I must say this does look somewhat familiar to something I've seen recently.

brian111I must say this does look somewhat familiar to something I've seen recently.

It's probably a phanteks you're thinking about, even if they look all the same nowadays...Well at least we have a pretty wide choice of options, i suppose we can't complain.

brian111I must say this does look somewhat familiar to something I've seen recently.

You must be thinking of the gazillion other boring, lamelame, samesame rectangular boxen that have been released in the past 5 years :D

oxidizedIt's probably a phanteks you're thinking about, even if they look all the same nowadays...Well at least we have a pretty wide choice of options, i suppose we can't complain.

Yes it does look a lot like a Phanteks, and about 80% of all others!

brian111

Yes it does look a lot like a Phanteks, and about 80% of all others!

Maybe they are using same OEM and tooling!!

PSU shrouds are kind of a shame in my opinion. Could have easily had 3x120mm fans in the front.

CheapMeatPSU shrouds are kind of a shame in my opinion.

actually i like a lot PSU shrouds, they improve airflow, cable management and for sure aesthetics, and is something thats becoming more and more popular over case makers, im glad that such a excellent add-pn is available on several cases and models, also remakes of older cases that were needing this, im kinda saving money for other projects, so im trying to figure out how to make me one for my current case, i dont want to replace the case, but i totally wanting a shroud,

brian111I must say this does look somewhat familiar to something I've seen recently.

i could say that most cases inside look exactly de same, but just my opinion,


Regards,

Kinda wonder how well PC built to these glass/plastic side cases would pass EMC testing...
Suspect result would be like in vehicle inspection joke, in which inspector saying "passing through" means screw driver going through rusted bottom of car.

pecheactually i like a lot PSU shrouds, they improve airflow

15 years ago separate compartment for PSU would have made sense with those garbage efficiency PSUs producing third of PC's heat output.
Now actually modern PSUs produce about 5% of heat output, at least with European mains voltage.
So PSU doesn't need any special airflow and neither it can produce significant amount of heat to case.
Resulting shroud only making working inside case harder with less continuous open space.
And don't want to think how hard it makes adding cable to PSU when adding some drive to PC.

CheapMeatCould have easily had 3x120mm fans in the front.

There is room, and places to mount three 120mm fans in the front.

RealNeilThere is room, and places to mount three 120mm fans in the front.

Ah, I see it now. Shroud basically cuts the flow in half though. I just personally don't think the shrouds are good, even aesthetically. The only benefit is for those who don't want to do any kind of cable management.

I like PSU shrouds aesthetically and for simplifying cable management. I very much like just having all of my cables kind of poking up through the shroud or peeking around the mobo panel. I'll take an airflow hit for that. A fair compromise that I'd definitely like to see is removable shrouds on all cases. Not hard to do, you'd think.

That said, I don't think there's any denying that it hurts GPU airflow to some extent by limiting the space for heat to diffuse out into. I imagine the diminished overall space also affects temps throughout the case. I've always assumed that anyway... ...I'm sure tests have been done. Same reason vertical mounting often hurts GPU temps, only not as extreme. You can't legitimately claim that the case is airflow-oriented with a completely closed-off, full-length shroud.

I like how they say they made airflow a top priority. We've known for a very long time now that closed front panels KILL airflow. And a few puny ventholes and fan offset is not enough. You gotta REALLY open the thing up... ...I'm talking mesh front panels or at the very least big mesh openings running along the whole side of the panel. Like, lets be real man... ...how much flow could those little openings on that panel really allow?

Think of it this way... if you measured the total open space on those cutouts in the front panel, would they even come close to the total combined open space of the top/rear exhaust? Not hard to see how much of a bottleneck that is when you think of it that way. Your intake capacity is so much less than your exhaust capacity that you'll never utilize your fan's max cooling capacity in a positive pressure configuration. Not with one, two, or three intakes... ...only difference with more fans is that they run quieter up to that bottleneck. They don't have to work as hard to get the force needed to pull decent volume. Still gonna hit that flow wall. It's like trying to supply water to the whole neighborhood with 1/2" diameter piping.

I blame NZXT for a lot of this... ...PSU shrouds and closed front panels. They look awesome... ...I love my S340 Elite and for my low-mid build it stays perfectly cool. But I think when they did it they had liquid cooled, mid/high TDP builds in mind... ...which is fine and they seem to work for that. But now everybody does it and it's gotten hard to find cases that are actually good for all-air cooling. Gonna have some noisy front fans to pull any decent air through these choked front panels. And solid plastic mesh? Do I need to say more? Why wouldn't they just put a proper mesh going across the fans behind the front panel? Pop it off to change meshes or clean it. No brainer...

Why is it that case manufacturers insist on copying everything that is bad about the most popular cases? I don't get it. Looks are great, but I think there are many ways to get the look everyone seems to want without compromising performance. Cooler Master and NZXT are starting to get it. They've found ways to open up front airflow without sacrificing that closed-front look. Lian Li has some creative ways of getting around closed front panel limitations, too. So it can be done... ...but these days its almost like case designers just take a grab-bag of aesthetic features, slap them together, and smear a bunch of marketing over them. They're just so ambiguous from one another and they all seem to suffer from the same pretty major flaws. It's getting harder to believe that these cases can take a year or more to design...

pecheim trying to figure out how to make me one for my current case, i dont want to replace the case, but i totally wanting a shroud,

I know he just added an RGB panel to his existing full length shroud, but this looks great.
linustechtips.com/main/topic/792877-diy-rgbw-power-supply-shroud/

robot zombieI like PSU shrouds aesthetically and for simplifying cable management. I very much like just having all of my cables kind of poking up through the shroud or peeking around the mobo panel. I'll take an airflow hit for that. A fair compromise that I'd definitely like to see is removable shrouds on all cases. Not hard to do, you'd think.


I blame NZXT for a lot of this... ...PSU shrouds and closed front panels. They look awesome... ...I love my S340 Elite and for my low-mid build it stays perfectly cool. But I think when they did it they had liquid cooled, mid/high TDP builds in mind... ...which is fine and they seem to work for that. But now everybody does it and it's gotten hard to find cases that are actually good for all-air cooling. Gonna have some noisy front fans to pull any decent air through these choked front panels. And solid plastic mesh? Do I need to say more? Why wouldn't they just put a proper mesh going across the fans behind the front panel? Pop it off to change meshes or clean it. No brainer...

Why is it that case manufacturers insist on copying everything that is bad about the most popular cases? I don't get it...
...but these days its almost like case designers just take a grab-bag of aesthetic features, slap them together, and smear a bunch of marketing over them. They're just so ambiguous from one another and they all seem to suffer from the same pretty major flaws. It's getting harder to believe that these cases can take a year or more to design...

Would happily accept cases to have PSU shroud if it can be removed, so that it doesn't bother me in working inside case/complicate airflow etc.

Because of that PSU shroud and other fashion consider Fractal Design Define R6 as plain back step from R5 functionality wise.
www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Fractal_Design/Define_R5/4.html
www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Fractal_Design/Define_R6/4.html


But if you think that case is bad...
This case has front fans blocked basically completely:
www.eteknix.com/game-max-onyx-rgb-chassis-review/
Just look at that front with fashion glass removed. :banghead:
www.eteknix.com/game-max-onyx-rgb-chassis-review/2/
And thanks to PSU shroud fad it couldn't even compensate that by having bottom intake fan...

Or then this Bitfenix:

This design philosophy of lots of new cases can be summed to: "Shiny outside, Sh*t inside"
With main goal being overloading few operating brain cells of average consumer with all fashion bling bling.