FSP CUT593A Full-Tower Chassis Review

Introduction, Specifications, and Pricing

Today, we will look at a new case from FSP, which normally makes high-quality power supplies under its name and is the OEM for several other names. The last time we looked at an FSP product was the 1000-watt Hydro Ti Pro ATX 3.0 80 PLUS Titanium PSU, which earned the Editor's Choice award for its efficiency and overall performance. FSP has thrown its hat into the case market, in which FSP has made eight cases, but today we will look at the CUT593A.

The CUT593 has two SKUs, and the CUT593A has four, including 140mm ARGB fans, which are pre-installed. The CUT593P is more of a professional version featuring an included cable management panel and pre-installed cable extensions. Both versions also have white models to complement the black models. Priced at sub $100, the CUT593A also seems that FSP is taking an aggressive stance.

Why don't we look at what FSP has put together and see if the CUT593 is a hit or a miss?

FSP CUT593A Full-Tower Chassis

	Today	Yesterday	7 days ago	30 days ago
	$69.99	$69.99	-	-	Buy
	$124.99	$124.99	$89.99	-	Buy
* Prices last scanned on 9/10/2024 at 6:04 am CDT - prices may not be accurate, click links above for the latest price. We may earn an affiliate commission from any sales.

Packaging

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Looking at the packaging, FSP has chosen a brown box approach with black pictures of the CUT593A on the larger sides.

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FSP has a blown-out image of the CUT593A, showing all the removable sections.

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FSP has chosen premium packing materials, including white high-density foam on both the top and bottom. A clear plastic bag also protects the CUT593A from debris.

Outside the FSP CUT593A ATX Case

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With all the packing materials removed, the CUT593A reveals a familiar and comfortable ATX-style mid-tower case with front air ventilation. The tempered glass side panel, with its black border and FSP-branded fabric pull tab, adds a touch of familiarity. The external dimensions are 500 x 230 x 544mm, a standard size for ATX cases.

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FSP has tastefully placed its logo on the lower right-hand section of the front dust filter.

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The front dust filter, which is held into place with magnets, allows airflow fairly easily.

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The back side panel is, well, very normal, with two captive thumb screws holding the panel into place.

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The rear of the CUT593A is also very typical of a mid-tower PC case. A single exhaust fan slot is present; however, the tooling originally planned only a 120mm fan. Odd. Seven PCIe slots, with screw-in slot covers and, oddly enough, snap-out PCIe slot covers, are still seen even in 2024, but not with the FSP CUT593A. Clarification is needed about the panel to the right of the PCIe slots. A single non-captive thumb screw holds this section in place, but I struggled to figure out what it does. Moving further down is the PSU mounting, which, unfortunately, is not removable. A rear-accessible PSU filter is hidden in the bottom plastic housing.

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Two very large rubber feet provide great grip on a desktop surface, which, I may add, makes an absolute mess on a desk from all the streaking. Additional slotted-style venting is also present.

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The top of the CUT593A has a small circular ventilation pattern, though the holes in the removable roof could have been bigger.

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Below the top panel, closest to the user, is the CUT593A's front I/O. It's designed for efficiency, with square power and reset buttons, activity lights, two USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports, separated 3.5mm headphone and microphone jacks for HD audio, and a single USB Type-C Gen 2 port. This comprehensive array of ports and buttons ensures you can easily connect and control your devices.

Inside the FSP CUT593A ATX Case

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Going inside the FSP CUT593A, we are greeted with a very traditional ATX case layout supporting E-ATX motherboards. Up to two 280/360mm AIO or radiators are supported in the top and front locations. Two 2.5" HDD/SSDs are also supported on the motherboard wall. GPU support is rather good, with up to 400mm in length.

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The top fan/radiator mount location, as stated previously, supports up to 280/360mm radiators or three 120mm or two 140mm fans. This fan location also has enough height for fans to mount externally, perfect for those push-pull radiator fan configurations.

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The front fan location for the CUT593A is shown here. Unfortunately, it is not removable for easier fan or radiator installation.

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FSP has included four 140mm ARGB fans with the CUT593A. However, these fans are not PWM; they are DC but still fully controllable. The fourth 140mm fan is pre-installed as an exhaust in the rear of the CUT593A.

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Taking the rear side panel off via two captive thumbscrews shows a few unmanaged cables running up the middle of the CUT593A using two cable retention clips. Support for two 2.5" HDD/SSDs are located directly behind the motherboard tray and are removable via a single screw. Two rubber cable grommets allow for cleaner cable passthrough, but it would have been appreciated if more were included. Other drive support is located in the basement, with a 3.5" drive cage supporting three additional 3.5" HDDs. PSU support is limited to 200mm with the drive cage installed.

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FSP has included all the accessories in a nice little white box.

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Removing the baggie that was inside that white accessory box. Inside is a two-pin plug-in speaker, various screws, a standoff tool, and three FSP branded velcro straps.

Test System, Installation, and Finished Product

• Motherboard: Z690 AORUS Pro (Intel Z690) - Buy from Amazon
• CPU: Intel Core i5 12600K - Buy from Amazon
• Cooler: Cooler Master PL360 Flux - Buy from Amazon
• Memory: Corsair Dominator Platinum DDR5-7200 32GB - Buy from Amazon
• Graphics Card: ZOTAC Gaming GeForce RTX 3090 Trinity OC - Buy from Amazon
• Storage: Corsair MP600 PRO XT Gen4 PCIe x4 NVMe M.2 SSD - Buy from Amazon
• Case: FSP CUT593 Series Mid Tower Computer Case
• Power Supply: Enermax PlatiGemini 1200w 80 PLUS Platinum ATX 3.1 and 12VO PSU - Buy from Amazon
• OS: Microsoft Windows 11 Pro 64-bit Build 22621 - Buy from Amazon
• Software: AIDA64 Engineer v7.35.7000, CPU-z 2.10.0 x64. GPU-Z 2.60.0, and HWiNFO64 v8.07-5515

Final Thoughts

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Building in FSP's CUT593A seemed like a hit and a miss all at the same time, meaning that some things, for example, having four included 140mm ARGB fans, are great but lacked some of the other finishing touches, like the rear fan grille only seemly to be tooled for a 120mm fan and not for 140mm. The swing-out tempered glass side panel is also a premium feature, but the whole case has a very plasticky feel, mainly because almost the entire exterior is plastic. Installing a motherboard was somewhat frustrating, having to install the three outer motherboard standoffs after having the test motherboard all lined up. Then, after the standoffs, the rear 140mm ARGB fan conflicted with the motherboard heatsink, so that fan had to be removed to install the motherboard, and then the rear fan was reinstalled.

When it came time for cable management, I had to redo all the cabling, mostly due to having the fan DC power wires and aRGB header wires to manage on each 140mm fan. The main cable tie-down points, which are more like a PVC tube with a slot cut down the middle, seemed decent for keeping a lot of the smaller cables at bay. However, the main 24-pin motherboard cable had to be routed beside the main cable channel raceway. I was able to bunch up and shove the rest of the PSU cables into the PSU basement section.

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Testing the FSP CUT593A ATX Mid-Tower case, I used the Intel Core i5 12600K on a Z690 AORUS Pro motherboard. For the memory, two DDR5 sticks of Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB ran at DDR5-7200M/T. The test GPU is the Zotac NVIDIA RTX 3090 Trinity, which was run at stock power limits and clocks via MSI's Afterburner GPU Overclocking and Monitoring utility. The included three 140mm fans, pre-installed in the front of the FSP CUT593A case, set airflow at a massive positive air intake advantage in the front. In contrast, the three Cooler Master aRGB Mobius 120mm fans mounted on the CPU AIO, the Cooler Master PL360 Flux, in the roof helped even those odds.

The Intel Core i5 12600K CPU, which has 10 cores with 16 threads, had temps only risen to an average temperature of 57C while maintaining average boost clocks of 4.5GHz with 1.2v for vcore. In contrast, the Zotac NVIDIA RTX 3090 Trinity GPU averaged only 76.5C while keeping an average frequency of over 1.8 GHz for boost clocks.

All testing was completed using Aida64 Engineer's System Stability Test v7.35.7000 for over 15 hours, with an ambient air temperature of 18C. Other monitoring software used was HWiNFO64 v8.07-5515, TechPowerUp GPU-Z v2.60.0, and CPU-Z 2.10.0.x64.

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In closing, now that FSP is releasing ATX-style cases, they have started to a rocky start, but that is to be expected. Let's focus on what FSP did get right, like having great front airflow by including four 140mm ARGB fans, not to mention having a mesh front panel, meaning that the component temperatures were more than adequate. The swing-out tempered glass side panel is also a great feature when you need to get inside the case for a quick second. That said, some aspects of the CUT593A can be improved, namely build quality. The steel FSP has been selected to be too flimsy, so I had some iffy thoughts while installing the test system. Using this much plastic is a bit concerning, but one can only complain a little at the current price of $89.99.

Now, if I were shopping for a $75 to $100 ATX chassis, the CUT593A seems to have a lot of competition. Other cases that have better build quality, for example, the Montech 903 Air MAX, Montech Sky Two GX, Fractal's Pop Air XL, and Lian Li's Lancool 216RX, all have included ARGB fans, as well as having great airflow, all while being around the same price as the CUT593A. The CUT593A is not a bad attempt for FSP by any means; it just means the pricing has to be reduced by another $10 - $15 to make it a worthwhile option for PC builders.