Montech King 45 Pro case review: Stylish and affordable, with an emphasis on GPU temperatures

Most cases incorporate front or side-mounted intake fans, but Montech has switched things up and placed them at the bottom in its King 45 Pro, for the best GPU thermals possible, similar to the recently reviewed HS02 Pro, but differing in implementation: The fans are installed at an angle here and have been upgraded to the company’s newly-released RX120 Pro fans.

Will Montech’s King 45 Pro make our list of the best PC cases? Let’s take a look at the specifications and features of the first, then we’ll wrap up our review with thermal benchmarks so that you can see how well this case performs.

Product Specifications

Features of Montech’s King 45 Pro

▶️ Minimalist design

Montech’s King 45 Pro features a minimalist design and rounded edges, with (two-piece) wrap-around glass to showcase your inner components. The front of the case features ARGB lighting, as do the fans, shown below with the default settings, which alternate between colors. But I think the case looks better when set to a solid color.

▶️ Top-mounted PSU placement

Montech’s King 45 Pro features a top-mounted PSU, like the company’s HS02 Pro case, which we reviewed earlier this year. This will be fine for most PSUs, but if your PSU’s power socket shares the same angle as the MSI model I’m using for this review, the power cord supplied by Montech may be a little cramped (shown below).

This won’t be an issue with other PSUs where the power connection is angled differently, like the Asus TUF Gaming 850W PSU we used in the HS02 Pro review (shown below).

▶️ Tool-less access

All of the sides can be accessed without the use of tools. In the photo below, the connecting parts are highlighted in blue.

▶️ Build quality

The build quality of Montech’s King 45 Pro is reasonable, without any obvious weaknesses.

▶️ Rear view, Storage support, cable management

From the back, we can see the PSU cage at the top left, along with space for cable management. The storage bay supports two 3.5-inch drives or two 2.5-inch drives, mounted on the cable cover door, shown below.

The back cover features a mesh airflow section to ensure the PSU has proper ventilation.

▶️ PWM and ARGB hub

At the top of the backside is a hardware ARGB and PWM controller to simplify cable management and control.

▶️ Side view, angled bottom intake fans, fan support

Designed to keep your GPU temps as cool as possible, Montech’s King 45 Pro includes three reversed-blade RX120 Pro fans with an angled intake at the bottom of the case.

The RX120 Pro intake fans (and the RX120 Pro exhaust fan) are new from Montech, and aren’t yet available for purchase independently of this case – though we expect they’ll be available for individual order soon. As of this writing, their exact technical specifications haven’t been made available, but Montech claims a 10% airflow improvement – assuming that claim is in contrast to the non-Pro AX120 fan, which has a maximum airflow rating of 59CFM, that would mean these Pro fans support up to 64.9CFM.

The rest of the inner design is fairly minimalist, with just enough room for all of your components. You can see the PSU cage in the front right in the image above. Some users may enjoy the direct routing of the PSU cables, which shorten the travel distance of cables from the PSU as shown below.

Below the PSU cage is a metallic silver Montech badge, and the angled front intake fans, which help cool the GPU. One exhaust fan is located at the rear, and a 360mm radiator or three additional fans can be installed at the top.

▶️ IO panel

The IO panel is located at the bottom front of the case. It features a combined audio/mic jack, one USB-C port, two USB-A ports, and a reset button. The power button features ARGB lighting.

▶️ Dust filters, bottom View

The case incorporates an easily removable dust filter at the bottom, and has four feet for support and to ensure proper ventilation.

There’s another point of interest in the bottom’s design. One side features a raised portion to help facilitate airflow through the angled intake fans.

▶️ Front view

The front of the case showcases the IO panel, an ARGB lighting strip, and the wrap-around ARGB lighting when you include the fans.

▶️ Rear view

For the most part, if you’ve seen the back of one computer case, you’ve seen them all. You have your standard seven PCI-e slots and the exhaust fan. What’s different with the King 45 Pro is the power connection at the top, which connects to the PSU in the front, and the PCIe cover on the side.

Thermal tests, test setup, and testing methodology

The measurements I’ve benchmarked this case against focus on the efficiency of the case’s thermal transfer.

Our thermal tests are presented to give you more information about the product’s performance, but aren’t intended as the sole judgment of the chassis. The style, price, features, and noise levels of a case should also be considered, and we all have different preferences.

What I might like in a case, you might not, and that’s OK. My goal with these reviews is to give everyone, no matter their preferences, enough information to decide whether a product is right for them.