Chieftec Visio

[Darksaber]

The Chieftec Visio is a super compact dual-chamber chassis which can still accept a full size ATX or BTF motherboard. With its full fan load-out of six units and large radiator support in the ceiling, it could be a cool option to stuff all that into such a small chassis. Especially at the attractive price point, clearly aiming the Visio at first-time and budget minded builders.

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[Chrispy_]

It's good to see Chieftec sticking to their roots and offering a clean, tasteful and affordable offering - but the fact that even Chieftec have jumped on this fishtank bandwagon is yet more confirmation that this is another fad that's here for good as a long-term trend.

Honestly, the case market is so so disappointing for enthusiasts:

• First we had RGB. More cost, more spaghetti, shit software everywhere, reduced performance from smaller fan blades to make room for silly lighting.
• Then we had tempered glass. More cost, more weight, less airflow, less practical.
• After that, the next trend was vertical GPU mounting. More cost, PCIe riser complications, airflow issues, blocked expansion slots, space-wasting etc.
• Now we have the dual-chamber design that just wastes space and makes everything needlessly huge. I've already broken down all the pros and cons of this design in other posts, but the biggest downside is the physical size that is truly pointless for the majority of builds, and by that I mean the majority of just the enthusiast DIY PC builds this case is relevant to.

Why are all these zero-performance fads the ones that take hold? The only fad that's been remotely useful is mesh fronts, and arguably that's struggling to survive alongside these fishtank display cases. Where is the "Apple-inspired" minimalist design fad, where is the "least wasteful" fad, and where is the "most suitable size and shape for an average gaming build" fad?

Aside from being a way to show off your hardware (who even does that these days? LAN parties are practically extinct compared to what we had in the 00's, and even though I still attend a few, SFFs and laptops dominate turnout) these fishtanks rose to fame because of the original 011D being the popular option for the new wave of utterly ridiculous factory OC 3090 and 4090 cards competing with each other to see who could make the most overkill, oversized, incompatible cooler (for the highest price). Funnily enough, 14-inch long quad-slot graphics cards aren't really relevant to 99% of the market, yet the trend in PC cases that those idiotic designs caused is here to afflict us all.

 

[bonehead123]

It's good to see Chieftec sticking to their roots and offering a clean, tasteful and affordable offering - but the fact that even Chieftec have jumped on this fishtank bandwagon is yet more confirmation that this is another fad that's here for good as a long-term trend.

Honestly, the case market is so so disappointing for enthusiasts:

• First we had RGB. More cost, more spaghetti, shit software everywhere, reduced performance from smaller fan blades to make room for silly lighting.
• Then we had tempered glass. More cost, more weight, less airflow, less practical.
• After that, the next trend was vertical GPU mounting. More cost, PCIe riser complications, airflow issues, blocked expansion slots, space-wasting etc.
• Now we have the dual-chamber design that just wastes space and makes everything needlessly huge. I've already broken down all the pros and cons of this design in other posts, but the biggest downside is the physical size that is truly pointless for the majority of builds, and by that I mean the majority of just the enthusiast DIY PC builds this case is relevant to.

Why are all these zero-performance fads the ones that take hold? The only fad that's been remotely useful is mesh fronts, and arguably that's struggling to survive alongside these fishtank display cases. Where is the "Apple-inspired" minimalist design fad, where is the "least wasteful" fad, and where is the "most suitable size and shape for an average gaming build" fad?

Aside from being a way to show off your hardware (who even does that these days? LAN parties are practically extinct compared to what we had in the 00's, and even though I still attend a few, SFFs and laptops dominate turnout) these fishtanks rose to fame because of the original 011D being the popular option for the new wave of utterly ridiculous factory OC 3090 and 4090 cards competing with each other to see who could make the most overkill, oversized, incompatible cooler (for the highest price). Funnily enough, 14-inch long quad-slot graphics cards aren't really relevant to 99% of the market, yet the trend in PC cases that those idiotic designs caused is here to afflict us all.

Soooo.... to summarize your thoughts (which I fully agree with BTW):

y/A/w/N....

w*a*s*t*e....

S.n..Z.e.....

 

[Vario]

It's good to see Chieftec sticking to their roots and offering a clean, tasteful and affordable offering - but the fact that even Chieftec have jumped on this fishtank bandwagon is yet more confirmation that this is another fad that's here for good as a long-term trend.

Honestly, the case market is so so disappointing for enthusiasts:

• First we had RGB. More cost, more spaghetti, shit software everywhere, reduced performance from smaller fan blades to make room for silly lighting.
• Then we had tempered glass. More cost, more weight, less airflow, less practical.
• After that, the next trend was vertical GPU mounting. More cost, PCIe riser complications, airflow issues, blocked expansion slots, space-wasting etc.
• Now we have the dual-chamber design that just wastes space and makes everything needlessly huge. I've already broken down all the pros and cons of this design in other posts, but the biggest downside is the physical size that is truly pointless for the majority of builds, and by that I mean the majority of just the enthusiast DIY PC builds this case is relevant to.

Why are all these zero-performance fads the ones that take hold? The only fad that's been remotely useful is mesh fronts, and arguably that's struggling to survive alongside these fishtank display cases. Where is the "Apple-inspired" minimalist design fad, where is the "least wasteful" fad, and where is the "most suitable size and shape for an average gaming build" fad?

Aside from being a way to show off your hardware (who even does that these days? LAN parties are practically extinct compared to what we had in the 00's, and even though I still attend a few, SFFs and laptops dominate turnout) these fishtanks rose to fame because of the original 011D being the popular option for the new wave of utterly ridiculous factory OC 3090 and 4090 cards competing with each other to see who could make the most overkill, oversized, incompatible cooler (for the highest price). Funnily enough, 14-inch long quad-slot graphics cards aren't really relevant to 99% of the market, yet the trend in PC cases that those idiotic designs caused is here to afflict us all.

Agreed on all points. Theres some nice stuff out there by Silverstone but otherwise a lot of it is just glass fishbowls, thin steel, cheap plastic, dumb RGB.

I'm hoping that now that glass and RGB is so mainstream, the trend will flip the other direction towards steel and mesh and no rgb.

 

[bug]

It's not a bad design (if that's what you're into), but it's typical for Chieftec to shoot themselves in the foot with simple things like that wire ball or little-to-no clearance for the cables at the bottom. Also, Chieftec's cases were always well built, it's a bit sad to see subpar steel used here.
Still, for this form factor, 6 fans included and the asking price, it seems pretty solid.

 

[Chrispy_]

It's not a bad design (if that's what you're into), but it's typical for Chieftec to shoot themselves in the foot with simple things like that wire ball or little-to-no clearance for the cables at the bottom. Also, Chieftec's cases were always well built, it's a bit sad to see subpar steel used here.
Still, for this form factor, 6 fans included and the asking price, it seems pretty solid.

That stupid ball of cable spaghetti is the true cost of RGBLED. You don't normally see it because cases rarely provide this many fans, but all RGBLED builds will have to deal with this and it's such a massive irritation (my record was 8 RGB fans but I know there are people out there using far more).

So I can't really fault Chieftec for the ridiculous mess of wires. RGBLED is always like this, even if you buy it yourself. There is a second way out of it, and that's to pay through the nose for those connecting fans that pogo-pin together to cut down on spaghetti, like Lian-Li's Uni fan. The thing is, if you want six of those, you need spend double the cost of this Chieftec case on fans alone, and you've still got to deal with at least twice as many cables as a regular unlit fan.

RGB is, unfortunately, a literal and actual mess regardless of whether you like it or not.

 

[bug]

That stupid ball of cable spaghetti is the true cost of RGBLED. You don't normally see it because cases rarely provide this many fans, but all RGBLED builds will have to deal with this and it's such a massive irritation (my record was 8 RGB fans but I know there are people out there using far more).

So I can't really fault Chieftec for the ridiculous mess of wires. RGBLED is always like this, even if you buy it yourself. There is a second way out of it, and that's to pay through the nose for those connecting fans that pogo-pin together to cut down on spaghetti, like Lian-Li's Uni fan. The thing is, if you want six of those, you need spend double the cost of this Chieftec case on fans alone, and you've still got to deal with at least twice as many cables as a regular unlit fan.

RGB is, unfortunately, a literal and actual mess regardless of whether you like it or not.

Not a fan of ARGB myself, I would just snip those off. Probably shorten the other cables, too. But the question is: should I have to?

 

[Mack4285]

Steel thickness is usually never shown in the specifications from the manufacturer, and usually never measured by the reviewer. But at least it was mentioned here as "thin". Manufactures usually cheap out on this. Usually 0.5-0.7mm is just too thin.

I miss cases from around 10 years ago. They were more simple and attractive. Most cases today are just on the wrong track.

 

[anonuser57]

These case reviews really need to start including box and whisker plots to summarize the large bar charts. As is the only way to get any idea of where a case sits on a chart is to open the image in a new tab so it fits to page and look for the thin green line.

 

[Wasteland]

It's good to see Chieftec sticking to their roots and offering a clean, tasteful and affordable offering - but the fact that even Chieftec have jumped on this fishtank bandwagon is yet more confirmation that this is another fad that's here for good as a long-term trend.

Honestly, the case market is so so disappointing for enthusiasts:

• First we had RGB. More cost, more spaghetti, shit software everywhere, reduced performance from smaller fan blades to make room for silly lighting.
• Then we had tempered glass. More cost, more weight, less airflow, less practical.
• After that, the next trend was vertical GPU mounting. More cost, PCIe riser complications, airflow issues, blocked expansion slots, space-wasting etc.
• Now we have the dual-chamber design that just wastes space and makes everything needlessly huge. I've already broken down all the pros and cons of this design in other posts, but the biggest downside is the physical size that is truly pointless for the majority of builds, and by that I mean the majority of just the enthusiast DIY PC builds this case is relevant to.

Why are all these zero-performance fads the ones that take hold? The only fad that's been remotely useful is mesh fronts, and arguably that's struggling to survive alongside these fishtank display cases. Where is the "Apple-inspired" minimalist design fad, where is the "least wasteful" fad, and where is the "most suitable size and shape for an average gaming build" fad?

Aside from being a way to show off your hardware (who even does that these days? LAN parties are practically extinct compared to what we had in the 00's, and even though I still attend a few, SFFs and laptops dominate turnout) these fishtanks rose to fame because of the original 011D being the popular option for the new wave of utterly ridiculous factory OC 3090 and 4090 cards competing with each other to see who could make the most overkill, oversized, incompatible cooler (for the highest price). Funnily enough, 14-inch long quad-slot graphics cards aren't really relevant to 99% of the market, yet the trend in PC cases that those idiotic designs caused is here to afflict us all.

Great post, perfectly summarizing my complaints about the modern case market. I don't have anything useful to add, but even so I will now rant like an old man screaming at clouds.

Of course there've always goofy fads--I still own a ~25 year old all-aluminum case with about six thousand 80mm fan mounts (yeah, it sounded like a rattling jet engine)--but it seems that the traditional PC-enthusiast-as-tinkerer has been under siege for a decade or more. Where once the industry at least claimed to cater to a wide variety of hardware configurations, now most of the versatility appears to be aimed at frivolous bling. Windows, colored lights, and exotic radiator layouts; if those are your interests, then you're a kid in a candy store. Otherwise, you're SOL.

I just wrote a post talking about how I bought a random off-brand case, at whim, for my file server, simply because I was astonished to find one at ~$100 with a lot of HDD mounts. That moment of shock was sufficient to get me to click "Buy." Despite the avalanche of hype about new SKUs every year, real options are so limited that you find yourself blindly leaping at certain specs.

I guess it was inevitable. Computer cases are pretty dull by nature. In order to distinguish themselves, brands must feel like they have to push flashy nonsense. It'd be nice if the flashy nonsense could co-exist with a high level of baseline functionality, though. Like, can you at least give me four USB-A ports along with a USB-C?

 

[Chrispy_]

Not a fan of ARGB myself, I would just snip those off. Probably shorten the other cables, too. But the question is: should I have to?

Only if you bought the wrong case, since Chieftec make the case without ARGB too, if you want a non-ARGB fishtank for some weird reason.

GM-30B-M-OP-Chieftec

www.chieftec.eu

 

[Baba]

Looking at my 14y old Corsair Obsidian 650D. Looks like this is a life-long relationship. Known you longer than anyone in my life.

 

[MagnuTron]

Did I miss it, or are the bottom fans not reversed?

 

[Chomiq]

Back in early 2000's Chieftec was the gold standard when it came to steel/panel quality. I guess this modern Chieftec ain't it.

 

[Ruru]

Looks like this is the new standard of cases, liked we that or not.

Back in early 2000's Chieftec was the gold standard when it came to steel/panel quality. I guess this modern Chieftec ain't it.

The 2000s Antec was also a quality manufacturer. Would love to have a SLK3000B like I had one in my teens.

 

[bug]

Looks like this is the new standard of cases, liked we that or not.


The 2000s Antec was also a quality manufacturer. Would love to have a SLK3000B like I had one in my teens.

Was that the model number for the Sonata?

 

[Ruru]

Was that the model number for the Sonata?

Nope, that was a different case than any Sonata ones. Had some similarities though IIRC.