's extra important to find one that is smartly designed to work with limited cooling potential. 

To test the thermal properties of these six cheap cases, I built a PC into each of them. Then I ran a handful of benchmarks to put the CPU and GPU under day-to-day stress and collated the average results into this graph.

There's space for a pair of 3.5-inch drives and two 2.5-inch drives, or up to four 2.5-inch drives, in total.

The PSU is hidden by a shroud, which conveniently has a cutout if, for whatever reason, you really want to show off that PSU's label. The shroud keeps your cables out of sight, anyways, though I will admit I didn't stick to stuffing cables neatly during testing. 

I did run into one issue with this case worth mentioning, though. Since there's no CPU cable cutout in the motherboard tray, which is fairly odd in itself, I had to run that right the way across my build. It looks quite bad as a result. That wouldn't be an issue for a case without a glass side panel, but this has one, a tempered glass side panel in fact, so it's easy to see that this case is a bit of a mess on the inside.

Where the Kolink struggles, then, is in the fact that it's not quite a match for other cases I've tested in terms of value or features. It's cheap, but not the cheapest. And it's cool, but not the coolest. The defining features of the Inspire K8 don't quite do enough to separate it from the crowd of others vying for your small quantity of cash, and a few slip-ups keep it from budget greatness. If I had to choose, I'd definitely pick the Aerocool Zauron before this, and the Zauron is actually quite a bit cheaper.

Our group test: A budget PC case is a great way to trim costs on your next PC build, yet many of the brands we're used to seeing in the top case round-ups aren't anywhere near cheap enough for what we're after. That's why I asked our friends at Overclockers UK if it would lend us its cheapest cases to see which is worth your small pile of coins, and of the seven cases they sent my way, I made my conclusions.

There are also cheaper variants, such as one with four fans total (4 x 120mm) for a little less cash, and a much cheaper option with just one included fan (1 x 120mm).

Let's just say you have options here if you like the vibes this case is bringing. 

The Hive is absolutely a front-runner for the top budget PC case in my opinion. It brings a smart and flexible layout, one not dissimilar to the Aerocool Zauron, yet the inclusion of some fairly sizeable fans at a decent price helps make for a case that's ready to go out of the box. You needn't add anything to this case to make for a great gaming PC, and one that runs plenty cool enough, too.

These three fans are surprisingly not powered by Molex adapters. But no, they're not PWM or DC plugs for your motherboard either. They're powered by individual SATA connections, which is a neater solution as you're likely to already have lots of those going free on your PSU. This does mean you have to bear with the set RPMs on offer, but since the two front fans are 140mm in size they don't have to run as fast or as loud to deliver good cooling potential.

And that they do, with our test PC posting by far the most consistently low temperatures while installed inside the Aerocool Hive.

Cheap case airflow test

The main ingredient for an impressive PC case is airflow, but you'd be surprised by just how many case designs don't get this quite right. Ideally, we want our case to draw in cool air from a handful of high flow intake fans at the front, over our PC's components, then out the exhaust. Cheap cases, however, don't always come with the ideal number of fans for this optimal setup, so it's extra important to find one that is smartly designed to work with limited cooling potential. 

To test the thermal properties of these six cheap cases, I built a PC into each of them. Then I ran a handful of benchmarks to put the CPU and GPU under day-to-day stress and collated the average results into this graph.

Looking past the gluttony of fans and there's a decently-built case underneath. There are still some signs that this is clearly a very cheap case, such as the single-use PCIe slot covers and cheap metal construction, but actually the tempered glass side panel looks great and there's a quality PSU shroud to hide your cables under. 

There is one less SSD slot on the Hive than the Zauron, and you can only fit slightly shorter GPUs in the Hive, by a whole 8mm. However, you can actually fit two more fans on top of the PSU shroud in the Hive, which bumps the cooling potential (and the potential to go overboard) on the Hive way up.

With solid compatibility for a wide range of hardware, the best out-of-the-box cooling of the cases I've tested, and a sleek looking design, the Aerocool Hive is up there for the best of the cheap bunch. It's not as cheap as the Aerocool Zauron, which I feel really is the champion for anyone on a tight budget, but if you were planning to pick up that case and the extra fan to go with it right away, you might want to consider the Hive here instead.

Our group test: A budget PC case is a great way to trim costs on your next PC build, yet many of the brands we're used to seeing in the top case round-ups aren't anywhere near cheap enough for what we're after. That's why I asked our friends at Overclockers UK if it would lend us its cheapest cases to see which is worth your small pile of coins, and of the seven cases they sent my way, I made my conclusions.

Kumag1989 posted their glorious new build on the Nvidia Reddit which shows off one of the nices—while still achievable looking—in-desk gaming PCs I've ever seen. Rather than going small to try to fit everything into a slim build, they've gone bigger leaving a beautiful airy looking glass display, complete with a lovely fake plant. It's wonderfully clean and relaxing while still offering tonnes of usable desk space on top.

The entire glass surrounds with matching white lit fans and water cooling really makes the whole PC look more like a purposeful piece of art on display, rather than a beastly gaming machine. The square structure complete with center plant gives off futuristic zen garden vibes. 

Everything is laid out beautifully thanks to all the space used, so it feels more relaxed than cramming components into a small space. Instead here we can see everything at work and it's simply lovely.

Further down in the reddit post Kumag1989 posts the specs used, which starts unsurprisingly with a custom built table. It's a shame that we haven't really seen much of a rise of premade in-case table builds given just how damned nice they can look.

It also uses a custom water cooling loop solution, but that's fairly common with fancy PC builds, and there are plenty of options on the market. If you've got the skills and materials to make something like this though, the rest of it is mostly up for purchase as is.

The guts of this beauty are an Intel Core i9 11900K paired with an RTX 4090 so it's definitely not just skin deep here. This is seated on a Z590 Aorus Pro ATX motherboard, with 32GB of RAM. This would be a very sweet piece of kit to game on, that's if you can tear yourself away from just admiring the build for long enough.

finally_my_cablemod_arrived_hopefully_these from r/nvidia

There are some downsides to this beauty though, as Kumag1989 admits in the thread. Having so much glass is just ripe for fingerprints, and a lot of care has to be taken around it. Doesn't matter how badly you get whooped in Overwatch 2 by an overpowered Sojourn main, there's no rage quit table slams with this bad boy around. That being said, I think looking at this beautiful build would be more than enough to calm me down even after the hardest loss.

Jack Lucky posted a video on Twitter showing off one such microwave PC build. He explains in the caption it was built by a man in Brazil in an effort to save money after losing his job due to the pandemic. Lucky also states the build cost around $900, but the video makes it a little tricky to see exactly which parts are powering the machine.

We also don't know when the build was originally made, but $900 doesn't exactly sound like a cash saving endeavour. Right now this Asus RTX 3060 gaming PC is on sale for $740, which is a great Black Friday deal. If you're really after those dielectric heating stylings, you can always gut the ROG Strix G10 and put it in an old microwave, if you like.

Further down Lucky posts some additional pictures of the build where we can glean some more insight. It looks like we're seeing an Asus A320M-K motherboard, and one helluva heat sink on that CPU. Even with fans installed on the side of the microwave oven, we're guessing it still lives up to its name there. Temps may not be the easiest thing to control in something designed specifically to heat things up.

It turns out Lucky's friend in Brazil isn't the only bright spark to have had this idea. Further down in the Twitter thread we're treated to the image of a build by Lucas Cavalcante. This Microwave PC is mounted above the work station, making it look a bit more like a normal microwave at first glance. 

This immediately changes when you spot the RGB glow coming front the machine in blue and green hues. It's a nice looking ITX set up, but you can still see the heatsink towering towards the back. Still, a very cute idea, especially when it sits above the rest of the PC setup, kind of like a real microwave.

You can find a few more microwave builds around the net, like this one by Neosalicious on PC part picker featuring an Nvidia 2080 Ti. This has since been superseded by their version 2 microwave machine sporting an RTX 3090 and a Ryzen 9 5900X, and water cooling.

The best part about all this is of course, the creativity. PC cases can and should be just about anything is definitely a rule I can get behind. Be it a microwave, giant dino sculpture, or even a chainsaw, please, put gaming PCs in everything. 

Your choice of PC case will also dictate what can go inside. If you want multi-loop liquid cooling and the biggest GPUs on the planet, then your best bet is a full-tower chassis. The best full-tower chassis right now is the Corsair Obsidian 1000D, as it offers a ridiculous amount of room and is super versatile.

However, if you're looking for a small-scale build, then a Mini-ITX case will be what you're after. The best Mini-ITX case is the NZXT H1 V2, which has been my own chassis of choice for quite a while now thanks to its simplicity. It's incredibly easy to build in.

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Best full-tower PC case

The Corsair Obsidian Series 1000D is a behemoth of a PC case ready to house the biggest and baddest systems. In fact, it's ready to house two systems if you wanted to go down that route. We've seen them running with full E-ATX motherboards and little mini-ITX motherboards tucked inside there, too.

Standing tall at a staggering 27.3-inches, this "super-tower" features enough space to house 18 fans and up to four massive radiators installed simultaneously. That's enough cooling for any setup.

The 1000D features a unique triple-chamber design with convenient french-door-styled storage compartments and telescoping radiator trays for easy installation in addition to the stellar cooling support. 

Because it's 2024, of course, there is also an RGB-lit front panel I/O with built-in smart lighting and fan control courtesy of Corsair's integrated Commander Pro controller. The Obsidian 900D has long been a top choice for massive, over-the-top builds, and it only fits that the 1000D was designed to knock it off its throne.

The obvious caveat with anything that claims to be a "super" version of its category, is that this thing will really cost you a large chunk of your PC build budget. So long as you're conscious of that, and have the ready money to stretch to that sort of cost—we're talking $500+ here—then the Obsidian 1000D will house the monster gaming PC of your dreams.

Best mid-tower PC case

This most recent iteration of NZXT's "smart" chassis brings a couple of new features to help modernize your build. This ultra-clean and uncomplicated mid-tower case emphasizes convenience above all. It includes many of the same trappings as its predecessor, but costs a little bit more and has just a couple of neat changes. The NZXT H710i features a front panel USB 3.1 Type-C port and the ability to vertical mount your GPU with a separate PCIe riser.

The H710i features integrated RGB lighting around the tempered glass side panel, controlled by the NZXT CAM software and a built-in LED lighting hub that allows for easy control of RGB lighting and fan speeds as well. To keep things cool, the H710i features ventilation gutters that run the perimeter of each side of the case, aided by the four 120mm fans included with the case.

Cable routing is where the H710i shines—achieved primarily through a large aluminum slat that allows you to route your cables into the integrated cable channels on the back of the case. 

In our testing, we found this case keeps everything clean and clutter-free, and the velcro straps built into the back help hold everything down. An excellent, and easy alternative to the rubber gasket solution found on some of the other top mid-towers.

Best budget PC case

Corsair's commitment to PC cases means that it's able to offer great options both at the very high end, such as the enormous 1000D, but also in the more modest, budget section of the market. Here, that's ably represented by the Corsair Carbide 275R, an affordable mid-tower chassis that looks anything but.

The clean, unfussy design of the Carbide 275R means that it's not going to divide opinion because of some edgy aesthetic, nor distract from the hardware inside it. And only spending some $70 on the clothing of your PC means that you'll be able to prioritise your cash for the best parts.

Which you'll still be able to show off because you get a full-height acrylic side panel—though you can buy a more expensive tempered glass version—that gives you a great view of your gaming rig's innards.

And it's super easy to build those innards into the Carbide 275R. The large cutout on the motherboard tray meant that even when I was figuring out which cooler to mount on the system I was building I could leave the motherboard in place and switch brackets at will.

There's also some decent cable routing and plenty of space and options for placement of different all-in-one liquid cooling radiators, too. In terms of keeping the build clean, I also really appreciate the PSU shroud at the bottom of the case which covers the power supply and all that ugly cabling with a metal casing in the same colour as the chassis itself. Which can be either black or white, incidentally.

You do only get a couple of simple 120mm fans included in the package, so if you're not building an AIO radiator into the machine you'll probably want to pick up some extra PC fans to help the cooling. My only other niggle is the fact the top I/O connections don't include a USB Type-C option—that's something I've come to expect, even from budget cases.

Still, for the money, you'll be able to build a really good-looking gaming PC without breaking the bank, which will let you focus on what's going inside.

Best Mini-ITX PC case

The NZXT H1 V2 is the best Mini-ITX PC case because it nails the build experience, which is one of the biggest pain points for small form-factor (SFF) builds in general. I loved building in the original H1 for this reason, and the V2's even better. So much better, in fact, that I've been using it to house my components ever since I got my hands on it.

Putting aside the fixed PCIe risers which were an issue with the V1, the other changes with the V2 make for a solid jumping-off point for Mini-ITX builds. The main benefit to the H1 is its pre-installed AIO cooler and PSU, with all the important cables being nicely pre-routed for you—no fiddling for hours on end just to get everything connected.

The V2 improves things in this regard compared to the V1, too, because it's a little bigger and has more space to work with behind the motherboard. This makes it one of the easiest Mini-ITX builds you can go for, despite the new rear-case fan and 750 W PSU.

Which isn't to say that it'll be as easy to build in as a full-sized chassis would be, of course, but it's about as simple as you can get with a SFF design. NZXT's even stuck a plethora of labels and tags around the case to let you know what goes where and how to build things, which is useful for a tool-less build like this.

Unfortunately, but perhaps expectedly, there's poor memory clearance because of the fan on top of the water-cooler's radiator, meaning you'll only be able to fit 46 mm DIMMs in there at maximum. This rules out some memory kits, which is something to keep in mind if you were planning on migrating your current sticks to the new case.

But that's just the kind sacrifice you make for a SFF Mini-ITX build, and it's well worth it for this one. If you're looking for something small, sleek, and simple to build in, the H1 V2's where it's at.

Read our full NZXT H1 V2 review. 

Best silent PC case

If you’re the type of gamer that requires total concentration, a quiet PC case can be critical. Once your PC starts heating up and fans begin blowing at full force, your once-silent PC can quickly turn into something that resembles a roaring jet engine. It’s times like these when a silent PC case can come in handy, and nothing does the job quite like Cooler Master’s Silencio series.  

The Silencio S600 mid tower looks simple on the outside, but the interior is filled with intelligent engineering and high-quality sound dampening materials to help drown any unnecessary noise. Usually, this comes with a severe compromise for airflow, but the S600 does a pretty decent job of moving air and keeping things cool despite its silent properties.

But that's the thing that will require the most thought when it comes to building a full machine into this setup. You need to ensure there's optimal airflow across the key components to keep the temperatures down, and therefore ensure the volume stays low, too.

You'll also have to decide whether you want to go for maximum silence and keep the PC completely under wraps, or whether you still want a side panel to be able to show off the insides and your shiny, expensive gaming parts.

Best show build PC case

If you're strapped for vertical space, the Lian-Li PC-O11 Dynamic is a short and stubby alternative to some of the more long-necked PC cases we've seen. It's a case I'm pretty familiar with, as it's the model that I built a custom liquid-cooled GPU and CPU loop into.

I found that the 011 Dynamic is great for a custom loop, as there are many excellent distro plates that can fit into the front of the PC-O11, but it's just as well suited to your usual AIO or air-cooled setups. You can install AIO and radiators up to 360mm pretty much anywhere you are on the top, bottom, and side of the case.

Featuring a tempered glass design, we found installing components in the PC-011 a painless experience during testing. Well, apart from some of the super-sharp angles that might spike the odd finger. You can remove the top and both sides of the chassis for easy access to its internals. Parts of the process that used to be stressful, such as liquid cooler installations, are now stumbling blocks of a bygone era. 

The chassis has a bunch of expansion slots (eight) and can fit multiple GPUs if you decide to go that route. I'm not quite sure why you'd that, but who am I to tell you what to do with your PC build. Live your life. 

Plus, if you're willing to shell out a bit more cash over the vanilla model, the PC-011 comes in a Razer Edition as well. Fully integrated with the Synapse 3 lighting software, you can even coordinate it with your other Razer-made peripherals.

The beauty is that this could be a case for a simple budget build or something a bit more extravagant. It really comes down to your skill level and creativity as a PC builder. 

Best PC case FAQ

I'm talking about the kind of cooling configurations that just wouldn't be feasible in smaller systems. This is custom water cooling loop territory, with multiple radiators and a frankly ludicrous number of fans.

When choosing a suitable full-tower case, a lot of it will come down to personal taste. Just consider everything you personally need in a good PC case: like enough clearance for the best graphics card while allowing for a decent airflow. However, you should note that these large cases also come with hefty price tags. So, if cost is a concern or you're trying to make the best budget PC, consider one of the best mid-tower cases to make your wallet happy. 

We've listed here our favorite full-towers we've tested and wholeheartedly recommend for your future PC build. Alternatively, if you want to look at the other end of the scale, we also have a guide to the best mini-ITX cases for those small form-factor builds. And, if all this custom build stuff scares the living hell out of you, check out our guide to the best gaming PCs and score yourself a nice prebuilt PC. 

The best full-tower case

There are big cases; then, there are big cases. Actually, to describe this case simply as 'big' would still be an understatement. The Corsair 1000D is larger than what many would define as a full-tower. It's so enormous that Corsair calls it a super tower. It's truly a behemoth of a PC case, ready to house the biggest and baddest systems. Standing tall at a staggering 27.3-inches, this super tower features enough space to house 18 fans and up to four massive radiators simultaneously.

In addition to the insane cooling support, the 1000D features a unique triple-chamber design with convenient French-door-styled storage compartments and telescoping radiator trays for easy installation. It's a case that is so massive; it can house both an entire E-ATX build and a mini-ITX build at the same time.

Because it is 2022, of course, there is also an RGB-lit front panel I/O with built-in smart lighting and fan control courtesy of Corsair's Commander Pro controller. The Obsidian 900D has long been a top choice for massive, over-the-top builds, and it only fits that the 1000D would come along to knock it off its throne.

The original Cooler Master Cosmos chassis is a classic of PC case design, and has seen many revisions over the years. The latest, the Cosmos C700M is the pinnacle of that design, taking over from the C700P, a chassis which held firm as one of our favorite full-tower cases for years.

Bigger even than the C700P, the C700M is one of Cooler Master's largest enclosures and comes with an equally hefty price tag. The premium case maintains the same handlebar design as the calssic Cosmos design, but adds a few modern touches that make it one of the most beautiful cases we've seen. 

It's also dialled back the heavy tint on the side panel to more readily reveal the shiny components you've paid good money to house inside it.

We were already impressed with the tasteful RGB lighting from its predecessor but the C700M really kicks it up a notch. The lightning now features individually addressable RGB strips that form a continuous line from the back of the top panel all the way through the bottom of the case. Metallic contacts allow you to easily remove the front panel without having to worry about wires. A fresh matte design on the case's signature handlebars allow the understated lighting to really accent its curves.

The company's signature logo is noticeably absent from the case. Instead, all that remains is a familiar hexagonal shape used as a power button. We've already seen this shift with some of Cooler Master's other cases and liquid coolers, but the C700M really seals the deal with its sleek lines and artfully crafted top ventilation.

One of the favorite things we experienced while building in the case is the fact that we were able to remove the motherboard tray and assemble a majority of our system outside of the case. Built in cable routing, cable management clips and a modular cable cover system also makes it easy to create a very clean system.

The ability to switch between a conventional layout and an inverted one is not uncommon for a high end full-tower. What really sets the C700P and C700M apart from the competition is the ability to rotate the motherboard 90 degrees into what Cooler Master calls its chimney layout. This type of layout allows hot air to follow its natural trajectory and efficiently exhaust from the top of the case.

Our only complaint about these alternative motherboard configurations is the fact that it becomes quite a hassle to access the rear I/O. Depending on your desk size, you might even need extension cables for your peripherals. Regardless, the modularity and freedom to customize the C700M is totally in line with Cooler Master's "Make It Yours" philosophy that enthusiasts have come to love.

That and you'll have to buy one of Cooler Master's PCIe 4.0 riser cables as the bundled one is last-gen.

Despite the price, the exceptional build quality and premium materials definitely go a long way towards justifying the price. If money isn't an issue and you aren't interested in the behemoth that is Corsair's 1000D, Cooler Master's C700M is the ultimate high-end full-tower.

Read our full Cooler Master Cosmos C700M review.

Initially known for its silent power supplies and fans, be quiet! entered the case market with a big splash and has done well in a short period since its first case launch in 2014. One of the company's later cases, the Dark Base Pro 900, remains one of our highly recommended full-towers thanks to its sleek design and enthusiast-friendly interior.

The case is one of the most modular cases we've ever seen. You won't find too many rivets in this one. Instead, just about every single panel can be removed, making this case a modder's dream. There's also a lot of customization available with options for an inverted motherboard layout and even some nifty features like wireless Qi charging and preinstalled LED lighting.

Though for some that might also be its biggest drawback, because that modularity can become rather fiddly if you really start pulling it apart.

The Dark Base Pro 900 is large enough to support the biggest motherboards and radiators up to 420mm in size. It's a huge full-tower that can support just about any custom cooling you can dream up. It also looks very sleek with a few color options to spice things up. Priced around $200, the Dark Base Pro is a relatively affordable case in this category but comes with all the bells and whistles to make it worth it.

Best mid-tower case | Best mini-ITX case | Best CPU cooler | Best DDR4 RAM | Best gaming monitor| Best gaming headset

When it comes to PC cases, Phanteks is one of the most underrated brands around. The company is slightly newer to the scene, but has done a fantastic job making things easier for first-time builders and enthusiasts alike. The Enthoo Pro is one of our favorite full-sized towers.

Phanteks was one of the first manufacturers to include pre-installed cable management ties. This little feature makes a world of difference when it comes to the tedious task of keeping your cables in check. The case also offers a ton of flexibility, which makes it great for all sorts of large builds.

Out of the box, the case comes with a 200mm fan in the front panel and a 140mm fan in the rear. This is enough to provide quite a bit of airflow in the case, but the top panel lets you take things even further with support for a radiator up to 420mm in size. Priced at just under $90, the Phanteks Enthoo Pro is a fantastic value and beefy enough to support a wide variety of full-sized builds.

Best full-tower case FAQ

Last year we were left agape looking at the creations out of the Case Mod World Series. People from all over the world came together to compete with their amazing case designs including things like a sneaker PC case, and also the most ridiculous and bad ass Dino Grimlock mode you've ever seen. Quite possibly the only one you've ever seen, too.

The Grimlock case from last year was made by Ed Mod Craft and it's a spiky badass metal monstrosity in all the best ways. It's incredibly metal, and also was made with the 4 R's (reuse, reduce, recycle, and refuse) in mind. Sustainably sick, and they're doing it again.

Now Ed Mod Craft is working on a God of Aorus themed case for the Cooler Master Case Mod World series 2022. With a name like that we can assume that the Gigabyte brand might be offering a level of inspiration to the piece, and it looks like these modders are set to make something godlike indeed.

The concept shows a somewhat chibified proportion of a metal clad winged figure, complete with bird like cowl. It's very cool, but based on the picture alone you'd be hard pressed to see it as a case, rather it looks like sweet toy or action figure. Just what we expect from the folks behind a hardcore metal dinobot.

Things get even crazier when you see some of the other progress images that are being shown off. The metal skeleton structure for the piece appears to be mostly in place, and it looks huge. This is certainly no mini-ITX build going on. Rather, eyeballing it this unit looks easily over a metre tall, maybe closer to 1.5 or taller. It's going to be a huge metal beast and I can't wait to see how it turns out,

If this tickled your creativity nerves, you can also enter the Case Mod World series for 2022. There are several categories such as best tower mod, best scratch build, and best use of reusable materials. Each have their own prize pools and rules, so head on over to the official website to check it out.

Your fish will live in the 5mm-thick water tank above the chassis where all your PC components go, separated by a thick layer of transparent acrylic. The case even includes a USB-powered filter that keeps the water clean for your little fishies. The bottom portion of the PC case slides right out, so you don't have to worry about disturbing the sea life whenever you change components.

Years ago, we saw a PC case that had fish actually swimming inside the PC that seemed like a bit too much, even for me. (I already have to worry about dust getting in my GPU, I don't want to have to think about underwater particulates passing through the fan blades too). The Y2 Fish Tank seems like a compromise, though it's still admittedly a couple of gallons of water sitting over your expensive components. 

The case dimensions are smaller at 14 x 9.6 x 11.4 inches, meaning that it can only accommodate micro-ATX and Mini-ITX motherboards and GPUs less than 200mm in length. You've got room to install a single 2.5-inch storage drive, 90mm CPU cooler, and a small power supply. The case includes two 9cm RGB fans whose lights are controlled by a remote.

Since the listing for the Y2 lacks some finer details, our friends over at Tom's Hardware calculated that the tank could be filled with about 13 liters of water based on its dimensions. I don't own fish or plan on getting any, but there's no stopping me from turning the tank into a cute little terrarium. 

MetalFish says on the product page, "Flowers, birds, fish, and insects are traditional personal hobbies, and a beautiful landscaping fish tank will make people feel relaxed and calm." However, I don't know if the fish will remain calm after watching me pitch a fit after losing again and again in Fortnite.  

My question is, will the water heat up at all after a couple of hours of gaming? I feel like it would be a very uncomfortable living situation for your watery friends if their home just increased in temperature whenever you start streaming to Twitch. I'd consult a veterinarian or someone who knows their fish before setting up your PC gaming aquarium. 

The Y2 is a big step up from Metalfish's first fish tank case, the Fish Cube, a teeny mini-ITX PC case/aquarium that's about a third of the size and looks half as cool. It sells for about $75 (not including shipping costs) and you'll have to import it from China which could take a while. 

Youtuber Mr. Homeless is the best kind of tinkerer: one with a sense of humour. The man is a talented engineer and also certainly knows his way around a PC, with previous projects including building a gaming PC in a fridge and whacking hundreds of viruses on a laptop just to see what happens.

On the face of it, his latest project looks round the bend. This is a gaming PC constructed within one half of a toilet bowl (thanks, Eurogamer), with the other half of the ceramic case devoted to the actual business of flushing and re-filling with water. High-end PC components and water are not usually the best bedfellows and so they're separated by a screen, which of course has to be perfectly fitted because any leaks when taking a leak would be a disaster.

The goal was to build something that can run Counter-Strike: Global Offensive on the toilet: the PC boasts an RTX 3060 and Intel Core i7 12700 CPU, and outputs to a wall-mounted 240Hz monitor. Mr. Homeless even built a little flip-up table for his mouse mat.

The whole build is enjoyable to watch and the best kind of exercise in daft ingenuity. My favourite part is probably when he doesn't test his initial build for leaks and, when the cistern fills, it eventually springs a minor leak. This raises the prospect of having to disassemble the entire build and re-do it but instead this hero, this engineer among engineers, faces the problem with a giant can of flex seal: and completely plasters anywhere there could possibly be a leak. It works!

It's also quite nice when the hole he's cut for the fan on top of the toilet bowl just fits perfectly. I dunno what ASMR is, but when I see a well-fitted PC component in an unusual situation, I feel warm and fuzzy inside.

The build can be viewed here, on a page where Mr. Homeless has to provide some additional details:

• Build Description: Built a PC inside of a functioning toilet
• Favorite Feature: it flushes poop

I don't know if the PC toilet will be cropping up on our best gaming PC builds, though perhaps the most impressive thing is that this wasn't a horror build story. It's also weirdly aesthetically pleasing, though I may just have been thinking about playing CS: GO on the loo a bit much. Not to everyone's tastes, but at least it doesn't have a toy baby in it.

There are a few entries so far, but the most fleshed out concept looks to be Derek Wilson's design, which features the Iron Giant staring wistfully at the stars, with PC components integrated into a diorama scene. For instance, the Wilson plans to jam the GPU into a water tower, and the PSU inside its own little house in order to hide the components from view. The little stick dude holding a swaddled stick baby in the initial sketch is amazing, but the message is what really gets me:

"What if a gun doesn’t want to hurt anyone?" 

A powerful sentence, one that challenges the fear a lot of people tend to generate around AI and robotics, as it moves into the forefront of today's most important ethical dilemmas. I'm really looking forward to seeing where this one goes, and you can bet there will be more robot designs popping up across the categories.

For those who are interested in following along or even joining the contest, the categories are best tower mod, best scratch build, and best use of reusable materials, all with a top prize of $5,000 each. There's also a $2,500 prize for best craftmanship, best art direction, and best non-PC mod.

The latter should be interesting, since we may well be seeing some Steam Deck mod entries this year.

If you've already started on a design but are interested in entering, you can still join in, as long as you started work on or after January 1, 2022. Judging will begin on December 19, and each mod will be judged on it's craftsmanship, aesthetics, functionality, and innovation.

Check out the rules before entering, and good luck to all. I look forward to featuring your epic entries.

It's still not the easiest task getting hold of the best graphics cards, but there are a ton of quality cases to pick from before it comes to that. If you're looking to make a statement the best full-tower cases will offer space for a truly monumental, extreme gaming PC build. Otherwise, a mid-tower case will give you a good starting point for a small footprint machine that's tidy and, hopefully, badass looking.

Whether you're pulling together a whole new PC, or just rehousing ready for some upgrades, these mid-tower cases will offer enough space—far more than the best Mini-ITX cases do. When searching for the best mid-tower PC case, keep an eye out for those with ease of access to your components, good fan and radiator support, great airflow, and high build quality.

Getting the case right is essential—especially if you've spent a ton of money on your new graphics card. So you can get it right, we went through and tested countless mid-tower cases by building into them ourselves. After some rigorous rounds of pulling components out and jamming them back in, here are those we found to be the best.

Best mid-tower cases 2022

This most recent iteration of NZXT's "smart" chassis brings a couple of new features to help modernize your build. This ultra-clean and uncomplicated mid-tower case emphasizes convenience above all. It includes many of the same trappings as its predecessor, but costs a little bit more and has just a couple of neat changes. The NZXT H710i features a front panel USB 3.1 Type-C port and the ability to vertical mount your GPU with a separate PCIe riser.

The H710i features integrated RGB lighting around the tempered glass side panel, controlled by the NZXT CAM software and a built-in LED lighting hub that allows for easy control of RGB lighting and fan speeds as well. To keep things cool, the H710i features ventilation gutters that run the perimeter of each side of the case, aided by the four 120mm fans included with the case.

Cable routing is where the H710i shines—achieved primarily through a large aluminum slat that allows you to route your cables into the integrated cable channels on the back of the case. In our testing we found this case keeps everything clean and clutter-free, and the velcro straps built into the back help hold everything down. An excellent, and easy alternative to the rubber gasket solution found on some of the other top mid-towers.

Corsair has made some excellent chassis over the years, but the appearance of some of them was starting to take precedence over functionality. That changed with the release of the 4000D Airflow, which shows that the two schools can be combined for a great-looking case that offers excellent airflow. The ventilated front panel means the fans can run slower and quieter while providing the same level of cooling over closed-off cases. 

Building a system inside the 4000D Airflow is straightforward enough in our testing, with plenty of room where we needed it most. The channel in front of and behind the motherboard tray makes routing your main cables much more effortless.

There's enough space here for various radiators and cooling setups—you can fit up to a 360mm radiator in the front and a 280mm radiator on the roof. Although the latter can be tight against the top of the motherboard, it's still possible. 

You'll find easy-to-remove dust filters on the top, front, and below the PSU for easy cleaning. Popping off the front panel is simple, making installing fans or a radiator that much easier. This makes regular cleaning of your system less of a hassle.

Out of all the neat features I like about the 4000D, the fact that it has both USB Type-A and Type-C ports on the top panel is pretty clutch. Though I did wish that same front I/O panel offered a little more.

Overall, it's a reassuring return to form for Corsair. Considering that all of this can be picked up for well under $100, it's hard not to be impressed by the overall package. It makes for a great home for anything from a simple mid-range build to a high-end powerhouse, and we've used it as the basis for our own mainstream PC Gamer test rig. If you're just looking for a solid budget case, the 4000D gets our highest recommendation. 

If you're strapped for vertical space, the Lian-Li PC-O11 Dynamic is a short and stubby alternative to some of the more long-necked PC cases we've seen. It's a case I'm pretty familiar with, as it's the model that I built a custom liquid-cooled GPU and CPU loop into.

I found that the 011 Dynamic is great for a custom loop, as there are many excellent distro plates that can fit into the front of the PC-O11, but it's just as well suited to your usual AiO or air-cooled setups. You can install AiO and radiators up to 360mm pretty much anywhere you are on the top, bottom, and side of the case.

Featuring a tempered glass design, we found installing components in the PC-011 a painless experience during testing. Well, apart from some of the super-sharp angles that might spike the odd finger. You can remove the top and both sides of the chassis for easy access to its internals. Parts of the process that used to be stressful, such as liquid cooler installations, are now stumbling blocks of a bygone era. 

The chassis has a bunch of expansion slots (eight) and can fit multiple GPUs if you decide to go that route. Though, I'm not quite sure why you'd that but who am I to tell you what to do with your PC build. Live your life. 

Plus, if you're willing to shell out a bit more cash over the vanilla model, the PC-011 comes in a Razer Edition as well. Fully integrated with the Synapse 3 lighting software, you can even coordinate it with your other Razer-made peripherals.

The beauty is that this could be a case for a simple budget build or something a bit more extravagant. It really comes down to your skill level and creativity as a PC builder. 

Warning! This gorgeous PC case will pull the attention away from your precious components if you're not careful. You might have the flashiest GPU going or even RAM sticks emblazoned with gems, but the first thing anyone will look at when they see your PC is all that RGB lighting. 

The 5000T is a PC case for showing off your components as it is a home for them. The huge tempered glass side panel offers a window to its clean-cut innards and color-matched accessories. You won't find cable in sight with its clever cable management, either.

Of course, Corsair is no stranger to RGB lighting, and this PC case is covered head-to-toe in the stuff. That's because it's more than a PC case: it's three LL120 fans, six RGB lighting strips, and the Commander Core XT controller. And, yeah, a special PC case.

The HDD cage can also be adjusted or removed entirely. In which case the extended lower PSU shroud can be fully removed and replaced by a sheer option that looks really smart. I would've opted for that since I prefer the look had I thought to plan out my PSU cables a little better ahead of time. As it was, the extra space behind the PSU shroud helped me keep the front looking clear without much time spent threading and tying down cables at the rear.

Though for some neat optimizations here or there, the actual layout of this case is a pretty standard one. That does make things pretty easy when it comes to cooling configurations. There is space for three 120mm fans at the front, or two 140mm fans if you'd prefer. Up top, you can fit the same again.

There's enough clearance between top-mounted fans and the motherboard tray to allow for a push/pull configuration for any regular width CPU cooler radiator you might mount up there. So long as you're rocking fairly regular radiators you could fit a push or pull triple-fan radiator in the front, too.

Granted, it's not the smallest mid-tower PC case going and one of the more expensive we've tested, so if you're looking for either of those attributes, then look elsewhere on this list. However, it is perhaps one of the smartest and cleanest on the lot. This thing is beautifully crafted from steel, plastic, and tempered glass, and while that means it's pretty heavy, it's a real statement PC case for a high-end PC build.

Read our full Corsair iCUE 5000T RGB review.

The MasterCase SL600M has to be one of Cooler Master's most beautifully designed cases. It features anodized aluminum with a sand-blasted finish and just enough attitude to make it look sleek, futuristic, and elegant, all at once. We were even more impressed once we opened it up to build in it. 

The CM SL600M is the first case we've tested with a vertical chimney design for its cooling that makes sense and works. Cooler Master went all-in with the SL600M, completely sealing the front and moving the entire PSU shroud and housing from the bottom to the front of the case. That newly opened space, combined with generous feet, allows the case to funnel the airflow directly onto the GPU.

While in our testing of this case, we noticed the CPU temperatures do suffer slightly from this design, the SL600M has the lowest GPU temperatures out of every mid-tower we've tested. When you mount the graphics card vertically and away from the glass with the rotatable PCI bracket, and cooling improves even further. While the case features all of the connectivity and convenience you'd expect in a high-end mid-tower, it misses an included GPU riser cable.

Another unique feature of the SL600M is a rotatable PCI bracket window. This lets you mount multiple GPUs vertically or install a single GPU further away from the tempered glass panel. Doing so improved our GPU temperatures even more. We're disappointed to see the lack of a riser cable included in the SL600M because you won't take full advantage of the chimney design without a vertically mounted GPU.

Building in the SL600M was generally easy enough, but the PSU installation may be tricky for some users. You don't have much room to work within the front, so it's better to completely remove the shroud and pre-wire the PSU cables before fully installing them into the case. This positioning makes hard drive installation and cable management a little bit tedious, but the payoff is totally worth it.

Overall, the SL600M is an excellent case considering its a completely new chassis design. We're excited to see where Cooler Master takes it next, as the company has done a fantastic job incorporating feedback from its customers. The Cooler Master H500M is a great example, with several improvements from the original H500P. It's still our top-performing airflow mid-tower. Similarly priced around $200, the SL600M is definitely on the pricey side, but the innovative interior and beautiful exterior make it well worth the investment.

Read our full Cooler Master MasterCase SL600M review.

Cooler Master's H500M is the company's latest flagship mid-tower, but we'd rather it be called a full-sized tower. Measuring 21.4 x 9.8 x 21.5 inches, the H500M is one of the biggest mid-towers on this list. Thanks to its large size and internal layout, it's straightforward to build in and supports a huge variety of components and custom cooling options.

The H500M comes with two massive 200mm RGB LED fans installed, which do a fantastic job of increasing airflow out of the box. Other modern touches include a USB 3.1 Type-C connector and tons of modularity, including the option to choose between a mesh or tempered glass front panel.

Our only major issue we found with the case during testing is the lack of easily removable magnetic dust filters for the front fan intake. Luckily, all of the mesh in the entire H500 line features a secondary filter layer that'll help keep dust out of your build. We mention the dust because the H500M features some serious airflow and comes prepared to keep the beefiest of gaming PCs cool.

Best mini-ITX case | Best full tower case | Best CPU cooler | Best DDR4 RAM | Best gaming monitor| Best gaming headset

If you want your gaming PC to look like a fish tank, the Hyte Y60 is a good way to go about it. We're used to today's PC cases offering us plenty of chances for some PC peacocking, but the Hyte Y60 puts your PC parts on show like no other we've tested.

This PC case is on the smaller side of those we've tested, but it's still compatible with motherboards right up to EATX. That's made possible by a clever internal layout that puts functionality and ease-of-use up-front for the user, as much as it makes everything look great.

I have the bright red Hyte Y60 in the PC Gamer office, and it's a lovely case to build into. We even managed to stuff Intel Alder Lake alongside an RTX 3080 Ti in record time. That GPU was mounted vertically inside the machine, and unlike some other cases we've tested, it was rather easy to do in the Hyte, thanks to an included PCIe 4.0 riser cable.

Removing the front and back panels gives you a huge amount of space to work in, and being able to mount a full 360mm chip chiller's radiator into the roof of the case frees up a lot of wiggle room.

The Y60 also makes a vertical mount of your graphics card a doddle, with a robust riser cable attached to the chassis in two places to keep it and the GPU steady.

And it looks great, though it does have a certain aquarium/terrarium vibe. Still, I'm not averse to that, but sticking a lizard, much less a fish, into the case won't do good things for either animal or silicon. I once saw Gigabyte making a fish tank PC, and that was a lot more trouble than it was worth. Though at least it kept the fish alive. Well, while I was there anyway.

I've got my issues with the Y60, though. There are only two drive bays, and, though I like the fact they'll cater for both 3.5- and 2.5-inch drives, that restriction meant when I was installing the big Asus chip chiller, there was nowhere else to mount the fan controller. For all my sweet cable-tidying prowess, I had to leave the box dangling around the back of the chassis.

Though, mercifully, the compartmental nature of the design hides all manner of cabling sins behind the motherboard backplate. Which, incidentally, has a massive cut out to allow you to mess around with the cooling mounts without removing the board from the case. Always very grateful for that.

This PC case would likely look excellent with a custom liquid loop inside it, but it lets any component you put there shine and look great.

Read our full Hyte Y60 review. 

Best mid-tower cases FAQ

It certainly looks striking, and would make quite the statement piece at a LAN party, but there's the rub for me with this design: transport. Nagao Seisakusho's easy carry handle on its N-Frame cases helps with picking up and handling your rig, but what if this thing got jostled around in your car and tipped over? Graphics cards may finally be abundant again, but I still don't want mine to meet an early death.

I'm also a bit skeptical of the monitor mount's aesthetic value in most situations. I don't know about you, but I have my desk shoved right into the wall in my office. With my sort of setup, which I have to imagine is pretty common, those shiny RGB components you're presumably trying to show off with the open case would get sandwiched between your monitor and your wall. 

Not to mention, Nagao Seisakusho's style of case typically boasts an advantage regarding component size and compatibility—hard for a bigass GPU not to fit if there's no tempered glass or metal brackets to squeeze it past—but any convenience you pick up there is effectively negated by having to consider your monitor's size and weight in your build now.

But what are my nebbish and nerdy complaints in the face of something pretty neat that we haven't exactly seen before? The form factor reminds me of those tiny flip-up TVs you could attach to a PS1 and that no one you knew seemed to have or even know how to buy.

Just like trying to build a sleek small form factor PC, the realities of building and using such a rig may be rather hard to swallow, but you can always enjoy the aesthetic triumph of a nice, weird PC. The monitor mount itself is slated for release on July 7 according to @momomo_us on Twitter, and Nagao Seisakusho's open air cases are available for purchase on Amazon Japan.

The best Mini-ITX case overall is the Fractal Design Terra, as its about as easy to build in as it gets and features a clever sliding system to help contain some seriously powerful (and sizable) components. The best budget Mini-ITX case is the Hyte Revolt 3, as it's reasonably priced for a small and handy chassis.

I've spent a serious chunk of time jamming components into a wealth of Mini-ITX cases to test airflow, cable routing, and support for motherboards and radiators, among other things. You'll find my recommendations below. If you're more of a 'go big or go home' PC builder, check out our favorite full-tower PC and mid-tower PC cases.

The quick list

Best Mini-ITX PC case

One of the biggest drawbacks with a Mini-ITX case is the potential frustrations of the build itself. The Fractal Design Terra, however, has no such issues. Thanks to a focus on access and sliding brackets you can cram a surprising amount of hardware in this mini marvel with ease, as long as you're prepared to make some compromises. That, in combination with its good looks, makes it the best Mini-ITX case by far.

The central motherboard tray and PSY mount can slide by a couple of centimeters, which doesn't sound like a big deal in and of itself. However, building a tiny PC is all about finding extra room, and that small difference means you can fit either a bigger GPU than you might expect, or a larger CPU cooler.

You'll have to make a choice, though, as one eats into the space of the other. However, should you choose to use a low TDP CPU with less cooling needs (our Jacob chose a Ryzen 7 9700X in his review), you can wedge in a 330 mm long GPU with up to a 77 mm width.

That's pretty chonky as far as GPU spacing goes in a case of this type, meaning some seriously powerful hardware can fit inside this tiny frame. It really is small even by Mini-ITX standards, at least for anything capable of containing a fully-fledged modern graphics card.

It also looks the part, with a choice of colorways and wooden accents that mean it wouldn't look out of place on a desk, under a home entertainment unit, or anywhere else you could think of putting it. There's no outlandish gamer aesthetic here, just tasteful choices that should fit in with any decor.

Other than the limits on cooling depending on what hardware you pick, the only other real critique of the Terra is the finish. It looks great, but is a little prone to fingerprints and marks. Whether that's an issue really depends on whether you plan to move your PC around on the regular, but treat it carefully and give it the odd wipe down and it shouldn't be too much of an issue.

So, small, good-looking, easy to build in, and capable of containing some substantial components. That's the best Mini-ITX case overall then, even compared to some tough competition.

Read our full Fractal Design Terra review.

Best budget Mini-ITX PC case

The Hyte Revolt 3 is the best budget Mini-ITX case. It's a very industrial-looking design, and that'll put some of you off immediately. But there's a lot to stick around for here, and when it comes to portability the Revolt nudges itself ahead of all others. That makes it the best Mini-ITX case for LAN parties, or really for lugging around in general.

A lot of that has to do with its integrated carrying handle. It might sound odd to say, but even a regular, super-tiny Mini-ITX case is an awkward object to move around, as it's essentially a pointy metal box that'll dig into your chest or the inside of your elbows if you lug it about. Plus it's got a little pop-out headphone holder, which sounds unnecessary at first but is actually pretty darn convenient.

You can also cram a full 280 mm AIO liquid CPU cooler into its miniature frame, along with some proper full-height memory, although it must be said that it's still cramped inside. You're still likely to make some compromises on component sizes, but what you'll end up with is something ultra-portable for your next trip.

You can buy it straight up for an MSRP of $130, or $250 with a 700 W PSU. That seems a bit pricey, but when you factor in the cost of buying your own high-capacity SFX power supply, it's actually a pretty good deal. It's also often on offer for less than this $100 price tag, which makes it a great budget pick in my books.

Whether the Revolt 3 is the case for you really comes down to two things—the aesthetics and the portability. If the industrial angles and carrying handle float your boat, then it's an excellent choice for a super-portable build. If not? There are other options on this list that are worth considering. Still, it's an excellent case regardless, and easily our top pick for some teeny budget builds.

Read our full Hyte Revolt 3 review.

Best mini-ITX case for cooling

The Fractal Design Era 2, like many Mini-ITX cases, can be a tricky beast to build into. But if you're looking for something with superb cooling potential, wrapped up in a design that really will look lovely no matter where you put it, it's the best Mini-ITX case for cooling by far.

Intrigued? Let's have a look at our cooling options. For a start, you can mount up to a 280 mm AIO radiator to the top, allowing it to pump heat away from critical components through the very attractive wooden venting surround above.

280 mm is an impressive size, although it's worth pointing out that Fractal Design itself still recommends opting for a 240 mm if possible to keep things simple. Still, both are pretty large for a case that's otherwise small enough to be mistaken for a new next-gen console. In fact, one of the biggest selling points of the Era 2 is its sheer compact handsomeness, in combination with the ability to keep some mega components in check.

About that. You'll still have to pick and choose your internal components carefully, as the Era 2 relies on a snug fit to keep things tiny. Measure once, measure twice, and measure again. You'll thank me later.

Beyond the radiator support, you get placement options for up to four fans, meaning you can really shift some serious air from the tiny confines of the internals to the air outside. Confines is a key word though, as you will have your work cut out for your building inside these miniature dimensions, so it's perhaps not a case for the fainthearted or first time builder.

Still, it's got support for both SFX and SFX-L PSUs, although you'd do well to stick to regular SFX if possible. You can absolutely squeeze the larger variant in, but that's only going to make routing cables and leaving room for your other internals that much harder.

Still, what you'll be left with in the end is a fabulous looking Mini-ITX build with enough cooling to keep some serious components happy. It's not particularly cheap at a $200 MSRP, but the end results are impressive, no doubt.

Read our full Fractal Design Era 2 review.

Best ultra small mini-ITX case

Looking a bit like a futuristic ammo tin, the Phanteks Evolv Shift XT is quite the impressive object. Then you learn that it can shrink itself down really, really small. And then expand (or Evolv, natch), to fit a variety of coolers. That makes it the best ultra small Mini-ITX case, and in many ways, one of the best Mini-ITX cases overall.

Thanks to the length of the chassis (even in its smallest configuration), you can fit a lot of full-sized GPUs into this clever design, which means your graphics card options should be much less limited here than most. But the really smart bit is the ability to adjust the frame to pack in up to a 240 mm AIO CPU cooler, meaning that you're options widen all the way up the scale.

It's also a tool-free design, which makes adjusting it a screwdriver-less procedure. If I have a major critique of the Evolv Shift XT, however, it's that it's a cramped, knuckle-scraping procedure despite the lack of need for tools. That's far from a unique issue for Mini-ITX builds but be prepared to curse and sweat as you fiddle your components around to get them to fit in its diminutive walls.

What you're left with afterwards is a bit of a stunner, though. It's worth mentioning that you'll need an SFX power supply if you want to cram an AIO cooler in the mix, as SFX-L units take up just enough space to reduce the room for liquid tubing. Still, given the eventual size of what you end up building, it's impressively good at keeping the overall build small while still containing some genuinely powerful components.

Thanks to its modular nature, this is a case that can genuinely grow with you as your component choices become more sizeable. Of course, you're still limited by size. But if you want to build really small, with relatively few component compromises, the Evolv Shift XT is an excellent choice.

Read our full Phanteks Evolv Shift XT review.

Also tested

FAQ

Water-cooling experts at EK have taken to this year's Computex with a passion, showing off a number of PC builds at the EK Expo. The standout build for me is from the Torsion product line, that features a concept case EK's Ana unabashedly describes as "CNC machinist pornography." And honestly, that's not going too far.

The build is impressive enough, with plenty of liquid-filled tubes and a front distribution plate serving as both a reservoir and an attractive front to the whole system. Every piece of the case apart from that front glass panel is CNC machined, with plenty of room for EK's Quantum radiators in the back.

There's an attention to detail here that you would expect from EK, and it absolutely doesn't disappoint. The whole thing is incredible to look at. It's the sort of PC that doubles as a work of art, and I've got room in my life for that.

It's the middle plate that carries the motherboard that is the standout though, as it features CNC machined grooves for the PSU cables. These tracks are situated under the motherboard, so they're not even something you'd normally see much of, but the slow panning shot of what this tray looks like is enough to make you wonder what is possible if you do actually care about your case's cabling, something very few of us actually care about.

This aluminum plate is seriously solid too; at 13mm thick in places this will make the flimsy motherboard tray in your current build cower in fear. As I say, this is a concept case, but EK does say it will build them. I shudder to think how expensive such a case would be, but I'll still be interested, even if I absolutely can't afford it.

There are a handful of other builds showcased in the half-hour video and on EK's website, and they're definitely worth checking out. The wooden-themed Lignum case is definitely worth checking out, with the wooden-accented water blocks being particularly eye-catching. It's almost enough to have me thinking about building a custom loop.

Modern mini-ITX gaming chassis are not like the minuscule tech boxes of old. The best mini-ITX PC cases now need to be able to cope with the largess of frame that today's graphics cards bring to the table. The desire for dual- and sometimes triple-slot GPU support means that we're talking about mini-towers, but with a design that even a micro-ATX board cannot accommodate.

What I'm saying is; the G.Skill Z5i isn't small. In fact, it's actually larger in stature than the NZXT H1 V2, which is itself larger than its flame-inducing forebear. But it comes with a still relatively sleek design, aided by the curved-to-a-point doors which give the Z5i its unique wedge shape.

There are effectively three compartments in the G.Skill chassis. On one side is the motherboard and PSU, on the other side is the GPU bay, and at the rear is enough space to drop in a full 280mm radiator for an AIO CPU cooling loop. That actually makes building into the Z5i pretty straightforward, especially as the swinging doors can easily be lifted from their hinges to be entirely removed.

That gives you a lot of elbow room to work with, and there are none of the height constraints around memory DIMMs that have been a slight checkmark against the NZXT and Hyte chassis I've toyed with. As alluded to earlier, there's space here for even a triple-slot graphics card, which is pretty spectacular really. That also means there should be plenty of space for the currently-favoured 2.5 slot cards to spin their fans without issue.

Though it should be said that if you want some anachronistic 3.5-inch storage in there you're going to shorten your potential GPU space to just 230mm. Don't listen to them, spinning media is dead, man.

So yes, if you want a high-performance graphics card dropped into your mini ITX machine the Z5i will accommodate it, though you're also going to need to make sure you can find an SFX power supply capable of coping with its demands. And you will need to do that yourself as there is no option for G.Skill to ship you a case with a PSU built-in.

No problem, you might think, you've built enough PCs in your time to be able to install a PSU when you're sticking the rest of the gear in your new mini-ITX machine. Except, where the Z5i gives you ample space to work in for everything else, the PSU is a squeeze. 

Maybe if you go for a non- or semi-modular supply you might be okay, but with the modular PSU I was using the cabling jutted out towards the front of the case to the point where I was having to bend it uncomfortably just to shut the side panel.

The lack of good cable routing makes creating a good-looking system a trial, especially for one with such a can-I-be-bothered attitude to cable management as yours truly.

Another thing which might blight your build is the fact the bundled riser cable is only rated as a PCIe 3.0 x16 connection, where other chassis have ones rated as PCIe 4.0. Honestly, there's enough bandwidth on a full PCIe 3.0 x16 slot that it's not an issue with higher-end GPUs. Interestingly though, it's at the lower end that it might become a problem—where you've got something like the RX 6500 XT, which uses a PCIe 4.0 x8 connector, you will actually only have half the bandwidth of a PCIe 3 slot available. 

Pricing is also a bit of an issue, too. When you've got a chassis in the Hyte Revolt 3, which comes with a 700W PSU pre-installed for around the same price as this barebones chassis, there's something off about your costing. 

But it does look great. I'm definitely into the sleek, black aesthetic, and the heavily tinted glass hides all my cable management sins from prying eyes. Though it's definitely worth adjusting the underslung RGB, as the rainbow 'G.Skill' logo really sucks the cool out of the case more efficiently than the 280mm radiator I had comfortably installed in the back of the case.

What I do know, however, is that this is an excellent modern chassis to build your next Mini-ITX PC into, with support for a wide range of components, and no riser cable to worry about.

It's another wee chassis using the same sort of cubed vertical design popularised by the Xbox Series X, and turned into PC fire by the NZXT H1. Okay, okay, that's maybe a little unfair now that there is an NZXT H1 V2 revision that fixes the burning riser cable issue and improves on the otherwise excellent design. 

The Hyte Revolt 3 is incredibly similar to the H1, but has marked differences where the two companies have gone in different directions with their internal design choices. The lack of riser cable is one, though that doesn't mean you're really any less restricted in terms of your GPU choice.

Anything over 58mm thick isn't going to fit, but that still gives you a host of fat graphics cards to choose from, up to something so chonk as the Asus TUF RTX 3080. But eliminating that riser point of failure is handy, and the Revolt 3 still houses everything in more or less the same overall footprint even with the motherboard mounted perpendicular to the GPU.

One other benefit of this is that you can squeeze an entire 280mm AIO liquid CPU cooler into the build. Any off the peg chiller with a radiator under 35mm thick will fit, and you won't run into the same memory height restrictions the H1 has. Our Corsair Dominator DDR5 kit fit in just perfectly. What might be an issue is the 3.5-inch HDD bay next to the PSU, though it's got a mesh cut-out so even if your fans are pressed against it they'll still get some airflow.

With a low-profile air cooler, however, even a not-so-low air cooler in fact, you still have a lot of space to play with when picking your parts. That's handy, because the Revolt 3 can come as a completely barebones chassis, so there's none of the cable or pipe routing help the H1 design offers. It does give you free reign though on components, and there is still the option to pick it up with a 700W SFX PSU, too.

There is also the option to literally pick it up thanks to the angular, pop-out handle on top of the case. Which, honestly, is a bit of a pain to get out when you want to yet somehow annoyingly easy to activate when you don't.

As a barebones chassis it comes in at a very reasonable $130, but when you factor in the 700W PSU that leaps to $250. Initially I thought that was a bit steep, but it is literally just the price of a high-capacity SFX power supply these days. With the added bonus of knowing that it will fit just fine and with routing at least for the power wiring.

That also means it's considerably cheaper than the H1 V2, which is some $400, though does also mean you will have to find your own CPU cooler. 

When it comes to the actual build process, however, I still favour the NZXT chassis. Creating mini PCs back-to-back with these two chassis really highlighted how much more of a pleasure it is getting your components into the H1. It's still a cramped build in the Revolt 3 even without a liquid cooler and radiator involved, most especially when I was trying to deal with the PSU and front panel cabling in around the DIMM slots.

You'd hope not to spend an age going in and out of your machine once built, however, so that becomes less of a concern over time. It's still simple for upgrades, though, with a tool-less access design and large cut-out behind the CPU on the motherboard tray.

I'm not sure I love the overall boxy aesthetic, but there is a lot I do like about the Revolt 3. It's not just a cheaper alternative to the NZXT H1 V2—though it most definitely is—there are other things it's got going for it, too. There's ample space for cooling, no worries about risers, and lots of GPU wiggle room, too. And it's right up there with the best mini-ITX chassis around.  

Though that was—eventually—fixed with replacement risers that went out to owners of the chassis who picked one up before NZXT pulled it from sale while it sorted out the issue. 

So yeah, there were a few problems with that initial case. Which is a shame because NZXT has been making some of our favourite PC chassis, and still some of the best mini-ITX cases, too. And aside from that specific riser problem, the H1 was a fantastic package to build a wee peecee into. And so is this recently updated version, too.

On the face of it, this H1 V2 looks identical and you'd be forgiven for thinking it was just a new release of the same case with an even more non-burn-y PCIe riser cable for your GPU. But NZXT has actually done a lot to improve the overall design, even though it does make for a more expensive, slightly larger and heavier mini-ITX case.

The H1 V2 is retailing for another $50 (£40) on top of the $350 (£300) price tag of the original, which maybe feels like a lot, but you are getting more than just a chassis. The real beauty of the H1 is that it includes both a powerful PSU and a liquid CPU cooler, so the really awkward bits of a mini-ITX build are taken care of.

If you've ever built a small form factor PC you will understand the pain of trying to route a million, unnecessarily long PSU cables around the motherboard, graphics card, and everything else. Then trying to mount a capable-enough cooler into the limited confines of a mini-ITX case… well, that's a task in itself.

With NZXT's H1, however, both come preinstalled, with cooling and cabling pre-routed in the optimal way for the case, so you just have to connect it all up. And it's a genuine joy to build into, in a way which other mini-ITX cases generally aren't. Even the Hyte Revolt 3, which almost apes the H1, is a far more fiddly place in which to build a rig. With the cooler lifted up and away there's so much elbow room to work with that dropping the heart of your system into the chassis is simple.

There's a huge cutout on the rear of the motherboard tray, too, which is super handy considering a lot of mini-ITX motherboards use underslung M.2 ports for extra SSD support. And it all makes upgrading and general maintenance a far easier thing. Something that is often a pain point for other ickle cases.

A note of warning, however, and that is the clearance between the radiator fan and the top of your memory isn't huge. It is another 1mm higher than the original, but with just 46mm as your maximum memory height some DIMMs are simply going to be too big. Our Corsair Dominator DDR5 sticks we've used in our Alder Lake test rig, and the mini-ITX B660, proved just too tall to close the case.

NZXT helps the build process with clear labelling within and without the chassis. I had issues actually getting into the tool-less design of the first H1, but it ships with labelling on the outside explaining how to gain access. And inside there are tags and stickers indicating what goes where, and how to shift things around to gain access to the motherboard tray, for example.

I guess it also helps that it's just a little larger than its older sibling, which, as well as aiding the cooling, also allows you to install longer graphics cards, too.

And, speaking of cooling, there's a new CAM-supported fan controller, which looks after both the 140mm fan on the all-in-one liquid cooler for the CPU, as well as the new 92mm fan that sits at the rear of the case.

The other big change is one that's tracking the ever rising power demands of both CPUs and GPUs, by shifting from a 600W 80-Plus power supply to a 750W Gold version. It's also had a slight facelift, which means the glass front has much less of a steel ring around it, and is almost bezel-less. And you get an extra USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A port on the top, too.

In all, NZXT has made many welcome improvements to what was already a very good mini-ITX chassis design—well-documented riser issues aside. I get that the $400 price tag will sting for a lot of people, but 750W SFX power supplies don't come cheap, and nor do AIO coolers that would squeeze into something so relatively small. 

Which all makes the H1 V2 not just a good small form factor chassis, but a really great platform from which to build the mini-ITX chassis of your dreams. So long as those dreams don't include overly tall sticks of memory.

Corsair is a top supplier of ways to go completely overboard with RGB lighting—consider its giant 500mm case fan and super bright desk lights, as examples. Now the company has introduced a way for me to stick a light-up "J" for Jorge inside my PC, just as God intended. It'll hurt my finances, though.

The iCUE LC 100 accent lighting panels are magnetic mini-triangles you can slap onto the inside of your PC case, connecting them in whatever layout tickles your fancy. You can even make three-dimensional shapes, so if you want to set up glowy pyramids inside your gaming PC, no one can stop you (although they can judge you). 

Similar lighting panels exist online, but none are specifically designed for PC interior decoration. The iCUE LC 100 panels are controlled through Corsair's Lighting Node Pro controller and the iCue software used to configure Corsair's other RGB products. One controller node supports up to 18 lights.

Not a bad option if you wanted some lights inside your PC that are a bit fancier and weirder than a light strip. 

Your new RGB journey won't be cheap, though. The starter kit comes with nine panels and a controller node and retails for $129. If you want to add more lights, it'll cost you $100 for an expansion set.  

The 5000T is as much a PC case for showing off your components as it is a home for them. The huge tempered glass side panel offers a window to its clean-cut innards and colour-matched accessories. You won't find hardly a cable in sight with the clever cable management, either.

Of course, Corsair is no stranger to RGB lighting and this PC case is covered head-to-toe in the stuff. That's because it's more than a PC case: it's three LL120 fans, six RGB lighting strips, and the Commander Core XT controller. And, yeah, an outstanding PC case. 

At $400/£350/€400, you would hope for a more complete cooling and lighting solution than your average chassis, and it does just that.

Though for that money I expect more than flashing lights. Before I even reach for the on switch, let alone Corsair's own iCUE software, I need to build my PC into the chassis. And that usually means dealing with a warren of cable management that I will inevitably get tired of organising and instead force behind my side panel with a quiet rage.

That didn't happen with the 5000T. It was a breeze to build in. The cable tidies are smartly placed, easy to use, and if you stuff a good few too many thick PSU cables down the built-in rear cable channels, the cable management straps offer lots of leeway. It's all locked in with easy to remove and replace velcro, and there are spare straps included in the box to tie down any other loose ends you might find.

In terms of other case furniture, there's a large cable cover included that masks off SATA, fan connectors, and motherboard power cables down the right-hand side of your motherboard. Admittedly, I didn't use this, as I'm opting for an oversized eATX motherboard, the MSI MEG X570 Godlike, inside this PC and in all honesty it's massive. Therein lies one one of the 5000T's strongest points, though. It couldn't be easier to pick and choose the format and space that you want for your gaming PC.

That's quite a change of pace from the Be Quiet! Dark Base 900 I've built in and out of a couple of times these past few years: while that case offers ridiculous levels of customisation, truly tons, it's nowhere near as an easy task to reconfigure as the Corsair 5000T. To its benefit, there aren't all that many screws holding the Corsair 5000T's removable parts onto the chassis. Of those few, most are captive thumb screws and so shouldn't be at risk of getting lost.

The HDD cage can also be adjusted or removed entirely. In which case the extended lower PSU shroud can be fully removed and replaced by a sheer option that looks really smart. I would've opted for that since I prefer the look had I thought to plan out my PSU cables a little better ahead of time. As it was, the extra space behind the PSU shroud helped me keep the front looking clear without much time spent threading and tying down cables at the rear.

Though for some neat optimisations here or there, the actual layout of this case is a pretty standard one. That does make things pretty easy when it comes to cooling configurations. There's space for three 120mm fans at the front, or two 140mm fans if you'd prefer. Up top you can fit the same again.

There's enough clearance between top-mounted fans and the motherboard tray to allow for a push/pull configuration for any regular width CPU cooler radiator you might mount up there. So long as you're rocking fairly regular radiators you could fit a push or pull triple-fan radiator in the front, too.

There's also a pretty neat design for the upper case, where the airflow to the top-mounted fans isn't entirely restricted should you place an item on top of your PC. Those fans likely won't be as effective, but you're not going to choke your PC's cooling should, say, a feline friend come sit on your PC for a nap.

There's also a neat side-facing triple fan cooling mount down the right-hand side of the motherboard, which exhausts out of the side panel of the case. Pretty good if you've bought a top-tier cooler and you want to show it off. It's not such a stretch for cooling tubes, either. I didn't opt for this personally, but again that was thanks to the eATX motherboard barging everything else out of its way; the USB 3.0 header cables alone protrude right when the fans would be mounted in the vanity CPU cooler spot.

For my testing, I settled for a triple-fan radiator in a pull configuration up top and the three included LL120 fans located in the front, as they were out of the box. To keep that airflow whizzing past my PC components, I also opted for a 120mm fan on the rear. That's actually one of the few setbacks with this case: there's no rear fan included. It's no big deal if you're swapping over your build from another, as I was, but since I was sent the white model, the black rear fan from an old NZXT build isn't quite as in keeping with the aesthetic as I'd like.

Though this cooling configuration is really effective. A triple-fan all-in-one was always going to keep my AMD Ryzen 7 5800X in good check, but the RX 6900 XT loaded into this PC can get a little toasty without some help. The three LL120 fans on the balanced preset provide plenty of that.

The reference AMD RX 6900 XT's zero-RPM mode won't even start the fans until temperatures are upwards of 64–65°C, so idle temperatures aren't much of a gauge of the airflow whizzing past this GPU inside this case. Instead, a 30-minute run of the Heaven benchmark offers a good idea of what sort of cooling potential we're looking at here under gaming conditions. The results are a pretty level 81°C under load for the duration of the test, which is a comfortable baseline for temperature in my books.

During that test those front three LL120 fans are doing some work: speeding up to around 2,280 RPM at 100% speed. They're not altogether quiet in that moment, either, but they lack that aurally-insensitive whirr that some other 120mm fans do at these sorts of speeds. That's combined with the din of the remaining fans inside the case, of course, but I was surprised by how loud this case was overall, but perhaps not surprising considering the lack of any real sound-proofing in its design.

Though I'd say that Corsair's default fan curve via the Commander Core XT is pretty aggressive. My CPU can fairly regularly bounce up to 60°C or more, and with the default fan curve set that would see the fans regularly spring to action at rather mundane times during the day. To fix this, and lessen the din these fans produce, I had to hop into iCUE to create a custom fan curve.

A custom fan curve is easily done, and actually with one in place I was able to significantly reduce the amount the fans ramped up during the day and not materially impact my overall temperatures all that much. 

You can also set different fan curves to different component temps. I set up the top fan to adjust its RPM based on CPU temp, which should help out a little with keeping the VRM cool under load. Then I set the two lower fans to speed up in line with GPU temp, so as to keep it fed with fresh air when I'm gaming. You'll probably want to tweak the CPU and GPU fan curves a little just to keep things quite and generally in line with one another, but it's a fairly simply process in iCUE.

That said, if you're not a fan of iCUE or don't want to use any such software on your machine, the 5000T probably isn't the case for you. This is a case that's pretty much dependent on its software. The RGB LED strips, fan lighting, and fan speeds are all adjusted via the Commander Core XT, and that's plugged right into the iCUE software as first port of call.

One way to keep iCUE off your PC long-term is to set up hardware lighting for your RGB components in the app and leaving the default fan curve in place. Though you will need to use iCUE just once to do so before you're free to uninstall.

At least with iCUE installed you can make the most of this case's superb RGB lighting. It's mostly all indirect, meaning you rarely see the individual LEDs light up. That's pretty key for keeping this RGB lighting from taking a dive into tacky territory, and really makes for a great frame for your PC parts within.

The Corsair 5000T doesn't just look the part of a premium PC case, however, it feels one. There are no rough edges on this thing. Like none. And that smooth steel and plastic construction would honestly look great with no RGB lighting on.

Though where I do feel the 5000T is lacking is in the GPU vertical mounting. PCIe 4.0 extensions are only now becoming something of a thing, but they're expensive, and PCIe 3.0 connectors might not suffice in one's place. It's also an added expense on an already pricey piece of kit as it's not included in the box. A lot of hassle for a vertically mounted GPU that, in all likelihood, is going to suffer for air and run a little hotter against the glass.

Yet once everything is installed in this case it's very convenient to use day-to-day. There are four USB 3.0 ports on the front, alongside a single Type-C USB 3.1 and a 3.5mm jack. I can tell you that making the change from just two USB ports on my old case to four here has been surprisingly revelatory. I can plug in both mouse and keyboard 2.4GHz adapters and have room for my portable SSD. What a world.

I tend to mess with my PC for at least a few hours after finishing off the build, so the rear-hinged and easily removable door panels also make it super easy to access my PC's parts from the front. That's come in handy with cleaning, too. Though I will admit I'm not someone with an air compressor and a personal vendetta against dust, so merely the odd clean here or there.

Though even for my lack of robust cleaning habits, the Corsair 5000T looks great, is masterfully well-made, and is a dream to build into. I think Corsair has really nailed down a simple yet effective approach to case design and the 5000T is testament to that. I think the biggest drawback, and I've said this of many products this past year, is the price. It's really expensive at $400/£350/€400, and you're looking at paying mid-range component prices for your chassis alone.

That said, there's still a strong case for picking up the 5000T if you fit the bill: RGB lover, Corsair fan, show-off, and neat-freak. If you'd rather just pick up a smart-looking home for your PC parts, this is likely pushing the budget too far for what you're after.

Shank Mods on YouTube, best known for the project where he turned a GameCube controller into functioning Switch joy cons, has unveiled his latest project: cramming high-end gaming components into an infamous pair of children's computers from the late '90s.

Back in 1999, Patriot Computer produced a line of pre-built Hot Wheels and Barbie-branded PCs for kids under license from Mattel. They were funky little machines, boasting colorful paint jobs and distinctly Y2K-era rounded, blobby design language. They also came with matching accessories like a monitor, keyboard, mouse, and speakers.

The Patriot Hot Wheels and Barbie PCs were also notoriously poorly designed, with underpowered components  crammed into a small plastic enclosure with hardly any airflow to speak of. If that wasn't enough, the power supplies included in the units had a shockingly high failure rate. Despite the brand power at their disposal, production quickly ceased and Patriot went under.

These computers have developed a bit of a reputation online since, I'm certainly compelled by their combination of '90s/aughts nostalgia and the absurd little story of their failure. Shank Mods was similarly captured by these weird little relics, and after acquiring both Barbie and Hot Wheels models and many of their accessories, set about turning them into secret gaming titans.

The project was almost dead on arrival, with increased attention on the PCs from a Linus Tech Tips video leading eBay sellers to jack up their prices well beyond what these dinky little guys are actually worth. Thankfully, Shank Mods got an assist from PC vendor Microcenter in the form of an expanded budget to do the project justice.

And do it justice he did. Shank equipped each PC with a Ryzen 9 5950X processor, and a RTX 3060 GPU. Now, cooling is a big challenge even in modern, well-built small form factor PCs, and all that high-end silicon immediately turned these stuffy plastic cases into sweltering ovens. Shank was able to reach acceptable, non-component-frying temperatures with the help of some massively supercharged case fans that left his rigs sounding like leaf blowers.

With the builds sorted out, Shank used them to test out increasingly ludicrous multi-monitor setups on his Hot Wheels and Barbie CRTs, including a 3072x768 ultrawide configuration of Hot Wheels monitors and an astounding nine-CRT arrangement to play Minecraft.

Shank Mods truly went above and beyond with this project, cramming a PC most gamers would be envious of into what are two of the least accommodating PC cases ever made. I certainly feel like a wimp for ever complaining about building in my old mini-ITX case. Now, finally, the flames on the side of the Hot Wheels rig accurately reflect just how fast it is.