Cooling a computer isn’t terribly complicated in and of itself. But if you want to do it right, selecting the best cooling fan can be a daunting task. It’s easy to throw money at Noctua, and we wouldn’t fault you for doing so, but that strategy gets very expensive very quickly. And not everyone digs the beige-and-brown theme – and the company flat-out refuses to do RGB.

Of course, you can opt to go the other easy route and just use what’s included with the case and cooler you bought. But that’s also rarely the optimal solution, and many premium cases come with no fans or just one for exhaust. Ideally, you want a fan that’s quiet, effective at moving air, attractive, and affordable. And since you’ve landed on this page, chances are you bought one of the cases that doesn’t come with enough fans, or you’re not happy with the included fans' performance or audio profile, and are looking for something better.

Recently, we’ve picked up fan testing again, and we’re working hard to test a bunch of different models to figure out the best options in this very crowded field. Over the past several months, we’ve worked in cooperation with industry experts to flesh out a benchmarking methodology, and we expect to update this page regularly with new models we’ve tested.

Our Testing methodology is built on real-world applications, and there are a handful of scenarios a fan needs to perform well in. Naturally, we’re testing airflow in an unrestricted environment as a ‘vanilla’ test, but this is often not indicative of performance inside a PC case.

What’s also not indicative of real-world performance is static pressure testing. Yes, it’s an industry standard, but it really only measures how much pressure a fan can generate when blowing into a closed tube, or up against a wall in a more real-world scenario. It does not account for the changes in acoustics when a fan is mounted on a radiator, heatsink, or behind a mesh intake.

Instead, we’ve decided to measure a fan’s acoustic performance not only when unrestricted and suspended mid-air, but also when strapped to a radiator and again when behind a mesh intake. The results from this paint a much more nuanced, real-world picture, often with interesting outcomes.

For more information about how we test PC fans, scroll to the bottom of this page.

Quick List

Best PC fans you can buy today

Best silence optimized fans

Noctua’s NF-A12x25 G2 is game-changing, offering the quietest, most refined fan we’ve ever seen. In our testing, it delivered whisper-quiet performance and managed an impressively huge amount of airflow despite running at very low RPMs.

Managing such big airflow despite not needing to spin fast to accomplish it means it’s also not a very turbulent fan, which translates to chart-topping performance when installed on a radiator or behind an intake mesh. In fact, it’s the only fan we’ve tested thus far that ran quieter on a radiator than when suspended mid-air without any load.

In addition to pulling off airflow miracles, the NF-A12x25 also offers a seriously advanced internal hub, featuring Noctua’s refined, tried-and-tested SSO2 bearing, a new 3-phase etaPERF motor, and a new PWM controller with SupraTorque functionality. This sounds like a bunch of marketing talk, but after testing the fan, we can tell you with confidence that it has zero audible mechanical noise.

Best budget silence optimized fans

The Arctic P12 Pro is an interesting fan, because it offers performance that is, as far as the charts go, nearly neck-and-neck with Noctua’s NF-A12x25. Except, the Arctic does something Noctua doesn’t: It only costs $8.50 for one fan.

The price you pay for the Arctic fan is, in part at least, in its level of refinement. It uses a plastic ring to strengthen the impeller. And, in order to achieve its airflow, it relies on spinning up to higher speeds. Consequently, it’s a more turbulent fan than the Noctua, so it takes a bit more of a hit when mounted close to a mesh intake. It also produces a few mechanical noises, but even so, it’s a highly capable fan.

If, however, you just want a fan to move lots of air quietly, and you don’t want it to cost much, the Arctic P12 Pro is in a league of its own.

Best RGB fans

It feels a bit weird to place essentially the same Arctic fan on the Best list twice, but it truly is that good. The P12 Pro RGB is, for all intents and purposes, the exact same fan as the non-RGB variant, except with a white translucent impeller so that the RGB lighting from the hub shines through.

It performs on par with the non-RGB variant in our testing, offering wicked performance at up to 3000 RPM and a fantastic noise-to-airflow ratio. The best part: it barely costs more than the non-RGB variant.

Best High-Performance fans

The Phanteks T30 (review here) is one of the fans that somewhat copied the NF-A12x25 – it featured a similar blade shape, and also used a LCP (liquid crystal polymer) plastic for the impeller. Except, it wasn’t quite a copy, and now, even half a decade later, it’s still king of the hill in the ultra-high-performance fan space.

Why is it so good? Phanteks cheated. I wish I could say they didn’t, but they did. The industry standard for a 120mm fan is 25mm thickness. So what did Phanteks do? They made a 30mm fan. In fact, Phanteks was so proud of this fan that when they sent it out for review, they put together a wind tunnel kit for us because they wanted everybody to know Phanteks meant business and had defeated Noctua at their own game. And they did – it performed notably better than Noctua’s finest when tested for noise-to-airflow.

Moreover, the good stuff doesn’t stop at just 5mm of extra thickness. The company also built in a mode selector at the back of the hub that lets you select quiet, regular, and advanced modes. If you ask me, though, advanced should be called Final Destination mode it lets spin all the way up to 3,000 RPM. With its added thickness, high speed, and LCP material, it’ll gobble air and your fingers if you’re not careful.

Choosing the best fan for you

Fans. They spin. They move air. They make noise. Sometimes they have lights, and more recently, some have LCD screens. It may seem like a silly thing to obsess over, but picking the right, or wrong, fan can make a major difference in a PC build.

Not everybody looks for the same thing in a fan, and whereas picking the Best CPU or Best GPU is often a matter of what’s best-performing for the dollar in your allocated budget, fans don’t evolve at nearly the same pace, so picking one is much more of a subjective exercise. With that said, depending on your situation, there can be a few key considerations that can make the choice easier.

• If you’re someone who comes home from work, whips on a headset, and plays games for an hour, noise levels or MTBF (durability) figures may not matter much to you.
• Alternatively, if you’re someone who works on your PC in silence all day long, it may be worth investing in more refined fans that offer less wind and mechanical noise, with a more durable motor.
• Personal sensitivity to certain noise types and frequencies also plays a role.
• Whether the PC is placed on the desk or on the floor is another factor to consider. Fan noise can be less noticeable from the floor.
• Some fans are designed to perform better on radiators and heatsinks, whereas others perform better as case intake or exhaust. Pick accordingly.
• Fans with daisy-chaining connectors can ease installation and provide tidier cable management.
• Cases with tinted windows require fans with brighter RGB for a visual spectacle.
• Mini-ITX PCs, though fantastically small, can benefit more from a fan upgrade to quiet them down than big full-tower E-ATX machines.

More about how we test PC fans

Our PC fan testing consists of multiple phases. First, we test a fan’s vanilla acoustics by suspending it mid-air with four pieces of string so that no frames or holders interfere with the airflow. We start with a basic measurement, noting whether the fan breaks through the noise floor at its minimum speed, then we record the RPM for every whole dB between 34 and 44 dB(A). Finally, we record the maximum RPM and its associated noise level.

We then repeat these tests with a radiator mounted behind the fan, and again with a mesh intake in front of the fan. We do this because radiators and intake mesh fundamentally change a fan’s acoustics and the RPM they must spin at to achieve the desired noise targets.

After the acoustic data, we mount the fan in our wind tunnel to collect airflow data.

The windspeed is measured with an anemometer. However, although the fan’s impellers may push air, no air comes from the space behind the motor hub, and fans don’t generally push air in only one direction. In fact, the space immediately behind a motor hub usually becomes a low-pressure pocket, which is why we need a wind tunnel – to form the airstream into one cohesive, non-turbulent column of moving air.

Inside the wind tunnel (at the halfway point and near the end) are two air-straighteners, which together with the length of the tunnel at 77cm (just over 30 inches) neatly combs the airstream into something we can measure, without creating tons of backpressure that would affect the readings.

Using the RPM datapoints from the acoustic testing phase, we now set the fan to each RPM point and record the associated wind speed. We repeat this with a radiator behind the fan, and again without the radiator but with the mesh intake in front of the fan. Of course, the wind speed isn’t actually a useful measure (yet) of how much air a fan can displace, until we convert it to meters cubed per hour (m³/h).This testing yields up to 84 datapoints per fan (assuming the fan can achieve each point), which tells us enough about a fan's capabilities, quirks, and acoustics to judge whether it's one of the best PC fans you can buy.

Not long ago, we tested two popular case fans, pitting Noctua’s NF-A12x25 G2, an industry legend, against the also well-liked Arctic P12 Pro. We had some surprising results, as the Arctic fan almost kept up with the much pricier Noctua. However, Arctic also sent us some P12 Pro’s of the RGB variety, so we thought it would be fitting to put Artic’s colorful spinner up against some competitors in its own price category.

In this round of testing we’ve rounded up five 120mm RGB fans that don’t cost a whole lot, so here, you won’t be seeing Lian Li’s fancy LCD-infused, wireless, infinity-mirror fans. Instead, we’re pinning the P12 Pro up against Be Quiet’s Light Wings LX, Fractal Design’s Aspect 12 RGB, Phanteks’ M25 G2 RGB, and finally, Levelplay’s Combat Fan 120 A-RGB. This last one was sent to us as a surprise, and I thought it was fitting to include in the roundup.

Let’s dive straight into the testing.

Testing Methodology

For evaluating PC fans, there are two main terms you should be aware of: Airflow and Static Pressure.

Airflow is easy – how much air does a fan move (through a wind tunnel in our tests) when not burdened by a radiator, mesh, or any other restriction.

Static pressure can be measured by placing the fan on a wind tunnel, closing the end, and measuring the pressure generated with a sensor, which spits out a value in millimeters of water. The higher the number, the better a fan is likely to be at overcoming restrictions.

However, I find that a fan’s measure of static pressure isn’t actually all that useful – all it tells you, really, is how well a fan can push air up against a wall, which is obviously not how you want to position the back of your PC. Instead, I prefer to test for noise and airflow through a radiator and intake mesh, as well as the standard suite of unrestricted tests for a more nuanced, real-world picture.

Testing Results of 5 Budget RGB Fans

(Not) Breaking the Noise Floor

On the day of this testing, the noise floor in my office sat between 32.4 and 32.7 dBA, and I am happy to be able to write that all five fans, when run at their minimum speed, were completely inaudible and did not break the noise floor, even with the dB meter placed at just 20 cm from their hubs.

This used to be something I only saw in premium fans, where manufacturers have designed quiet hubs, so I was delighted to see this kind of performance from budget-friendly RGB fans.

Airflow is not recorded for these tests, as none offer enough air speed for the anemometer to register.

dBA VS. Airflow: Unrestricted

The first series of tests I subject the fans to is measuring their acoustics in an unrestricted environment. I target every whole dB between 34 and 44 dB(A), and record the associated RPM. Then, I put that same fan on our wind tunnel, and record the windspeed at said RPM figures. This is then calculated over to cubic meters per hour for airflow.

In this test, Arctic’s P12 Pro leads the pack by a significant margin, followed by Be Quiet’s Light Wings LX. Phanteks’ M25 G2 RGB only performs a smidge worse than Be quiet’s fan.

Note the dip in the curve of Fractal Design’s Aspect 12 RGB at 37 dB(A). This fan creates quite an annoying resonance at certain speeds, where it gets louder at a certain RPM, and then quiets down again once past this RPM. I suspect that if I were to test at even smaller increments, the graph would become quite wobbly.

Most fans exhibit this kind of behavior to some extent, where they create unwanted noises at certain RPMs – even Arctic’s fan does this, but the level to which the Aspect 12 RGB made this noise was really quite bothersome.

Similarly, for the Phanteks’ fan (while its curve looks alright), I was unable to test at 35 dBA, which is why its line starts at 36. No matter how much I fidgeted with its speed, I simply could not get the dB meter to hit 35 – it was either over, or under, but not on.

The Levelplay Combat fan had the same issue, but at 41 dB(A), where I just couldn’t hit the mark.

All of this is not to say that Arctic’s fan is without imperfections either, though. This sample exhibited a light high pitch at certain RPMs which didn’t affect the readings, but I did notice, and at speed it started wobbling – a sign that it is unbalanced.

The predicament: Whether to test with more fans

I’ve wondered throughout testing these fans whether I should test with more fans and take the average results, but I have two problems with this: firstly, testing this thoroughly already takes quite some time, and more importantly, averaging out the results would mask defects.

In a premium fan from Noctua, we expect near-perfection. However, these are RGB fans that cost no more than $15 each. There will be some variance in issues between samples, but not averaging out the results means you get to see the fan’s performance for what it really is with one specific fan. Some of these behaviors will be down to their design and consistent across samples, while other issues may differ between units.

I do request three samples for each fan to review, however. If I do run into any issue like those mentioned above, I grab the other samples and quickly run them from lowest to max RPM and judge the results. If they exhibit similar behavior, I roll with the data, but if they to suddenly sound much cleaner, then I know there’s a manufacturing defect at play.

dBA VS. Airflow: Radiator Restricted

Pin these fans on a radiator, and something very interesting happens. Four of the fans perform nearly the same as each other, with the Arctic P12 Pro standing out by a huge margin.

Note that for this test, the acoustics are measured separately from the acoustics without the radiator, and the fans follow similar noise-to-RPM patterns.

dBA VS. Airflow: Mesh + Filter Intake Restricted

When placing the fans behind a mesh intake, things again get interesting. This is the most challenging test of the three, as placing intake mesh in front of a fan fundamentally changes the way they sound – intakes punish airflow more than radiators, not because they’re more restrictive, but because placing something in front of a fan has a much more profound effect on the noise than something behind it, and this is where a fan’s blade design really starts to shine.

The Arctic P12 Pro continues to lead the race here, with Be Qquiet’s Light Wings LX following behind. The Combat fan, despite being from a lesser-known brand, does OK for itself.

However, Fractal Design’s Aspect 12 RGB and Phanteks’ M25 G2 put down appalling performances on this test, offering only 60% of the P12 Pro’s airflow at the same noise levels.

Maximum performance

Finally, the fans get a test at full blast.

This isn’t a useful test to compare noise-to-performance efficiency of the fans, but if you’re looking for a fan with low maximum speed to keep noise levels down without having to make a custom fan curve, Levelplay’s Combat Fan is your best pick. On the other hand, if you’re looking for maximum peak performance, Arctic’s P12 Pro RGB is a beast in a league of its own that can spin at well above 3000 RPM.

The dBA figure doesn’t say everything

Just because a fan performs well on the charts doesn’t necessarily mean it may be pleasant to listen to. One example of this is the Combat Fan from Levelplay. It’s not a terrible performer, but at certain speeds, something starts humming at an annoying mid-frequency. It was one of those frequencies that echoes through the room, and if I weren’t testing it but had it in my PC, it would drive me mad, wondering what the source of the noise in the room is.

The Fractal Design Aspect 12 RGB also suffers from a painfully dirty noise profile that did show up on the charts, as it limited the fan’s ability to reach the speeds it otherwise would have had it not made these noises. It sounds a bit raspy, almost like there’s grit in the motor, and it had similar resonant noises as the Combat Fan.

The M25 G2 didn’t have weird noises – it was just inefficient in its noise-to-airflow ratio.

Judging the RGB, feature set and pricing

Fractal Design Aspect 12 RGB

Fractal Design’s Aspect 12 RGB fans have the worst RGB of the lot. The blades are almost opaque, which makes the RGB on anything but the hub rather dim compared to the competition. It also does not have a zero-RPM mode – when fed a 0% PWM duty, it will still spin, and with a minimum speed of about 500 RPM; I consider this a problem. Yes, it’s quiet at its minimum speed, so that’s not an issue, but high minimum speeds combined with no Zero-RPM implementation can lead to excessive dust buildup, as the constantly whirring blades accomplish nothing but to pull small particles towards your filter and / or fan.

This fan is available for $51.47 as a 3-pack, which brings the per-unit cost to $17.16.

Combat Fan 120 A-RGB

Levelplay’s Combat Fan 120 A-RGB comes with a ring around its blades, which makes for a cool look. Despite the RGB coming from the hub, it still lights up the ring moderately. It also responds correctly to a Zero-RPM signal.

Pricing for the Levelplay Combat fan sits at $12.23 per unit.

Be Quiet! Light Wings LX

Be Quiet’s Light Wings LX fans feature good RGB and a slick blade design, but no Zero-RPM feature. That being said, the minimum RPM is extremely low, tested at just 213 RPM, so I can forgive the lack of a zero-RPM mode.

Pricing sits at $47.90 for a 3-pack, bringing the per-unit price to $15.97.

Phanteks M25 G2 RGB

Phanteks M25 G2 RGB, although not being the quietest fan, offers a properly complete feature set that makes a compelling case for forgiving its performance shortcomings. The RGB is gorgeous and it comes with an infinity-mirror hub. The fans can also clip on to each other, daisy-chaining in a not-quite-wireless fashion but certainly better than the competition. The fan even comes with plastic covers for the screw holes for a tidy appearance. It also responds correctly to a 0% PWM duty signal.

Pricing sits at $36.99 for a 3-pack, which is a surprisingly good price if you consider the amount of effort that went into their design. It may not be the quietest fan, but it sure is the prettiest and comes with most bits and pieces to complete the set.

Arctic P12 Pro RGB

Arctic’s P12 Pro lights up bright and uniform, offering a fantastic visual spectacle. It also comes with a proper Zero-RPM implementation, but that’s where its feature set ends.

This fan costs just $28.49 in a 3-pack, which is a mighty good deal that’s hard to pass up at $9.50 per fan.

Picking a winner

It would come as no surprise if I said that Arctic’s P12 Pro was the winner of this test, but I’m not sure about that. The P12 Pro RGB is clearly the best performer, but it was a tad unbalanced and had some light high-pithed whining. It also clicked a few times upon startup, but most of the fans did that. Mechanical noises.

If you’re looking for the best value offering, the Arctic P12 Pro RGB is hard to pass up with the 3-pack costing just $9.50 per fan.

The Light Wings LX, although being the second-place fan in testing for noise levels, is my favorite of the bunch. Why? It’s clean! It makes a crisp, clean sound ---just a whoosh, with no extraneous noises on top. It’s a slightly louder whoosh, but a clean whoosh. Of course, that’s not to say it may be your favorite. Personally, I’m sensitive to these kinds of noises, and I’m willing to pay a little extra for a clean-sounding PC, but that little bit extra is quite a bit if you tally it up over multiple spinners.

Costing $15.97, this puts the be quiet! Light Wings LX right on the edge between budget and mid-range RGB fans.

If, on the other hand, you’re someone who doesn’t mind noise too much, and wants to build something that you’re truly proud to show off, Phanteks’ M25 G2 fans do away with the focus on silence, and prioritize looks with bright RGB, an infinity mirror, seamless daisy-chaining, and even a mechanism that clips the spinners into one unit and covers for the screw holes.

I’m someone that works many hours a day in silence, with my open air PC on my desk near me, so I’ll prioritize silence any day of the week. But if you’re a gamer, keep the PC on the ground, or wear a headset all the time anyway, the quality of the RGB may be far more important.

If picking a winner is so difficult, should we pick a loser?

If there’s one clear conclusion I can draw from this batch of testing, it’s that Fractal Design’s Aspect 12 RGB is on my do-not-buy list. It offers no real redeeming features to make up for its shortcomings – it produces a dirty, inconsistent noise, performs disappointingly compared to the competition, has no Zero-RPM mode, and even the RGB doesn’t look all that great. It doesn’t even come with vibration-damping rubber pieces on the corners.

I honestly don’t understand what it’s doing in Fractal Design’s product portfolio at all, other than making the company’s other fans look good. And the wildest thing is, it’s also the most expensive fan tested here, at $17.16 a piece.

In this respect, fans are much like tires for cars: they come in all shapes and sizes, each with different purposes, from different manufacturers, and they all seem to do the same thing. And much like tires, in the world of fans there are a few great ones, many good ones, and some to avoid entirely.

PC components manufacturer Phanteks showcased one of the most striking PC cases at CES this year. At first glance, the new Exo 626s looks like an open-frame case; however, it comes with dedicated chambers for the PSU, motherboard, graphics card, and a 360mm AIO liquid cooler for the CPU.

The idea behind this case is that with each component having a separate chamber, airflow is easier to manage, and heat from one part doesn’t affect the others. From what we gathered on our visit in Vegas, the GPU chamber can fit large-sized graphics cards going as big as 4-slots. It comes with an RGB LED strip and a mesh finish at the top and the bottom, allowing the card to breathe easily. The PSU chamber at the bottom features a similar RGB strip along with some I/O ports at the front, including two USB Type-A ports, a USB Type-C, and a 3.5mm audio jack.

The AIO chamber also features a mesh finish at the front and is positioned next to the motherboard with a provision to route the water cooling tubes directly into the motherboard chamber. Lastly, the motherboard chamber comes with a glass panel at the front, while the back panel gives access to the AIO radiator and the rear side of the motherboard with a provision to mount a 120mm fan for additional cooling.

Unfortunately, the case is available as part of a pre-built only, as it is made in partnership with CyberPowerPC, with no confirmation on a standalone retail version at the moment. The pre-built will be offered with an Intel Core Ultra 285K CPU, an RTX 5080 GPU, an Asus TUF Z890 motherboard, 32GB of DDR5 dual-channel memory clocked at 6400 MHz, a 2TB WD Black SN8100 PCIe Gen 5 SSD, a Bitspower 360mm AIO liquid cooler with ARGB lighting, and a Corsair RM1000X 1000W 80+ Gold power supply unit. As for the pricing, it will be retailing at $3,500.

While the Exo 626s looks impressive, locking such an innovative case behind an expensive pre-built feels like a missed opportunity. This is exactly the kind of uncanny airflow-focused design PC enthusiasts would love to experiment with in their own custom builds. Hopefully, Phanteks takes note of the interest and considers releasing the Exo 626s as a standalone case for consumers and not just system integrators.

We're now on Day Two of our Computex 2024 coverage, and the news isn't showing any signs of slowing down. Today, we have some insights from Intel on its next-generation Xeon 6 processors, which will be available in low-power/efficient and high-performance variants to take on AMD's potent EPYC family. There are new power supplies from Seasonic and Super Flower (including a 2800W monster) and a massive new 57-inch Dual 4K monitor from Cooler Master. 

Intel's Xeon 6 processors are on deck to challenge AMD's EPYC family Earlier this week, AMD announced its new 3nm Turin-based EPYC processors, which are available in up to 192-core configurations. Today, however, is Intel's turn to shine with its Xeon 6 processors. The Xeon 6 family will be split into families, with the first being "Sierra Forest," featuring efficiency-optimized E-Cores with up to 144 cores are available now (288-core models will debut in 2025). The second family, "Granite Rapids," will feature up to 86 P-cores and launch during the third quarter of 2024 (up to 128 P-core SKUs arrive in 2025).

• Intel Launches 144-core' Sierra Forrest' Xeon 6 CPUs, Granite Rapids Follows in Q3

New Power Supplies from Super Flower and Seasonic
In the world of power supplies, Seasonic and Noctua have collaborated to launch the Prime TX-1600 Noctua Edition. This 1,600W power supply has been infused with a 120mm Noctua NF-A12x25 fan that spins at up to 2,000 RPM, an optimized grill fan, and includes 12V-2x6 connectors. It also comes in a brown finish that is indicative of the Noctua influence.

But if you need even more power, look no further than the Super Flower Leadex SF-2800F14HP 3.1. This PSU is rated for a staggering 2800W and supports up to four GeForce RTX 4090 graphics cards using 12V-2x6 connectors. Despite the insane power rating, Super Flower says the Leadex SF-2800F14HP 3.1 only supports a single PC.

• Seasonic's latest big and silent 1,600W PSU gets a quieter 120mm Noctua fan upgrade
• 2800W Super Flower PSU boasts four 12V-2x6 power connectors — good for quad GPU setups used for AI training, not gaming

CAMM2 Memory Standard Backed by Kingston and MSI
Both Kingston and MSI are embracing the CAMM2 standard for desktop motherboards. The new space-saving standard is aimed primarily at laptops as a lower-profile alternative to SO-DIMMs (they are 57 percent thinner). However, it will also have a place in the desktop world, as witnessed by Kingston's Kingston Fury Impact DDR5 CAMM2 modules. They first will be available in 32GB and 64GB capacities, with 128GB and 256GB capacities arriving at a later date.

MSI has already announced a desktop motherboard supporting CAMM2 modules, which left many people scratching their heads. Now we see why the company opted for this route: the space-efficient design of CAMM2 allowed it to design a special waterblock to cool the memory directly.

• Kingston unveils new CAMM2 RAM modules at Computex — bold new RAM form factor comes to PC on MSI and Asus boards
• A curious use case for CAMM2 memory modules on desktops: Liquid cooling

Phanteks and InWin Have New PC Cases on Display
If you want to upgrade your gaming rig's enclosure, we have two intriguing options. First is the Phanteks Evolv X2, which has glass panels on three sides, which gives you a nice wraparound look at the hardware lurking inside. Power connectors are hidden, the fans are recessed, and a secret channel hides all those pesky cables. The result is an incredibly clean design that also aids in airflow. Despite the good looks and trick design features, Phanteks says the case will retail for just $150.      

For something a bit more unorthodox, there's the Infinite Signature case from InWin. It features a large 180-degree curved glass panel. The case is also motorized, allowing it to rotate 45 degrees to give you a better look at the internal components.

For something more mainstream, there's the F3 microATX case that can be fitted with plastic, wood, or steel panels to give it your unique and personal touch. Pricing starts at $149 and goes up to $160 if you want wood paneling.

• Phanteks Evolv X2 is the perfect showcase PC chassis — floating motherboard tray and recessed fans a delight
• InWin flexes its glass-bending skills with new Signature case — Infinite and F3 revealed at Computex 2024

ASRock and Cooler Master Showcase Exciting New Gaming Monitors
Computex has always been a big draw for gaming monitors; this year is no exception. ASRock drew in eyeballs with its new Phantom Gaming PG032UFS2B, which features a 32-inch 4K OLED panel with a 240 Hz refresh rate. However, if you dial the resolution back to 1080p, the maximum refresh rate jumps to 480 Hz. 

If 480 Hz isn't fast enough for you, there's the PG27FFX2A, which is claimed to be the world's fastest IPS panel, with a refresh rate of 520 Hz (at 1080p).

For those who want an absolutely massive monitor to dominate your desk and give you an immersive gaming experience, there's the Cooler Master GP57ZS. While it's still a prototype, the GP57ZS is a Dual-4K (7,680 x 2,160) resolution monitor boasting an insane 57-inch diagonal. With a 1000R curve and 2,304 Mini-LED backlit zones, we're eager to get our hands on a future production sample.

• ASRock's 32-inch, 480 Hz OLED monitor is a feast for the eyes and your router
• Cooler Master showcases a massive 57-inch super ultrawide dual-4K Mini LED gaming monitor

The Best of the Rest

• ASRock shows off new AMD Ryzen 9000 motherboards
• Ducky One X keyboard first to use Cherry's innovative induction switches
• MSI launches AI+ laptops for gamers and creators, boasting 100 to 542 TOPS

Phanteks put on a dazzling show at Computex 2024, showing off a slate of new hardware headlined by the Evolv X2. The Evolv X2 is a triumphant return to the Evolv line, a perennial favorite of Tom's Hardware. 

With its three glass sides, curved metallic top and bottom, recessed fan areas, and floating motherboard tray, the Evolv X2 is a feast for the eyes. A look around the back reveals no secrets, with the motherboard cables tucked perfectly into inset cable channels. Add to this the trademark height of an Evolv case and options for gold accents, we thought this case would cost north of $250. But shockingly, Phanteks targets $150 for the Evolv X2's MSRP. 

The interior of the showroom PC looked clean as a whistle, thanks to a mix of industry trends and clever design. The X2 supports the new wave of back-connecting motherboards (BTF, Project Zero, Stealth etc), where all I/O and power connections to the motherboard are hidden away on the rear of the PCB. The motherboard rests a few inches deeper than the rear panel, creating a secret rear channel for hiding away cable clutter. And of course, it wouldn't be a Phanteks case without some serious RGB integration.

If thermals are your concern, Phanteks did some good work in accommodating a solid airflow stream. With higher than average ground clearance, three bottom intake fans can pull good air in to be expelled by the 4 exhaust fans. While enthusiast hardware may get hot, a mainstream system should perform fine. Still, we'll have to put the case through our testing to say for sure.

If you're looking for a case to showcase your build without spending $200 or more, the Evolv X2 looks to be a tough case to beat. Its innovative styling and floating motherboard tray will likely make this case a mainstay of the midrange market upon its release. We are basing our coverage off of the prototype model, but Phanteks expects to have the case ready for launch later this year.

Whether it's going for an all-white build or just having a really nice case to build in, this excellent budget case from Phanteks is a steal at this sale price. However, it does require mailing in a rebate to claim this offer, which does offer a little hassle. The Phanteks Eclipse G360A on sale is also only available with the white color option.

One of our favorite cases that we've tested and an Editor's Choice winner, the Phanteks Eclipse G360A is on sale for just $59 at Newegg after redeeming a $20 mail-in-rebate. See our review of the Phanteks Eclipse G360A for more detailed information and benchmark testing results.

It is a mid-tower ATX case with plenty of room for all of the latest components and is spacious enough to fit radiators measuring up to 360mm in either the front or top of the case. With the ability for such cooling potential, this budget case is capable of housing some high-end components. In testing, we found the Phanteks Eclipse G360A had excellent thermal performance thanks to the mesh front panel enabling good airflow. Still, the front panel also didn't have the best filtering, so things could get a little dusty over time if you are operating in a less-than-ideal environment. 

There's an easy-to-access front panel on the top of the case, which includes 2 x USB 3.0 ports (No USB-C), a mic and headphone port, power controls, and a button for switching lighting modes of the included D-RGB fans and D-RGB LED strip. So there are plenty of options for configuring the lighting setup for your rig. 

Although this case is roomy and easy to build in, one negative that we found with our review unit was that the design of the cable routing wasn't the greatest, and if you have shorter cables on your PSU, some routing might get a little tight. Overall, though, this is a fantastic case at its original MSRP price, so being able to pick the Phanteks Eclipse G360A for just $59 makes it a no-brainer if you're looking to build a good-looking PC on a budget. 

Phanteks just launched a 5.5-inch LED with an IPS display to be used inside your case. This is an excellent option for those who want to showcase more than just their computer's RGB lighting hardware, liquid cooling setups, and fancy cables to make your edge-to-edge fish tank-looking glass PC cases look less boring while complimenting its aesthetics.

These have a 2160 x 1,440 resolution, 60 Hz refresh rate, 450 nits brightness, and 99% sRGB color profiles. The casing is plastic with two color options and is lightweight (Phanteks only lists the gross weight, so it should be much less than 337.5 grams).

What Makes This More User-Friendly Than Any Mini Displays

Many PC enthusiasts have been incorporating mini displays inside their PC cases to display a particular video or as a system health monitor, even before all glass panel chassis were a thing. Their multiple mounting options with two viewing angles and DC power input make these mini displays more convenient for this purpose.

The monitor has magnets placed within the monitor's casing, allowing you to have an almost flush mount on any steel surface (like the PSU Shroud). But the screw-mount feet allow more freedom. It provides a 90-degree or 15-degree tilt, and it is also magnetic. Additionally, because of the mounting holes on the display and the in-display magnets, you can display it horizontally or vertically. If this doesn't satisfy you, the feet provide screw holes, letting you attach this monitor to a 120mm fan from within. The mounting method is limited to horizontal orientation when mounted on top/ bottom mounted fans and the vertical layout when mounted from within the front and rear case fans.

Since it uses a 5v mini USB connector for power, it provides cleaner cable management than typical mini displays with a power brick powered by a wall socket. A SATA or Micro-USB cable lets your system's PSU power up this display internally. All the adequately sized wires are provided, though you'd need to buy longer cables should you use this as an external monitor away from the case.

Phantek's purpose-made LED has a recessed cable management area for the HDMI and a SATA-to-mini USB connector. The monitor's OSD lets you change the display orientation, set resolution, set the display to extend, hide the taskbar, and prevent cursor display on this screen, something you wouldn't find in typical mini displays.

Phanteks provides all the needed screws, HDMI cable, and a SATA-to-mini-USB cable, giving you a complete package. With a two-year warranty and the option to choose in white or black casing, you get everything you need to have a mini display inside your PC case. Pre-orders can be placed on Phantek's website, which sells these for $109 each. But once this is available, we may see these listed on Amazon and other online retailers.

Lian Li has filed a patent suit in California requesting action against Phanteks (h/t OC3D). The Taiwanese aluminum case stalwart alleges that its Dutch rival has willfully infringed upon its patented fan design innovations. Specifically, Lian Li indicates that Phanteks D30 series fans infringe upon US patent 10,690,336 B1, which was awarded to Lian Li in June 2020. The patent describes a method of daisy chaining RGB fans using a simple, compact connector.

The UNI range of fans from Lian Li has been quite successful. Part of this product line’s appeal may be due to its “revolutionary” interlocking modular connectors, making them “cableless” and great for daisy chaining in systems while minimizing cable clutter.

Perhaps Phanteks was ‘inspired’ by the Lian Li fans, or at least the idea behind them. However, it is hard to believe the idea of minimizing cabling while maximizing RGB and airflow in a system is unique to Lian Li. Also, perhaps the Phanteks D30 series is too similar to Lian Li’s designs to have been truly independently originated. These and similar questions will probably be central to the upcoming deliberations in the US District Court for the Central District of California.

The court case was filed on September 8, 2023, and reportedly comes about three months after Lian Li sent a letter to Phanteks about what it thought were patent-infringing products. Phanteks has continued to market and sell its D30 fans since May, and it seems like a lack of acknowledgment of Lian Li’s claims has precipitated this lawsuit.

What Lian Li hopes to achieve with its legal action is a judgment confirming that Phanteks has infringed its US patent. If successful, Lian Li will seek damages to date, plus a sales injunction on infringing products sold without a license.

We aren’t patent experts, so it is hard to know whether Lian Li’s court action has a great chance of success. The overall idea shared by the rival fan daisy chain designs seems to be similar, but the execution might be different enough to save Phanteks. If Lian Li is successful here, it might also trigger further litigation involving products like the Thermaltake SWAFAN EX and Corsair iCUE Link systems.

From the floor at Computex, Phanteks has announced the launch of two new chassis to its NV line, the full tower NV9 and the mid-tower NV5. It has also announced the Glacier One D30 AiO cooler and D30 140 mm fans.

Phanteks NV9: Bigger and Better

The NV9 is a full tower chassis (276 x 572 x 607 mm larger than the NV7) with an MSRP of $299 and an October 2023 release date. With "near-seamless tempered glass panels" to the front and one side of the case, we get a clear view of the hardware inside. With support for up to three 420 radiators and a 480 radiator on the side, your rig will have ample cooling options. Talking of radiators, a modular side bracket enables easy installation and maintenance of your radiators.

The NV9 has improved support for E-ATX motherboards up to 280 mm and a simplified storage are affording more space and flexibility. Two additional accessories are GPU brackets (one a premium model) to mount your GPU away from the motherboard.

• Support for fans up to 11 x 140 mm or 12 x 120mm
• Radiators: Top 420/360, Side 420/480, Bottom 420/360, Rear 280/240
• Storage: 3 x 3.5 inch hard drive, 2 x 2.5 inch SSD or 6 x 2.5 inch SSD total
• Dimensions: 276 x 572 x 607 mm
• Colors: Satin Black / Matte White
• Availability: October 2023
• MSRP: $299

Phanteks NV5: The New Mid-Tower

Just like the NV9, the NV5 has a near-seamless glass view on two sides of the case, offering a view of your motherboard and RGB. The NV5 has support for eight 120 mm fans and at the top there is space for a 360 radiator, as well as space to the side. A bottom fan provides cool air for your GPU, and Phanteks claims that the NV5 has a "spacious interior to accommodate modern GPUs". A PSU cover provides easy cable management, and DRGB provides the subtle (or not) lighting that we all crave.

The NV5 is for enthusiasts who like the design of the NV7, but want more of their desks back, less fans or more money in their pocket. The chassis features support for ATX motherboards, but not E-ATX due to a GPU support bracket. An anti-sag GPU bracket is included in the kit. 

Cooling can be via up to eight 120mm fans, or your choice of 360 or 120 radiators. Storage is up to three 3.5 inch drives, or four 2.5 inch SSDs.

Phanteks NV5 is slated for an August 2023 release, with an MSRP of $129.

• Support for eight fans up to 120 mm in size
• Radiators: Top 360, Side 360, Bottom 120, Rear 120
• Storage: 3 x 3.5 inch HDD, 4 x 2.5 inch SSD
• Dimensions: 237 x 476 x 526 mm
• Colors: Satin Black / Matte White
• Availability: August 2023
• MSRP: $129

Glacier One D30 and D30-140 Fans

The Glacier One D30 AiO high performance cooler provides three D30 fans and a large copper base with a fin array for use with high-end CPUs. Its design provides maximum clearance from the motherboard and RAM and comes in either a 360 or 240 configuration. The MSRP is expected to be $149.

The D30 fans are now available in 140 mm (up from 120 mm originally) and can be daisy-chained to provide a single connection for all of the fans. The fans come in black and white, as well as normal and reverse models. The MSRP is expected to be $29.

Both of these products will be released in September 2023

Even if you buy one of the best power supplies, you may not like the cables that come in the box. To deal with the problem, you can either buy extension cables or look for custom cables that work with your particular make and model of PSU. 

But if you're going to hate the pack-in cables anyway, why not just buy them separately? That's the philosophy behind the new Phanteks revolt line of power supplies that the company has introduced at Computex 2023.

Available in capacities ranging from 1,000 to 1,600 watts, the Revolts are based on Seasonic's Vertex platform and meet all ATX 3.0 specifications. But to get the cables, you'll need to buy them from Cablemod, a company that specializes in custom power supply cabling.

Cablemod has a custom configurator that lets you choose exactly which cables you want, their color and their style. The company will also be selling bundles targeted at the Revolt line.

However, it's important to note that Cablemod isn't exactly cheap. When we priced out four cables -- a 24-pin ATX, 8-pin EPS, dual-SATA and 8 pin PCIe -- using the configurator, the cost was $99 and you probably need more cables than that. 

Phanteks says that, for people who can't or don't want to buy from Cablemod, it will sell two cable kits: a PCIe Gen 5 kit for $79 and a complete kit for $179. That's without the PSU.

The power supplies themselves will carry MSRPs of $199, $249 and $399 for the 1,000, 1,200 and 1,600 watt units respectively. The 1,000 and 1,200 watt units will come in black or white while the 1,600 watt one will only be available in black. All three will be available in August. 

When you do the math, the Revolt seems pretty expensive. You can get an ATX 3.0 and PCIe 5.0 compliant 1,000-watt power supply for less than $200 today from reputable companies like Corsair and MSI and those come with all the cables in the box. 

For the entry-level Revolt, you'll likely be spending over $300 to get there (we don't know exactly how much Cablemod will charge for its cheapest kit). But you will get the cables you want.

PC hardware is becoming more powerful (and power-hungry) than ever. And because of that, high-end components are larger than ever. Since the Nvidia RTX 4090 was released last year, only some case companies have released chassis designed to fit such a gigantic card. And to some extent that’s reasonable. Should every case be big enough to house a a graphics card that’s longer than an Xbox Series S and costs over $1,500?

But that said, if you are spending that much on a graphics card and comparable high-end components, there’s a decent chance you might want to show off your hardware. And that’s where Phanteks comes in with its NV7. It’s a full tower that’s slathered with glass mesh and RGB. While that might not sound all that different than many other cases released in recent years, the Phanteks NV7 manages to look and feel fresh, with lots of customization, attractive looks, and a $220 price that’s reasonable – although you will have to bring your own fans, which of course adds to the cost unless you have some you’re going to carry over from a previous build.

Specifications of the Phanteks NV7

Features of the Phanteks NV7

When I first heard about Phanteks’ NV7, I if the company had just jumped on the O11 hype train. However, after spending some time building and testing this chassis, it’s clear differs greatly from Lian Li’s flagship case line.

The NV7 has the most cooling space of any case I have reviewed, save for the Cooler Master HAF 700 EVO, but that case is bigger in every dimension and much more expensive. Twelve fans can fit in the NV7, and that’s without sacrificing any storage space.

Speaking of fans, none come with the case. That’s become increasonly common with cases designed as show pieces, like Lian Li’s O11 Dynamic. Of course, you’ll need to add fans of your own, which will increase your build budget unless you have spinners you want to carry over from a previous build.

That said, Phanteks sent along a few sets of its new D30-120 fans, which sport an internal RGB ring and clip together like the Lian Li’s Unifans, reducing the need for fiddly cables and connectors. The fans come in white or black and with regular or reversed blades. The reversed blade models allow for a more attractive look in places where the rear of the fan would normally be visible. For those who want the best aesthetics possible, this is a nice option. But Thermaltake’s Swafan EX line solves this issue by including two sets of fan blades in the box and letting you swap them out yourself rather than having to buy two different fan types.

Installing Phanteks’ fans in this case, was easy. The side fan mount is held in by one thumb screw at the top of the case. A similarity the NV7 shares with the HAF is its bottom tray, which can be rotated a few degrees to angle the bottom fans forward if you want.

As usual with Phanteks, this case comes with a plastic box full of sorted extra screws to get your build going. And the company also includes a GPU anti-sag bracket, though it’s not great. While it is adjustable to fit the width of most GPUs, it wobbles like crazy and covers the third fan on our Gigabyte RTX 3070 TI Gaming OC. This didn’t seem to affect the thermals, but I’d recommend getting a better bracket if you’re installing a huge GPU.

Like most of Phanteks’ cases, the RGB is sprinkled here and there and never overwhelming, which I like. The case features an RGB strip that runs along the edge of the motherboard tray. According to Phanteks, the RGB in this chassis uses a new D-RGB controller, which offers dual-channel output. The RGB is very customizable, thanks to the four control buttons at the top of the chassis. However, because there are four buttons, control of the light show can be a bit convoluted.

One area where the design feels a bit lazy is on the rear side panel, which needs to be screwed in from the top of the case with a tiny screw. The screw is so small that I can easily see it being lost during the building process, so you’ll want to keep a keen eye on it in case it rolls.

After removing the rear side panel, you’ll see the unique storage caddies in the NV7. Instead of the usual cage, you’ll find in nearly all mid-tower and larger cases, both the 2.5 and 3.5-inch drives are seated within a door that can be removed in case you go the m.2 route. I really like how the “storage doors” look- it’s really clean. The amount of drives the NV7 can hold is generous by today’s standards: six 2.5-inch and one 3.5-inch drive, or two 2.5-inch and two 3.5-inch drives.

By now, you’re probably asking where the power cable connects. Everything from the power cable to the motherboard IO is hidden behind a mesh door, and the cables are looped out from the bottom. While I appreciate that Phanteks is thinking outside of the box here, I found this to be annoying because it adds an extra step to assembling the build. Connecting a skinny USB cable is one thing, but looping a thick power cable through the cable channels is awkward, and I don’t like it.

Often, when you get a full tower, the IO is abundant, but that’s not the case with the NV7. You just get two USB 3.0 Type-A ports and one USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port, alongside a headphone/mic combo jack set at an angle on the bottom front. The power and RGB buttons live up top, and while the controls there are nice, it would have been nice to have some ports up there as well.

Internal Layout

The Phanteks NV7 is a big boy, measuring 20.9 x 10 x 23.1 inches (LWH). That makes it roughly two inches taller than the Lian Li O11 Dynamic XL. So obviously, the NV7 isn’t limiting your options for GPU length or CPU tower cooler height. The NV7 can house GPUs up to 17.7 inches (450mm) and CPU coolers up to 7.28 inches (185mm). But with all this space, I would opt for one of the best AIO coolers here.

That said, this case can certainly hold its own on the air-cooling front, which is evident in our testing results later on.

Testing Hardware

Our testing hardware to uses Intel’s 12 Gen “Alder Lake” platform, specifically a Core i7-12700KF, which is cooled by a Noctua U12s air cooler. Our graphics card is a Gigabyte RTX 3070 Ti Gaming OC.

Acoustic Results for the Phanteks NV7

Our acoustic tests consist of three scenarios: We run the CPU at full load, the CPU and GPU at full load, and an optimized mode. The CPU full load test runs the CPU and case fans at their maximum speed. For the CPU and GPU full load acoustic test, we also stress the Gigabyte RTX 3070 Ti Gaming OC and set the fans at 75% speed, because in gaming the fans never run at 100 percent and are far too loud when they do.

For the optimized mode, we run the GPU fan speed at 30% and run the CPU and included case fans at the lowest speed that they will spin.

Because the Phanteks NV7 does not include any fans, we installed two Noctua AF120 fans- one on the side and the other in the rear for exhaust for testing. As you can see, the NV7 isn’t the most quiet case on the market, at least in our test configuration. Maybe there’s a reason why Phanteks didn’t include fans after all.

Thermal Results for the Phanteks NV7

For the thermal tests, all case and CPU fan speeds are set to 100%. The Core i7-12700K is set at a fixed 4.7GHz clock at 1.3v on all performance cores to ensure consistent power consumption across test scenarios. Letting the GPU run at 75% fan speed enables it to maintain its power target while sticking to one set reasonable fan speed, so that the temperature is the only variable.

I have to say, for such a long and untraditional airflow path, the NV7’s thermal performance was excellent. As mentioned in the acoustic test, we mounted one fan on the side and another in the rear. Our fan setup was not ideal for a case this large, but given that the airflow direction is L-shaped, the thermal performance is surprisingly good and has a ton of potential if you add more fans.

Bottom Line

Phanteks has released some interesting and affordable cases over the last couple years, but nothing ground-breaking like the Enthoo Pro II. But despite the weird cable routing design, the Phanteks NV7 is a breath of fresh air in the show case PC market that’s largely been dominated by O11 variants and the Hyte Y60.

The NV7 also pairs well Phanteks’ many custom water cooling components, with a fill port up top and a drain port in the bottom rear, plus loads of space for multiple radiators and tubes for all major components. Its $220 price is appealing as well. You’ll have to spend more to bring your own fans. But chances are if you can afford the kind of high-end components and custom cooling options this case was designed for, you can afford to pay a little extra for some nice fans as well.

MORE: Best PC Cases 2022

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Phanteks, known for its strong budget cases, has brought some new products to CES 2023, including two new chassis for budget and performance builds.

The flagship announcement is the Phanteks NV7, an ATX case that the company says has a "strong and defining outer frame that captures and accentuates the hardware components." In addition, it appears to have RGB around the area where the motherboard goes, which would certainly highlight it. 

Phanteks also says the chassis helps avoid a "traditionally messy" rear side and that you can see all angles with glass panels. We'll have to try building in it to see how neat this case can keep cables. It will release in February for $219.99 / € 219.90

What might be the most exciting is the Eclipse 300A, which appears to be the company's next budget case at $59.99 / €59,90. It has a mesh front panel to keep dust out but allow maximum airflow into the system. Phanteks claims that this case can fit GPUs up to 390 mm long. It should hit shelves in March.

The company also has a series of new cooling options, including the D30-120 fans ($29.99 for one, $84.99 for a triple pack), which have lighting on both sides of the fan blades and can be linked together for a cleaner installation. In addition, the Glacier One T30 Gen 2 has 240 mm ($189.99) and 360 mm radiator ($259.99) options (and the pictures show off some '80's retro lighting on the pumps), and there are Polar air coolers with up to six heat pipes.

For fully water-cooled builds, the Glacier R260 reservoir is arriving in March and can come with a D5 pump preinstalled in either black ($239.99) or white ($249.99), though you can also get it without the pump at $159.99.

Updated Jan. 5 at 12:08 p.m. ET with pricing and release dates.

Phanteks knows what it takes to land a spot on our best PC cases list. Its Eclipse P360A has occupied our best budget ATX case spot for more than a year now. But the new Eclipse G360A is an attempt to improve on budget excellence. And for the most part, the company succeeds here, while still keeping the price fairly low at $99.99.  

The Eclipse G360A isn’t a major departure from its predecessor. But for about $10 more, it brings in a third aRGB fan, delivers PWM support for all three spinners, and makes room for 360mm radiators at the top and front, to better cool current and upcoming high-end components. Combine that with the mesh front panel that already delivered good airflow with just two fans--but now packing in three--and the Eclipse G360A is a great case for the price.

It’s not without its quirks though. Cable routing in particular could certainly be improved. And there’s still no USB-C port. But with very good cooling performance (that gets even better if you move one of the three fans to the back for exhaust, or bring your own), and tasteful RGB, this is one of the best cases you can grab for around $100.  

Specifications of the Phanteks Eclipse G360A

Features of the Phanteks Eclipse G360A

Taking the G360A out of the box, the first thing I noticed was how similar it looks to the Phanteks P350X, a case I used to own. This isn’t a bad thing because the P350X was an affordable case with good build quality and good enough airflow. The similarities with that older case can be seen in the Eclipse G360A’s tempered glass side panel, PSU shroud and the RGB strip sandwiched between the two. While the tempered glass side panel isn’t tinted, it is darkened around the edges, giving it a rounded corner look like a an old-school tube TV or CRT monitor–although obviously, the glass panel is flat. In between the PSU shroud and glass side panel is a thin RGB strip that’s subtle and attractive.

More RGB can be found on the three included case fans, which are both PWM-coltrolled and aRGB, which is crazy for a case that’s just $100. A three-pack of PWM aRGB fans can cost as much as this case–or more depending on the brand and if you buy during a sale or not.

But while the G360A glistens with its aRGB fans, it’s not quite as shiny when it comes to attention to detail. During my initial disassembly of the case, I was happy to see that the tempered glass side panel features captive thumbscrews. On our review unit, the rear side panel did not have a captive screw, but Phanteks assured us that in shipping models, both side panels will feature captive screws.

The oddities continued when I installed a standard-sized PSU (Corsair RM850X). The hard drive cage was too close to the PSU for cable comfort, and moving the cage is a big pain. To move the drive cage you need to take it apart, which requires the removal of multiple screws on the top of the power supply shroud and underneath the case. Again, having a simple thumb screw or two here to allow for removal of the cage would make things so much easier.

At the top of the case, you’ll find two USB 3.0 Type-A ports (5Gbps), two buttons for RGB color and mode adjustment, a power button and a microphone/headphone jack. I would’ve preferred to see at least one USB Type-C port here. The power button is at the front of the case, above the top fan.

Like its older sibling, the P360A, the G360A features a big mesh front panel. But this time Phanteks added some personality by stamping a design on it that looks like something between a U and a V. Not everyone is going to love it, but at the very least it looks less plain than the front of the P360A. There’s still no real front fan filter here, which can be an issue. But so long as you regularly pop off the front to clean the mesh and the fans and blow out the interior of the case a couple of times a year, you should be fine. That said, if you live in an area with lots of dust or pollen in the air, you may want to pay more for a case with an easily removed dust filter.

Internal Layout of the Phanteks G360A

Even though the G360A isn’t the biggest ATX chassis, it has more room than you’d expect–which is good considering today’s power-hungry components. The G360A supports up to three 120mm or two 140mm fans at the top, along with radiator support up to 360mm (the previous P360A only supported 240mm). The front of the G360A got the same treatment as the top, with radiator support up to 280 or 360mm. The rear of the case is unchanged but good enough with support for a 120mm fan or radiator.

Today’s best graphics cards are already huge, and most indications are that next-gen GPUs will be even bigger. But with 15.7 inches (400mm) of GPU clearance in the G360A, we had no issues installing our triple-fan Gigabyte RTX 3070 Ti Gaming OC, and most next-gen cards will likely fit here as well. CPU tower cooler support comes up a bit short in the G360A–literally–at 6.3 inches (162mm). Your big Noctua NH-D15 will not fit, though most mid-sized coolers will; our Noctua U12s fit just fine. And with motherboard support up to 280mm, some E-ATX motherboards will fit. But as always, for true E-ATX support without blocking important cable cutouts, you should opt for a larger full-tower case when building an E-ATX system, or expect some complications and limitations.

Behind the motherboard tray, you’ll find two preinstalled sleds for two 2.5-inch drives. If you want to install other SATA drives, there’s a cage for two 2.5- or 3.5-inch drives under the PSU shroud. But if you want to move or remove it to make more room for PSU cables, it’s a chore since screws both on top of the PSU shroud and underneath the case hold it together.

While I didn’t have any issues closing the rear side panel on the G360A after building, routing the PSU cables to the motherboard was difficult. I really struggled to route the 24-pin cable, to the point where I barely had any slack on the wire. And the cutout for routing the EPS 12V CPU cable could be an even bigger issue.

If the end of your CPU power cable doesn’t split in half and you have to push the whole eight-pin plug through the hole, you should try to route this cable before screwing the motherboard down. If not, you may have to remove the top of the case, as I did, in order to get the connector through with enough slack to plug in the cable. But that was a huge hassle, as it involved removing 13 screws. Yes, that’s 13 screws. While we wouldn’t necessarily expect it at this price, this case definitely isn’t tool-free or particularly modular. Again, this all could have been avoided if Phanteks had just made this cutout a little bigger.

Phanteks Eclipse G360A Cooling

The previous Eclipse P360A currently holds the belt for our best budget ATX gaming, case for its great airflow and RGB. While the G360A is a clear successor to the P360A, Phanteks could’ve taken the easy way out by just including three 3-pin aRGB fans here, but instead the company delivered three aRGB and PWM-controlled spinners instead. And as we are about to see, it all comes together for some quite good performance.

2022 has been an interesting year for case fans. We’ve seen the 160mm fans in the Fractal Torrent Compact, the revival of semi-translucent 200mm SickleFlow fans in the Cooler Master HAF 700 Evo and now the D-aRGB fans in the G360A. Teh fans here aren’t ground-breaking like the company’s T30 spinners. But for a $100 case that includes three of them with RGB lighting, I’ll take them with open arms.

The fine mesh front panel on the G360A does two things: It lets an immense amount of air into the chassis, while allowing the RGB of the fans to shine out. Phanteks didn’t try to reinvent the already excellent P360A with the newer G360A, and that was probably a smart move. All it took was an increase in cooling capability and a few other little changes (like room for bigger radiators) to make this case better for 2022 and beyond.

Testing Hardware

We’ve updated our testing hardware to use Intel’s 12 Gen “Alder Lake” platform, which has shaken up the desktop landscape (and taken prominent spots on our best CPUs for gaming list). We’re now using a Core i7-12700KF, which is being cooled by a Noctua U12s air cooler. Our graphics card is a Gigabyte RTX 3070 Ti Gaming OC.

Acoustic Results for the Phanteks Eclipse G360A

Our acoustic test consists of three scenarios: We run the CPU at full load, the CPU and GPU at full load, and an optimized mode. The CPU full load test runs the CPU and case fans at their maximum speed. For the CPU and GPU full load acoustic test, we also stress the Gigabyte RTX 3070 Ti Gaming OC and set the fans at 75% speed, because in gaming the fans never run at 100 percent and are far too loud when they do.

For the optimized mode, we run the GPU fan speed at 30% and run the CPU and included case fans at their lowest spinning speed.

For an airflow-focused case, the acoustic results for the G360A aren’t bad, but I did notice a significant increase in decibel levels with our Gigabyte RTX 3070 Ti Gaming OC’s fans ramped up to 75% speed. With that said, if you’re buying this case, chances are that noise isn’t a big issue to you. Plus, it’s not like this chassis is as loud as some pricier cases, like the Corsair iCUE 5000T.

Thermal Results for the Phanteks Eclipse G360A

For the thermal tests, all case and CPU fan speeds are set to 100%. The Core i7-12700K is set at a 4.7GHz clock at 1.3v on all performance cores to ensure consistent power consumption across test scenarios. Letting the GPU run at 75% fan speed enables it to maintain its power target while sticking to one set reasonable fan speed, so that the temperature is the only variable.

The Phanteks G360A comes with three PWM aRGB fans, and they perform just as good as they look, especially when combined with the fine mesh front panel on this case.

Because the G360A comes with three fans, we tested this case both in its default configuration with all three up front, and with one of the spinners in the rear of the chassis for exhaust. As you can see, our results from the stock configuration are still impressive– trading punches with the Fractal Torrent Compact, which comes with two large 160mm fans. However, after moving the bottom fan to the rear of the case, our CPU temps improved by a significant six degrees (while increasing the GPU temperature one degree). So while moving a fan to the back should drop your CPU temperatures, the G360A delivers good thermal performance either way. Your best option may be to carry over an old 120mm fan from a previous build and install it at the back, while leaving the prettier RGB spinners up front for the best intake and looks.

Bottom Line

Phanteks has a history of delivering value and performance with its cases, as evidenced by the Eclipse P360A that’s been our favorite budget ATX gaming case for well over a year. But its time in that spot has now passed, as Phanteks has delivered a better option with the Eclipse G360A. 

At $100, it costs about $10 more than the current price of the previous Eclipse, but you get an extra RGB fan and support for larger 360 radiators at the top and front. And the G360A features PWM on all three fans for improved efficiency, noise, and control. If that isn’t worth an extra $10 to you, then you may want to scoop up the P360A while it’s still available. 

Despite some quirks in its design, the Eclipse G360A is a truly great case for gamers on a budget. Heck, even if money isn’t a major issue, it’s still nice to get good airflow and attractive RGB without spending a lot. Sure you could pay more for something else, but the Eclipse G360A is proof that you don’t have to spend a lot of money to get a great breezy box for your PC parts.

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At CES 2022, PC cases and cooling specialist Phanteks has taken the wraps off an intriguing new case. The Phanteks Evolv Shift XT name gives a clue to its heritage, but this model can "Shift" more than its brethren. This mini-ITX case can be physically user-adapted to your choice of three sizes. Thanks to its adaptability, Phanteks promises the Evolv Shift XT provides "Maximum Cooling, No Compromises."

Buyers of Mini ITX cases often face a sticky situation balancing the goal of a compact PC system with the need for a certain amount of power and expandability. Once you make a choice, you are normally stuck with what are sometimes quite severe limits, particularly with a mini-ITX chassis. The Phanteks Evolv Shift XT can help remove the potential for such buyer's remorse.

The central idea behind the Phanteks Evolv Shift XT seems to be that a modest PC build with lower power / higher efficiency components can settle for the most compact option. If you add a powerful GPU, you can crank up the height of the case, giving GPU fans more room to breathe. Finally, a higher third level allows users to add in a large AIO radiator as well. It looks good too, with its tempered glass infinity mirror exposed front panel.

Some key specs of the Phanteks Evolv Shift XT, beyond its triple modes, are its 2.5mm anodised aluminium build, its standard fitting of ultra fine mesh dust filters, and a convenient radiator bracket installed in the top of the case. In the video up top, you can see how all the different internal components relate to one another and the way the top radiator section of the case swings on a hinge at the back to provide decent system access. With the side panels removed, you can get at and upgrade/replace all major components quite easily.

One of the biggest performance components in a gaming PC is usually the graphics card. Despite its Mini ITX form factor the Phanteks Evolv Shift XT can fit up to triple slot designs that are up to 325mm in length, providing ample space for most users. Phanteks says that a PCIe Gen4 riser cable is included in the box, and it will be necessary to fit your GPU vertically, as pictured.

One thing we must be clear about is that the Phanteks Evolv Shift XT doesn't feature any mechanised system to expand and contract the vertical height of the case. It isn't a hugely expensive flight of fancy like some of the exotic articulated InWin cases that can be popular at trade shows. The height of this Mini ITX case is a build decision you will make as you put together your PC. However, you can be comfortable knowing that you can change the height later as you see fit, or as needed.

Availability and pricing

At the time of writing we haven't got the full specs of the Phanteks Evolv Shift XT, only some outline details that Phanteks wanted to share at CES ahead of a full-on launch in Feb. The Evolv Shift XT will hit retail with an MSRP of €169.90 / £159.90 / $169.99. It will be available in Satin Black and Galaxy Silver finishes.

Phanteks also recommends pairing with the new Evolv Shift XT case with its also new for CES 2022 Revolt SFX PSU series, available in 650W Gold, 750W Gold, or 750W Platinum. We aren't certain whether you will need an SFX PSU for the Evolv Shift XT chassis, or if that will just make things less cramped in the case. Either way, it's an attractive looking SFF option that can grow as needed with future upgrades.

The Asus ROG Strix LC RTX 3080 Ti sets a new record for out-of-box performance, no doubt helped along by the copious RGB lighting — you all know RGB makes your PC parts go faster, right? Despite having just half the VRAM of the RTX 3090, a healthy factory overclock combined with excellent cooling make this the fastest graphics card we've ever tested, at least until the next heavily factory overclocked card shows up. This would potentially be one of the best graphics cards you could buy right now, if you could actually go out and buy it.

The formula for breaking records isn't much of a secret: deliver more power and better cooling to the GPU, allowing for higher clock speeds. That's precisely what Asus has done with the ROG Strix LC line. We've seen the same core design before, in the ROG Strix LC RX 6800 XT specifically, but the RTX 3080 Ti model has to kick things up a notch. Asus added a third 8-pin PEG power connector, giving a total theoretical maximum power delivery of 525W. Here are the specs, compared to the other RTX 3080 Ti cards we've reviewed: 

Fundamentally, these are all the same GPU, so the only real difference is in clock speeds and power. Asus doesn't specify a card TGP, but does recommend at least an 850W power supply. Based on our testing, which we'll get to later, we've listed an approximate TDP of 380W. Enabling the OC mode increased the power limit by an additional 10%, meaning the card could potentially draw as much as 420W, but in practice other limits (like clock speed) come into play, which we'll see in the power testing on page four.

Besides increasing the clocks, Asus provides some other extras. For example, you get two HDMI 2.1 ports, along with the usual gamut of three DisplayPort 1.4 outputs. While DisplayPort generally remains the preferred solution among gamers for the time being, HDMI 2.1 technically allows for higher resolutions and bandwidths. We haven't seen any DisplayPort 2.0 hardware yet, and HDMI 2.1 provides for up to 8K 60Hz over a single cable, which should prove more than sufficient for many years to come.

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The Asus ROG Strix LC cards require a spacious case. Even with most of the cooling moved over to the 240mm radiator, the card remains beefy. It measures 295x133x51mm for the card itself, while the radiator measures 274x120x50mm (both are our measurements, give or take 1mm). The combined weight tips the scales at 2488g, but about half of that is in the radiator, so at least your PCIe x16 slot won't have to shoulder the load alone. Officially Asus calls this a 2.6-slot width, but it's basically a triple-slot card, plus a chunky radiator, all in pursuit of minimum temperatures and maximum performance.

As with other ROG Strix cards, there's a toggle on the card to switch between P-mode (performance) and Q-mode (quiet), but if you want maximum performance, you still need to install the Asus GPU Tweak III software. That provides access to the OC mode, which boosts the power limit by 10% and also increases the boost clock an additional 30MHz. That's what we've used for our performance testing, since we figure anyone forking over the money for this sort of card will want the maximum performance possible.

The only real omission here is in the memory department. The RTX 3080 Ti comes standard with 12GB GDDR6X, but at the current prices we still question the need for such a card. Why not give us more RTX 3090 models with double the VRAM? But that's its own answer. Double the memory would potentially limit the number of cards that can be produced, though it's not clear if the limiting factor right now is GPUs from Samsung Foundry, GDDR6X memory from Micron, or the substrate and other components needed to manufacture a complete graphics card. Still, it's a bit weird that Asus offers ROG Strix LC models on the RX 6800 XT and RX 6900 XT, but only the RTX 3080 Ti on the Nvidia side.

One nice benefit of all the extra cooling on the ROG Strix LC model is that GDDR6X temperatures remain relatively sane for a change. We've seen Founders Edition cards hit 102C or more playing games, and that goes for many other models as well. Run something like cryptocurrency mining and you'll often need fan speeds of 80% or more just to keep the memory below the maximum 110C! But the ROG Strix LC topped out at 98C on its memory, even after an hour of mining, and gaming workloads landed in the 90C range.

Not that we'd recommend buying an RTX 3080 Ti for mining purposes, as the potential profits are lower thanks to Nvidia's LHR limiter. You can now get about 70–75% of 'normal' non-LHR performance, but that still puts the RTX 3080 Ti at around 75MH/s for Ethereum in our testing. Mining of Ethereum will also go away in the coming months, once the cryptocoin shifts to proof of stake, though plenty of other memory-intensive coins still exist and might take Ethereum's place among GPU miners. Regardless, if you need some excitement, we can think of other better uses of your time and money.

You can also manually overclock the ROG Strix LC, and with a bit of tweaking and tuning you can get an extra 100MHz or so and bump the memory clocks to 20 or even 21 Gbps. For purposes of our graphics card reviews, however, we're focusing on the out-of-box experience (using the OC mode).

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Test Setup for Asus ROG Strix LC GeForce RTX 3080 Ti

Our test configuration for the hardware and software remains unchanged from other recent reviews. We're using an 8-core/16-thread Core i9-9900K running stock clocks, but with DDR4-3600 memory and the XMP profile enabled. The CPU generally runs at 4.7GHz during our gaming benchmarks, though the slightly older Coffee Lake architecture can be a bit of a bottleneck at lower resolutions.

We're also still running Windows 10 21H1. We plan to update to Windows 11 in the near future and see how that impacts performance — which will also require retesting a bunch of GPUs, so we're not looking to jump on the preview builds just yet.

We already tested ray tracing and DLSS performance using the reference RTX 3080 Ti Founders Edition, so we're limiting testing on third-party cards to our standard 13 game test suite, running at 4K, 1440p, and 1080p at ultra (or equivalent) settings. Each test setting gets run multiple times, to ensure the consistency of our results. Now let's see how much the liquid cooling and factory overclock help with performance. 

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We were more than a little underwhelmed with the Zotac RTX 3080 Ti Amp Holo Black, which basically tied the Founders Edition in terms of performance. The Asus ROG Strix LC scoffs at such paltry improvements and zips past the other 3080 Ti cards, then keeps right on going as it waves to the RTX 3090. Currently, the Asus ROG Strix LC RTX 3080 Ti is the fastest graphics card — out of the box — that we've ever tested.

Overall, the Asus card was 7% faster than the Zotac and Founders Edition cards at 4K ultra, and 4% faster than the RTX 3090 Founders Edition. Okay, that's not a massive difference, but it's at least measurable and consistent. We even saw up to a 12% lead over the other 3080 Ti cards in Watch Dogs Legion and The Division 2, and the Asus was up to 7% faster than the 3090 FE in individual game results at 4K.

We start to encounter some GPU bottlenecks once we drop to 1440p, and it's only going to get worse at 1080p. AMD's Big Navi architecture also tends to do better at lower resolutions, as the Infinity Cache provides proportionately larger improvements in effective bandwidth. There were several games in our suite where AMD's RX 6900 XT beats even the Asus ROG Strix LC, and at 1440p Horizon Zero Dawn joins Assassin's Creed, Borderlands 3, and Forza Horizon 4 in favoring Team Red. Still, overall the Asus card was 5–6% faster than the Zotac and Nvidia cards, and 2% faster than the RTX 3090. It was also 5% faster than the RX 6900 XT.

Cards like the RTX 3080 Ti aren't really intended to run at 1080p, at least not without other stuff like ray tracing. The Core i9-9900K becomes more of a limiting factor, and the 128MB Infinity Cache on AMD's Navi 21 GPUs helps push the RX 6900 XT to the top of the overall chart. Of course, that's also thanks to our use of Assassin's Creed Valhalla, which is laughably biased toward AMD's latest GPUs. Then again, even Watch Dogs Legion has the RX 6900 XT and RX 6800 XT beating the fastest Nvidia GPUs.

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Performance isn't the only important metric when it comes to graphics cards. We also test power consumption using in-line monitoring tools and Powenetics software. We log power, clock speeds, temperatures, and fan speeds (note that the fan speed data wasn't properly collected for the Zotac card — we're working to fix that). We loop the Metro Exodus benchmark five times at 1440p ultra settings, and then run FurMark stress test at 1600x900 for over 10 minutes.

For the Asus card, we're also collecting these power metrics in both the default Gaming mode as well as using the OC mode. Again, all of our benchmarks were done with OC mode enabled, for maximum performance. Here we'll get to see how much that affects power consumption, temperatures, and other aspects of the card. Note that in limited testing, the OC mode improved performance just 1–2%.

Power consumption for the Asus 3080 Ti was about 10W higher than the Founders Edition in Metro Exodus and 20W higher in FurMark. The Zotac card actually used less power than the Founders Edition, but it also didn't perform any better. Enabling OC mode adds another 15–20W of power, still far lower than the theoretical limit you'd expect from a 10% increase. The other charts will help explain the power difference, as all of these factors are interrelated.

The Asus card managed to deliver the highest GPU clocks we've seen from an Nvidia card to date, which isn't surprising considering the added cooling. It averaged nearly 2GHz in Metro Exodus, beating the Founders Edition by over 175MHz and the Zotac card by 145MHz. It's still a far cry from the 2.3–2.5GHz we're seeing on AMD's RX 6000 GPUs, but those are very different architectures. The gap in FurMark is even larger, where the Asus card averaged 1575MHz compared to just 1278MHz on the Zotac card, and that 300MHz advantage more than explains the 25W power gap. As for the overclocking mode, it helped a lot more in FurMark, adding 115MHz to the average clocks, but in Metro it only increased the GPU clock by about 20MHz.

Fan speeds and temperatures are the final part of the power and performance story. Asus seems to play it pretty conservatively, with fan speeds quickly ramping up to a steady 1750 RPM, give or take. The flip-side of that is that the GPU temperatures on the Asus card during the Metro and FurMark tests pretty much flatlined at 54C max, over 15C cooler than the Zotac card and 20C lower than the Founders Edition. There's definitely plenty of cooling headroom left in the tank — and enabling the OC mode doesn't really change things.

We also measure peak noise levels using an SPL meter at a distance of 15cm from the GPU fans. We had to shift the radiator around a bit so that both it and the single blower fan on the card were equidistant from the SPL meter, and the result was a noise level of 51.8 dB(A). Interestingly, that corresponded to a rather high fan speed of 80%, so setting a static 75% fan speed dropped the noise level to 48.8 dB(A). The Zotac card was a bit quieter, but also ran at higher temperatures, while the Founders Edition was slightly louder (52.0 dB(A)) but ran significantly hotter.

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It's difficult to determine the actual price of the Asus ROG Strix LC GeForce RTX 3080 Ti. Officially, it's supposed to be $2,199, but even then it's basically impossible to find the card anywhere. Amazon has a listing for the card, with two marketplace sellers asking $3,900 and $4,000. Yeah, thanks but no thanks. Most reputable places don't have any inventory, so for the time being this is basically vaporware.

When will the madness end? I don't know, but I think there's a good chance we'll see Lovelace and RDNA3 GPUs before we see RTX 30-series graphics cards on shelves selling at Nvidia's MSRPs — meaning, some time in late 2022 probably.

We get that this is an extreme card, and maybe some people could even justify paying $2,000 for it. Nvidia sold plenty of Titan graphics cards over the past five years, and this is basically as good as most of those (minus the 'professional' drivers). But when normal RTX 3080 Ti cards go for an average price of around $1,900 on eBay, and the air-cooled Asus ROG Strix RTX 3080 Ti has an average price of $2,250 on eBay during the past month, the liquid-cooled version will be out of reach of any 'normal' gamer.

That's basically the story of the past year. Every new graphics card we review feels like we're testing and writing about a product most people will never see or use. We keep hoping things will improve, but so far that hope has been all in vain. Hope can't change the realities of limited supply and extreme demand.

If a product like the Asus ROG Strix LC RTX 3080 Ti had launched a few years back, with a price of $1,200, we could have made a case for it being an extreme card built for enthusiasts. At potentially more than double that price, all we can do is give a sad shake of the head and look forward to better days.

Theoretically, Asus has an awesomely powerful and cool-running GPU for extreme enthusiasts. We'd love to be able to recommend buying one. Practically speaking, unfortunately, all we really have is a product page and a review sample; we don't even know where to point people to actually buy one, at any price. If you can find one in stock at a reasonable price, by all means, go for it. Given current market conditions, we continue to suggest figuring out what settings to use in order to play games on your current hardware while we wait (and wiat, and wait) this GPU shortage out. 

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AMD launched the Radeon RX 6800 XT and RX 6800 on November 23, 2020. The first of the new RDNA2 architecture graphics cards had plenty to offer, ranking near the top of our GPU benchmarks hierarchy and earning a place on our list of the best graphics cards. AMD does particularly well with games that don't support ray tracing. In such cases, there are quite a few games where the 6800 XT leads the (theoretically) more expensive RTX 3080, though enabling ray tracing or DLSS quickly turns the tables. The biggest problem, as we've seen with all of the recent GPU launches, is actually finding one in stock. Now we're looking at three third-party custom cards, from ASRock, Asus, and Sapphire, to see what they bring to the table.

The core features and RDNA2 architecture are all unchanged, so the main differences between the cards will be in clock speeds, cooler designs, and aesthetics. There are also a few third-party add-ons, in the way of software, that might sway your purchasing decision. But let's be real: Finding any of these cards in stock can be an exercise in futility, and with the recent surge in cryptocurrency mining, it could be months before supply is anywhere close to matching demand. In other words, if you want an RX 6800 XT as soon as possible, the brand and model of card will be far less of a consideration than whatever you can actually lay your grubby little mitts on.

The good news is that performance across all of the tested RX 6800 XT cards is very close. At factory stock settings, the speediest of the cards we've tested is only 2-3 percent faster than the reference RX 6800 XT. Between the three custom cards, the performance deltas are even smaller, to the point of being effectively non-existent. But that doesn't mean the cards are all equal, as the cooling designs and other elements come into play. Here's a quick overview of the specs before we get into the individual card analysis and benchmark results. 

Let's first address the elephant in the room: The pricing is either fantasy land or, in the case of actual 'street' pricing, egregious. Theoretically, the Sapphire Nitro+ initially launched at $769, but of course, it was sold out — just like every other GPU. Newegg currently lists it at $999, and it’s still out of stock. The Asus Strix LC is a similar story, with a launch price of $899 but a current Asus store price of $1,080, and it's also sold out. ASRock gave a launch price of $829, but retail prices are much higher than that, and naturally, the reference AMD RX 6800 XT can't be had for anything close to $649.

Beyond price, the only difference in specs is the TDP. Sapphire lists 350W, while Asus and ASRock don't give any value. We put in 350W with a question mark based on our testing. All three AIB cards have the same 2360 MHz Boost Clock, which they can exceed in some cases. That's where the cooling solutions come into play.

That's it for the introduction. Let's get to the individual cards, and we'll dig into the finer points of each one, including any extra features that can help it stand out. We're going to dispense with actual scores on these cards, mostly because they all feel like ghost launches. Yes, they technically went on sale, but both pricing and availability are so limited that we don't know where they'll really land. They're all more or less equal, depending on your wants and needs.

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ASRock's Taichi brand is generally used for the company’s top-of-the-line products, and the RX 6800 XT Taichi is no exception. It's big and bold, with one of the largest coolers we've seen on a third party card, plus a copious amount of bling. Meanwhile, performance is as you'd expect: right in line with the other top-tier solutions from competing cards.

The 6800 XT Taichi is a massive card, dwarfing the reference model 6800 XT and tipping the scales at 1.75kg (3.85 pounds). ASRock actually lists the weight at 1815g, but my scale disagreed by about 65g. The dimensions are 330x140x56mm, and the cooler occupies 2.8-slots, which in today's single GPU market isn't much of a problem. The Taichi is also one of the longest cards we've seen — 13 inches long — so you'll definitely need a spacious case if you want this card to fit.

For a while, most high-end GPUs tried to stay close to a 2-slot thickness so that you could add a second (or even third) card for CrossFire or SLI, but multi-GPU support in games has seriously declined in recent years, so it's now less of a consideration. The most common use case for multi-GPU these days is cryptocurrency mining, but since coin miners just build custom mining chassis with PCIe extension cables, size isn't much of a factor there either. That means manufacturers are more willing to create cards that effectively block off the two expansion slots adjacent to the GPU.

ASRock's Taichi brand is generally used for the top-of-the-line products from the company, and the RX 6800 XT Taichi is no exception. It's big and bold, with one of the largest coolers we've seen on a third party card, plus a copious amount of bling. Performance meanwhile is as you'd expect: right in line with the other top-tier solutions from competing cards.

The 6800 XT Taichi is a massive card, dwarfing the reference model 6800 XT and tipping the scales at 1.75kg (3.85 pounds). ASRock actually lists the weight at 1815g, but my scale disagreed by about 65g. The dimensions are 330x140x56mm and the cooler occupies 2.8-slots, which in today's single GPU market isn't much of a problem. The Taichi is also one of the longest cards we've seen — 13 inches long — so you'll definitely need a spacious case if you want this card to fit.

For a while, most high-end GPUs tried to stay close to a 2-slot thickness so that you could add a second (or even third) card for CrossFire or SLI, but multi-GPU support in games has seriously declined in recent years and so it's now less of a consideration. The most common use case for multi-GPU these days is cryptocurrency mining, but sice coin miners just build custom mining chassis with PCIe extension cables, size isn't much of a factor there either. That means manufacturers are more willing to create cards that effectively block off the two expansion slots adjacent to the GPU.

ASRock provides plenty of RGB lighting, with the center fan lighting up along with the top Taichi logo and the surrounding light strip, and there's another Taichi icon on the back of the card as a final RGB option. I sort of wish the company had gone whole hog and used RGB on the other two fans, but that would make for a very bright card. Also of note is that in a traditional PC case, the 'front' fans on the graphics card will often end up facing the bottom of the case. That means you won't even see the fans unless you use a case that supports a vertically mounted GPU (which would also need to be able to handle a triple slot thickness, or you'd obstruct the fan intakes).

There are some Taichi elements that haven't been updated to match the competitive landscape, and here I'm looking specifically at the fans. Most of the latest generation RTX 30-series and RX 6000-series GPUs now have fans with an integrated 'barrier rim' around the outside of the fan blades. This ring helps improve static pressure and airflow, improving cooling capabilities while potentially reducing fan noise. Meanwhile, ASRock has traditional fan blades like what we've seen for many years. It's a small thing, but we'd like to see the latest technology utilized on a premium card.

ASRock doesn't specify a TDP for the Taichi, though it does recommend a PSU wattage of 800W or more. The card also requires three 8-pin PEG power connectors, which in theory can deliver 450W of power, giving the card a peak power delivery of 525W when combined with the 75W of the x16 PCIe slot. (It didn't come close to hitting that mark, though maybe an adventurous overclocker with LN2 could do so.) In our testing, the Taichi used a bit less power than the other custom cards. It averaged 332W in Metro Exodus (still 10 percent more than the reference 6800 XT) and 352W in FurMark. Overclocking pushed power use up to 344W in Metro and 400W in FurMark. That means there's still potential for higher overclocks, but we generally seem to hit a similar limit with all of the 6800 XT cards of around 2.5GHz.

Digging into the overclocking specifics, for now, we're still somewhat restricted in what utilities we can use on RX 6000 cards, as MSI Afterburner doesn't fully support the new GPUs yet. AMD's own Radeon Software seems the best option, and we used it to increase the power limit by 15 percent, set the GPU to a maximum clock of 2580 MHz, and bumped the GDDR6 speed up by 150 MHz (to 17.2 Gbps). Combined with a more aggressive fan curve, we reached a stable OC where clocks in Metro Exodus averaged 2529 MHz, compared to 2391 MHz at factory stock settings. That's a 6 percent increase in GPU clocks and 7.5 percent on VRAM clocks, which improved performance in our test suite by 4-5 percent overall. 

ASRock offers its Tweak software for tuning, which is sufficient for modest overclocking but doesn't really do much more than AMD's own Radeon Settings. You can see the default power limits (289W, or 317W in OC mode), but that's just for the GPU power — the VRAM, VRMs, and other components will also use power. Ultimately, we didn't see much reason to install the custom ASRock Tweak software, since the core functionality is already present with AMD's drivers.

Technically, the ASRock Taichi ended up as the slowest of the three custom cards, but that's very much splitting hairs. It’s within 0.5 percent of the other two cards at stock, and it's within 1.5 percent of the faster Asus card when overclocked. Performance when overclocked is also basically tied with the stock RX 6900 XT. It's also up to 2 percent faster than the reference 6800 XT.

Frankly, performance and even pricing are sort of a non-issue for now, as none of the cards are readily available for purchase. If you want a 6800 XT and can find the Taichi in stock somewhere, and you're willing to pay $900 or more for it, be our guest. Our general advice is to wait for supply to improve and hopefully for prices to end up closer to MSRP. With the recent tariffs on graphics cards further impacting pricing, however, it could be a long and painful wait.

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Asus has traditionally stayed away from the AIO graphics card market, but that changes with the ROG Strix LC. Not only does it come with an AIO (all-in-one) liquid cooler, but it includes a relatively large 240mm radiator. Some people will love that option, but it comes at a higher price and can be cumbersome to install — for someone like me that swaps GPUs regularly, AIO cards are more trouble than they're worth.

The external radiator adds a lot of bulk to the package, with the card plus radiator weighing in at 2166g. That's about as much as the RTX 3090 Founders Edition, but the good news is the x16 motherboard slot only has to deal with a 1340g card, with the rest of the bulk secured to the PC chassis. Thanks to the large radiator, the Strix LC can also get by with a traditional 2-slot thickness and a single blower fan on the main card, and the blower doesn't really have to work that hard.

The main graphics card measures 277x131x43.6mm, but the radiator is an additional 276x120x51.7mm. Make sure your case has a good mounting location before taking the plunge. If you're also using a 240mm or larger AIO for CPU cooling, speaking from experience, you'll definitely want to verify both coolers will fit properly before buying.

The ROG Strix line is known for being Asus's top offering, and the Strix LC takes that one step further. Besides the RGB lighting on the graphics card, the two radiator fans also have RGB lighting. The above photos don't really show the RGB properly, but if you have a reasonably dark room and the radiator mounted in a case, there's plenty of RGB to go around. As with many other graphics cards, however, the RGB on the front of the card will end up facing the bottom of your PC in most builds, which sort of defeats the purpose.

Asus lists a relatively tame PSU requirement of 750W, which is technically sufficient based on our testing, but we recommend at least 850W. Actually, with most of the high-end graphics cards, you can make a legitimate argument for 1000W power supplies. PSUs often hit peak efficiency with a load of around 50 percent, and in a high-end PC build, that means the entire PC will consume close to 500W (depending on CPU and other factors) while gaming. If you do plan on using a lower wattage PSU, make sure it's a high-quality offering because the Asus card can hit power draws of over 400W when overclocked.

The big selling point with the Strix LC is, of course, the liquid cooling, and what that does for thermals. Despite having a similar power use and clock speed relative to the other two cards, thermals are far lower even with a modest fan speed. At stock, the Asus card has an excellent temperature of just 53C in FurMark, and that didn't change with our overclocked settings (though fan speeds did have to go up). Temps and fan speeds are even better when playing games, which are generally not as demanding as FurMark when it comes to power. Overall, the Asus card runs 15-20C cooler than the other two custom cards, with the same level of performance, and it delivers a bit more headroom for overclocking.

Speaking of overclocking, you can use Asus's GPU Tweak II (and GPU Tweak III) software suite in addition to the built-in Radeon Software options. By default, like many of Asus's graphics cards, the 6800 XT ROG Strix LC will run at 'gaming' clocks, and you need to install GPU Tweak II and select the OC profile to unlock the full potential. We did this for our testing, though the difference between 'gaming' and 'OC' modes is pretty minimal.

Is the Strix LC worth the price, though? Originally released with a $900 MSRP, Asus is one of several companies that has recently increased prices due to US tariffs and other factors. The Strix LC 6800 XT now shows a price of $1,080 at the Asus store, and it's still out of stock. It's hard to recommend spending that much money on a GPU that has a nominal price of $650, but then again, that nominal price is nowhere to be found. Maybe we'll eventually see RX 6800 XT cards selling at $700 or less, but for now, they're more commonly in the $1,000+ range. By the time supply improves, we might have other GPUs that represent a better overall value. 

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The Sapphire RX 6800 XT Nitro+ is perhaps the most traditional of the three custom cards we're looking at today. It's not quite as large and certainly not as heavy as the ASRock card, but the cooling still gets the job done and the card runs cool and quiet. It's actually lighter than AMD's reference card, despite being slightly larger physically. The Nitro+ measures 310x134x55.3mm, so it's a bit shorter than the ASRock card but still occupies 2.7 slots. However, it only weighs 1232g, over 500g less than the ASRock, and 350g less than the AMD reference design. (AMD's card measures 267x120x49mm and weighs 1500g, if you're wondering.)

Sapphire often has three different models of each GPU. The base model is the Pulse, the Nitro+ is a step up and offers a higher factory overclock and more RGB lighting, and sometimes a Nitro+ SE kicks things up another notch. The top GPUs may also get a Toxic variant, which boasts the highest overclocks and pulls out all the stops, often with extreme pricing. Due to the limited quantity of Navi 21 GPUs currently available, Sapphire doesn't have a Pulse 6800 XT right now, or a Toxic. Maybe those will come in the future, but currently all of Sapphire's 6800 XT cards are from the Nitro+ line.

The main difference between the Nitro+ we're looking at and the Nitro+ SE is that the SE has RGB fans. If you want extra bling, the SE might be what you're after. Our take is that Sapphire actually has a smarter RGB setup than many other GPUs, as the fans typically face the bottom of the PC case and aren't even visible. The Nitro+ has all of its lighting on the 'top' of the card (which would face the side of your PC case, right where the window would be) and also puts an RGB icon on the back of the card (which would face upward in your typical case). There's a light strip on the top along with the Sapphire logo, and while it's not quite as in-your-face as other cards, it gets the job done.

Sapphire is also the only company to specify a higher 350W TDP on its Nitro+, though all three custom cards use similar amounts of power in practice. No surprise there, since they're all rated at 2360 MHz boost clocks (and can often exceed that speed in games). Sapphire also recommends an 850W power supply. With a pair of 8-pin power connectors, plus the PCIe slot, the Nitro+ has access to 375W of power and uses nearly all of it. Overclocking does push the card beyond 375W, but the extra power comes from the 8-pin PEG rather than the x16 slot, which is good. Even overclocked, the highest PCIe slot power we measured for the Nitro+ was only 45W. Sapphire also has new fans with an integrated rim to improve static pressure, and the thermals and noise levels are very good.

One extra that Sapphire offers is its TriXX software suite, which now has a new trick that's perhaps work checking out. TriXX Boost leverages AMD's own RIS (Radeon Image Sharpening) and supports upscaling of content. In most games (specifically, games that don't detect your monitor's native resolution and then internally scale from that), TriXX Boost lets you create a custom resolution that will then get scaled to the normal native resolution, and the sharpening helps to avoid the normal blurriness.

How does it perform? At 4K, upscaling from 85 percent resolution (3264x1836) to 4K, we measured performance that was anywhere from 20 to 30 percent higher than native. Did it look worse? Using screenshots and comparing, sure, there was a slight loss in fidelity, but it’s not something you'd really notice in motion. 20-30 percent higher fps, though? Yeah, that was very noticeable. It's perhaps not as sophisticated as Nvidia's DLSS technology, but it's worth considering for relatively minor upscaling of around 10-15 percent.

Interestingly, because of TriXX Boost, Sapphire specifically discourages end-user overclocking and doesn't support it via TriXX. You can check the fans and tweak the lighting, but overclocking requires some other utility. Considering overclocking can void your warranty and cause instability in pursuit of usually 5 percent more performance, toying with resolution scaling generally delivers far more noticeable performance improvements.

Thanks to the traditional design, Sapphire officially has the lowest price of the custom cards we've looked at so far. Whether it will remain at $770, or jump to a higher price segment (we're seeing a 'suggested' price of $1000 at Newegg right now), however, isn't clear. Is the Sapphire Nitro+ 6800 XT a good value? That depends on actual prices. For now, good luck finding one in stock. In fact, supply of AMD's Big Navi chips appears to be even worse than Nvidia's Ampere GPUs, which is why the retailers are charging extra. If you can find the Sapphire Nitro+ at a more reasonable price, we have no qualms recommending it. At $1,000 or more, though, we'd suggest biding your time. 

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We’ll shift away from the specific cards for the next several pages and look at gaming performance and other test results. We've tested all of the RX 6800 XT GPUs using AMD's most recent 20.12.1 drivers, and we'll include a few other GPUs as reference points in the charts. Our standard test bed hardware is listed to the right, and it includes a stock clocked (4.7 GHz all-core) Core i9-9900K processor with overclocked DDR4-3600 CL16 memory.

While our CPU reviews focus on performance with the CPUs at full stock, meaning DDR4-2666 memory on the 9900K, my take is that enthusiasts will at least enable the memory XMP profile, and DDR4-3600 kits are readily available. We looked at performance scaling with similar memory kits (all running at DDR4-3600) with Core i9-10900K and Ryzen 9 5900X, and while there are instances where the newer CPUs do better — particularly at 1080p — in general the top three current CPUs are all within spitting distance of each other.

Our testing for the RX 6800 XT cards will use our expanded test suite from recent reviews, which includes the same nine games that we've used for the past year, plus four newer releases. We've tested all of the games at 'ultra' settings (or whatever the highest preset is called — or in the case of Red Dead Redemption 2, we set all of the advanced settings to the minimum option and then set the basic settings to maximum).

Only two of the games we've tested have ray tracing enabled, and one of those (Dirt 5) is an AMD-promoted game using a still-in-beta DXR patch. We didn’t enable DLSS on any of the games, though it can boost performance quite a bit, especially at 4K. We also want to note that our testing suite is decidedly slanted toward AMD right now, with half of the games as AMD-promoted titles, and two of the newer additions (Assassin's Creed Valhalla and Dirt 5) relatively strongly favoring AMD. If you want to view the larger picture of how the various GPUs stack up, we recommend looking at the full set of results, including DXR testing that we've done in other articles, including the RX 6800 XT and 6800 launch review. Since we're mostly focused on the custom 6800 XT cards here, any inherent bias in our game selection is less of a factor.

We'll start with 1080p results and then move up to 1440p and 4K on the following pages, and wrap up with power and thermal testing. We have both stock and overclocked results for the four RX 6800 XT cards in the charts as well, which generally clump together. We'll focus our commentary on the main results, with the individual gaming charts as background detail.

Given the mix of games and APIs used, it's not too surprising that the top four GPUs (RTX 3090, RX 6900 XT, RX 6800 XT, and RX 3080) end up relatively close in performance. The overclocked 6800 XT cards end up tying the 3090 and 6900 XT, but we're also hitting CPU bottlenecks in many of the games. While you can make the argument that 1080p is still the most popular resolution, and it's also the only place where you can get 240 Hz and 360 Hz displays right now, the latter is really only beneficial for a few select esports games. Out of the 13 games we tested, only Strange Brigade (which isn't exactly a popular game) breaks 240 fps at 1080p, and five of the games don't even get above 144 fps at the settings we've used.

As far as the four 6800 XT cards go, the results are pretty close to margin of error differences. The Asus Strix LC does take first place at both stock and overclocked settings, and the AMD reference card does take fourth place, but in general, you wouldn't be able to tell the cards apart when actually playing games.

Looking at the individual games, there's a bit of variability in some instances, like The Division 2, but nothing that gives us any real indication that any of the custom cards are clearly superior. Aesthetics, availability, features, and pricing are going to be much greater factors than pure performance. 

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We still feel like 1440p gaming is the sweet spot for most people. Reasonably high frame rates are possible on quite a few GPUs, high refresh rate displays with adaptive sync technology can be had for under $300, and even 144Hz IPS and VA panels are commonplace. In our 1080p testing, we noted that a lot of games couldn't break 144 fps even at the lower resolution, but G-Sync and FreeSync make that less of a concern. CPU bottlenecks also become less of a factor at the higher resolution. Which doesn't actually change the overall standings much. 

At stock settings, the three custom 6800 XT cards are within 0.2 fps of each other, emphasizing once again how little difference there is among cards with the same GPU. The reference card does fall a bit off the pace, largely because it's using less power we'd wager, though even with our overclocked settings it can't quite close the gap. Interestingly, despite having three 8-pin PEG connectors and a large cooler, the ASRock card doesn't do any better than the Sapphire card — actually, it's a bit worse. It could be the luck of the draw, or just variance between benchmark runs, but our results consistently put the ASRock a bit below the other two AIB cards.

In the larger scheme of things, the overclocked 6800 XT cards continue to basically match the reference 6900 XT. The RTX 3090 starts to pull away from the other GPUs a bit, now that CPU bottlenecks are reduced, while the 6800 XT still leads the RTX 3080. It will be interesting to see what happens if Nvidia actually does release a 20GB 3080 (or 3080 Ti) card in the future, though the pricing on such a GPU would be higher than the current 3080. Well, theoretical 3080 prices, since most cards are selling for quite a bit more than MSRP and supplies are still very limited.

There's a bit more variation in performance this time, but nothing particularly noteworthy. The Sapphire Nitro+ takes the top spot in both stock and overclocked modes in several games, but most of the results are within 1-2 percent of each other at most (among the 6800 XT custom cards).

Looking at frame rates, even at stock clocks all of the games run at well over 60 fps, often into the 100+ fps range. Only a few break 144 fps, but again, that's why G-Sync and FreeSync are useful. There's one exception, naturally: Watch Dogs Legion with ray tracing enabled is a beast to run, as are most DXR games without DLSS. The 6800 XT can only manage high-30s performance, and it's worth mentioning that the DXR reflections on AMD and Nvidia still aren't the same. Check out the extra images in the gallery below to see what we're talking about.

The above are with the latest patches in place, and we're still getting a lot of differences between AMD and Nvidia DXR (DirectX Raytracing) quality. It's only used for reflections in Watch Dogs Legion, but you can see the differences in puddles, shiny metal surfaces, and various windows. It's as though AMD has greatly reduced the range of testing for ray triangle intersections, which could improve performance but at the cost of image quality.

Whether you want or need ray tracing is debatable, but with consoles now supporting the tech, we expect to see additional DXR games. Will they also support DLSS, or AMD's upcoming FidelityFX Super Resolution? And will they be 'dumbed down' for the console GPUs? Those are good questions, and considering the RX 6800 is faster than the Xbox Series X, we suspect limited RT effects on console games will be more common than more robust implementations like we've seen in Cyberpunk 2077. 

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The next-gen consoles are supposed to tackle 4K gaming, but there's 4K gaming and then there's 4K gaming. 4K via upscaling and ray tracing effects targeting 30 fps is most likely what we'll see from the PS5 and XSX. 4K native at 60 fps, even without ray tracing, is going to be more difficult, even on high-end PC hardware. 

The good news is that many games easily reach 60+ fps at 4K on the RX 6800 XT cards, along with other extreme performance GPUs. The custom AIB models all end up around 2 percent faster than the reference 6800 XT at stock, which isn't actually that great considering they also use about 10 percent more power. Overclocking pushes the cards into 370W and higher territory, again for relatively minor performance improvements.

It's important to remember the mix of games and settings used when looking at this overall chart as well. If we toss out the newer games that strongly favor one GPU brand, like Assassin's Creed Valhalla, Dirt 5, and Watch Dogs Legion, the relative performance can shift around quite a bit. But we figure we at least capture a relatively large cross-section of the overall market with 13 games. The 3080 ends up just slightly ahead of the 6800 XT cards at stock, mostly thanks to its significant advantage in WDL. Do you need DXR to make a game fun? Absolutely not. However, it's also disingenuous to suggest that DXR doesn't matter at all; it's just going to take longer to get to the point where DXR and RT become the norm rather than an option for extreme hardware. 

Individual gaming charts at 4K mostly echo what we've seen already, just with lower frame rates. Every game outside of Watch Dogs Legion easily surpassed 60 fps at 1440p ultra, but there are a few more exceptions at 4K. Assassin's Creed Valhalla and Dirt 5 join WDL in the sub-60 group, though they're both relatively close to 60 fps on the 6800 XT. On the other hand, Watch Dogs isn't even close — it falls below 20 fps on the custom 6800 XT cards we're focusing on. Radeon gamers will definitely need to disable DXR reflections or run at a lower resolution if they want to play that game at acceptable frame rates. 

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Wrapping up our performance testing, the power and thermal results are actually more interesting than the raw performance. At least there's more variation between the cards in these areas, though all three custom cards stay reasonably cool and should run fine in any PC large enough to accommodate the hardware.

For these tests, we're using Powenetics software to gather the actual power draw of the graphics cards. GPU-Z is used to collect thermal, clock speed, and fan speed data. We also have an SPL meter that we set up 15cm from the side of the cards to capture noise. However, we don't have an anechoic chamber or anything particularly fancy. External noise (e.g., from traffic) means we have to simply eyeball the meter rather than logging data and generating a chart. We test all of these metrics using Metro Exodus, set to loop five times, and FurMark running at 1600x900 in stress test mode.

Let's quickly talk about the noise levels first. Recent changes to my office mean the new setup isn't identical to the old one, but the noise floor (when traffic isn't driving by) is now 34 dB. The SPL meter is kept close to the GPUs in order to isolate the noise from the card and not pick up as much fan noise from the CPU cooler, though differences in card design can be a factor. All of the latest GPUs support 0 dB fan technology, which means idle noise levels are all the same: 34 dB. Literally any other noise, like typing or someone walking around, registers at much higher levels than that, so it's pretty quiet.

Under load, the GPUs start to show their differences. For example, the Asus has two large 120mm fans on the radiator that move quite a bit of air, while the third fan on the card itself is basically silent. Asus ended up being the loudest of the three GPUs in the gaming test, measuring 45.6 dB peak and generally hovering in the 43-45 dB range, but the actual fan noise tends to be lower and, to my ears at least, not as noticeable as smaller fans. ASRock peaked at 44.5 dB in gaming, again with a range of around 41-44 dB. Sapphire showed the most variation, running as quiet as 37 dB but peaking at 42.1 dB.

Results under FurMark are more consistent, but the cards deal with the extreme power draw in different ways. As a result, ASRock was the loudest card in FurMark, peaking at 45.6 dB and basically staying in the 45+ dB range. Asus came in second at 44.1 dB, while the Sapphire card was the quietest of the three and only ran at 39.5 dB. Again, we didn't make charts because it's just the three cards, but none of the cards are particularly loud. Pay attention to the actual GPU clocks and thermals below when looking at noise levels, however, as all of these metrics are interrelated.

As mentioned earlier, the three custom AIB cards all have higher power use than the reference 6800 XT. In the Metro test, the ASRock uses the least power at around 332W, 30W more than the reference model. The Asus card uses 341W, though it has a pump and two larger fans on the radiator that undoubtedly use more power than the three smaller fans used on the other two cards. The Sapphire card ends up with the highest power use of 344W, which is as much as some of the other cards use even when overclocked. Overclocking isn't even that bad when you consider that performance improves by 4-7 percent (in Metro), while power use increases 1-6 percent. (Except for the reference card, which used 13 percent more power.)

FurMark takes power use to even higher values, ranging from 352W for the ASRock to 358W on the Asus and Sapphire cards. Overclocking pushes the three cards into the 400W and higher range, again with Sapphire using the most power of the 6800 XT models.

At factory stock settings, all of the RX 6800 XT cards meet or exceed the official boost clock, though in-game clocks will vary by game. In Metro, the custom cards reach 2386-2394 MHz average clocks, with overclocking pushing all three cards into the 2500 MHz and higher range. FurMark is a different story, with the GPUs reigning in clocks in order to keep thermals and power use in check, but 2.1GHz while running FurMark is still quite impressive, and overclocking takes that up to around 2.25GHz. 

Temperatures have a direct correlation with fan speed and noise, so they can't be considered on their own. As noted earlier, the Asus card had the highest noise levels, and while the fan speeds are quite low, two large 120mm fans still move a lot of air and can create more noise and turbulence than three 90mm fans. Still, the Asus runs over 15C cooler than the other custom cards in Metro, and over 17C cooler in FurMark, all while hitting similar clocks. Somewhat surprisingly, the Sapphire card has lower fan speeds than the ASRock but tends to be just as loud while running a bit hotter. Still, 72-75C isn't particularly high for a high-end GPU playing a demanding game.

You can also see how the significant ramp in fan speed to help with overclocking affects things. Temperatures are actually lower than stock, but that's because overclocking puts enough of a strain on the GPU that we didn't want to risk instability in pursuit of lower noise levels. If you want low thermals with a decent overclock, the Asus liquid cooler ends up being far superior to traditional air cooling.

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The performance, features, power, and aesthetics for these RX 6800 XT cards doesn't do much good if you can't actually buy the product, unfortunately. That's where we find ourselves right now. Theoretically, the Radeon RX 6800 XT is a good product, particularly if you're not as concerned about ray tracing performance. It's also theoretically slightly less expensive than the competing GeForce RTX 3080. In practice, however, it's all for naught.

As bad as the supply is on GeForce RTX 30-series cards, it might be even worse on AMD's alternatives. It's difficult to ascertain exactly how many of any of the cards are actually being shipped and sold, though, and both feel like ghost products right now. Tell someone you actually saw any of the latest GPUs in stock and they're liable to put you away. Which makes reviewing these cards a bit weird, but such is the way of the tech world right now.

The problem is that it's not just one thing causing the shortages. COVID plays a big role, and that impacted worldwide shipping as well. More people working and schooling from home, or just wanting to play games, means more demand. And in the case of the AMD RX 6800 XT, AMD uses TSMC's N7 process, which is in high demand from other companies as well. In the latest TSMC news, you can see that TSMC only does about 55-60 thousand wafers per month. How many of those go to Apple and Nvidia, and how many are for AMD? And of the AMD wafers, there will be Zen 3 CPUs, PS5 and XSX console APUs, and RDNA2 GPUs.

Suppose AMD gets one-third of TSMC's N7 production. That's perhaps 20K wafers. However, the PS5 and XSX consoles probably use up 75 percent of the allotment, meaning only 5K wafers for GPUs and CPUs. And right now, the Zen 3 CPUs are more lucrative (smaller chips means more per wafer, and higher profit margins). It's entirely possible that AMD is only doing a few thousand (or less) Navi 21 wafers per month. With a 520mm square die size, that's at best around 100 GPUs per wafer. Even that might be optimistic, as based on what we've seen it seems like less than 100K RX 6800 XT cards exist. Or maybe demand is simply so much higher than the supply that even with hundreds of thousands of cards, it wouldn't be enough.

If you want an RX 6800 XT and can find one of these cards in stock at a price you're willing to pay, have at it. The same applies to most of the other recent GPU launches. What everyone really wants to know is when these cards will be readily available at anything close to the launch price of $650-$700. Sadly, we don't know. Maybe in a few months, but we heard multiple companies at CES 2021 suggest that graphics card shortages are likely to continue until June at least. And if Bitcoin and Ethereum prices stay high, that would only make the situation worse, plus tariffs are also impacting prices in the United States.

It's annoying, and that's putting it nicely. In July, I wrote that it was a terrible time to buy a graphics card and updated that article after the new cards launched and immediately sold out. In retrospect, if you bought a previous-gen RTX 20-series or RX 5700-series GPU at MSRP or below right before the new cards launched, that was a smart buy. An even better buy would have been purchasing an RTX 20-series card back in 2018 because you'd then have over two years of enjoyment from it, and you could probably still sell it at close to the original price.

The winner of the current GPU battle will be whichever company can produce the most GPUs first and ship them at reasonable prices, with features, performance, and all the other aspects being secondary concerns. If we take the RX 5700 XT and the RTX 2060 Super as $400 graphics cards for our baseline, the RX 6800 XT is around 75 percent faster than the 5700 XT and 90 percent faster than the 2060 Super. That means we could reasonably accept prices of $700-$800. Anything more than that and we recommend waiting and searching for a better deal.

We know for certain that, just as the 2017 GPU shortages eventually came to an end, the current shortages will also pass into history at some point. Hopefully, that happens sooner rather than later.

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If you're planning to build a new PC (perhaps one of the best PC builds), you'll need a case for it. With early Prime Day hardware deals already upon us, we've found a great deal on an affordable chassis.

With clean and simple looks, the Phanteks Eclipse P300 tempered glass case is a great case for your build. Now for only $49.99 after rebate, and with free shipping via Newegg.

A high airflow ATX Mid Tower case with plenty of space for even the RTX 3090. The Phanteks P300 has a tempered glass side, to show off your RGB dreams. Front I/O is a little sparse, with just two USB 3.0 ports, headphone and microphone jacks, but this fits with the design of the case.

Dedicated cable management space and a hidden area for the PSU provide a clean aesthetic for your build. With two SSD drive bays hidden under the motherboard, and two more pop out forward facing 3.5 inch drive bays this case has all your storage needs. For a space saving case, the Phanteks Eclipse P300 offers plenty of space for your build.

Are you ready to move to the world of ITX? Well if you are, we may have the perfect deal for you. The Phanteks Evolv ITX Glass in white, is available now for just £70, that’s £15 off its average retail price, and it’s well worth a look for anyone toying with the idea of migrating their form factor to the world of the super-small.

The Phanteks Evolv ITX Glass is a slight evolution on the original Evolv ITX. In fact the only major difference stems from the inclusion of a (you guessed it) tempered glass side panel, compared to the acrylic variant that the original flaunted. That said, its predecessor hardly skimped on the luxury or features when it came to the design, especially as it was based on the award winning Phanteks Evolv ATX. 

With compatibility for a 240mm radiator in the front, or a 280mm radiator in the roof, many a liquid-cooled PC has been built inside of its sultry and small frame. The Phanteks Evolv ITX Glass also features an intuitive pump mounting mechanism, and GPU power cover as well situated at the front of the case with Phanteks branding, which you can of course remove. There’s rubber cable grommets, a cutout in the PSU cover to show off your power supply’s style, (or RGB if you’ve gone the Asus RoG Thor route), a bevy of dust filters, a removable sliding radiator bracket in the roof, to make AIO/radiator installation ever so much easier, and even support for two 3.5-inch drives, and one 2.5-inch drive.

Airflow is a little limited, but not entirely restrictive as there’s cutouts/ventilation running along the sides of both the top and the front panel, and there’s some subtle lighting baked in the front too, although no RGB solutions. As for build materials, the internal frame is steel, however the external panels are a combination of powder-coated steel and plastic. Phanteks has done a really good job of colour matching between the two types of material as well, something which is notoriously difficult when designing a case as paint dries differently on metal than it does on plastic. 

Specifications

Moving to ITX?

Honestly? If you're worried about downsizing, it’s not that bad. ITX has always held a special place in my heart as that unloved form factor that doesn’t really get enough credit. Yes sometimes big is better (check out our 4K Gaming PC for true ATX gluttony), but not always. And in this modern era of custom PC building, the likelihood is you are only running one graphics card, an M.2 PCIe SSD, and maybe a 2.5-inch drive. As for motherboard support. Outside of the big workstation chips (here’s looking at you Threadripper), you can find ITX motherboards in both Intel and AMD flavours, at varying price points, so again what’s the worry?

Theoretically, you could throw in a 16 Core Ryzen 9 3950X, 64GB of DDR4, 2TB of PCIe 4.0 storage, and an Nvidia RTX Titan, cool the lot efficiently, and still have space for additional drives in the rear of this case. Yeah ok, so if you rely on add-in cards, sound cards (although we’d recommend you move to an external DAC if you’re running one of these), networking or RAID cards you’re obviously going to come up against a wall, but there are so many workarounds to that.

Ultimately for £70, the Phanteks Evolv ITX Glass is one of our favourite ITX cases, and this is a fantastic deal on a mature, sophisticated chassis with all the features you could want for your next small form factor build.

This CES 2020 Phanteks is showcasing its brand new MetallicGear NEO Matrix case, with D-RGB Light Matrix front panel. This impressive matrix display contains no less than 119 individually controllable LED squares, made up of a giant grid of RGB LEDs diffused through a smoked black glass panel. Phanteks calls it “a smooth and crisp LED lighting with multiple colors preset including various pixel arts”. 

It’s entirely controllable via a front I/O button to cycle through modes and profiles, however no word just yet as to whether it’ll be compatible with any aftermarket software or custom MetallicGear desktop program to allow you to create and use your own images and light-shows. That said, boy does it look cool.

It’s not the first time we’ve seen something like this, InWin showed off a similar design with its 307 RGB Midi-Tower Case back at Computex 2018, and that one included 144 individual LED grids in the front panel. Sadly it never made it to the US market, and if it did it was going to be priced at $280, InWin’s 309 is available however it's still an eye-watering $250. The NEO Matrix on the other hand, is an impressively cheap $100, and it's available this March. 

But enough about the lights and price, let’s talk interior. As standard the NEO Matrix will support E-ATX mobos up to 280mm in width, comes with compatibility for 280mm AIOs both in the roof and the front, and allows you to install 2x 3.5-inch drives, and 3x 2.5-inch drives as well. A quick glance inside also revealed some fairly basic cable management, and a full-length PSU cover too, with a cutout/passthrough for PCIe power cables. 

The frame on the whole looks to be manufactured from steel, and it reminds us a lot of the Phanteks Eclipse P300, at least the skeleton anyway. There's certainly no aluminum panels here, although not surprising given that $100 price point. 

Airflow could be a problem. Although ventilation around the front panel is provided via around an inch or so of grates between the chassis and that front matrix display. The bigger concern for us is the upper most exhaust looks to be a very tight clean metal grate. It certainly doesn’t look too airflow friendly especially for those fans that lack static pressure performance, although we’ll have to wait and see.

MetallicGear Neo Pro 

That’s not the only MetallicGear case Phanteks is debuting this CES either, it’s also got its NEO Pro chassis as well. With a similar internal layout to the NEO Matrix just mentioned, the big differentiator is that front panel. This time around it’s clearly taking inspiration from the recently launched Apple Mac Pro, with that cheese-grater style front grill cutout. According to Phanteks the design helps to maximize airflow and reduce noise for silent operation.

The NEO Pro will launch in March of this year for just $60.

Phanteks’ most award-winning product is without-a-doubt its Evolv ATX chassis. From the sandblasted aluminum panels, to the impressive internal layout, its a model that has always been the premium kingpin in the company’s collection of cases, so why not make them into cute little desktop speakers too?! At CES 2020 Phanteks is launching its first generation of desktop speakers the Evolv Sound Mini based loosely on the design of the Evolv X, but with speakers, and RGB. 

Phanteks Evolv Sound Mini 2.0 Speaker System 

This tiny 2.0 speaker system comes in an ABS plastic and fabric finish and will be available for either a worryingly, or impressively, low price of £26.90/$29.99 this January. 

For that outlay you get two Evolv-like satellite speakers, a couple of cables and that’s about it. The main unit, is powered by a USB C cable to a plug, and the two satellites are connected together via a removable Micro-USB cable to allow for the RGB lighting to sync seamlessly. For input all you get is a 3.5mm audio jack. In a weird way this actually makes them quite portable, as you won’t have to worry about damaging power leads or anything along those lines, and if you do you can just swap them out for an aftermarket alternative.

The Evolv Sound Mini also has digital-RGB LED lighting integrated into the front of both of the units in a similar style to the Evolv X chassis. You can control this via buttons on the side of the main satellite. Because, you know RGB. 

We only hope Phanteks hasn’t sacrificed good sound quality for a little extra lighting, especially on such a tight budget. Sadly there’s no word on frequency response or distortion ratios, or whether we’ll get to see a teeny tiny subwoofer shaped like the Evolv Shift.

 Phanteks Eclipse P300A Budget Chassis 

Next up on the list of launches is the Phanteks Eclipse P300A. Similar in scope to the Phanteks Eclipse P400A that the company launched last year, the 300A brings that high airflow mesh front panel down to the Eclipse P300’s budget busting level, giving PC enthusiasts on a tight purse string a solid and dependable case with good airflow at a very impressive price. There’s not a lot new here aside from that front mesh panel, but the P300 is already an impressive piece of kit so we don't mind too much. The P300A will be available at the end of this month, for $60/£49.

Phanteks Glacier D120 Distribution Plate 

Last up we have Phanteks’ latest Glacier D120 distribution plate. Designed to make liquid-cooling easier, these distribution plates are fantastic additions to any loop. Following on from the D140 released last year (and which we used in our 4K SLI Gaming Build), the D120 looks to improve on the compatibility by fitting into a single 120mm rear fan slot, and only covering the top fan mount location as well, unlike the D140 which also covers the PCIe mounting locations too. This will help with case compatibility significantly.

It's also ideal for those looking to liquid-cool ITX cases as it gives you additional options as to how to run your loop between your CPU, your GPU and your top radiator. And let’s face it, it looks pretty cool too. Sporting an acrylic top, mirror-finished backplate and of course digital RGB lighting as well, it’s not without its feature set, and will be available at the end of this month for just £65/$75.

The Phanteks Amps model with 550W capacity achieves high enough performance, and it is dead silent, thanks to its increased efficiency, over the previous Seasonic Focus Plus platform, and non-aggressive fan profile. It uses the new Focus Plus Gold platform, so besides higher efficiency, its protection features are also enhanced, especially the inrush current protection. The most notable competitors are the Corsair RM550x, the EVGA 550 G3, which soon enough won't be available, and of course, the similar capacity Seasonic Focus Plus Gold (GX-550) unit.

Phanteks cooperated again with Seasonic, and the outcome was the Amp series, which includes three models, with capacities ranging from 550W to 750W. All are based on the newest version of Seasonic's Focus Plus Gold platform, so we expect good performance and increase reliability, even under harsh conditions.

All Amps models, including the smallest model, come with two EPS connectors. Back in the day, most power supplies with less than 750W capacity only had one EPS, but the times change fast, so most brands chose to increase that number. It probably is an overkill for a 550W unit to have two EPS connectors since each of them can deliver up to 336W, and there are also two PCIe 6+2 pin connectors that can deliver up to 150W each. Still, it will make it future-proof and compatible with the majority of high-end mainboards that need extra juice for the CPU. 

Specifications

Power Specifications

Cables and Connectors

All cables have sufficient length, and plenty of connectors are provided for the wattage of this unit. Our only complaint is the small distance between the 4-pin Molex connectors, which should be 160mm, at least. 

Component Analysis

We strongly encourage you to have a look at our PSUs 101 article, which provides valuable information about PSUs and their operation, allowing you to better understand the components we're about to discuss.

All AMP models are based on the second, and more recent, version of the Seasonic Focus Plus Gold line. 

The design is clean, and the small PCB is not densely populated. Hence the airflow is unobstructed. Moreover, the build quality is excellent, and the parts that Seasonic uses are of high quality as well. That's why the company is confident enough to provide such an extended warranty. 

The transient filter has two stages, as in the majority of PSUs, and it includes all necessary components. 

Both bridge rectifiers are bolted onto a small, dedicated, heat sink. 

Right in front of the APFC's converters FETs and boost diode, there is the NTC thermistor, responsible for protection against large inrush currents, and its bypass relay. 

There are four primary switching FETs, arranged into a full-bridge topology. It is rare to see a low-mid capacity PSU featuring this topology, which is mostly used in >1kW PSUs. 

The FETs that regulated the +12V rail are installed on the solder side of the PCB. The two heat sinks above them assist in their cooling. 

The minor rails are generated through two Voltage Regulator Modules (VRMs).

Besides electrolytic caps, with the majority of them having a pretty long lifetime, many polymer caps are also used for filtering purposes.

At the front of the modular board we find four polymer caps and three large electrolytic ones. 

The soldering quality is good.

Hong Hua provides reliable fans at reasonable prices, and this is why many OEMs prefer its products nowadays, including Seasonic of course. This specific model uses a fluid dynamic bearing, which offers a long lifetime. 

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To learn more about our PSU tests and methodology, please check out How We Test Power Supply Units. 

Primary Rails And 5VSB Load Regulation

The following charts show the main rails' voltage values recorded between a range of 40W up to the PSU's maximum specified load, along with the deviation (in percent). Tight regulation is an important consideration every time we review a power supply because it facilitates constant voltage levels despite varying loads. Tight load regulation also, among other factors, improves the system’s stability, especially under overclocked conditions and, at the same time, it applies less stress to the DC-DC converters that many system components utilize.

The load regulation is tight on all rails. 

Hold-Up Time

Put simply; hold-up time is the amount of time that the system can continue to run without shutting down or rebooting during a power interruption.

The hold-up time exceeds 17ms, and the power ok signal is accurate, but lower than 16ms as the ATX spec requires. 

Inrush Current

Inrush current, or switch-on surge, refers to the maximum, instantaneous input current drawn by an electrical device when it is first turned on. A large enough inrush current can cause circuit breakers and fuses to trip. It can also damage switches, relays, and bridge rectifiers. As a result, the lower the inrush current of a PSU right as it is turned on, the better.

The inrush currents are at normal levels. 

10-110% Load Tests

These tests reveal the PSU's load regulation and efficiency levels under high ambient temperatures. They also show how the fan speed profile behaves under increased operating temperatures.

Up to the 40% load test, the PSU operates in passive mode, despite the high ambient temperatures. Afterward, the fan kicks in at low speeds. It needs more than full load at almost 47 degrees Celsius, to force the fan spin at full speed, where the noise output exceeds 40 dB(A).

20-80W Load Tests

In the following tests, we measure the PSU's efficiency at loads significantly lower than 10% of its maximum capacity (the lowest load the 80 PLUS standard measures). This is important for representing when a PC is idle with power-saving features turned on.

The fan doesn't need to spin at such light loads, even at higher than 35 degrees Celsius ambient temperatures. 

2% or 10W Load Test

Intel plans on raising the ante at efficiency levels under ultra-light loads. So from July 2020, the ATX spec will require 70% and higher efficiency with 115V input. The applied load is only 10W for PSUs with 500W and lower capacities, while for stronger units we dial 2% of their max-rated-capacity.

The efficiency with 2% load is low. 

Efficiency

Next, we plotted a chart showing the PSU’s efficiency at low loads, and loads from 10 to 110% of its maximum-rated capacity. The higher a PSU’s efficiency, the less energy goes wasted, leading to a reduced carbon footprint and lower electricity bills.

The efficiency levels could be higher in all segments (super light, light, and normal loads). 

5VSB Efficiency

The 5VSB rail's efficiency levels cannot meet the competition. 

Power Consumption In Idle And Standby

The energy that the PSU consumes in standby mode is low, with both voltage inputs.

Fan RPM, Delta Temperature, And Output Noise

All results are obtained between an ambient temperature of 37 to 47 degrees Celsius (98.6 to 116.6 degrees Fahrenheit).

The fan profile at high operating temperatures is not aggressive since it takes more than full load at close to 47 degrees Celsius to make the fan spin at its full speed. 

The following results were obtained at 30 to 32 degrees Celsius (86 to 89.6 degrees Fahrenheit) ambient temperature.       

The passive operation lasts long, and up to around 360W loads, the PSU is dead silent. With higher than 440W loads, at +12V, the fan's noise enters the 35-40 dB(A) range. 

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Protection Features

Check out our PSUs 101 article to learn more about PSU protection features.

Because of the low nominal capacity, the OCP triggering points are set higher than 130%. From the moment it doesn't cause any ripple issues, this isn't a concern for us.  The same goes for OPP, which is set a bit higher than 140%. 

DC Power Sequencing

According to Intel’s most recent Power Supply Design Guide (revision 1.4), the +12V and 5V outputs must be equal to or greater than the 3.3V rail at all times. Unfortunately, Intel doesn't mention why it is so important to always keep the 3.3V rail's voltage lower than the levels of the other two outputs.

There are no problems in these tests, since the 3.3V rail is always lower than the other two.

Cross Load Tests

To generate the following charts, we set our loaders to auto mode through custom-made software before trying more than 25,000 possible load combinations with the +12V, 5V, and 3.3V rails. The deviations in each of the charts below are calculated by taking the nominal values of the rails (12V, 5V, and 3.3V) as point zero. The ambient temperature during testing was between 30 to 32 degrees Celsius (86 to 89.6 degrees Fahrenheit).

Load Regulation Charts

Efficiency Chart

Ripple Charts

The lower the power supply's ripple, the more stable the system will be and less stress will also be applied to its components.

Infrared Images

We apply a half-load for 10 minutes with the PSU's top cover and cooling fan removed before taking photos with a modified FLIR E4 camera able to deliver an IR resolution of 320x240 (76,800 pixels).

No parts get overheated with a 50% load for ten minutes. This allows for a relaxed fan profile, as is the case in this power supply. 

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Advanced Transient Response Tests

For details about our transient response testing, please click here.

In the real world, power supplies are always working with loads that change. It's of immense importance, then, for the PSU to keep its rails within the ATX specification's defined ranges. The smaller the deviations, the more stable your PC will be with less stress applied to its components. 

We should note that the ATX spec requires capacitive loading during the transient rests, but in our methodology, we also choose to apply a worst case scenario with no additional capacitance on the rails. 

Advanced Transient Response at 20% – 200ms

Advanced Transient Response at 20% – 20ms

Advanced Transient Response at 20% – 1ms

Advanced Transient Response at 50% – 200ms

Advanced Transient Response at 50% – 20ms

Advanced Transient Response at 50% – 1ms

The transient response at +12V, which is the most crucial rail, is good. The voltage deviations are high on the minor rails, though, especially at 3.3V. 

Turn-On Transient Tests

In the next set of tests, we measure the PSU's response in simpler transient load scenarios—during its power-on phase. Ideally, we don't want to see any voltage overshoots or spikes since those put a lot of stress on the DC-DC converters of installed components.

The voltage at +12V takes some time to reach the nominal value. This won't create any problems, though. 

Power Supply Timing Tests

There are several signals generated by the power supply, which need to be within specified, by the ATX spec, ranges. If they are not, there can be compatibility issues with other system parts, especially mainboards. From year 2020, the PSU's Power-on time (T1) has to be lower than 150ms and the PWR_OK delay (T3) from 100 to 150ms.

The PWR_OK delay is out of the 100-150ms region, so according to the ATX spec, the PSU does not meet the requirements of the alternative sleep mode.

Ripple Measurements

Ripple represents the AC fluctuations (periodic) and noise (random) found in the PSU's DC rails. This phenomenon significantly decreases the capacitors' lifespan because it causes them to run hotter. A 10-degree Celsius increase can cut into a cap's useful life by 50%. Ripple also plays an important role in overall system stability, especially when overclocking is involved.

The ripple limits, according to the ATX specification, are 120mV (+12V) and 50mV (5V, 3.3V, and 5VSB).

The lack of in-cable capacitors doesn't allow for flawless ripple suppression. Nonetheless, the PSU achieves satisfactory performance in this section.

Ripple At Full Load

Ripple At 110% Load

Ripple At Cross-Load 1

Ripple At Cross-Load 2

EMC Pre-Compliance Testing – Average & Peak EMI Detector Results

Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) is the ability of a device to operate properly in its environment without disrupting the proper operation of other close-by devices.

Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) stands for the electromagnetic energy a device emits, and it can cause problems in other close-by devices if too high. For example, it can be the cause of increased static noise in your headphones or/and speakers.

There are no high spurs, that exceed the corresponding limits. 

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Performance Rating

As expected, the overall performance is similar to the Seasonic Focus Plus Gold unit. The Corsair RM550x and the, soon EOL, EVGA 550 G3 score higher, though, mostly because of their better ripple suppression.

Noise Rating

The graph below depicts the cooling fan's average noise over the PSU's operating range, with an ambient temperature between 30 to 32 degrees Celsius (86 to 89.6 degrees Fahrenheit).

This is a very quiet power supply, even quieter than the Corsair RM550x. 

Efficiency Rating

The following graph shows the PSU's average efficiency throughout its operating range with an ambient temperature close to 30 degrees Celsius.

As you can see in the chart above, the Phanteks unit that uses the new version of Seasonic's Focus platform achieves notably higher efficiency than the Focus model that is based on the previous platform. 

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Phanteks, with Seasonic's help, managed to deliver a worth-looking product in the 550W PSU category. Its price is fair and although it has to face fierce competition in this category, e.g., the Corsair RM550x and the similar capacity Seasonic Focus Plus Gold unit, the PH-P550G scores first in the noise output section managing to take the lead from its Corsair rival, which so far dominated our charts. So if you are after a dead-silent power supply, the PH-P550G easily fits the bill.

The PH-P550G uses the new Seasonic Focus Plus Gold platform, which achieves lower overall noise output and also has increased efficiency, compared to its predecessor. The build quality of the PH-P550G is also high, and this is why the provided warranty is extra-long, at ten years. Besides good electrolytic capacitors and quality FETs, Seasonic also used a Fluid Dynamic Bearing (FDB) fan, provided by Hong Hua, which is supported by a semi-passive operation. The passive mode can be deactivated, thankfully, in case you don't want heat building-up at the PSU's internals, till the fan starts to spin.

In the Phanteks PH-550G, another worthy product has been added to the mid-capacity category. If you are after a 550W unit, strongly consider the PH-550G, especially if you find it at a lower price than its sibling, the Seasonic Focus Plus Gold 550W, which unfortunately we haven't evaluated yet. Its primary rival is the Corsair RM550x, which achieves higher overall performance, mostly thanks to its better ripple suppression, and has about the same, super-low, overall noise output. The EVGA 550 G3 is also a competitor of this Phanteks unit, but it won't stay in production for long since it will be replaced by the G5 line, which doesn't achieve the same high-performance levels as the G3 models.

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Disclaimer: Aris Mpitziopoulos is Tom's Hardware's PSU reviewer. He is also the Chief Testing Engineer of Cybenetics and developed the Cybenetics certification methodologies apart from his role on Tom's Hardware. Neither Tom's Hardware nor its parent company, Future PLC, are financially involved with Cybenetics. Aris does not perform the actual certifications for Cybenetics.

Phanteks has announced the new Glacier Aorus Xtreme kit designed to cool the VRM and CPU for the impressive Gigabyte C621 Aorus Xtreme motherboard and the LGA 3647 Narrow Socket P processors. In addition to the kit for the board, Phanteks also announced new blocks in the Glacier C360I and C360A for Intel and AMD processors. Both the kit and new blocks are made from CNC-cut 100% pure copper with a full cover acrylic design that includes integrated digital RGB lighting in each.

Gigabyte Aorus Xtreme Kit

The Glacier Gigabyte Aorus Xtreme kit (product code PH-GBAXTKT) is designed to cool the ridiculously expensive, and awesome, Gigabyte C621 Aorus Extreme motherboard. If that massive heatsink covering the 32-phase motherboard isn't sufficient, this kit will provide the base for cooler and quieter operations on both the VRM and socket 3647 CPU. The thick copper base of the blocks brings a higher level of heat transfer and capacity according to the company. The base includes microchannels and low flow resistance to keep things cool and the water easily flowing. 

The CPU block that comes in the kit is the Glacier C3647i Narrow Socket CPU block. Like the VRM cooler, it is also made of 100% CNC machined copper with a nickel plating, an acrylic top and integrated RGB lighting. The C3647i is designed specifically to cover the Intel Cascade Lake-SP Xeon Workstation family which includes the Xeon W-3275 among many other SKUs. 

The nickel plated blocks include an acrylic top along with integrated RGB lighting that is compatible with Phanteks D-RGB equipped cases and the Gigabyte motherboard. Sealing the base and the top is a Viton O-Ring which the company says is used in the automotive and aerospace industries and brings improved durability. This includes resistance to wear and tear of installation and over-tightening as well as extreme temperatures and aggressive fluids. Phanteks says the O-ring will keep its sealing performance for a long period of time (the warranty is two years). 

Glacier C360I / C360A CPU Blocks

In addition to the Gigabyte kit above, Phanteks has also released two new CPU blocks. The C360I is said to be compatible with Intel socket 2011-v3 and 115x sockets while the C360A will fit socket AM4 based motherboards. Like the Gigabyte Aorus Xtreme Kit, these blocks are also made from 100% copper and CNC machined to their specifications. Outside of the integrated RGB LEDs, the blocks have a choice of a grey or black accent piece next to the in/out ports (both colors included). 

The Glacier Gigabyte Aorus Xtreme Kit will cost $369.99 (a pittance compared to the board it's made for). The Glacier C360I and C360A blocks will cost $79.99. Both the new kit and blocks will be available at the end of August according to Phanteks.

The Phamousely pricey and Phantestically well-built Phanteks Enthoo Lux Tempered Glass is now available for 2/3 of its original price (33% off) in a Newegg sale that lasts through Sunday.  That final price includes a $20 mall-in-rebate, so make sure you have $140 available at checkout. Hey, at least shipping is free.

Free Shipping is a big deal for a case that weighs 31 pounds (14kg), and if you have to ask why it weighs this much…you’re probably not shopping for an SSI-EEB compatible, true E-ATX full tower with six bays to hold your legacy storage and eight slots to support your three-way and four-way SLI configurations. But for those who are, the price can’t be beat!

The Quiet, RGB-Free Desktop

Back in January, we mused over just how rampant the current trend of RGB lighting is in this beloved hobby of ours. Indeed, it’s hard to find products nowadays that aren’t littered with the garnishings of those ever present pulsating lights. However, we believe, not everyone is enticed by the subtle delicacies, and intricacies of those whirling 16.8 million colors. Some of us are after something a little more classy, something with a little more substance, sophistication.

With that in mind, I set out to build a "Silent But Deadly" PC that is quiet both in terms of design and noise level. It’s a machine that’s bucking the trend of both RGB lighting, and hard tubing in favor of something a little more robust, more manageable, and far easier for those fresh into the liquid-cooling scene to build.

Yep, it’s a watercooled machine, complete with a 16mm outer diameter matte black rubber soft-tubing, combined with twin 360mm radiators, and a whole armada of fittings, pumps, reservoirs, blocks and half a dozen of the ever-effervescent Noctua NF-F12 Chromax fans, complete with black noise dampening tips. So yeah it’s going to be cool, it’s going to be slick, and it’s going to be quiet.

But after all, we’re not so petty as to just create this rig because “herp derp RGB bad…”, from the outset the hardware inside this machine has been chosen to provide a solid base for both video production, gaming and any office application you can put your mind to. We’ve crammed this thing with an Asus GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Turbo, 32GB (4x8GB) of HyperX Predator DDR4 @ 3200 MT/s, a 512GB Samsung 970 Pro SSD for the OS, and a 1TB Samsung 970 Evo Plus for everything else.

On top of all that, there’s also two fairly significant parts we’ve left off of that list up there, namely the beating processing heart of this machine, and the motherboard backbone it sits in. Why’s that? Well, because for us that’s where the excitement lies. We’re talking more volts and more hertz. Yeah, ok we’re not about to pour LN2 into this thing and attempt to break any CineBench records any time soon, but running at the very core of our machine lies an Intel Core i7-8086K Anniversary Edition chip. We’ve delidded it, and replaced that crud Intel calls “thermal paste” between the heat spreader and the silicon with some grade-a liquid metal.

Combine that with the beast that is the Asus Maximus XI Formula motherboard, complete with EK developed and designed VRM waterblocks, and this thing is going to be ungodly when it comes to overclocking.

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Color Killing Hardware

From the outset, it’s worth noting that picking RGB-free hardware in today’s age of luminescent dominance is, well, not really possible. If you’re after premium components, RGB is inevitably going to come bundled with them; there’s just no way around that.

Outside of the obvious choices, such as processors, memory and solid state storage (the latter of which also features those pesky LEDs now), everything else deemed a premium flagship product is readily saturated with the stuff. It’s a real chicken and egg situation too. RGB sells well, so more RGB products are created and the cycle repeats.

That aside, the challenge here is less about the choice of components, and more about how you manipulate color schemes in an intelligent manner. Focusing on aesthetics, and unlit design language is key. Ultimately that translates into single or dual tone color accents for your builds, schemes that ideally complement one another.

From the outset, on the Silent But Deadly PC, we knew we were going to be going for a very subdued scheme. The choice to go with soft rubber zero-maintenance tubing, meant black would be our dominant color (or shade if you want to be real pedantic). So the fittings, the memory, the GPU and CPU blocks, the majority of the motherboard and the fans have all been chosen based around that fact. Our second color is white, albeit somewhat more subdued in its intensity than the first, and it’s only shown through the lighting that’s incorporated into the RGB products that we’ve had no choice but to include. Oh and there's one single 30cm white LED strip lining the front.

The reason we’re using white light, particularly with that LED strip is because it acts as a highlighting tool. Humans see best in white bright light, and so that’s what we’re using here. We’re not submerging those sharp angles and clean designs in a bathe of rainbows; we’re using our light to bring attention to the thousands of hours that those engineers have put into the development and design of this kit.

If, for instance, this was a hard-line build, featuring acrylic, PETG or glass tubing, we would’ve perhaps gone with a white coolant instead of the clear one we’ve chosen here, and entirely transparent blocks for the CPU and GPU, because we'd be relying more on the contrast between black and white to draw attention to each piece.

Color picking aside, let’s break down the true hardware behind this build, and explain why we picked what we did.

CPU: Intel Core i7-8086K

Now this one may seem like a bit of a wild choice, especially given it has two less cores than the latest 9900K, and also isn’t soldered like it’s newer kin. It’s a hot part. For us, it was a personal decision; this is a processor that we know, very specifically, packs a punch in the overclocking department. Think of it as a pre-binned chip, and if you can delid it, and add some of that glorious liquid metal to the affair, it turns into a cool, overclocking powerhouse that’s a ton of fun.

We know that ours can clock up to a crazy 5.4 GHz with a stable enough voltage, on a 360mm AIO alone. What that gets you is 233 points in CineBench’s R15 Single Core test, and a staggering 1,753 points in the multi core test, which is as much multi-threaded performance, as a stock 8 core, 16 thread Ryzen 7 2700X.

Graphics Card: Asus GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Turbo

The big question was, why did we not pick a more premium aftermarket solution? The reason came down to the fact that the reference PCB layout found on it made it a cheaper, compatible choice for our Alphacool GPU block.

In the past, most of the time the only thing limiting GPUs when it came to overclocking was temperature. After all the GPU found at the heart of an Asus ROG Strix GTX 1080 Ti OC Edition, is exactly the same as that found in a Gigabyte Windforce GTX 1080 Ti. They’re still both made by Nvidia, still packing the same level of performance, all dependent on cooling, and the majority of the time, power-draw wasn’t as much of an issue as it is today.

And herein lies the problem. If we’d have gone with a Founder’s Edition card, we’d have likely achieved far better performance, as Nvidia allows you to up the voltage limit on its cards substantially compared to the stock cards from other manufacturers regardless of the fact that they both feature an identical PCB layout.

Motherboard: Asus Maximus XI Formula

Similar to our RGBeast build, we decided to go with Asus’s Maximus XI Formula motherboard here. It looks incredibly clean, and comes pack with some serious connectivity for those with peripheral dense pockets.

Combine that with the incredible VRM cooling potential entertained by those EKWB designed VRM waterblocks, helping us to maintain higher overclocks, and it’s an absolute winner for this build.

Yes it may be loaded with those pesky RGB lights we’re trying to avoid. However, in our case, we plan on flipping those software switches all the way up to the white setting to counteract that predicament of ours.

RAM: 32GB (4x8GB) Kingston HyperX Predator @ 3200 MT/s

Admittedly memory was tricky for us to choose. The industry is awash with light emitting insanity, something we absolutely weren't interested in, so we’ve forsaken everything in favor of these clean sticks of HyperX Predator DDR4. Admittedly, we would’ve liked to have doubled the capacity on this one, but 32GB is no small sum, and for the time being it should give us some future-proofing for what we’re going to be doing with it.

Outside of this, we also had the option of running either Crucial’s Ballistix Elite sticks, or G.Skill’s black on black Trident Z’s, both of which would’ve been good substitutes.

Why no RGB when everything else has it? Because memory typically doesn’t set it’s color scheme until you log in to your OS and its RGB software initiates, and that’s just not our jam.

Power Supply: Asus ROG Thor 1200W 80+ Platinum

This is absolutely overkill for the rig. In fact, at stock, the setup should only draw about 33 percent of that total outlay from the wall. At overclock, that might rise to 50-percent under load, but it’s still not enough to justify the size of this thing.

So why pick it? Noise mostly, as the ROG Thor features 0dB fan tech. If it’s not utilizing more than 50-percent of its total power draw, the fans won’t spin. Meaning even when this rig is under intense load, it’ll be as silent as the comments section at Tech Radar.

On top of that, the Thor comes with some serious pedigree, as it was actually developed by Seasonic, who we’re immensely fond of when it comes to power supplies.

Boot Drive: 512GB Samsung 970 Pro M.2 PCIe SSD

We’ve gone with a fairly standard OS drive here. Originally we intended to go with a 1.5 TB Intel 905P SSD, but as it’d conflict with our vertical GPU ambitions we ditched it in favor of Samsung’s far more affordable, and more compact 970 Pro instead.

With its far greater TBW warranty/failure rate, and seriously impressive random 4K performance, it’s a no brainer using this for the OS. And as this is going to be the drive doing the majority of the heavy lifting, it makes sense to have the pro here instead of our secondary drive, which is….

Additional Drive: 1TB Samsung 970 Evo Plus M.2 PCIe SSD

This bad boy. 1TB of glorious PCIe storage for everything else. The Evo Plus provides some impressive sequential reads and writes, alongside cheap and effective storage, especially for all of our games and media. It’s not the “best-of-the-best” solution that’s for sure, but for price to performance it’s hard to beat this.

Chassis: Phanteks Evolv X - Anthracite Black

There really was only one case we wanted to use for this build, and that’s Phanteks’ Evolv X. In black of course. It’s a stunning piece of engineering, and with expansive support for liquid-cooling, and far better airflow than the original Evolv, it’s an ideal chassis for our build.

From the expansive fan and radiator support, to the rear cable tidy solutions, the exceptional design language, and the exquisite powder coated aluminum finish littering its well manicured bodice, it really is a perfect partner for this challenge.

Custom Cables: CableMod Custom Pro Cables - Black

We’re a sucker for custom sleeved cables. That said, we just don’t have the time, or the patience to learn how to do it (mad respect to those who do). For those who are like us, CableMod is the next best thing, if not better in some cases.

The first thing we did was go straight to the website’s configurator, select our power supply, choose the cables we needed in the build, of course all black, select the lengths we needed, and then add the pro cable comb options as well. CableMod then cuts and sleeves these to your order, add the combs directly on to them so there’s no faffing about, and ships them out to you. Yeah it’s a bit pricey, but for the convenience and the quality, it’s hard to beat.

Lighting: CableMod WideBeam Magnetic LED Strip - White

We’re also going with CableMod for our lighting solution, and we’re keeping it simply here too. Our goal is to use lighting to highlight and accentuate our hardware, no more no less. We’re not throwing unicorn rainbows here, or bathing it all in a sickly red, blue or green glow, no, this is simply a plug and play system designed to draw the viewer’s attention inside the case. Will it work? Well we certainly reckon so.

It’s worth pointing out here, that although we’ve gone with the magnetic variant (which should be fine on the interior of the chassis), if you have a more premium, all aluminum case (say the Enthoo Elite), you’ll need to use the included adhesive strip on the LED, err… strip, to keep it in place.

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Liquid Cooling Components

When it came to the water-cooled side of our system build, we decided to err on the side of caution and request in a lot more hardware than we needed. That list included four different radiators alone, just to give us options if our original plan didn't succeed. And why wouldn’t it? Well it all came down to the radiator spacing at the top and front of the chassis.

Phanteks very kindly gives you the dimensions for what it thinks will fit radiator wise in the Evolv X, however we thought it’d been a bit cautious about the sizings, and they certainly didn’t facilitate the radiator setup we wanted to pursue. Now, as we had the chassis in house ahead of time, on our measuring, we found that it should roughly fit. That said, it wasn’t a risk worth taking as time was of the essence. Obviously our situation is very unique, as we can request these parts at no cost to ourselves. However if you’re building a similar system yourself we recommend always going with the manufacturer’s recommendation when it comes to radiator spacing.

So what was the problem? Well, it’s all to do with those crossflow radiators we’re using. By design, you can quite easily fit two real thick 360mm radiators in here, at least, traditional ones, that feature ports and a reservoir tank at one end. However as our crossflow rads have G1/4 ports at both ends, and small angled reservoirs each side too, this extends the length of the radiator, providing us with potential incompatibilities when it comes to the case. As a backup, we also requested two standard XT45 copper radiators, as we knew these would fit, given Phanteks’s dimensions.

It’s worth noting that most builds in the Evolv X feature a 360mm radiator in the front, and a 280mm in the roof. However we’re a sucker for consistency, and if three 120mm fans are pumping air in, you can bet your backside that three of them will be dumping it out.

On top of that, we also requested in a lot more fittings than we potentially needed. We mostly did this to give ourselves options when it came to the build. Liquid-cooling is nothing if not finicky, especially when working in tight and cramped conditions, so the more angled fittings and adapters you have the better.

It’s a bit painful, as most of the time you’ll find the fittings actually take up 50% if not more of your total liquid-cooling build cost. For example, we had three packs of six hard tube compression fittings, two 20mm male to male extension fittings, four 10mm male-to-male extension fittings, two double 45 degree angled adapters, six angled 45 degree adapters, 14 90 degree adapters, two bulkhead connectors, and four screw plugs as well, for a total of 52 separate fittings each costing anywhere between $6 and $14. And that’s not even counting the additional fittings we pulled from our own store rooms.

Instead of going into detail here, we’ll break down below just what exactly we used in this build.

Alphacool Components

EKWB and Mayhems Components

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Build Notes: Never Easy

Baby Steps

So then let’s begin. First thing we did was prep our motherboard outside of the case. It’s easiest to do this here, especially as we’ll be fitting a waterblock to the CPU. We’ve gone with a thin layer of Noctua’s new NT-H2 paste on the CPU just to see how it’ll do.

Take a quick peak in the closeup of the block on the CPU, and you’ll notice internally one port, says in, and one says out. This designates which direction the coolant needs to travel to maximize the efficiency and avoid any gunk build up on the fins inside. We’ve actually modded our block, by popping off the cover, and spinning it around, so the inlet is facing the correct way.

We’ve also installed our first SSD to arrive, the 1TB Samsung 970 Evo Plus in the lower most heatsink. At this point in time we were still waiting for the OS drive to arrive. Once they’re both in, we’ll pull off the laird thermal pad cover and secure it down.

Stripping the Chassis

Case strip down was next up on the agenda. Pull the chassis from the box, and it’s time to remove as many panels as possible. We’ve kept the majority of them wedged in between the soft-foam packaging in the cardboard packing box just so we don’t damage or scratch them.

We also took the opportunity to remove the SSD Mounts/cable cover plates in the back, just to make the initial build that much more convenient. Then it’s a case of removing the fans, placing all the screws we need in our trusty old Park Tool’s magnetic bowl, and continuing on with our journey.

PCIe and Storage

And here we go, motherboard installed, no problems so far. But next up is the PCIe riser cable. This is the premium version Phanteks sells, and it’s very pretty, and quite flexible too.

Ironically we had the opportunity to go with an Intel 905P Optane drive, but when we realized we’d be running a vertical GPU, ditched it in favor of the two Sammy drives instead. That said, once the PCIe riser was in, we realized we probably could’ve gotten away with it. Although there’s no telling what that heat coming off the SSD heatsink would’ve done to the riser cable.

We also took the opportunity to install the GPU, it sits nicely in place here, and of course we’ll not suffer from any GPU sag thanks to the orientation.

Radiator Mounting

Now the tricky bit begins, notably radiator installation. We did a few test fitting runs first just to see how they lined up, and to figure out whether we could pull off our twin crossflow rad solution. Turns out we could, although things were going to be tight. We had a few clearance issues, mostly due to Alphacool’s plug’s being a bit bulky. Alphacool rads are generally really good, they come with numerous ports to allow for multiple configurations. However, these plugs (at the time of building) can cause issues when mounting them to brackets vertically like this. Since building this, the pesky company has released some flush-plugs; the problem doesn’t sound like much but darn is it annoying.

Once we knew this would work, the next step was setting up all of our Noctua NF-F12 Chromax fans. Each one requires you to install 8 of the black rubber, noise dampening clips on each corner. Six fans, eight grommets each, yup. You don’t get enough to do each fan by standard, so you do have to buy an extra box of black corner clips separately. It’s annoying, but I mean come-on! Clean black Noctua fans? What’s not to love?

We also took the opportunity to fit our two bulkhead fittings that would be acting as our fill and drain ports on the build. Phanteks designed the Evolv X with these two threads pre cut so you can install bulkhead passthroughs in, exactly for this. They sorta work as intended. However thermodynamics are a bit of a pig, but more on that later. Then we grabbed our HyperX Predator DDR4 and slotted that into position too.

A tale of Reservoirs and Front I/O

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Next up we decided to tackle the reservoir mounting we’d be using. We had a few options available to us. Either A, drill holes into one of the cable covers and mount it that way, or b, use one of the included brackets and mount it to the radiator itself. This took a few attempts to get right, and we had to make a few tweaks to this later on, but overall it looks clean mounted to the radiator, so we’re happy.

We also took the time to butcher up the front panel I/O. We know it’s a controversial move here, but a lot of this will never be used, and we’d rather have less visible cables in the rig, than usable ports on the front. After all, there’s always more ports on the back, and if need be we’ll get a USB hub to support more.

Pump Drilling

Now we come to the first tricky bit (and arguably a pointless decision on our part). Mounting the pump. First we had to figure out just which ports to block off and which ones to run on our D5. As always Alphacool provides a metric ton of options when it comes to this, so we blocked off one inlet, and left two outlets ready for use (one for the radiator, and one for the drain port).

Then, using a piece of paper, we marked the mounting holes on the pump, secured it to the underside of the case using tape, and used a drill to drill some mounting points through the chassis itself. Phanteks does include a pump mount if you so desire, but we didn’t request one due to the tolerances we were working with. Additionally, you could technically run a combi pump/res, but in our opinion, this looks cleaner.

Pro tip we learnt from Alphacool’s PR and modder Dave Alcock, when drilling in a chassis with hardware already in, line the underside with kitchen roll or paper to catch the metal shards you’ll be flinging around in there. It’s not a fool-proof solution, but in a sinch it’ll serve you well.

Radiator Flushing

So this is definitely something we should’ve done before we started building, but as we weren’t quite sure just which radiators we were going to use, we left it till after we’d started. In short, we stripped the radiators out of the case, took all the fans off, then took them to the sink to flush out any left over chemicals or welding flux inside.

We used deionized purified water for this (you can buy it at any local superstore/supermarket). Simply load up each radiator, cap it off, give it a good hard shake several times, then empty it. Do this about three or four times and you’ll be good to go.

Using a Blitz kit from Mayhems is even better. This’ll absolutely remove any and all gunk from inside your blocks and radiators.

Once that’s all done, and they’ve dried out (the exteriors of the rads), it’s time to reinstall them into the chassis. Phanteks needs to work on their radiator mounting strips as they have a bad habit of bending under pressure. Either that or liquid-cooling manufacturers need to work on their bolts.

Tubing Runs

The easy tubing runs are always the most fun. This was the first time we’ve worked with 16mm rubber tubing like this, and what we can say is, boy can it bend well without kinking. We did all the preliminary runs we could. The first connecting the top VRM heatsink to the alphacool inlet, and the second connecting that same VRM waterblock to the top most radiator.

Soft tube compression fittings are notoriously hard work to turn and secure in place. This top-most one was particularly frustrating. In the end, we had to remove one of the fans to give us better access to it.

Once that one was in, we proceeded to create the run from the CPU outlet to the GPU inlet. This one was our first challenging tubing run, as we weren’t quite sure how the tubing would react under this much pressure. Traditionally soft tubing would kink, but EKWB’s ZMT tubing doesn’t, thanks to its ridiculously-thick inner wall.

Front Rad Connections

Ahh the weekend, that wonderful time where you get to recoup, get your brain together, and think of new and innovative ways of tackling a problem. The problem in question was how to connect the front and the top rad. Let’s break it down real quick. The reservoir gravity feeds the pump, the pump pushes fluid into the front radiator, that then goes into the top rad, down into the VRM waterblock, into the CPU, then into the GPU, and back to the reservoir.

It’s a neat little setup, and using the crossflow rads means we can keep it relatively clean. The problem is however, that the clearances are so tight between the top and front rad, that it’s nigh impossible to get the two fittings to connect.

We tried everything, a straight length, which was impossible to secure, a tight 90 degree angle, which would kink, purely using fittings to bridge the gap, we didn’t have enough. Three days later and we finally had a solution. Detach the entirety of the top of the case (with the radiator bracket attached), then run a long length of tubing between the two in a big curve. It was tight but it works.

Before we did it, we sorted out the fill port up top first, as it was easier to get to, and one of our last easy runs.

PSU Predicaments

Next we decided to install the PSU, just so we knew how much room we had to work with on the bottom. Asus sent us the ROG Thor 1200W for the build, but it comes with one caveat. That beautiful OLED display, that showcases power draw and temps is only on one side and only one orientation. In short, if you want to see the OLED and the RGB, you must have the fan facing upwards. The problem is that the Evolv X’s PSU cover is solid.

There’s no ventilation for it to breathe. Additionally when it comes to liquid-cooled builds, we’d always recommend you face the PSU fan downwards anyway. That way if you get a leak, say off the GPU, or the CPU, it’s not going to kill your entire rig.

That said, it doesn’t look all that bad! And hell, this is a stealth rig after all, it’s not the end of the world that we can’t see that extra dash of lighting.

Second SSD and Pump Fittings

Finally our second PCIe SSD arrived, the Samsung 970 Pro, and, after a quick install, we were good to go. Then onto sorting out the pump in the basement. This took some time, but with a few extra parts from the store cupboard, we finally managed a solution. A plethora of fittings connected it to the reservoir up top (thanks dual 45 degree adapter), and even more connected it to the front rad. However this would become a problem later.

Then it was one final length of tubing to the drain port, and a few felt furniture pads underneath to stop vibrations and the liquid-cooling part at least, was seemingly done.

Cable Time

At this point, we were still waiting on the CableMod custom sleeved cables to arrive, so for the time being we opted to just plug in the standard cables that come along with the ROG Thor. The majority of visible ones are still individually sleeved, but there’s a severe lack of combs.

In short, this is because we wanted to fill the loop. To prime your loop with coolant, you need to effectively cycle only the pump and that’s it. To do that, unplug all the power cables to the system (we do this at the PSU end to save time and energy), then add a bridging connector to the 24-pin. You can buy one of these for around £3 or $5 on Amazon, and what this effectively does is allow you to start up your power supply without it being plugged in to the motherboard, simply by using the hard switch on the back. Alternatively, you can use a paperclip or piece of flexible conductive metal and bridge these two pins yourself, although make sure you don’t touch it whilst the PSU is on.

Coolant Filling

For our coolant we went with Mayhem’s X1 Clear coolant. These boys are a British company, but they’re second to none in the liquid-cooling biz. The research and time the team puts into its coolant is just incredible. We decided to go with a clear coolant, because a) you can’t actually see it outside of the res and the GPU, and b) because well, anti-RGB.

Before filling and priming your system, it’s advisable for you to put paper towels down anywhere where there’s a fitting. This’ll be a good indicator for if there’s any leaks in your setup.

Filling came with its own problems. Opening up the fill port at the top and squirting the coolant into the system quickly backed up, and poured out of the top. This was to do with the fitting we still had situated at the top of the reservoir, and the pressure in the system being too great to let the coolant pass through the small gaps in the sprinkler down tube. We removed that, and although much better, we still had issues filling it without getting backflow. In the end, we carefully unscrewed the entire top of the reservoir to allow air in and out, and the coolant went in much smoother, without issue.

Leak Testing

Once you’ve filled the res the process is fairly straightforward. Simply hit the power button on the back of the power supply (making sure your pump is plugged into a molex adapter on the PSU), and watch as the coolant, gravity fed to the pump via the res, drains out of the system and begins to circle around the system. As soon as the res is empty, switch off the PSU and begin the filling process again. It’s imperative you don’t run your pump dry, as the coolant itself acts as a lubricant for the bearings situated in the middle of the pump.

Once you’ve got the system refilling itself, and the reservoir rotating coolant, you can then leave the pump on and continue to fill the res until you’ve reached the desired amount of coolant. At this point, it’s worth letting the system run for around 24 hours or so. If your paper towels remain dry, and you can’t spot any leaks, congratulations! It’s time to switch off the PSU, and plug everything back in.

Not So Straightforward

For us on the other hand, we had a problem. In short our fabulous pump fittings array, leaked colossally, either because the fittings we’d pilfered from our cupboard were a bit worn out, or because there was just too much tension on the combination of fittings we’d used. Either way, no amount of tightening could stem the leak when the system was on.

Because of this, we had to drain the system. However if you’ve ever drained a loop, you know it can be a pretty trying ordeal, so instead we decided to part drain it. To do this, we opened up the fill port at the front, with a length of tubing attached to a fitting. We pointed it at a bucket, then opened up the fill port up top to let air pass through.

Once the res and the pump were drained, we started taking apart the fittings and kept our paper towels at the ready to catch the inevitable excess (mostly from the front radiator). Once that was done, we went with the far simpler solution of just running a length of tubing to the front radiator instead, which entirely resolved the issue.

Premium Cables

Finally, with CableMod’s pro cables having arrived, we set to work tidying the place up and getting it show ready. We placed a 30cm white LED strip in the front to the side of the radiator, and called it a day.

The beauty of the Evolv X is that thanks to its massive amount of cable management in the back, plus the huge cable hiding panels situated there, it’s very easy to tidy things up, or at least keep it hidden. Ok we’re not going to win any awards for cable management here, but at the very least once it’s all shut up, it sure does look clean.

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What We Learned

Liquid Cooling Will Always Come With Challenges

I’ve done multiple liquid-cooled builds over the years, soft tubing, hard tubing, copper, ITX ones, big empty Fractal Design ones, ones in crazy cases like the Phanteks Enthoo Elite, or InWin's 909. Ones with EKWB, with Alphacool, with Phanteks, you name it, and every single time, no matter how easy you think this one’s going to be, it never is. Something always comes up. Perhaps this is in itself an evolution of the builder as each system becomes more ambitious, cleaner, crazier perhaps, and so the challenges of yesterday, once difficult and now are easy, are supplanted by the desires of today.

Lessons Learned

Either way, sweat, blood (literally) and almost tears went into this thing. However in the end, what we’re left with is an excessively clean system. It’s rare to be so happy as we are with the build. There are of course a few niggles here and there we’d like to change.

For one, the internal lighting could be better. Perhaps a single LED tucked away lighting up the back would be nice. And then there’s the tubing run from the top radiator to the VRM waterblock; that could look a bit cleaner too. Our pump mounting technique also needs work. Hell, if we could secure that in place we’d love to, it’s not exactly rattling on anything, or particularly loud, but the fact that it’s not sitting down due to the pressure exerted on it by the myriad of fittings and tubing attached to it is nothing if not disconcerting.

And then there’s the hardware. Oh how we wished we’d have gone with a GPU that had a better power target limit, or a superior VRM solution. Having a more premium aftermarket 2080 Ti would’ve been a lot more fun in the overclocking department that’s for sure.

Performance Woes

So as you can see from those performance charts, this rig packs a serious punch when it comes to the computational rendering side of things. Our Core i7-8086K seriously packs a punch, especially when it comes to single core performance. We've decided to rein in the overclock a little bit for our day-to-day activities. It is possible to run it at 5.4 GHz fairly comfortably, however the necessary voltage for that (1.45v) doesn't make us feel too comfortable.

That said 5.3 GHz still nets us a CineBench R15 single core score of 231, and a multi core score of 1,701, which is close enough to a Ryzen 7 2700X at stock, even despite the lack of those two extra cores. That said, it would be tempting to run at stock given just how low those temperatures are. 48 Celsius under load? Yes please.

The big problem however, lies with the GPU. We've got some form of throttling issue with the VRMs on the card as, even at stock, and despite the low temps, we're seeing performance anywhere between 15-22% lower than what we'd expect. It's a problem for sure. Liquid-cooling brings massive benefits in regards to both noise and cooling performance, however when it comes to diagnosing technical issues, especially ones that don't show up until benchmarking, it requires draining the entire loop, dismantling it partially, and removing the problem part, before reassembling, and filling all over again. It's arguably the biggest caveat against liquid-cooling, and although there are easier solutions out there (quick-disconnect valves for instance), you just can't compete with a traditional air cooled card.

We've been in touch with both Asus and Alphacool, and another RTX 2080 Ti is on its way to us, however to say it isn't frustrating is definitely a lie.

Temperature Testing

CPU Performance Testing

GPU Performance Testing

Storage Performance Testing

Did We Succeed?

Well that’s the question you’ll have to answer for us. In our opinion, this thing is a miniature dream machine. A build that takes advantage of that RGB phenomenon in a clean, and sophisticated manner. It’s cool too, literally, at stock, the CPU won’t hit more than 50 Celsius, and the GPU sits pretty at 60 too. The fans are permanently running at an RPM where I can’t even hear them, and the only rattle from the machine is that D5 pump humming away in the background.

Yes, RGB may be here to stay, and yes I’m sure there are many out there who appreciate the wiley charm of that cornucopia of color, but we hope at the very least that this antithesis of a build inspires you and others to perhaps venture away from the confines of the rainbow unicorn, to build something of your own, that has character, has style, and is unique to you. Long gone are the days of brands having their own unique color schemes, but perhaps that’s just an evolution of this industry, perhaps it’s time we had our own color schemes instead.

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Photo Credits: Tom's Hardware

Phanteks waited quite a while to enter the PSU market, but the time has finally arrived. Using a high-end Seasonic platform with lots of modifications, the RevoltX line consists of two members with 1kW and 1.2kW capacities. The extraordinary feature shared by both these PSUs is the ability to power two systems simultaneously, thanks to a specially designed platform that allows for two 24-pin ATX connectors, along with an increased number of EPS cables/connectors.

Surely not all users need a PSU able to power two systems at once since that would require a special chassis. However, if you plan to get the Phanteks Evolv X chassis, then you can have a dual-system setup able to cope with demanding tasks.

1200W Model

At the moment, we only have detailed information on the 1200W model. From a quick look at its specifications you can easily figure that it belongs to the high-end category. With a $250 price tag, the 1.2kW is highly competitive, especially if we take into account the double-system support.

The 1200W model features two 24-pin connectors and a load of EPS connectors. The number of SATA connectors is impressive as well, while with eight PCIe, it can support two strong systems. However, we would like to see 16AWG gauges in cables that handle large currents and a longer distance between the peripheral connectors.

The new RevoltX units are expected to hit the market in September.

Phanteks is a brand that so far has focused primarily on PC cases and cooling solutions. We still remember the PH-TC14PE, the first CPU cooler that Phanteks released, and the only one that could go toe-to-toe with the legendary Noctua DH-14, which dominated the air cooling arena back in 2011. But it seems Phanteks wants to expand its presence to other categories as well, starting with power supplies. Entering the crowded PSU market is not the easiest thing to do, but when you have Seasonic supporting you, as Phanteks does, then things are definitely much easier.

Phanteks will start its PSU venture with two lines, the Revolt X and the Revolt Pro.

Revolt X PSU Line

The Revolt X will consist of two members, the PH-P1200PS and the PH-P1000PS. Both are fully modular, 80 PLUS Platinum certified and able to power two systems at once, meaning they will be equipped with two 24-pin ATX cables and will also have three EPS connectors. The 1200W model will have eight 6+2 pin PCIe connectors, so it will be able to power up to four high-end graphics cards at the same time. The Revolt X PSUs switch on when either of the two ATX connectors is triggered, and turn off when neither of them draws any power. Therefore, they can independently power two systems at once, making them ideal for chassis that have room for two systems. Availability is said to start in August 2018,  with prices  $230 for the 1kW model, and $270 for the 1.2kW unit. The similar capacity Seasonic Prime Ultra Platinum models cost about the same, but they don't come with two 24-pin ATX and three EPS connectors and don't support two systems.So in the dual-PC chassis niche, both Revolt X models look to be a good deal, especially if you take into account their nice design with the aluminum top cover.

Revolt Pro PSU Line

The Revolt Pro will also consist of two members, the PH-P1000GC and the PH-P850GC. Both units are fully modular and 80 PLUS Gold certified. The most interesting feature of the Revolt Pro models is they can be combined with another power supply. This means that you can connect any desktop PSU to a Revolt Pro unit and either combine the total power output of both PSUs, or use the Phanteks unit as a back-up source. According to Phanteks, in dual-PSU configuration the Revolt Pro will continuously balance the power load of both PSUs, in order to achieve the highest possible efficiency levels. This sounds too good to be true, but we're eager to check this feature out with out own equipment once there are review samples available.

The Revolt Pro line will be available in September, with the 850W model priced at $130, while the 1kW unit will cost $150. Based on the pricing scheme, the Revolt Pro units are most likely based on the Focus Plus Gold platform, while the Revolt X models use the Prime Platinum Ultra platform. The chassis for both lines are the same, since different size chassis would increase production costs.

Evolv X

Besides its new PSUs, Phanteks also had several new chassis to show off at Computex, the first being the Evolv X. This is a high-end mid tower case with a $200 MSRP and 3mm sandblasted aluminum exterior, featuring tempered-glass side panels. According to its manufacturer, the Evolv X has vastly improved airflow compared to other chassis and can accommodate up to 19 drives (103.5" drives and 9 2.5" SSDs or laptop hard drives), as well as an E-ATX and an ITX mainboard on the same time, as long as you purchase the optional bracket which allows the installation of the ITX board near the case's roof. There are also integrated fill and drain ports for simplifying the maintenance of the installed liquid cooling systems. Speaking of liquid cooling, the Evolv X supports both 120mm and 140mm form factors (dual 360 or 420+280). There is of course addressable RGB lighting, which is omnipresent in the majority of mid and high-end chassis these days. The Evolv X chassis will be available in August.

Eclipse P600S

The Eclipse P600S is still a work on progress, and according to Phanteks this product will be available somewhere in Q3 of this year. The materials that this case uses includes fabric and sound-dampening sheets. Phanteks informed us that fabric is ideal for keeping the airflow high and being easy to clean. The P600S will allow users to switch between two operation modes: high airflow and silent mode. Lots of attention will be given to silent operation by utilizing sound dampening material everywhere possible, along with rubber seals to minimize vibrations, especially on the side panels. There will be also a pre-installed PWM hub for controlling the case fans. In the storage section the case will support up to ten 3.5" drives and three SSDs.

The MetallicGear sub-brand And The Neo, Neo Micro, Neo Mini And NEO-G Mini Chassis

Phanteks announced a sub-brand, called MetallicGear, through which it will release several affordable products in the future including all its NEO chassis. The NEO line will consist of four members, initially at least. The flagship NEO is a mid-tower case made of an aluminum and steel with a tempered glass side panel. It supports up to ATX mainboard and it has seven expansion slots, while it can accommodate a single 240mm or 280mm radiator. The MSRP is set at $100.

The NEO Micro, as its name denotes, is the micro ATX variant of the line. It has four expansion slots and supports up to 240mm radiators. Its MSRP is $85. The NEO Mini supports mini-ITX mainboards, and has two expansions slots, while it can take up to 240mm radiators and it will cost $70.

The last member of the NEO family is the NEO-G Mini, which is a modified version of the NEO Mini. The differences between those two models are the front panel's design and the orientation of the motherboard. The NEO Mini features a conventional vertical orientation, while the NEO-G Mini's design allows the mainboard to be installed horizontally on the case. Finally, the NEO-G Mini has one additional expansion slot than the standard NEO Mini, and will cost $10 more.

Features & Specifications

Got glass on the brain for your next PC build-out? If you are in the market for an inexpensive PC chassis that offers a bit of bling and a tempered-glass side panel, Vivo has a solution. The budget-friendly V10G is as easy on the eyes as it is your wallet, and it brings a reasonable mix of features to the table for its low asking price. (The MSRP was $51.99, and we saw the chassis selling for a few bucks less than that from some resellers when we wrote this.) We had some quibbles with the design, though.

An entry-level chassis of steel, plastic, and tempered-glass construction that's painted black inside and out, the V10G is just a bit smaller than the average mid-tower ATX case. It measures 16.6x7.7x16.7" (HWD) and tips the scales at just over 10 lbs.

The steel top panel is featureless and held in place by rivets. At the top of the front panel, you will find the power and reset buttons, as well as two USB 2.0 ports and a single USB 3.0. The front-panel connectivity is rounded out by the usual headphone and microphone jacks and the power LED and hard drive activity lights.

Specifications

Devoid of features and drive-bay openings, the entire front of the chassis is covered by a plastic fascia with a built-in tempered glass panel. Removing this panel is a simple matter of grabbing the lower edge and pulling outward, away from the chassis, but you'll need to take care to avoid twisting the panel and breaking the glass insert. Ventilation into the chassis is provided by a row of vents that runs down both sides of this front face.

Around back is a standard I/O cutout, seven expansion slots with punch-out covers, a spot for a top-mounted PSU, and an exhaust-fan-mounting location for 120mm or 80mm fans. This chassis is not outfitted with an exhaust fan from the factory. According to the owner's manual, the case is designed so that your PSU's ventilation acts as an exhaust fan. The bottom of the chassis is bare, apart from four round plastic feet. 

The tempered-glass side panel is held in place by rubber-coated thumbscrews. Unfortunately, this chassis is not equipped with locating pins or other stays, so there is nothing keeping this panel from falling to the desk once the last screw is removed. You'll want to take extra care when removing the glass. The steel panel on the opposite side of the chassis is plain and secured with plastic-coated thumbscrews.

We were more than a little concerned to discover that the Vivo V10G is not equipped with a single fan filter. The owner's manual instructs users to "clean filters using compressed air," but no filters are included with this case. Obviously, this can be remedied with an aftermarket magnetic filter, but at least one should have been included by default for an intake fan.

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Hardware Installation & Test Configuration

Accessories come in a plastic bag zip-tied to the hard drive racks. Inside, you will find various screws, motherboard standoffs, a single expansion-slot cover, a system speaker, and a manual.

The interior of the V10G is a decades-old design that dates back to the turn of the century. The cramped appearance is due to a large stamped-steel hard drive rack that extends from the top of the chassis to the bottom and covers more than a third of the main compartment. The rack is riveted in place and not removable without drilling out the rivets. To our eyes, this is not the type of internal layout that you want to accentuate with a full tempered-glass side panel.

The good news is that the interior of the chassis is larger than it appears and supports up to ATX motherboards. The seven expansion slots will accommodate multi-GPU setups, and you get more than enough room for most dual-GPU configurations and graphics cards up to 350mm long, depending on how many 3.5" hard drives you have installed. (The drives may jut into the video-card airspace.) Six of the seven expansion-slot covers are of the old punch-out style, so you will need to source a few screw-down covers if you reconfigure your system at a later date and need to fill in punched-out gaps.

There is a medium-size cable pass-through hole with rolled metal edges in the power-supply area for cable management. The way the Vivo V10G is designed, though, we see no real reason to run your cables behind the motherboard tray. There is also a large hole in the motherboard mounting plate behind the CPU socket area that allows for heatsink changes without having to remove the motherboard. (While we are on the subject, this chassis can accommodate CPU coolers up to 152mm tall.)

The fact that this chassis lacks any pass-through holes in the motherboard tray means that all fan, audio, USB, and 12V motherboard power cables will be exposed. Adding insult to injury, Vivo chose to use cables that are white or bright blue, and they stand out like a sore thumb.

The previously mentioned hard drive rack measures 5.5" x 15.5" and is riveted to the frame of the case. In addition to two mounting locations for 3.5" drives at the bottom, the chassis has side mounting locations for two 2.5" drives and what appears to be a trio of leftover 5.25" drive bays in the top, even though this chassis has no openings in the front panel for externally accessible drives. 

The power supply mounts in the top of this chassis with its fan facing down. Although the company designed the V10G so that your PSU fan acts as an exhaust fan, this is not an ideal setup for anyone running an overclocked computer or a system with a silent/fanless power supply. Also, even though it is possible to mount power supplies as long as 240mm in this case, anything over 150mm will block the PSU cable pass-through hole. You will also notice that, because the sheet metal used in the construction of this chassis is so thin, heavier power supplies may sag under their own weight, as you can see above.

Cooling

Cooling duties are handled by a trio of 120mm LED (blue) fans. Although the case has a mounting location for a 120mm exhaust fan, no such fan is included from the factory. Clever enthusiasts, though, could easily re-purpose the bottom-most 120mm intake fan as an exhaust fan.

Radiators and all-in-one coolers can only be installed in the exhaust-fan mounting location. The good news: Not only can you install 120mm liquid coolers in a dual-fan configuration (with the radiator sandwiched between fans in a push-pull configuration), but the added exhaust fans also help to balance airflow in the chassis. The bad news? The intake-fan mounting locations in the front of the chassis are obscured by the non-removable hard drive racks, and the top of the chassis is taken up by the power supply.

Test Configuration

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Benchmark Results & Conclusion

Comparison Cases

For comparison purposes, we used the Antec P110 Luce, the Riotoro CR500, and the Phanteks Eclipse P300 TG. The cases used for comparison are of similar sizes and feature mixtures, and all have tempered-glass side panels.

With the PC under full load, the temperatures on our budget quad-core Core i5-7500 processor, running at 3.8GHz, leveled off at 44° C over the ambient temperature of 25° C. GPU temperatures were high, despite the fact that the case has three 120mm intake fans. We believe this is due to the combination of the open-air style of cooler on our test GPU and the lack of an exhaust fan on the chassis. Although 59° C is not dangerously high, the Vivo's graphics-card temperatures were the highest among the cases in this comparison set.

Acoustics were good at idle, registering just 32.4dBA. We were a bit surprised that, once we cranked things up and the system was under full load, the sound level increased by only a few dBA. The downside: Even though the chassis produced a relatively low 35.6dBA under load, the case rattled.

In terms of acoustic efficiency, the Vivo V10G and the Phanteks Eclipse P300 come in neck-and-neck.

The Vivo V10G's low current street price makes this chassis look like a better deal than it actually is. In reality, this case's middle-of-the-pack thermal and acoustic performance, coupled with its lack of features, its limited liquid-cooling options, and the decades-old design, make it a poor value overall.

We really wanted to like the V10G but, in the end, we can't give it a thumbs-up. That doesn't mean there isn't an audience for a case like this. If you were buying in bulk to build low-cost PCs for an internet cafe or similar scenario, an entry-level chassis with tempered-glass side panels like this might be just what you are looking for. Discriminating DIY-ers, though? Not so much.

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Features & Specifications

Elder geeks may recognize the Micronics brand from motherboard lore, but the Korean former distributorship has survived all the mergers and acquisitions of its former U.S. partners to develop its own brand of PC power supplies, AIO CPU coolers, AIO computer chassis, and standard computer cases. One of the latter is the company's $95 Master M400, which is not to be confused with Cooler Master's own line of MasterCase chassis.

Featuring two tempered glass side panels, a slick glossy finish and support for up to ATX motherboards and long graphics cards, the Master M400 may seem like the perfect mid-tower chassis...until you take a closer look. Though this case has good thermal performance and a few nice touches, competitors such as the Riotoro CR500 offer similar performance and better build quality for a lot less money.

The M400 is constructed of steel, plastic, and tempered-glass that is painted black inside and out. Slightly larger than the average mid-tower ATX case, it measures 520 x 203 x 470mm (HWD) and weighs just over 14lbs. Much of the top panel is covered by a metal-mesh filter, directly under which are mounting locations for two 120mm fans, all-in-one coolers and radiators.

The area between the top panel and the front panel is slanted at a 45° angle. This 3.5 x 7" space is home to two USB 3.0 and two USB 2.0 ports, a fan control button, LED controller, headphone and microphone jacks, a hard drive activity LED, and a reset and power button. The company includes anti-dust plugs for each port to prevent debris from accumulating in the ports when the computer is not in use. Directly behind the front fascia you will find mounting locations for two 120mm intake fans. Ventilation into the chassis is provided by a row of vents that runs down both sides of this front face.

The M400 is equipped with a single 5.25" mounting location for optical drives or drive bay accessories. The high-gloss acrylic front panel is smooth and very darkly tinted, but, unfortunately, the 5.25" drive bay cover is not as darkly tinted. This means that, if you chose not to install an optical drive or drive bay accessory in this slot, the light from the LED fans causes it to stand out like a back-lit sore thumb.

The left and right side panels are 4mm-thick tempered glass held in place by rubber-coated locating pins and thumbscrews. The tempered glass side panel on the business side of things is slightly tinted but, as strange as it may seem, the tempered glass side panel on the opposite side is not see-through. Designed to hide cables, it may seem like a waste to use tempered glass to those who see transparency as the whole point of TG. A stamped steel panel could have served the same purpose while cutting the price, at the cost of aesthetic continuity.

The bottom of the case has a filtered hole for power-supply ventilation, a filtered hole just under the hard drive racks, and four rectangular rubber coated plastic feet.

The rear of the chassis is home to seven expansion-card slots (+2 vertical slots), a 120mm exhaust-fan mounting location, the motherboard I/O area, and an opening for a bottom-mounted PSU.

The M400 is equipped with a basic fan-filtration system that, for the most part, does a decent job of keeping larger dirt and debris out of your system. The top filter is built into the top panel and easily removable. The front panel vents are also built into the plastic fascia and, as you can see from the images, would do little to keep fine dust out of your system.

The use of magnetic filters, such as the ones found in the FSP CMT510, or the nylon filters like the ones used in SilverStone's RL06, would go a long way to help keep dirt and dust out of your system without adding much to the overall cost of the chassis. The filters on the bottom of the chassis require turning the entire case on its side to remove the filter.

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Hardware Installation & Test Configuration

A plastic bag containing various screws, zip ties, system speaker and cloth for cleaning the tempered glass side panels is stowed inside one of the open 3.5" drive bays. The bag also contains the manual.

Painted black to match the exterior, the interior of the Master M400 is rather roomy for a mid-tower. There are four cable pass-through holes with rubber grommets located in the right hand side of the motherboard tray and two in the top of the PSU tunnel.

There is a small hole at the upper left hand edge of the motherboard tray that is specifically designed for routing fan cables and the ATX12V/EPS12V power cable. We highly recommend routing the EPS12V power cable behind the motherboard tray before installing your motherboard, because it is impossible to do so afterward. The cable management area directly behind the motherboard tray is fairly narrow at just three quarters of an inch.  Those of you in need of more cable management space would no doubt be better served by the Riotoro CR500, without sacrificing performance, build quality or value.

The seven expansion slots allow for multi-GPU setups, with cards up to 390mm in length. And you'll still have room to spare for radiators and all-in-one coolers in the front of the chassis. Unfortunately, the expansion slot covers are the punch-out variety. This case can be outfitted with CPU coolers up to 160mm and power supplies up to 210mm in length.

At the bottom of the main compartment you will find a large non-removable PSU tunnel that covers your power supply and two drive bays. There are two large cut outs in the side of the PSU tunnel; one for drive tray removal and one that is presumably there to allow you to show off your power supply logo.

The Master M400 is equipped with a single, space-saving 5.25" optical drive bay slot in the main component compartment. As you can see from the photos, the cut-away design of the 5.25" drive bay allows optical drives to be supported in the front, while holes in the motherboard tray let you attach the rear of your optical drives to the chassis frame.

Two of the six hard drive mounting locations are placed under the power supply tunnel and support both 2.5" and 3.5" drives via plastic hard drive caddies. This case also features four dedicated mounting locations for 2.5" SSDs behind the motherboard tray. It should be noted that two of these 2.5" mounting locations are located directly over two cable pass-through holes in the motherboard tray, eliminated the use of both.

Finally, the M400 comes equipped with a vertical VGA card holder from the factory. This removable plastic holder allows end users to install a PCI-E x16 riser cable to show off their high-dollar graphics card by mounting it vertically, but the riser cable is sold separately. Also, we were unable to vertically mount the MSI RX 580 Gaming we use for testing because, at 140mm tall, it came into contact with our 153mm CPU air cooler. Obviously this would not be a problem with stock height coolers or all-in-one liquid coolers but it is definitely something to keep in mind when selecting components.  

Cooling

The Master M400 is outfitted with two LED-lit 120mm intake fans in the front of the chassis and a 120mm LED fan in the rear of the case near the CPU socket area. In total, you can install up to five 120mm fans. The mounting locations on the top and front of the case can accommodate up to two 120mm fans. The rear exhaust fan location supports one 120mm fan. If you look closely, you will notice that the front fans have the option to slide both fans up about 65mm. This gives you the ability to fine tune the airflow in your system.

The fan control wiring system is a rat's nest. To save money, the M400 isn't equipped with a proper fan controller. Instead, all the fans (and any subsequent fans added by the end user) are all daisy chained, making for a huge mess of tangled wiring. SilverStone's Redline Series RL06 is equipped with a fan control hub that not only allows end users to easily control up to ten fans, it helps keep cable clutter to a minimum and doesn't add a lot to the overall price of the case.

The M400 can accommodate radiators in three locations: The two 120mm mounting locations in the top of the case can be used with a wide range of 240mm radiators and all-in-one coolers from various manufacturers. As is the case with most chassis that have mounting locations in the top panel, some coolers may be limited to a single fan configuration, depending on the size of your motherboard.

The front of the chassis can accommodate radiators up to 240mm in both, with enough room for fans mounted on both sides in a push-pull configuration. The rear of the chassis supports 120mm radiators or all-in-one coolers in the exhaust fan location over the CPU socket area in single and dual fan configurations.

Test Configuration

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Benchmarks & Final Analysis

Comparison Cases

For comparison purposes, we used the SilverStone Redline Series RL06, the Riotoro CR500, FSP CMT510, and the Phanteks Eclipse P300 TG. The cases used for comparison are of similar sizes and feature mixtures, and all have one or more tempered-glass side panels. 

With the PC under full load, the temperatures on our budget quad-core Core i5-7500 processor, running at 3.8GHz, maxed-out at 40° C over the ambient temperature of 25° C. Due to the sheer amount of unobstructed airflow and close proximity of the intake fans to the graphics card, our GPU temps peaked  at 50° C over the ambient temperature. These results put us right in the middle of the cases we used for comparison.

We took sound level readings with two off-the-shelf dB meters from two different angles. The M400 registered 30.2dB at idle and 35.9dB under load. These results could have been better but it seems that the sound deadening properties of a tempered glass side panel were somewhat cancelled out by the thin acrylic front fascia. Also something to be considered, the chassis emits a somewhat annoying "wheezing" noise as air is drawn in through the small ventilation holes in the sides of the front panel.   

We determine acoustic efficiency, also referred to as "cooling-to-noise ratio," by averaging all five of our tests to determine a base value.

On the one hand, the M400 looks like a decent value, based on thermal and acoustic performance. Conversely, the lack of features, cheap construction and strange design choices make this case a poor value, even at $95.  Thankfully for cost-conscious enthusiasts, chassis such as the Riotoro CR500 TG and the SilverStone Redline Series RL06 not only offer better features and / or performance, they are priced significantly less than the Master M400.

At the time of writing, this chassis carried a retail price of $95. At that price, we felt that even if this chassis was inferior to some of its competitors, it might be worthy of your consideration at a significantly lower price point. Luckily, Micronics and Newegg are currently offering this chassis for $70 for a limited time. So, those of you that had any inclinations of purchase this case, now might be a good time to do so before the price goes back up to its original MSRP.

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Phanteks announced a new line of products for bringing digital RGB lighting to any system. The product line includes fan frames, LED strips, controllers, and a starter kit.

The capabilities of RGB lighting are increasing, but the control systems that drive them are also becoming more complicated. Companies like Corsair and Thermaltake, which have product lines that cover everything from cases to cooling to peripherals, have a large enough customer base to support a proprietary or custom lighting ecosystem. However, smaller companies have to look to motherboard OEMs’ lighting ecosystems if they want to provide programmable RGB lighting on their products.

Before we get into Phanteks’ announcement, we should first clarify what is “digital RGB” and how it differs from traditional RGB. Digital RGB (AKA addressable-RGB) allows the LEDs in a device to be controlled individually. This is different from having a unique color on each device or having a device’s change color in sync. Those effects can be accomplished with traditional RGB lighting and an advanced multi-port controller. Effects enabled by digital RGB are those that require each LED on each device to have its own unique color.

Digital RGB lighting represents an evolution for most lighting ecosystems because it doesn’t work through the traditional four-pin connector. Asus and MSI both use the same connector, while Gigabyte has a different connector. In case you’re wondering about ASRock, it does not currently have support for digital RGB control on its motherboards.

Getting back to Phanteks, the company has thankfully not decided to launch its own lighting ecosystem. Rather, it’s launched a series of products to augment Asus Aura Sync and MSI Mystic Light Sync. Starting with the controller, Phanteks released a three-port hub that can either take input from an included pre-programmed controller or the digital RGB connector of an Asus or MSI motherboard. The hub has built-in magnets for convenient mounting.

Phanteks is also launching two devices to attach to the hub. The digital RGB LED strips are 40cm in length and can be daisy-chained. They’re available standalone in packs of two, but they’re also included in the Phanteks’ Digital RGB Starter Kit, which includes two strips and a control hub. Phanteks’ second device is the Halos Lux fan frame. These come in 120mm and 140mm sizes and in black or silver colors.

At the moment, we do not have information on pricing and availability of these products.

Features & Specifications

If you're a PC builder, you've likely seen the Corsair Carbide series before, as well as PC-case designs inspired by it. A new addition to this budget-friendly line, the Carbide 275R tempered-glass chassis features a clean, minimalist design with a builder-friendly internal layout. If Corsair's recently launched Obsidian 550D premium chassis is a bit too extravagant for you, the compact mid-tower Carbide 275R may be just what you are looking for.

The first thing you will notice about the Corsair Carbide 275R is the chassis' overall basic-black demeanor. If you were to place it next to other mid-tower chassis with a tempered-glass side panel such as the Riotoro CR500, the Fractal Design Define R6, and the Antec P110 Luce, you would be hard-pressed to tell them apart. But, before we get ahead of ourselves, let's look at this chassis' tech specs.

Constructed of steel, plastic, and tempered glass, the Carbide 275R is painted black inside and out, measures 455 x 225 x 460mm (HWD), and tips the scales at 16lbs. Most of the top panel is covered by a magnetic metal-mesh filter. Directly under the filter is a perforated area that has mounting locations for two 120mm or 140mm fans.

The tinted-glass side panel measures 419 x 419mm, and it is held in place by rubber-coated locating pins and Allen-head screws. The steel panel on the opposite side of the chassis is plain and secured with captive thumbscrews.

The plastic front panel is covered by a thin brushed-aluminum skin. Two USB 3.0 ports, headphone and microphone jacks, a hard drive activity LED, and a power button are located in the uppermost edge of the front panel. Behind the plastic is a large removable nylon mesh filter covering mounting locations for three 120mm or two 140mm fans. A 10mm gap on either side of the front panel allows air to pass into the chassis through the front filter that covers the fan-mounting locations. The front panel is easy to remove by grabbing the lower edge and pulling out and away from the chassis.

The rear of the chassis is pretty standard fare for an ATX mid-tower. The motherboard I/O area sits directly over the chassis' seven (and two vertical) expansion slots. There is an opening for a bottom-mounted PSU, as well as an exhaust-fan mounting location outfitted with a 120mm fan. That location features slotted screw holes that let you adjust the position of the fan to fine-tune airflow or make room for system components.

The bottom of the case has a filtered hole for power-supply ventilation and four round plastic feet. The four large rubber-coated feet keep the case approximately a half inch off the ground. The removable 6" nylon power-supply filter must be removed from the rear for maintenance and cleaning.

The fan filtration system on the Carbide 275R is fairly robust in terms of its ability to prevent most dirt and dust particles from entering your system. As mentioned earlier, the metal mesh filter on the top of the case is attached by magnetic seals at the edge of the filter. The large plastic filter in the front of the chassis also attaches to the frame via magnets. The plastic filter covering the PSU mounting location slides in and out from the rear of the case. Considering the rear filter measures just 6" long, servicing this filter shouldn't be an issue.  

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Hardware Installation & Test Configuration

Interior

A small box containing zip ties and a variety of screws is located in one of the open 3.5" drive bays. The case manual and an Allen wrench (for the glass side panel) can be found in the PSU area in a plastic bag.

Painted black to match the exterior, the interior of the Carbide 275R is rather spacious for a mid-tower ATX case. There are two large cable pass-through holes with rubber grommets in the motherboard tray and one in the top of the PSU tunnel. The hole at the upper left hand edge of the motherboard tray is specifically designed for routing fan cables and the ATX12V/EPS12V power cable.

This chassis is also available with a white finish.

This chassis can be equipped with coolers as tall as 170mm and can accommodate multiple graphics cards up to 370mm in length. Those of you planning to install a workstation motherboard will be happy to know that the Carbide 275R supports 3-Way SLI and CrossFire configurations with a compatible motherboard. (As with all 7-slot cases, compatibility requires the third card be mounted in the case's sixth and seven slots. Most of the motherboards we test have the third graphics card slot at the bottom, excluding 3-way compatibility from any 7-slot case -ed).

There are mounting locations for up to seven 120mm fans: three in the top, three in the front, and one in the rear. The 275R also can be outfitted with up to four 140mm fans, two in the front and two in the top. The chassis ships by default with on 120mm intake fan in the front and a single 120mm exhaust fan in the rear.

As with any chassis that is equipped with a single 120mm intake/exhaust fan, we highly recommend installing a second intake fan or, at the very least, a higher-volume 140mm fan. The two factory-installed fans simply do not provide enough airflow to keep the components in our test system cool.

Additionally, the use of a video card with a blower-style cooler with this fan configuration has a negative impact on the airflow profile of this chassis. Blower-style GPU coolers tend to immediately draw in most of the cool outside air provided by the single 120mm intake fan and force it out the rear of the chassis. While this benefited graphics card temperatures, the rest of the system suffered as a result.

Radiators and all-in-one coolers can be mounted in the top, front, and rear of this chassis. The mounting locations in the front of the chassis support 120, 140, 240, 280, and 360mm radiators. It should be noted that installation of 360mm radiators and all-in-one coolers in the front mounting locations can be a bit tricky. We found it easiest to place the radiator in first, slide the bottom fan in place between the radiator and frame, and then run the bolts through the holes behind the front fascia, followed by the middle and uppermost fan. Aside from that minor issue, the 275R would be a great foundation for an all-out water-cooled rig. We managed to mount a 320mm radiator in the front and a 240mm in the top simultaneously.

The Carbide 275R has six internal drive bays. The two mounting locations under the PSU tunnel can be used for both 2.5" and 3.5" drives. Behind the motherboard tray are four dedicated mounting locations for 2.5” SSDs. Two utilize stamped-steel mounting brackets that attach to the frame via thumbscrews, and two more drives can be mounted directly to the back of the motherboard tray.

Corsair lists support for power supplies up to 180mm in length but, even though it is a tight fit, it is possible to install power supplies up to 200mm long.

Test Configuration

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Benchmark Results & Conclusion

We are using the Antec P110 Luce, the Phanteks Eclipse P300, and the Fractal Design Define R6 TG chassis for comparison with our Corsair test unit. They are of similar size and features, and all have tempered-glass side panels.

The thermal performance of the Corsair Carbide 275R is on par with other mid-tower chassis equipped with a single 120mm intake-fan and 120mm exhaust-fan combination, but that isn't saying much. In fact, this chassis turned in numbers almost identical to Corsair's Obsidian 500D chassis.

Temperatures on our budget quad-core Core i5-7500 processor running at 3.8GHz ran as high as 49°C over ambient temperature under load. Thanks to the close proximity and position of the 120mm intake fan, the GPU temperatures fared much better than processor temps. The lack of airflow in this chassis had a serious negative impact on its ability to remove the heat generated by the components in our test system.

On the whole, thermal performance lagged behind the cases we used for comparison purposes. Anyone running a high-end or overclocked system would be wise to add at least one (if not more) 120mm intake fans. Again, we would have liked to see at least two intake fans included by default.

Determining acoustic efficiency, also referred to as "cooling-to-noise ratio," is a matter of averaging all five of our tests to determine a base value.

By now, most people are aware that tempered-glass side panels tend to reflect sound back into the chassis. That, and the inclusion of only two 120mm fans, leaves you with a chassis that is whisper-quiet at idle. Even under load, the Carbide 275R generated very little noise. Unfortunately, glass panels also lead to higher system temperatures. This can be remedied by the addition of one or more intake fans, but that would almost certainly negatively impact these acoustic results.

Alas, the higher temperatures reduce the Carbide 275R's value score in our performance-to-price comparison, despite this case's relatively low asking price.

Our Performance Value results are a bit misleading, even now. Most people who buy this chassis will undoubtedly want to add at least one or more intake fans to the system build. That would add to the overall cost of the case, and that in turn would affect the Performance Value rating. Also, even though the added fans will enhance cooling performance, that would more than likely introduce more system noise and negatively impact our acoustic-efficiency rating. As a result, while we like this budget-minded chassis, you'll want to do the price math on an extra fan or two and make sure that the overall cost doesn't push matters into the realm of a pricier case.

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Features & Specifications

A name synonymous with quality and innovative design, SilverStone Technology is back with another Redline Series chassis. Founded in 2003, the company offers a complete line of power supplies, coolers, fans, and accessories to fill its well-known chassis. Its Redline Series RL06 is the subject of today's evaluation.

Four versions of the RL06 chassis are available, in two color combinations. The most basic version is equipped with an acrylic window (with a model name tagged with a "W"). The next step up is an acrylic windowed case with three LED intake fans ("PRO"). After that, there is a version with a tempered glass side panel ("G"), and the peak model is a case with a tempered-glass side panel and three LED intake fans ("GP"). The chassis we have here today is the white-and-silver PRO version equipped with an acrylic window and three 120mm LED intake fans.

The first thing you will notice about SilverStone's RL06 is the lustrous, high-gloss white paint job on the exterior of the chassis. Regardless of which exterior color combination you choose, all RL06 models feature a matte black interior. In this case (figuratively and literally), the contrasting black interior looks great and adds to the overall appeal.

The Redline RL06 features steel construction with a plastic front panel and measures 477x200x455mm (HWD) and weighs 13.9 lbs. Much of the top panel is covered by a magnetic metal-mesh filter. Directly under the filter is a perforated area that has mounting locations for two 120mm or 140mm fans.

The leading edge of the top panel is home to two USB 3.0 and two USB 2.0 ports, headphone and microphone jacks, a hard drive activity LED, and a power button. The plastic front panel is covered entirely by a metal mesh insert. Directly behind the front face, you will find mounting locations for three 120mm intake fans and a large removable filter that clips into place.  

As previously mentioned, this version of the RL06 features a 14" x 12" acrylic side panel window for showing off your system components. Care must be taken when cleaning the window, as even the microfiber towel we used to clean the window left abrasion marks on the acrylic surface. The opposite side of the chassis is equipped with a solid-metal side panel. Both side panels are held in place by standard plastic-covered thumbscrews.

The bottom of the case has a filtered hole for power-supply ventilation and four rectangular plastic feet. The rear of the chassis is home to seven expansion-card slots, an exhaust-fan mounting location (in our model, fitted with a 120mm fan), the motherboard I/O area, and an opening for a bottom-mounted PSU.

The RL06 is equipped with a basic fan-filtration system that, for the most part, does a decent job of keeping dirt and debris out of your system. The top filter, which we mentioned earlier, is magnetic and therefore easily removable. The large plastic filter in the front of the chassis clips into place behind the front panel. This ease of access makes cleaning and maintaining these two filters a breeze. Conversely, the bottom filter requires turning the entire chassis on its side to remove the filter.

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Hardware Installation & Test Configuration

A small plastic bag containing various screws and a quick installation guide is located in one of the open 3.5” drive bays.

The interior of the chassis is fairly spacious for a mid-tower chassis and supports up to ATX motherboards. The seven expansion slots will accommodate three-card SLI and CrossFire schemes. Although common sense tells us that most performance enthusiasts won't buy a budget-minded chassis such as this for a high-end system build, the fact that this chassis can accommodate multi-GPU configurations and long graphics cards (up to 348mm in length)--and place them in close proximity to three 120mm intake fans--might sway enthusiasts to see this chassis as a viable, if unconventional, option. (As with all 7-slot cases, compatibility requires the third card be mounted in the case's sixth and seven slots. Most of the motherboards we test have the third graphics card slot at the bottom, excluding 3-way compatibility from any 7-slot case -ed). 

For cable management, you get a total of seven cable pass-through cutaways with rolled-metal edges in the motherboard tray. Three additional pass-through holes with rolled edges are located in the top of the PSU tunnel. Note, though: Two of the pass-through holes at the bottom of the motherboard tray are inaccessible if an ATX motherboard is installed in this chassis.

A large hole in the motherboard mounting plate behind the CPU socket area allows for heatsink changes without having to remove the motherboard. The two cable pass-through holes at the upper edge of the motherboard tray are specifically designed to route fan cables and a 12V CPU power cable.

The cable management area directly behind the motherboard tray is fairly shallow (just under a half inch), while the area to the side of the motherboard tray is roughly an inch deep. Overall, the cable management is sufficient for most basic-to-moderate system builds. The RL06 also comes with a powered fan hub.

Like so many cases today, the RL06 features a large non-removable PSU tunnel at the bottom of the main compartment; it covers the power supply and three drive bays. This area, including the hard drive mounting locations, receives direct airflow via the bottom-most 120mm intake fan.

While we are on the subject of hard drives, all five drive-mounting locations are located behind the motherboard tray. Three are under the PSU tunnel and support both 2.5" and 3.5" drives via plastic caddies. The case also features a pair of dedicated mounting locations for 2.5" SSDs on the back of the motherboard tray.

The Redline RL06 is outfitted with three LED-lit 120mm intake fans in the front of the chassis and a single unlit 120mm fan in the rear of the case near the CPU socket area. In total, you can install up to six 120mm fans or four 140mm fans in this chassis. The mounting locations on the top of the case can accommodate up to two 120mm or 140mm fans. The front of the RL06 can be equipped with up to two 140mm fans or three 120mm fans. And the rear exhaust location supports one 120mm fan.

The triple 120mm LED intake fans provide an impressive amount of airflow without sounding like a wind tunnel. (We'll talk about that more on the next page of this review.)

Although SilverStone didn't provide exact PSU measurements--its site simply lists "standard PS2 (ATX)"--we were able to install several different power supplies up to 220mm in length without issue. If you choose to install a longer power supply, we highly recommend using a modular unit. The Redline RL06 can be equipped with CPU air coolers up to 158mm tall and can accommodate graphics cards up to 348mm in length.

Now, the company claims it is possible to mount radiators and all-in-one coolers in the top of the chassis, as long as the total thickness does not exceed 30mm. Unless you use ultra-thin fans paired with an extremely thin radiator, however, these locations are best suited for fan use only. Radiators and all-in-one coolers up to 240mm or 280mm can be mounted in the front of the chassis directly to the existing 120mm LED fans or in a push-pull configuration using the fans that come with your all-in-one cooler. Finally, a 120mm all-in-one cooler can be mounted in the exhaust-fan location.

Test Configuration

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Benchmarks & Final Review

For comparison, we are pitting the SilverStone Redline RL06 against the Enermax Ostrog Lite, the Phanteks Eclipse P300 TG, the Riotoro CR500 TG, and the FSP CMT510. All are of similar size and features.

As previously stated, we were pleasantly surprised to find that this budget-friendly chassis comes equipped with three 120mm LED-lit intake fans. In theory, more fans should translate into better thermal performance, but, as we all know, that isn't always the case. When the Redline RL06 and its triple 120mm intake fans were put to the test, this chassis turned in some of the best numbers we've seen to date in a chassis of its size and class. Regardless of how hard we pushed our budget quad-core Core i5-7500 processor running at 3.8GHz, the airflow provided by this chassis was more than enough to keep temps in check.

As you can imagine, the sheer amount of unobstructed airflow and close proximity of the intake fans to our graphics card is a winning combination when it comes to heat dissipation. At 49°C over the ambient temperature, our results were better than any of the cases we used for comparison. 

Oddly enough, given the sheer number of case fans, coupled with a mesh front panel, the acoustics were nowhere near as loud as one might expect.  Under full load, the noise output closely rivaled those of the Riotoro CR500 and the FSP CMT510, both of which featured one or more tempered-glass panels.

We determine acoustic efficiency, also referred to as "cooling-to-noise ratio," by averaging all five of our tests to determine a base value.

Undoubtedly, higher-end hardware and/or highly overclocked systems might not fare as well as our budget test system. But you can't deny the appeal of this level of performance given the price.

The SilverStone Redline RL06 is an excellent choice for performance enthusiasts on a budget, if you can overlook its few shortcomings. It might not have all the features of a premium chassis, but the thermal performance is top-notch, and it is priced to sell.

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Features & Specifications

Corsair hardly needs an introduction here: The company is a key provider of enthusiast-grade components over the past two decades, with a major following among the PC performance community. Today, the company is rolling out the latest addition to its Obsidian line of premium computer chassis.

Billed as a chassis that makes it "easier than ever to build your dream PC," the Obsidian 500D premium ATX mid-tower features aluminum and tempered-glass panels attached to a steel frame. This chassis measures 508x233x502mm (HWD), weighs 24.6 lbs, and is painted black inside and out.

The entire top of the chassis is covered by a raised aluminum panel that features a row of triangular ventilation holes down the center. Underneath the top panel, you will find mounting locations for two 120mm or two 140mm fans. Corsair also includes a large plastic filter in this location that removes from the side; the filter edges are magnetic, and it's washable. The top panel is held in place by thumbscrews that thread into it from the inside of the chassis.

Like so many cases these days, the 500D is not equipped with an external 5.25" drive bay. That may, or may not, be a deal-breaker for some. The front of the chassis is covered by a thick plastic panel with a thin brushed-aluminum insert designed to match the look of the aluminum top panel. The outer edges of the front panel are curved to allow air to pass into the chassis through the magnetic filter that covers the three fan-mounting locations behind the front face. The upper edge of the front panel is home to a power button, two USB 3.0 ports, a single USB 3.1 Type C port, headphone and microphone jacks, a hard drive activity LED, and a reset switch.

Around back, you'll find the standard motherboard I/O area, seven expansion-card slots (plus two card slots for vertical-mounted GPUs), an opening for a bottom-mounted power supply unit, and an exhaust-fan mounting location that supports 120mm fans. The exhaust-fan mounting location features slotted screw holes that lets you adjust the position of the fan to fine-tune airflow or make room for system components. The bottom of the chassis sports a filtered hole for power supply ventilation and four large rubber-coated feet that elevate the case approximately a half inch off the ground.

The tempered-glass and aluminum side panels are hinged in the rear and employ a magnetic latching system that grants instant access to the inside of the chassis. The tempered glass is darkly tinted, but it's still transparent enough for you to see your system hardware. Lifting the side panels off the chassis requires the removal of a single screw on the top hinge on either side. Once the screw is removed, the side panel can be safely removed from the chassis.

The 500D is equipped with large removable nylon filters that cover every fan-mounting location, including the power supply. The fan filters in the top and front of the chassis slide in and out for easy maintenance and are held in place by magnets. The power supply filter slides out from the rear and requires moving your entire system to access it for maintenance and cleaning.

Although the "look" of a case is subjective, we believe most people will find the look and design of this chassis suitable for a variety of different environments from business to gaming.

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Hardware Installation & Test Configuration

Interior

The Corsair Obsidian 500D has cables for HD Audio, front panel I/O, and USB 3.0, as well as a USB 3.1 Type C header. An accessory box is secured in the uppermost 3.5" hard drive caddy behind the motherboard tray. Inside the box were various screws and zip ties. A ziplock bag containing the user manual was located in the PSU compartment.

The inside of this chassis is very spacious. Thanks to the lack hard drive racks in the main compartment, and the inclusion of the seven (plus two vertical) expansion slots, it is possible to install up to three graphics cards in SLI and/or CrossFire. [That is, as long as your third card mounts in the sixth slot, which many motherboards don't support, or your cards are single-slot, which most aren't, or you purchase a flexible riser cable to deploy the side slots and the additional card isn't blocked by the PCI Express power cables of the other two cards, or... -Ed.] Although the 500D includes two expansion slots for vertically mounting a dual-slot GPU, no riser cable is included. You'll have to bring your own.

You get a total of five large cable pass-through holes with rubber grommets in the motherboard tray for cable management. The upper edge of the motherboard tray is notched to allow the 12V motherboard power cable and fan wires to be routed through this area. Also, a large hole in the motherboard mounting plate behind the CPU socket area facilitates heatsink changes without removing the motherboard. The chassis has plenty of space and tie-down points behind the motherboard tray for cable management, too.

The Obsidian 500D also features dedicated mounting locations for reservoirs and water pumps in the bottom of the chassis, located between the PSU tunnel and the front fan-mounting locations.

The Corsair 500D can accommodate power supplies up to 225mm in length without removing the PSU tunnel endcap. This case can be equipped with coolers up to 170mm tall and can accommodate graphics cards up to 370mm in length.

Behind the motherboard tray, you will find mounting locations for a total of five hard drives (two 3.5" drives, and three 2.5" drives). The two 3.5" drive caddies are made of plastic and come with rubber-coated pins for vibration dampening. The 2.5" drive mounts are made of stamped steel.

Cooling

When it comes to cooling, we were a bit disappointed to discover that the 500D, billed by Corsair as a premium mid-tower chassis, ships with only a single 120mm intake fan. Because of the size and placement of the included fans, airflow in this chassis is limited. Obviously, this can be remedied by the end user, but at this price point, we expected two 120mm or 140mm intake fans, at the least. In total, this chassis can be equipped with up to six 120mm or four 140mm fans.

Corsair has incorporated removable fan/radiator brackets in the front and top of the chassis. They make installing a radiator or an all-in-one-style CPU cooler in the 500D a breeze.  Removing the fan bracket is simply a matter of removing two thumbscrews and sliding the unit out and away from the chassis. Once you have attached your cooling components to the bracket, you'll slide the entire setup back into your system and reinstall the thumbscrews. It's as easy as that.

Although you'll find a good deal of space in the top of the chassis, some coolers may be limited to a single-fan configuration, depending on the size of your cooler, fan thickness, and motherboard components. The exhaust-fan mounting location can be fitted with 120mm radiators and all-in-one coolers in single- and dual-fan configurations.

Radiators and all-in-one coolers can be mounted in the top, front, and rear of this chassis. The mounting locations in the front of the chassis support radiators and liquid coolers up to 360mm, with enough room for fans mounted on both sides in a push-pull configuration. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, we want to point out that, even though most all-in-one coolers can be physically mounted in the front of this chassis, because of the fixed length of the tubing, some coolers might not be able to reach the CPU socket. But these locations are ideal for mounting radiators for water-cooled graphics cards.

Test Configuration

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Benchmarks & Final Review

We are using the Antec P110 Luce, the Phanteks Eclipse P300, and the Fractal Design Define R6 TG chassis for comparison with our Corsair test unit. They are of similar size and features, and all have tempered-glass side panels.

Given that this chassis is equipped with two tempered-glass side panels and a single intake fan, we aren't expecting world-class cooling performance. The two 120mm fans included from the factory (one intake, one exhaust) turned in better-than-expected performance when it came to cooling our system components. But, in the grand scheme of things, that really isn't saying much. Overall, thermal performance was lacking, and it is obvious that anyone running multiple GPUs or an overclocked system would benefit from the addition of one or more 120mm intake fans. Given the $150 asking price, we would have liked to have seen at least two intake fans included by default.

Our budget quad-core Core i5-7500 processor, running at 3.8GHz, peaked at 48°C over the ambient temperature of 25°C. As stated, those of you running high-end hardware or who plan on overclocking your system will no doubt want to add more fans or opt for a custom water-cooling loop or an all-in-one cooler. At 55°C over the ambient room temperature, our GPU temperatures performed on par with our comparison systems, due in large part to the proximity and position of the 120mm intake fan.

We took sound-level readings with two off-the-shelf dB meters from two different angles. Thanks to two full-cover tempered-glass side panels and two 120mm fans, the Obsidian 500D registered just over 28dB at idle and 31dB under load. These numbers are on par with the Fractal Design Define R6 TG, as well as the be quiet! Dark Base 700 (the latter not charted here).

Determining acoustic efficiency, also referred to as "cooling-to-noise ratio," is a matter of averaging all five of our tests to determine a base value.

Even though our performance value charts do not take high-end features or production quality into account, at $150, the Obsidian 500D is a bit overpriced when compared to the other cases in its class on this raw measure. Those of you that desire a premium mid-tower ATX chassis, and for whom cost is not an option, should obviously ignore this chart. Budget-conscious shoppers, on the other hand, might use this chart to justify opting for a lower-cost option, such as the Fractal Design Define R6 Tempered Glass Edition case.

Bottom Line

The Corsair Obsidian 500D's sleek and elegant styling, high-quality fit and finish, and premium components (aluminum panels, hinged tempered-glass side panels), all come together in a highly attractive chassis. And when it comes to functionality, the Obsidian 500D is a very builder-friendly chassis, with removable magnetic fan filters, the slide out fan/radiator bracket, and its lift-off side panels. Just know that you'll likely want to factor in the cost of an extra fan or two if your config will go much beyond basic.

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Features & Specifications

"Riotoro" might not be a name that many of you are familiar with (yet), but the company comes from strong stock: It was founded by a group of folks that bring decades of experience to the table, from companies such as Corsair and Nvidia. In addition to its line of PC cases, Riotoro also makes power supplies, water cooling kits, gaming mice, keyboards, and fans.

Specifications

Exterior

The CR500 mid-tower chassis measures 435 x 270 x 453mm (HxWxD) and weighs just shy of 14 pounds. The company markets the CR500 as a budget-friendly chassis that features a direct airflow path, as well as a dual-chamber design. Painted black inside and out, this chassis features steel and plastic construction with a single tempered-glass side panel.

The top of the case is home to one USB 3.0 port and two USB 2.0 ports, headphone and microphone jacks, power and reset buttons, and a hard drive activity LED. There is a vented area in the rear portion of the top panel, and the entire front of the chassis is a solid metal mesh panel (on a plastic frame) with ventilation holes backed by a mesh filter. Directly behind the front fascia, you will find mounting locations for three 120mm (or two 140mm) fans.

The full-cover, tempered-glass side panel is slightly tinted, measures 407 x 432mm, and is held in place by rubber-coated locating pins and thumbscrews. The steel panel on the opposite side of the chassis is plain and secured with standard thumbscrews.

In the rear of the chassis, you'll find the standard motherboard I/O area, seven expansion card slots, an opening for a bottom-mounted PSU, and an exhaust-fan mounting location that supports 120mm fans.

The bottom of the case has a filtered hole for power-supply ventilation adjacent to another 120mm filtered hole for added air flow. There are four feet attached to the base of the case that keep the chassis approximately a half inch off the ground. The feet are equipped with rubber padding that helps damp vibrations and keeps your case from sliding around.

The filtration system on the CR500 is basic but effective. The two removable filters on the bottom of the case will keep larger dust particles out of your system but are not easily accessible without turning the case completely on its side. The filtration system on the front of the case consists of a mesh filter inserted behind the large mesh front panel. Cleaning and maintenance is a relatively simple process, as no tools are required to remove the filters.

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Hardware Installation & Test Configuration

Interior

A small box containing accessories is located in one of the open 3.5" drive bays. Inside you will find zip ties, two motherboard standoffs, and a variety of screws. The case manual can be found in the PSU area in a plastic zip-lock bag.