Cases, Cooling & PSU News - Page 1

RGB lighting in a PC case, especially one with one or more tempered glass panels, is standard stiff in 2024 - as is dealing with RGB headers, power, and cabling for every little device that includes the tech. In recent years, we've seen several hubs, daisy-chain solutions, and other ways to remove unwanted cable clutter - but at Computex 2024, Lian Li presented an elegant solution: wireless.

Lian Li's new WRLS, or Wireless RGB, and fan control system leaves the RGB side of the technology to a USB dongle that can be connected to the back of your case (to a motherboard) or stored internally using a free USB Type-A header.

Although you'll still need to supply power to Lian Li's new Wireless RGB fans, lighting control doesn't require anything outside the USB dongle and Lian Li's software to interface with each wireless RGB fan in your system. At Computex, we saw it in action with a complete setup, which was impressive.

At Computex 2024, Antex showcased several very cool cases and cooling products, with its newest offerings impressing us the most. From the stunning fishbowl design with the curved glass of the C8 Curve to the retro-futuristic Flux Pro and the new mini-ITX prototype, the Performance 1M - Antec's cases for 2024 look very tasty.

The C8 Curve is the latest addition to Antec's C8 series. The Curve in the name refers to it featuring curved tempered glass that wraps around the side and front panel. Antec hasn't specified its pricing yet, but we expect it to be the high-end model in the company's well-priced C8 series of cases.

This was easily one of the best-looking cases at Computex, thanks to the curve, mesh top panel, and woodgrain finish on the front. Spec-wise, it's a dual chamber case big enough to house a full water-cooled setup with three 360mm radiators. Antec plans to ship the case without fans (which should bring the price down).

Enermax has proven its solidified place in the power supply and cooling market with a selection of new product announcements at Computex 2024.

Enermax has showcased a new series of ATX 3.1 power supplies at Computex that cover multiple efficiency levels and impressive wattages. More specifically, Enermax showcased the new MaxTytan Digital 1650W 80PLUS Titanium that flexes a semi-fanless design that Enermax explained to me is optimized for both performance and acoustics. The fan on the MaxTytan Digital 1650W only kicks in when the power supply is at 60% load and has a built-in wattage display on the rear side for users to monitor the total load.

Additionally, Enermax said the MaxTytan Digital 1650W 80PLUS Titanium can reach up to 2400W at 80PLUS Gold efficiency. Moving up to the 80PLUS Platinum efficiency, Enermax introduced a crazy 2400W variant that has a chassis depth of 18cm. The 2400W variant is designed to support multiple graphics cards, and also features the intelligent semi-fanless design, enabling near-silent operation at low to medium loads.

Computex 2024 has wrapped up, and Lian Li, just like every year, has some interesting new products to showcase.

Lian Li gave me a tour of their booth in Taipei and demoed to me their new EDGE power supply series, which has put a new spin on what could be the most unchanged aspect of a PC build - power supplies. Lian Li has implemented a new L-shaped design that enables much easier access to the PSU for cable connections. This change actually earned Lian Li a TweakTown award, as it was the much-needed change the PSU industry needed.

More specifically, the EDGE PSU series comes with an 80 Plus Platinum efficiency rating, with the EG850 being rated at 80 Plus Gold. As you can probably imagine, the entire series of new PSUs is fully modular and comes with sleeved cables and connectors. Additionally, Lian Li has implemented a 12VHPWR connector design. I was told on the showroom floor that some models will arrive in black and white color options, with the EG850 Mesh model launching soon in just black for $119.99, the 1300W model in black for $229.99, and $239.99 for white.

Computex 2024 had many interesting PC cases on the showroom floor, and one that caught my eye was at the Alphacool booth.

Introducing Alphacool's first modular case, the Apex Pro Skeleton Carbon Case, which speaks to the company's intention to create a case that incorporates uniqueness, innovative ideas and individuality. The Apex Pro Skeleton can be completely disassembled, with the motherboard tray, struts, and fan frame made out of carbon fiber, making it a strong, yet light case.

Additionally, the Apex Pro Skeleton includes a distro plate that has been specifically designed for this case while also including a customized vertical GPU mount and a cable that complies with the PCIe 4.0 specification. Alphacool also gives buyers the option of equipping the Apex Pro Skeleton with additional parts. Lastly, the Apex Pro Skeleton comes with smoked glass side panels.

Value for money goes a long way when you're putting together a new build from scratch. Once you factor in the various components, the case, fans, and bits of all-in-one liquid cooling, you must also shell out for some thermal paste for optimal performance. On that front, Thermal Grizzly products are considered some of the very best. However, there are cheaper alternatives whose overall performance might not be up there - but it's decent enough for most builds.

This is where Polar Therm comes in, starting with the affordable X-8 thermal past that our friends at Thermal Grizzly say offers better thermal conductivity for air and water cooling than comparatively priced Arctic Cooling products.

Polar Therm X-10 is the more premium of the two but still affordable. It offers excellent performance and a more premium product - once again, created to compete directly with Arctic Cooling.

It's always great when you see a product solve a problem you didn't even realize was a problem. With case fans, especially those with RGB, requiring multiple cables per fan, setting up two or three in a row can often be a pain due to all the cable threading and fan controller mounting you need to do. NZXT's new F Series RGB Core fans are a game changer because they arrive as a single-frame unit in various sizes.

Available in 240mm, 280mm, and 360mm frames, not only do you get the right number of fans in a single unit for your AIO radiator or case, but you also have fewer screws to connect and fewer cables to deal with. It's a simple and elegant solution to the idea of installing multiple fans next to each other in a system.

With daisy chain and magnetic fans making it easier to join them up, NZXT's approach takes it to the logical next step - if you need three 120mm fans for a 360mm radiator, why not have a single-frame unit with fewer screws and fewer cables to deal with. No matter if you get the 240mm frame or the 360mm, or a single 120mm fan from NZXT, it's the same number of screws - four.

ASUS first teased the ROG Mjolnir in April, but now the gaming-focused power bank has been officially unveiled at Computex 2024. Check it out:

The new ASUS ROG Mjolnir is a power station, power bank, and uninterruptible power supply (UPS) for gamers on the go, and while the company hasn't provided the full suite of details on the new power station, it can power an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080-powered gaming PC for up to 1 hour. Not bad. We don't know if the RTX 4080 system for 1 hour claim is for a desktop or a laptop, but I'd say it's more of the latter rather than the former.

The physical handle of the ROG Mjolnir acts as a flashlight that can also be wirelessly charged when it placed on top of its base, and if your power goes out, you've got Thor's hammer to light up your room like a superhero. On the base of the hammer itself, there are 4 x 3-prong outlets, 2 x 10W USB Type-A ports, and 2 x USB-C power delivery ports ready for 100W and 65W, respectively.

COUGAR GAMING has showcased some of its latest cases at Computex 2024 and one of them would likely terrify someone that has a fear of holes.

COUGAR gave me a tour of their booth at Computex where they had on display some of their latest offerings in terms of cases. The company gave me a rundown of the the FV270, a PC case that has transparency at the heart of its design, as it features a curved glass perimeter that enables an unobstructed view of the interior. Notably, COUGAR has designed the case with cable management in mind as users are able to completely hide cables behind the motherboard.

One of the other cases COUGAR showcased to me was the Airface ECO, a case that would be an absolute nightmare for someone that has trypophobia, which is the aversion or repulsion to objects like honeycombs and sponges that have repetitive patterns or clusters of small holes.

The open-frame design for a PC chassis is often created and used for testing and benchmarking. It offers a quick way to replace parts, tinker with cooling, and troubleshoot. At Computex 20204, we got a closer look at the new Neptune Series PC from Colorful, and it quickly earned one of our Best of Computex 2024 awards, not only for its looks but also for the materials, solid construction, and DIY potential for those who want an open-chassis design without having to worry about dust.

It's a unique design that, although it is fully open and customizable thanks to Colorful planning to ship a barebones edition, everything is enclosed with an integrated full-cover waterblock. Regarding PC components, all you can see is the memory, radiator fans, motherboard I/O ports, and the custom waterblock/enclosure for the GPU (a high-end GeForce RTX GPU is installed in the one you see here).

It's a sleek and stylish futuristic design made from solid metals with a brushed silver finish. Colorful notes that within the Neptune, the CPU and other non-visible critical components are all liquid-cooled. It's not only an impressive design but one that will deliver when it comes to thermal performance.