7 Best PC cases for Airflow in 2020

PC cases

Computer chassis equivalent to a container, will all the computer hardware bearing in the frame, air cooling is still the most common chassis cooling way, but with the new round of hardware development, hardware heat and began to increase, high heat dissipation is always the problem faced by the computer host, then in the assembly of a computer, choose a chassis with excellent cooling performance is particularly important, today we recommend several computer chassis!

The Antec Dark Phantom DP501 is part of the Antec Dark series, and the chassis is understated and luxurious without any personality flare or superfluous fancy design.

The lower left side of the front panel is designed with an iron mesh air inlet, the designer has arranged ARGB light bars along the air inlet, and the side-transparent chassis is designed with 4mm tempered glass on the left side panel to get cool lighting effects.

The Antec Dark Phantom DP501 color chassis measures 435mm*210mm*480mm, and supports ATX, Micro-ATX, and ITX motherboards, and can be plugged into up to 380mm of extended graphics cards. The chassis also supports an all-in-one lighting experience and is compatible with ARGB motherboards, synchronizing ARGB light bars, fans, light bands, CPU coolers, and more.

2、Cooler Master MasterBox Lite 5

The MasterBox Lite 5 continues the look of the Master family with the use of black – a subdued yet straightforward yet elegant style. It features a full-side translucent cover, and the front panel also utilizes a polyhedral mirror design with stunning lighting when the internal fan is running.

In terms of expansion, MasterBox Lite 5 is based on the mid-tower ATX solution, with a body size of 468.8mm x 200mm x 454.5mm, a weight of 5.07kg, sheet thickness of 0.5mm (partly 0.6mm), compatibility with ATX, microATX and MiniATX platforms, and a 40cm long graphics card and 160mm high CPU cooler.

The interior also supports air/water-cooled extensions, with either a front 3x12cm/2x14cm fan or 240mm/360mm water-cooled, and a 12cm exhaust at the rear, which can also help a 120mm water-cooled row extension.

3. Jonsbo U4

The Jonsbo U4 is a high-quality aluminum chassis with full transparent tempered glass side translucent, simple and stylish appearance, compact and delicate; the surface is beautiful sand white, the subtle texture is not rough, and looks elegant and straightforward.

The Jonsbo U4 is an ATX chassis that supports the installation of ATX power supplies and ATX, M-ATX, Mini-ITX motherboards. The central body part is magnesium-aluminum alloy, 2mm thick, a 5mm opaque tempered glass casement window on the side, and the internal hardware is 1mm thick steel.

Supports 170mm height CPU coolers, up to 310mm graphics cards, and 120mm/240mm cold rows. It comes standard with a rear 12cm cooling fan, two 2.5″ SSD bits + one 3.5″ HDD bit.

4. CORSAIR Obsidian 500D

The CORSAIR Obsidian 500D is a high-end product, weighing in at around 10.5kg, which has a lot to do with the aluminum alloy and tempered glass, and the thickness of the plates is 3.5mm, which is 502mm x 233mm x 508mm for an ATX mid-tower chassis.

The CORSAIR Obsidian 500D features full-side glass side panels on both the left and right sides, and the CORSAIR Obsidian 500D also innovates with the opening and closing design of these two side panels. Its two side panels can be opened and closed like a door, a model that makes it easy for users to open the side panels at any time.

It supports ATX, MicroATX, Mini-ITX platforms and is capable of supporting CPU coolers up to 170mm high and long graphics cards up to 370mm and ATX power supplies up to 225mm long. For CPU coolers, some users will opt for water-cooled coolers, and the 170mm height limit is perfectly adequate.

The CORSAIR Obsidian 500D can be fitted with three 12cm or 14cm fans on the front and a maximum of 360mm water cooling. The chassis also has a 12cm RGB cooling fan pre-installed at the rear but can be replaced with a 120mm/140mm watercooler.

After installing an ATX board with a ROG CROSSHAIR VI motherboard and a ROG-STRIX-GTX1070TI-A8G-GAMING graphics card, we can see that there is still plenty of space inside the chassis.    

It should be noted that when installing a motherboard with armored cooling, it is recommended to remove the fan pre-installed at the rear of the frame and wait for the motherboard to be installed before the fan is installed. Alternatively, the two pre-installed fans at the back and front can be mounted directly to the top, and then a cooling fan can be purchased separately at the back, and a 360mm size one-piece water cooler can be installed at the front.

The graphics card part, even after installing 360mm water cooling, still does not affect the installation of the graphics card. This shows that the interior of the CORSAIR Obsidian 500D is spacious enough.

5. NZXT H510i

The H510i is an upgrade from the H500i and is in line with the H500 in terms of looks, while the addition of a USB 3.1Gen2 Type-C port on the top panel is indeed a more practical upgrade for gamers.

The NZXT i-series chassis is equipped with an adaptive noise cancellation function, with a built-in noise sensor that intelligently adjusts the fan speed to control the noise inside the frame, and a learning function that further enhances the noise cancellation effect to achieve the best balance between heat and noise.

The H510i is equipped with the new Smart Device V2 module, a built-in, more powerful, and responsive microprocessor that controls two HUE 2 RGB luminous channels and three chassis fan channels via NZXT’s CAM software.

On the back of the case, with the classic NZXT cable groove and magic straps, even the chunky cables of a high-end power supply are stress-free to run on the back.

The H510i supports up to 165mm high CPU coolers and 381mm long ultra-long cards, so most of the high-end hardware on the market can be installed.

For the cooling part, the H510i provides two Aer F 120 chassis fans by default. The rear of the front panel can support up to 280mm cooling row, which means that if the CPU uses a 120mm cooling row, the front panel can also be installed with 240/280mm cooling row of the water-cooled graphics card, which is also an excellent cooling configuration for a 7-slot compact mid-tower. Overall, the H510i can hold the majority of mid- to high-end configuration hardware installations. However, if you have to use an audiophile EATX motherboard, you still need a larger chassis, and the H510i is the refined route.

6、Cooler Master MasterBox MB530P

The Cooler MasterBox MB530P chassis measures 560*290*540mm; it weighs 8.55kg and is fully compatible with ATX, Matx, ITX, EATX, with two 3.5″ HDDs and four 2.5″ SSDs; it has seven separate graphics baffles.

The front panel position water-cooling supports 120/140/240/280/360mm, the top position water-cooling supports 120/240mm, and the rear position water-cooling supports 120mm. The back outlet supports 120/140mm fans, and there are three signs visible above.

When three dazzling fans are paired with glass, it’s destined to be extra cool. The lighting effect can be adjusted directly with the buttons at the top, and the colors are gorgeous.

The skeletonized filter at the top can be dust-ridden, considering the different environments in which different players use it. Of course, it weighs a fast 10KG, which is caused by the three pass-through tempered glass, bringing the drawback of weight gain. The obvious benefit is the translucent effect, allowing the light effect to be seen at a glance.

7. Corsair Crystal 280X

The CORSAIR Crystal 280X has a great look, with three sides of tempered glass wrapped around it, making it the perfect chassis for displaying desktop hardware.

The Crystal 280X RGB is made of metal steel, ABS plastic, and 4mm tempered glass, measuring 39.8cm x 27.6cm x 25.1cm, and supports Mini-ITX and Micro-ATX motherboards. It features Direct Airflow Path Cooling, which provides a more direct airflow path to the front chassis fan, providing better cooling for the processor and graphics card.

In terms of internal space, the CORSAIR Crystal 280X RGB supports CPU coolers up to 15cm and can install graphics cards up to 30cm.

The CORSAIR Crystal 280X is designed with a dual-compartment structure, with a simple air duct design for the main compartment where the processor and graphics card are placed, and mesh holes on the top, front panel, and bottom, as well as support for the installation of chassis fans or water-cooled rows to facilitate chassis cooling, the graphics card, and the cooling row heat can be quickly discharged. Basically, with no visible heat accumulation phenomenon, heat dissipation performance is excellent.

When we assemble computers, we tend to think more about performance, especially the CPU and graphics card hardware, the more high-end, the more heat will be generated. For installed users who pay attention to heat dissipation, in addition to choosing excellent heat dissipation CPU cooler, also consider adding chassis fan-assisted cooling. So is a chassis fan necessary? How many fits? Where is a superb location for chassis fan mounting?

The more advanced the current computer hardware process, the less heat and power consumption, without the chassis fan, the mainframe can still run steadily, without any problems. These days chassis fans are basically with a light effect; more of them are added just for the light effect inside the mainframe.

Of course, the addition of a chassis fan will undoubtedly have a specific auxiliary cooling effect on the chassis cooling; heat will be quickly withdrawn by the fan to achieve a cooling effect.

Where is an excellent location for chassis fan mounting?

After testing, the best place to install the fan in the chassis is as follows.

The best results are achieved when installing a fan at the rear of the chassis, especially the CPU temperature, which is reduced most significantly.

When two fans are installed, one rear outlet fan and one front inlet fan are installed to cool down the temperature most noticeably and achieve an excellent cooling effect, the front sucking cold air, and the rear hot air.

With three fans, installing one rear outlet fan and two front inlet fans cool down best.

With four fans, with one rear outlet fan, two front inlet fans, and one upper outlet fan, there is minimal cooling compared to 3 fans (2 front and one back).

With five fans, it was the addition of a fan to the bottom of the chassis that had little to no effect on the CPU temperature but was able to lower the temperature of the graphics card slightly by only 1-2 degrees.

How many chassis fans would fit?

If you need to install fans, usually 1-3 fans cool down the temperature the best, any more fans, the cooling is minimal, and there will be a significant increase in noise, especially in the dead of night.

7 Best PC cases for Airflow in 2020

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