XPG Valor Mesh Mid-Tower ATX Case Review

TweakTown's Rating: 90%

The Bottom Line

XPG's Valor Mesh is an exceptionally valued compact mid-tower case that includes four 120mm fans with great ventilation at a low price.

Pros

• + Four 120mm fans included
• + Fantastic price point of $49.99
• + Front magnetic dust filter

Cons

• - Thin steel used, feels flimsy
• - Cheap PSU filter

Should you buy it?

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Introduction, Specifications, and Pricing

XPG, a sub-brand of ADATA, has sent over their Valor Mesh compact mid-tower ATX case to look at. Available in black, white, and a Mera Edition (XPG's Anime Mascot). Now priced at an unheard-of $49.99, "cheap" is the first thought anyone would have in today's case market, but XPG has included four 120mm fans and a tempered glass side panel to make for an incredible value. So, let's dive right in.

XPG Defender Mid-Tower Case

	Today	Yesterday	7 days ago	30 days ago
	$74.99	$74.99	$74.99	$74.99	Buy
	$79.99	$79.99	$79.99	$79.99	Buy
* Prices last scanned on 5/7/2024 at 10:25 am CDT - prices may not be accurate, click links above for the latest price. We may earn an affiliate commission.

Packaging

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Packaged in the standard brown cardboard box, XPG has some detail and graphics of what's inside. Fairly compact for an ATX chassis, the Valor Mesh measures in at 460x210x371mm.

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One of the sides of the packaging shows the specifications of the XPG Valor Mesh.

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The backside of the box shows blown-out images of the Valor Mesh with a lettered key showing the individual components.

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The other side of the Valor Mesh box shows more information about the specific model, in this case, a white model, and product dimensions.

Outside the XPG Valor Mesh ATX Case

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Removing the Valor Mesh from its cardboard packaging has fairly basic shipping materials. Two hard foam pieces, mind the top foam piece was broken on both ends and a clear plastic bag. By luck, the Valor Mesh has avoided any damage during shipping.

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Removing all the shipping materials highlights how much mesh XPG has put into the Valor Mesh in the front intake.

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Removing the front mesh, which is removable via a single thumbscrew, shows the included magnetic dust filter set to intake fresh air, something you typically don't see on a sub-$ $50 chassis.

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While being the white model, it would have been nice to see a white border on the tempered glass, but using the same 3mm tempered glass on both colors does help keep the cost to a minimum. The tempered glass side panel does have a slight tint, but nothing too major.

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The rear of the XPG Valor Mesh has seven PCIe slots with a mesh ventilation pattern and a slightly annoying PCIe locking mechanism. Again, plastic thumb screws are present instead of all metal ones for cost-saving measures. Under where the PSU is mounted is a removable dust filter, while not magnetic or slide in/out, but at this price point, who cares?

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The rear side panel is plain, with nothing much going on.

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The top of the Valor Mesh shows a magnetic dust filter covering spacing for either two 120mm or two 140mm fans. Alternatively, either a 240 or 280-mm radiator is also supported. The front I/O is also located towards the right-hand section. There are two USB 3.2 Type-A ports, a combo 3.5mm mic/headphone jack, a power reset button, and a triangle-shaped power button. No USB Type-C port here, folks.

Inside the XPG Valor Mesh ATX Case

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Inside the Valor Mesh are the four included black Vento120 120mm fans; however, these fans are rifle-bearing, with only three pinned running at 1200 RPM with .16A and a 45.3 CFM rating, thus being more airflow-focused. Support for a 360mm AIO or radiator is supported in the front but is limited to mm thickness, which also conflicts with GPU clearance.

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The rear black 120mm fan spacing is limited to only a 120mm fan.

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Taking off the rear side panel is a fairly simple layout with two 2.5" SSD or HDD mounts on the back of the motherboard tray with additional storage for two 3.5" HDDs in the basement. PSU support without the 3.5" drive bay is not hindered but is limited to 180mm. Cable management seems light here, but I will reserve judgment until the build is complete.

Test System, Installation, and Finished Product

• Motherboard: B650 AORUS Elite AX (AMD B650) - Buy from Amazon
• CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 7950X - Buy from Amazon
• Cooler: Deepcool AK620 Digital - Buy from Amazon
• Memory: Patriot Viper Venom 32GB DDR5 5600 RGB - Buy from Amazon
• Graphics Card: NVIDIA RTX 2080 Super - Buy from Amazon
• Storage: Corsair MP600 PRO XT Gen4 PCIe x4 NVMe M.2 SSD - Buy from Amazon
• Case: XPG Valor Mesh - Buy from Amazon
• Software: AIDA64 Engineer 6.32.5600, and CPU-z 1.94.0 x64
• Power Supply: XPG Core Reactor II 850w ATX 3.0 PSU - Buy from Amazon
• OS: Microsoft Windows 11 Pro 64-bit Build 22621 - Buy from Amazon
• Software: AIDA64 Engineer 6.8.6300, and CPU-z 2.03.0 x64

Final Thoughts

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The 3.5" drive cage came loose inside the Valor Mesh with several screws, zip ties, and an owner's manual.

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The cable management is decent now that the build is complete, provided no extra hardware is installed. The motherboard 24-pin cable can easily be snaked between the side panel wall and the edge of the motherboard tray. The rest of the cabling is neatly stranded, made for a clean run up the side. Only four zip ties were used to make this cable management happen.

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The test system is the usual set of hardware: An AMD Ryzen 9 7950X on a B650 AORUS Elite AX motherboard, cooled by a Deepcool AK620 Digital, swapping out the 360mm Freezer AIO from Arctic. Due to the compact design of the Valor Mesh, the GPU also had to be swapped out for an RTX 2080 Super FE. The XPG Core Reactor II 850w PSU has provided more than enough juice to power the test system and will be reviewed soon. After all testing, it was in a 23C environment for over 26 hours. The AMD Ryzen 9 7950X CPU idled 37C while loaded up to about 67C with around 1.14VCORE to limit thermal throttling. The RTX 2080 Super FE GPU idled around 38C and fully loaded to around 70C. The XPG Valor Mesh has pretty good cooling via the front three 120mm intake fans.

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The final build picture shows how compact this build is. While not able to stuff an RTX 3090 in the Valor Mesh, most other GPUs should fit in without issue. The CPU cooler, the Deepcool AK620 Digital, which barely fits in, was only a few millimeters of clearance to the tempered glass side panel, pushing the limits of the 166mm CPU cooler height restriction.

So, in closing, the XPG Valor Mesh surprised me. I didn't even know the actual MSRP for the vast majority of this review, which I will remind you is only $49.99. Yes, the Valor Mesh has some flimsy steel, a cheap PSU filter, and plastic thumb screws, but the Valor Mesh is a great compact ATX case, provided that your expectations are not too high. Including four 120mm fans, albeit they are not PWM 120mm fans, but fans included nonetheless, again, is something a $50 case typically does not have.