HAVN HS 420 VGPU Mid-Tower Chassis Review

TweakTown Rating: 95%

Our Verdict

The HAVN HS 420 VGPU is one of the best looking cases available, packed with features and great build quality. It justifies the price tag with its performance, and invigorates the case market with its fresh design.

Pros

• Fantastic build quality
• Thermal performance
• Cable management system
• Included extras - fan hub, VESA mount, etc.
• Build experience

Cons

• No included fans
• Price, but it's worth it
• No ARGB hub

Should you buy it?

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Introduction, Specifications, and Pricing

HAVN released its debut case, the HS 420, towards the end of 2024. It was a case that was met with much praise and admiration, and finally, TweakTown has managed to get our hands on one to check out.

This stylish case is available in two versions, with or without a vertical GPU mount, resulting in a different bottom fan mount and configuration. These are aptly named the HAVN HS 420, or the HAVN HS 420 VGPU; I will let you guess which one is which. The VGPU version does not include the flat bottom fan bracket as featured on the standard edition; this will be available for purchase separately soon.

Both versions are available in the almost industry-standard black or white, with pricing for a standard HAVN HS 420 coming in at $229.99, or with the VGPU variant, at $299.99. HAVN has decided not to charge the consumer a white option tax either, good for them. It's not the cheapest mid-tower case by any stretch, but from the builds I have seen on the internet, it looks pretty interesting. Today, I will be looking at whether it is worth the praise it has received and what all the fuss is about.

Packaging

I could copy and paste the case brown box blurb in here, but at least HAVN has made some effort with the packaging. I understand that money spent on glossy cardboard cuts profit margins, and rightly so. A manufacturer should invest its cash in the product rather than the packaging, provided it does its job to bring your new shiny toy to your door safely and sound.

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The HAVN HS 420 VPGU arrived in a brown box with large, orange text indicating what is inside. "HS 420 VGPU" is slapped across the front along with a QR code and some print to let us know this is a premium mid-tower case. Judging from the size of the box, mid-tower may be pushing it, but I would argue that maybe this is a full-tower.

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Neither sides offer much of interest, while the back of the packaging gives more detail on some of the key points of the HAVN HS 420 VGPU. These are all interesting areas to explore that we will come on to later.

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HAVN package this case upside down, so before you open the box, you are met with some instructions, remove the included accessory pack, tip the box over so when the case lands on your desk, it is already the right way up.

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It's nice to be greeted with something like this, especially when spending $300 on a case. From the moment you open the box, it feels like HAVN is holding your hand, catering to those new to building their first PC. If you are using this case for your first build, congrats!

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Before I move on to the case, I want to look at what this little bundle includes. Yes, it's the accessory box, but HAVN did a good job of grabbing my attention here, so let's delve in. Sliding the welcome card off, there is a QR code to help get you started, and an included paper manual that Ikea would be proud of. Finally, the accessory kit includes a VESA mount, yes, you read that correctly.

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Along with your TV bracket, you'll find all the standard parts you'd expect, some spare cable management combs, and a pair of gloves. This way, when you are building, you can keep that nasty hand dirt off the glass. Bravo HAVN, Bravo.

Flipping the case out of the box, I am actually disappointed. The dust bag is clear, so it doesn't help with a big case reveal, and while the case, on initial view, looks fantastic, I wanted to unwrap this like a Ferrari at the dealership. You know what I mean, the sales guys, slowly sliding back the cover to reveal your new pride and joy while you stand there jumping up and down like a four-year-old.

Outside the HAVN HS 420 VGPU

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Remove the most disappointing plastic bag ever, and oh my days. What a case.

This thing just looks fantastic, especially in white. I actually took a few minutes just staring at it, thinking about the water cooling possibilities, the mods that could be done, and more. I even thought about a simple, non-crazy white air-cooled build. Yes, it really is a beautiful-looking case.

Focusing just on the externals, then, the tempered glass is a single piece that runs all the way around the front, making both the side and front glass a single piece. I'm no expert on glass making, but I do know that glass doesn't like bending too much, so this must have been quite the headache for HAVN to pull off, and do it so well, too.

HAVN states that they have produced the smallest possible curve radius, minimizing visual distortion and offering a clear, uninterrupted view of your case's interior. Coming in at 19kg, or 41lbs, it's not the lightest case, and with all that glass, I understand why. Below the glass, there is an air intake for the bottom fan mount. I will cover the case feet, or lack thereof, when we move to the front and bottom of the case. It's not a design I have seen before, but it's one that I like, providing the case can pull in enough air.

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Now I have my senses together and have stopped fawning over it. Let's start at the top. The top panel features a fabric pull tab to the rear; this is a magnetic panel with spacious venting and includes the case IO.

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There is one USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C, two USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports, a combo audio jack, and a power and reset button. A couple more USB ports would have been nice at $300, but I am certainly not going to lose any sleep over this. Note that both the top and rear side panels feature fine mesh filtration as part of the panel to keep the internals nice and clean.

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The rear side panel is all about air flow, the same as the top. There are horizontal vents the full length of the panel to help this case breathe. Being dual-chambered, this will aid our power supply, and depending on the configuration, will either suck air in or pass it out for side-mounted fans.

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The front, featuring a one-piece glass that wraps around the side, is a perfect design, with a cutout at the bottom to allow air to enter. This is a case where the base of the case is the feet, with space for air to be brought in above. It doesn't feel the norm, but this is how HAVN has pushed the boundaries of case design with the HS 420 VGPU.

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Confirming the above, the bottom of the case simply features rubber pads to prevent slippage, which is all you get here. No extra vent, nothing.

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The rear of the case offers a lot to talk about due to the unique design of the HAVN HS 420 VGPU. It's stuff we will cover more on the internal side of things. At the top is the motherboard IO cutout to the left, with what is a traditional fan mount to the right. Below is a recessed cutout for the vertically mounted GPU, with an adjustable four PCIe slot design.

Head lower, to the rear of the motherboard tray, is space for the power supply, and to the right of this is another fan mount, yes, you get two! Again, the same as the front, there is a cutout at the bottom for air to enter the case. The bottom fan mount also includes a removable dust filter; however, you have to remove the rear panel as it opens inwards.

This is perhaps the one thing I would like to see HAVN change, so that it is removed externally for ease of cleaning. It shows the attention to detail, designating this position as an intake fan, and ensuring it only pulls in clean air via the filter.

Inside the HAVN HS 420 VGPU

Right then, time to stop staring at the outside and move indoors. Let's check out the interior!

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First, with the top panel removed, there are a few things worth talking about. The power button itself is integrated in the panel, meaning we have the actual switch sat below. There are seven white tabs dotted along the perimeter; this is where the screws are located to remove the one-piece glass panel, the back side, and the rear panel for accessing fan mounting.

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There is a removable fan/radiator mounting tray and a cable guide with labelling, so you know what to fill it with. You will note that all fan mounts and brackets include flexible rubber isolators to separate the bracket from the chassis, preventing resonance and ensuring a quieter operation.

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Standing the case up and removing the four screws allows the glass to be carefully removed. The back features locating roller guides, which, as you'll soon see on the chassis, align for the glass to fit into place.

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Our first look internally, and with the second accessory box that we will cover later removed, you get an idea of the scale of this case. For reference, the bottom fan mount is sized for 140mm fans, and there is plenty of room to work in. HAVN is trying to put the GPU front and center here, and for the bigger cards out there, they are going to be the centerpiece of any build in this case, for sure.

The right-hand side of the motherboard tray is multi-functional. This includes four removable drive sleds, capable of holding either 2.5" or 3.5" drives. With the sleds removed, this becomes a fan/radiator mounting bracket, or, if you wish, you can remove it completely. Doing this frees up another option; you can use the included VESA mount and slap a screen into this area.

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The bottom filtration is done using a side-mounted, slide-out whole coverage filter. This tucks into the opening and is a great implementation. A front slide would have been perfect, but it does not detract from the HAVN HS 420 VGPU.

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The vertical GPU mount is adjustable forwards and backwards and is delivered safely with foam padding around the PCIe 5.0 X16 ribbon cable. To access the motherboard screws behind, the bracket can be removed by taking out three screws at the back of the case. It's so simple, I didn't even have to consult the manual to figure out how to complete this process.

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Located behind the bracket, and along the side and top of the motherboard tray are the unusual cable pass-through grommets that are part of the system HAVN calls the SimpliCable routing system. These will provide good cable management, are made of silicon material, and include guides that can be slid into position to really tidy up the final build. HAVN has carefully considered the positioning of these, with extras included in the box for 24, 8, and 6+2 pin cables.

The top of the chassis is remarkably rigid, despite losing one corner for strength, and you can see the slots used to locate the glass panel. It doesn't just drop straight down; it drops in, then, with the angle, seats itself snugly against the chassis frame.

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Before moving around the back, let's look closer at the rear. A single screw holds the panel in place. HAVN, in their user manual, has the two fan mounts set up so that the top pulls hot air out, and the bottom brings fresh cold air to the bottom of the graphics card. A dual fan setup isn't usual, but it does make sense and can accommodate either 120mm or 140mm fans. Both are mounted by removing the internal plates, mounting the fan to the plate, and then installing it.

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Moving to the back of the motherboard tray, we find more hand-holding instructions from HAVN regarding cable management. There is also an area for storage so that a drive can be mounted to the rear of the motherboard tray. The cable management routes seem good, spacious, and include Velcro ties, with room below for the power supply and any unneeded cables to hide away.

The fan bracket is removed by taking out three Phillips head screws, features good positioning rails, and you can see the screws for mounting drives within the sleds.

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The eagle-eyed among you will have noticed the included SATA-powered fan hubs, one located top right, and one bottom left next to the side fan mount. These cater for a total of 12 PWM fans, but no ARGB ports are included. Now, that is a real shame. I have seen other cases recently, including the Light Base 900 FX from be quiet! cater for both fan and lighting, to cover the full case accommodation of fans, and I wish HAVN had included this also. It's not the end of the world, but at $300, I would, however, expect this to be included.

Installation, Testing, Finished Product, and Final Thoughts

Now it's time to get this case fitted out for testing. Now, given how the case is presented, I could have gone mad, fitting a load of fans and then running our tests. That, though, wouldn't be fair, so although it will look lost within the HAVN HS 420 VGPU, I will be using my standard test setup, with the be quiet! 360mm Pure Loop 2 AIO, as I did with the TRYX LUCA L70. This will make sure that the results are standardised as far as possible, giving a realistic, but baseline result on which to base your purchasing decision.

Installing a system in this case was really easy. Yes, I did have to remove the VGPU mount to get the motherboard installed, but if you don't go for this version of the case, then this is a step you won't have to take. It's not a complicated process, as I mentioned earlier.

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While I have the VGPU bracket loose, it was time to fit the final part of this puzzle, the VGPU kit. This kit includes a glass shroud that screws to the back of the bottom fan mount and comes with all the mounting hardware needed to add your fans of choice.

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This shroud is designed to ensure that the airflow goes to where it's needed, the GPU. Think F1 car and a wind tunnel. The bottom three fans will pull air up, while the rear-mounted fan provides more fresh air to be sucked into the GPU cooler.

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Everything else, from fitting the power supply to running the cables, was easy and effective. The CPU power cables are not long enough to make use of the included cable tracks, but that isn't a HANV problem!

Running all the cables through the grommets made it easier to ensure they were in the right place, and I had no issues with the grommets popping out of place. It's a great cable system that others will undoubtedly try to copy.

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The system I have built for testing includes an AMD Ryzen 5 9600X CPU housed in an MSI B850 Tomahawk Max Wi-Fi Motherboard paired with two sticks of 16GB Corsair Vengeance DDR5-6000. Our CPU is kept cool using the be quiet! Pure Loop 2 360mm AIO. For storage, I am using a Corsair MP700 Elite 1TB NVMe M.2 drive. Finally, for graphics, I have an ASUS Prime RTX 4070 12 GB Super. Testing is completed with PBO enabled, AXMP1, and MSI Smart fan configuration.

Kris' Test System Specifications

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All testing was completed using Aida64 Engineer's System Stability Test v7.65.7400 for 2 hours. Other software used was HWiNFO 64 v8.28-5770, TechPowerUp GPU-Z v2.66.0, and CPU-Z v2.15.0 x64.

Our testing shows good results, with ambient temperatures around 23 °C as we near the end of summer. Our CPU temperature rose to a maximum of almost 75 °C, settling with an average of 72 °C. While we don't have any air blowing on the GPU, this held up well, maxing at 73.5 °C and running an average of 72.4 °C for the duration of our test.

Looking at these results, and in comparison with some of the other cases I have tested, even those including fans, the HAVN HS 420 VGPU offers excellent thermal performance. This takes into account the delta, with temperatures here starting to drop off a few degrees.

My case reviews so far at TweakTown would have been wrapped up well before now, so maybe there is something bad about the HAVN HS 420 VGPU, as I am still tapping away on my keyboard. The thing is, there's nothing bad to talk about, and the increased character count is because the case has so many good things to talk about. It has done something different, has so many interesting talking points, and I could have probably thrown a few more hundred words into this review. It's a refreshing change from the day-to-day cases we see, and it's great to see such effort put into a product.

The craftsmanship, fit, finish, and attention to detail are awe-inspiring. You forget that this is the first shot HAVN has taken with a case, too, which is stupidly scary, and gives anyone else thinking about launching their first case a serious bar to raise. The tiniest of niggles could include that the top support structure isn't white to match the rest, and there are no included fans in a $300 case. This is usually something I would call out, but what you do get, in my opinion, is worth the $300 on its own, screw the fans and ARGB hub; I will save up again for them.

HAVN went as far as taking aim and naming who its main competitors are when launching this case. They actually went further, pulled the trigger, and scored a head shot from well over 1000 yards. Lian Li, Corsair, and Hyte are all names that HAVN has gone after, and rightly so. Being their first case, HAVN may have even accidentally pulled the trigger again, but this time, shooting themselves in the foot, I mean, after all, how will they follow this up with an even better case?