EVGA's open air PC case, the E1 Chassis Frame, is now ready to purchase. The company first took the wraps off its E1 design back in January. In brief, it is an open-air case made of carbon fiber, with the motherboard suspended via steel cables.
This kind of design and innovation doesn’t come cheap, but the starting price of $1,600 for the most basic kit (the chassis and a VGA vertical kit) is pretty breathtaking. EVGA isn’t scared of premium pricing — other EVGA E1 kits with more system components included are priced as high as $4,999.
(Image credit: EVGA)
It's worth noting that the E1 series is created with premium materials. EVGA says that the E1 structure is built entirely with 3K plain weave carbon fiber. This is, apparently, the same material used to construct high performance supercars, because it has an excellent combination of light weight (chassis weighs 2.76lbs) and strength. It looks pretty good too — you might mistake the frame for polished tubular steel from a distance, but the underlying woven carbon fiber becomes evident up-close.
There are three EVGA E1 kits on sale. In the intro we highlighted the ‘cheapest’ kit, dubbed the EVGA E1 KIT 2. EVGA’s fullest offering costs $4,999 and is called the EVGA E1 Bare Bones. Paying this much and still getting a barebones system is definitely...extraordinary. On top of the initial $4,999 outlay for the top-end kit, you'll also need to buy (or migrate) a CPU, memory, storage, and an operating system.
(Image credit: EVGA)
Potential purchasers of the $4,999 EVGA E1 can check out expansion options by pondering over our EVGA Z690 Dark KingPin E-ATX motherboard review from earlier this month. This well-rounded overclocking–focused motherboard should satisfy most enthusiasts as long as they don’t care about RGB (it’s Dark), and as long as three M.2 storage sockets are sufficient.
Another big-ticket component in the EVGA E1 Bare Bones model is the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti KingPin GPU. We have yet to get this premium overclocking GPU in the labs.
Those interested in the EVGA E1 kits can make their orders today, but even for the simplest and cheapest model there is said to be a build-to-order lag of three to four weeks. This delay is a little strange given these are all self-assembled products. EVGA is currently bundling a premium shipping case with the $4,999 kit; the company claims this bonus would normally cost $800.
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Mark Tyson is a news editor at Tom's Hardware. He enjoys covering the full breadth of PC tech; from business and semiconductor design to products approaching the edge of reason.
I love small & light builds, but sorry, I'm not paying $1600 for this one, even if it is made with carbon fiber. I could get an OpenBenchtable, XProto, and other similar "open" ones for a lot less. Plus, with open cases, you still lose a bit of the sound-muffling if your GPU/CPU fans start spinning higher with a heavy workload.
Of course, your preferences may differ, and you may be okay with paying for this case. Then by all means, enjoy!
