Final Words & Conclusion

Final Words & Conclusion

It is good? Yes and no. The inside of the chassis does what it needs to do and that is to create an environment for components. Overall the compact chassis offers decent space for the Mini-ITX motherboard, even an ATX (but preferred SFX) PSU, and reasonable storage options (but who doesn't use M.2 SSD storage with a high-end PC these days? As shown in the article, you can even insert a dual-slot dedicated graphics card. Depending on the position/placement of the chassis, I'd say position it at the landscape potion it just looks gorgeous. Cable management, it'll be all over the place in the chassis as you really cannot route stuff properly. It's a closed chassis on that cabling side though, nobody will see the spaghetti of wires of course. We strongly recommend a modular power supply with a maximum length of 15cm to ensure that things will work out. But even then, it'll be cramped in there.

Aesthetics

Personally, I think the looks are fantastic, darn fancy even, it's a relatively compact box with an all-aluminum finish. The taste obviously differs per person though, but the word I tend to use with the ROG PC case seems to be 'subtle'. Stuff is nicely hidden and covered. And yeah the word subtle certainly does apply here as well. Of course, you need to be a ROG fanatic as there are RGB LED lit logos. So yeah I can be short here, the looks are fantastic. 

The Noise and airflow

This one will be more tricky. First off the 140mm fans are freakishly powerful, not silent but they do offer good airflow. However, that airflow needs to pass through that component real-estate. If you keep the PC specs to TDP friendly components, you'll likely be fine. My recommendation, however, is to install a top side LCS with a 240mm radiator. The two added fans will create proper airflow then for even high-end gear + you get the benefit of proper cooling and heat exhausting the CPU though that radiator at the top side. You can position the chjassi in portrait mode and enjoy a chimney airflow effect. So that does not necessarily need to be a problem, but it remains dense and compact in there. 

The Verdict

Honestly, I have a hate/love relationship with this chassis, everything about is is confusing. My frustration is to be found in the build process as really, nothing about this chassis is even remotely user friendly. Screws, cable routing mobo positioning relative to rear IO connectors, cramped PSU cable space. I mean YUCK. But once you have built the little fracker and juice it up, instantly it all comes together.  So on the inside, however, it can be a Chinese finger trap when it comes to installing components. You need to pick and choose carefully. The guys and gals that need something small and sexy for that function as a net-top, HTPC or the coolest looking NAS/file server ever. When mounted with high-end processors and the enthusiast-class graphics card you'll likely not run into airflow issues. Add top fans or an LCS and that problem would vanish. In fact, applying an LCS nearly is pretty much mandatory due to CPU cooler spacing restrictions. Fact remains that if you can find a Mini ITX motherboard with a fast enough processor then really there's nothing holding you back to create a more powerful beast thanks to the fact you can insert a dual-slot graphics card even. If you take the LCS route pretty much any high-end component can be used. Esthetics wise you'll get a very nice looking product, it's as simple as that. The installation, however, is a bit more complicated, especially wiring, while enough space, can be tricky. The elephant in the room we need to discuss though is the price, as that one is tagged at 269USD, which is an eye-popping and lawbreaking amount of money for this chassis. I cannot justify it, but perhaps you can. Yes, it is a premium product but it's full of design flaws and build annoyances. Overall you are looking at a formidable build when ready though. We can approve it but price-wise have a rather hard time recommending it as honestly I expected it to be a sun 150 USD product. In the end, I'd like to state perhaps this chassis isn't meant to be a chassis, but a showcase for your Mini ITX based setup.

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