A Closer Look - Outside

We were told that while we did get an essentially new unit, most of the outer shell was from "B-Grade" stock, as they call it. These are panels that have minuscule visual blemishes, while brand-new retail units are completely clean and not sold at a discount. That means we will not be able to show you what you can expect in regards to overall product quality, but if your new unit looks anything like ours, get in touch with them and ask for a replacement. Once again, to keep their waste to a minimum, all the protective foam bits within the chassis are re-purposed from shipping packaging for their heatsinks from China.

Taking a look at the chassis design, it is extremely compact considering everything installed inside can potentially be run passively. There are plenty of ITX enclosures out there that are similarly sized but require active cooling, and at times don't even manage that well due to space constraints. We received the white version, but MonsterLabo also offers two different black variants; one anodized and the other painted. While the paint job is pretty thick, glossy, and of high quality overall, there are, as you will see below, a few weak spots that can be traced back to the manufacturing process. MonsterLabo has chosen to divide the cover into three pieces, with the two white elements separated by a silver one. While that is a nice visual element, this divider is not as clean as I had hoped, with the edges having some imperfections. This could be due to it being a B-Grade component. However, without an actual hands-on comparison to a new retail part, there is no way we can confirm this.


MonsterLabo made sure that one wrapped panel covers the three major sides, while the rear has its own plate. As you can see, this plate is now solid, while previous versions of the chassis came with a perforated one. MonsterLabo mentioned that the vent yielded no benefits, so they will now utilize a solid variant. In the very bottom, you will find a removable plate with empty I/O ports to route your system connectors to, with an ATX-sized PSU port to the right of it. Out of the box, you will find an SFX adapter plate attached here.


Looking at the sides of the chassis, they are completely clean and solid. The First puts a lot of emphasis on an uncompromising design language, so having a single piece of steel wrap around the case like this is important.


Looking at the top, it consists of two panels—one white frame and a black grill cover. There is no dust filter here, so dirt may settle within the system over time. This holds especially true if no fan is used. You could remove the black layer and just leave the white frame on top to keep air circulation as unrestricted as possible


The First comes with two blue USB 3.0 ports which have some rather basic connectors. There is nothing wrong with that, but for a case that is so uncompromising in design, the ports are of the simplest design possible. Many other brands have managed to make such I/O look much cleaner. Also, if you look closely, the paint job on the edge of the top frame (and other white elements), is extremely thin—it can't take a hit without the metal underneath shining through. This is because the metal edge hasn't been rounded off well enough on that side to allow paint to adhere to it nicely. Interestingly enough, flipping the panel over, the underside is absolutely clean because it has a nicely rounded edge. This is most likely the way it has been stamped out at the factory, and flipping the design with this side on top would remedy the issue.


On the other corner, you will find the usual pair of audio ports, but your guess is as good as mine when it comes to which is for the microphone or headphone, as MonsterLabo neither color-codes nor labels these. A small square power button is also found next to these. As this is a system that may potentially be run passively, the use of a power LED and HDD activity indicator are sorely missing.


On the underside, you will find an orange metal plate as a base that holds several mounting options for things, including storage and the four feet in the shape of the company logo. However, there is no clear mention in their PDF manual or videos as to what most of the holes and mountings are for.