Review System

Assembly

Installing the motherboard is done by traditional means, but you first have to detach the pre-installed PCIe riser cable from the expansion slot. As ATX boards these days usually skip the top-most slot, you have to move it down one slot in the process.


You may install a single 3.5" drive within the case by screwing it unto the removable mounting plate. Just for fun, HYTE has angled it upward a bit, which is nice to see. Alternatively, the plate can take on two SSDs, which employ the same assembly method, but those drives will be angled straight down in a classic fashion.


There is plenty of room for the mainstream PSU we are using for our system builds. It rests nicely on the thick foam pads and thanks to the well placed zip tie hooks, you can keep things really nice and clean in this area of the chassis as well.


Adding a 360 AIO in the ceiling is surprisingly easy as well even though the Y40 does not employ the same recessed, removable mounting bracket as the Y60. You do have to lift it up at an angle, but it clears the motherboard parts and the rear fan without issue. Thanks to that opening to the side of the mounting location you get access to the connectors at the top edge of the motherboard. This small design will make a big impact in your building experience and is an excellent detail. This is especially important, as the Y40 doesn't offer additional headroom above the motherboard unlike the Y60, so you will have a hard time reaching the headers there under normal circumstances.


To make sure we had easy access to the bottom edge of the motherboard connectors, we actually installed the GPU last, with the PCIe power cable pre-routed. As you can see, thanks to the well placed opening on the plastic shroud, that lead can come out behind the graphics card and connect straight to it in the cleanest way possible.


With everything assembled, both the AIO and the GPU block any potential cable mess in those areas from view, but the openings on the side of the motherboard do look a little bare and this would not have been an issue if HYTE would have included simple grommets here. In the rear you can easily keep things extremely clean even with the ARGB AIO, which adds plenty of additional cable mess as well as two adapters to the build. Even the area under the shroud is nice and clean, which is an unusual sight. Those bubble shaped tooling elements do also add a little bit if visual flair, even if you won't see them with the system up and running.

Finished Looks

Turning the Y40 on, you will first notice the white LED square light up around the power button. Otherwise, the case is meant to be understated and let its design elevate the hardware you have within. Being a case with two glass panels, components with some sort of lighting, be it direct or indirect would certainly make things pop nicely.


Even looking at the case from the front you can see the GPU, but with a lack of illumination, the area between the graphics card and the motherboard is kept in the dark. In the rear everything is where you would expect to see it, and while we just have the power plugged in to show you the system turned on, the hooks for zip ties along the left edge of the rear should really allow you to tackle any cable mess from external wires nicely as well. For this, it would have been nice if HYTE had included some Velcro strips - maybe even yellow ones with their branding on it, or red ones to match the case color itself.


Taking one last quick peek into the interior, our standardized build these days doesn't shine very brightly, but it is clear that the HYTE Y40 deserves a bit of pizzazz to match its uniquely beautiful design. On the opposite side, you can see some of the components shine through the vented portion of the side panel, which is a good sign that you will still get some tangible air flow should you install some fans or an AIO in this area of the HYTE Y40.