Metallic Gear Neo-G Mini

[Darksaber]

The Metallic Gear Neo-G Mini is a fancy version of the Neo Mini with a glass front in addition to the glass side panel. From the minds behind Phanteks, the brand aims to offer their very own mainstream approach to enclosures, and the Neo-G Mini turns out to be quite the fun enclosure to work with, clearly and unapologetically showing off its roots.

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[Ferrum Master]

Can you give more spacing numbers. Where the HDD cages are, when putting a 240mm rad, how much space is left top and bottom, for the chambers? Some thick rads are really fat...

 

[brutlern]

Neo-Geo Neo-Geo four bright buttons and two joysticks.

 

[GlacierNine]

Can you give more spacing numbers. Where the HDD cages are, when putting a 240mm rad, how much space is left top and bottom, for the chambers? Some thick rads are really fat...

Also some thermal tests and noise measurements wouldn't go amiss - at present this review doesn't explain anything to me that I couldn't have figured out from the manual and the manufacturer's website.

Not, of course, that I would accuse @Darksaber of failing to provide a review of any use to the consumer, in order to keep the product rolling in (as fodder for new articles at minimal expense to TPU) from manufacturers with every new release without ruffling any feathers by meaningfully criticising anything about cases, which Darksaber would be forced to do if there were any objective testing performed.

Oh wait, hang on, no, that's exactly what I'd accuse Darksaber of.

 

[oldtimenoob]

Used one of these case's for a build I did for my nephew, fantastic case. I installed it with a XFX fatboy Rx590 and it looks amazing.
Wish they made a vertical GPU mount with the Micro_ATX case as well.

 

[MercJ]

Also some thermal tests and noise measurements wouldn't go amiss - at present this review doesn't explain anything to me that I couldn't have figured out from the manual and the manufacturer's website.

Not, of course, that I would accuse @Darksaber of failing to provide a review of any use to the consumer, in order to keep the product rolling in (as fodder for new articles at minimal expense to TPU) from manufacturers with every new release without ruffling any feathers by meaningfully criticising anything about cases, which Darksaber would be forced to do if there were any objective testing performed.

Oh wait, hang on, no, that's exactly what I'd accuse Darksaber of.

I agree with you on this...would be nice to see some more "tests".

I think, however, the issue is exactly *what* and how to test. I don't like glorified press releases much, but most objective / thermal / etc testing I've seen any site do usually doesn't tell me much either.

What would you like to see? What's an example of an objective test that you think is missing?

(I have the silver/flat panel version of this case by the way, feel free to ask stuff if you want )

For example, I found it a bit strange that no mention of getting the side panel back on is going to be an issue with this case unless you're REALLY good at cable management. You can't pass cables behind that HDD/240mm combo mount/rails in the front/mid of the case and still get the side panel back on, so you have to really utilize that area beside the PSU. It's details like that that I read case reviews for - thermals don't mean much to me, because that depends so much on the components you use (however it'd be fun to see a "how high-end can you go" test, where they determine how much heat a case can handle or something like that...).

 

[GlacierNine]

I agree with you on this...would be nice to see some more "tests".

I think, however, the issue is exactly *what* and how to test. I don't like glorified press releases much, but most objective / thermal / etc testing I've seen any site do usually doesn't tell me much either.

What would you like to see? What's an example of an objective test that you think is missing?

(I have the silver/flat panel version of this case by the way, feel free to ask stuff if you want )

For example, I found it a bit strange that no mention of getting the side panel back on is going to be an issue with this case unless you're REALLY good at cable management. You can't pass cables behind that HDD/240mm combo mount/rails in the front/mid of the case and still get the side panel back on, so you have to really utilize that area beside the PSU. It's details like that that I read case reviews for - thermals don't mean much to me, because that depends so much on the components you use (however it'd be fun to see a "how high-end can you go" test, where they determine how much heat a case can handle or something like that...).

Darksaber uses a very standard set of hardware when testing these cases already. Tower cooler, videocard. No crazy watercooling setup to worry about or double AIO or whatever.

It would be trivial to simply record a delta over ambient for CPU and GPU temp in a consistent, combined load like P95+furmark. Even better would be a graph of temperature over time under such conditions, using stock fan placement and Darksaber's existing test hardware.

It would also be trivial to buy a cheap measurement microphone and record noise levels, unless DS lives next to a train station or something the noise floor in most rooms should be low enough for that to be SOMEWHAT useful.

If there's anything more that could be done than that, I would say that it's probably just to give DS a bunch of standard fans in common sizes and run those same tests again - but second time round do it with all fan mounts populated, to see if an underperforming case underperforms solely due to fan count and not due to poor airflow design.

 

[NRANM]

...snipped...

What he said.

Sure, such tests may not be the most scientific, but it is much, much better than nothing, and with time, as the number of tests increases, users can really get a decent idea of how each new case compares to previous ones in different scenarios. We will have a database of how cases perform in terms of thermals and noise.

 

[PLAfiller]

@oldtimenoob put out a good word about this one, but it looks like a hotbox to me. Saw some youtube videos, that vertical brackets like this increase slightly GPU's temps and I only see front intake. I suppose that's why in CONs there is a demand for modular side panel, so you can deliver some fresh air to the card. I still think it will be hotbox, but I could totally be wrong.

 

[Pan]

Wow, this case looks sick! I might have to get one.

 

[Animalpak]

This is will have a terrible cooling performance, exahust fans ?? Yeah you can use the side but if the two front are pulling air inside the two on the side will throw right away....

Pointless !!! Correct air circulation is the key for a proper pc case.

 

[GlacierNine]

This is will have a terrible cooling performance, exahust fans ?? Yeah you can use the side but if the two front are pulling air inside the two on the side will throw right away....

Pointless !!! Correct air circulation is the key for a proper pc case.

Don't tell @Darksaber that, or the idea might take root to actually do some proper testing.

 

[danbert2000]

Is it just me, or does that upright GPU look like it would block most tower coolers? Especially if the card was taller than the PCIe bracket, which is 90% of GPUs nowadays.

 

[serbzero]

I have had this for few months and it's a surprisingly capable little case. I fit a lot of stuff in it and it still remained very clean, quiet and cool (temp wise).

 

[muSPK]

"Liquid cooling means you will have to watch the length of the GPU you plan to use"

This is wrong, you can use 240 radiator on the side, without having to watch out for the length of the GPU..

 

[Kaelin71]

My 1st build was in this case. It's beautiful and I've had no issues keeping it cool. But please note I'm just a casual gamer and haven't overclocked anything.