The P 400 A RGB: A Safe Bet?

In the world of computer cases, safety is often a top priority. And when it comes to thermals, a well-designed case can make all the difference. The P 400 A RGB is a safe bet for anyone looking for a reliable cooling solution.

During our torture tests, the P 400 A RGB showed off its thermal prowess, winning for best out-of-the-box performance at 38.6 dB. Even when noise was normalized down to 36 dB, it still managed to hold its own, tying with another popular case in the process. But what really sets this case apart is its impressive fan speed and cooling capabilities.

For comparison's sake, let's take a look at how the P 400 A RGB stacks up against some of the competition. The NZXT H7 10, for example, has four fans to help keep things cool, but it also happens to be 4 degrees Celsius warmer than ambient temperatures in our CPU delta T measurements. That's a significant difference, and one that speaks volumes about the P 400 A RGB's thermal performance.

But what really sets the P 400 A RGB apart is its industry-leading build quality at the price point. It's clear that this case has been designed with attention to detail and a focus on usability in mind. From the cable management options to the tempered glass panels, every aspect of this case feels like it was carefully considered.

Despite its impressive performance, the P 400 A RGB isn't without its flaws. For example, some users may find the fan noise to be a bit too loud at times, and the case's design can make it feel a bit claustrophobic in certain configurations. However, these are minor quibbles compared to the overall quality of this case.

Overall, the P 400 A RGB is a solid choice for anyone looking for a reliable cooling solution. Its impressive thermal performance, combined with its industry-leading build quality and attention to detail, make it a top contender in the world of computer cases.

Best Case: Lian Li Land Cooler

The Lian Li Land Cooler is the winner of our Best Case award, thanks to its impressive features and sleek design. With hot swappable drive bays and hinged magnetic doors, this case has everything you need to build a powerful gaming PC.

One of the things that sets the Lian Li Land Cooler apart from other cases on the market is its focus on cable management. The case includes a range of cable ties and clips, making it easy to keep your cables organized and out of sight.

But what really impresses about this case is its attention to detail. From the tempered glass panels to the RGB lighting system, every aspect of this case feels like it was carefully considered. It's clear that Lian Li has put a lot of thought into designing a case that is both functional and visually appealing.

And with a price point of just $90, the Lian Li Land Cooler is an excellent value for anyone looking to build a high-performance gaming PC.

Worst Trend in Cases: Pointless Product Segmentation

One trend that's become increasingly prevalent in the world of computer cases is pointless product segmentation. Rather than offering a few well-designed options, manufacturers are instead opting to create dozens or even hundreds of different variants.

This trend can be seen everywhere, from the BitFenix Nova mesh case to the P 400 A RGB. Each of these cases has multiple versions with slight variations in design and features, making it difficult for consumers to know which one is truly the best option.

We've complained about this trend before, and it's clear that manufacturers need to find a better way to differentiate their products without overwhelming consumers with too many options. One possible solution could be a modular approach, where a base chassis is sold alongside upgradeable panels. This would allow consumers to customize their case without feeling overwhelmed by too many choices.

The BitFenix Nova mesh case is a prime example of this trend in action. The case comes in multiple versions, each with its own unique features and design elements. While the Nova mesh itself was well-designed, we couldn't help but feel that the sheer number of variants made it difficult to discern which one was truly the best option.

We hope that manufacturers will take a closer look at their product segmentation strategies and find a better way to differentiate their products without confusing consumers.

Review Process

As part of our review process, we currently have several cases in the works. One of these cases is the Leon Leon Cole, which has already impressed us with its unique design and features. While it's different enough from the Land Cooler that it's definitely worth a look, we're not quite ready to give it an award just yet.

We'll be reviewing the case soon, and we can't wait to share our thoughts on its performance and design. With its impressive features and sleek design, this case has all the makings of a top contender in the world of computer cases.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday Deals

As Black Friday and Cyber Monday approach, it's time to start thinking about deals and discounts on computer hardware. We'll be keeping an eye out for any special offers and discounts, so be sure to check back often for the latest news and reviews.

In the meantime, we recommend checking out some of our top picks for cases, including the P 400 A RGB and the Lian Li Land Cooler. These cases are all highly recommended, and they're sure to impress even the most discerning PC enthusiasts.

Stay tuned for more reviews and news from around the world of computer hardware!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enit's that time of year again where we decide which case manufacturers deserve our praise and a G entered on crystal and which deserve eternal shame and have to pay $19.99 for their own on stored of cameras exits net last year the lien leo 11 dynamic took the prize for best all-around and the silverstone pmo - and fractal defined s - took home the best worst trend for the unforgivable sin of being pointless refreshes also the PMO - is just a bad case this year's Award nominees pick up from where we left off starting with the lackluster Thermaltake level 20 MT in December of 2018 and ending in November of 2019 let's take a look through the best cases for 2019 if any of these interest you there'll be links in the description below and we also have separate full reviews of all these cases on the channel before that this video is brought to you by us and the G on store although the companies have to earn their awards to get them you can buy your own GN tear down crystal at store doc here is axis net we also recently restocked our blueprint heathered true royal t-shirts anniversary edition teal logo cotton shirts and the large mod mats are also in stock and shipping now if you want to support our work over the past year head to store documents axis net and additionally we're working with Eden reforestation projects through November to plant 10 trees for each item sold on the store click the link in the description below as always with these roundups and end of your best of awards we're not doing a heavy focus on data instead we're focusing on the bigger picture of what should you actually buy now that all the data's been collected for the year if you're interested in all the data for any individual case may be really excited about one of them you can check out the review for whatever that may be and it'll have everything there additionally if you're new here knowing our testing methodology which is explained on the site a gamers access dotnet in some of our case reviews that's important because the otherwise you can look at the numbers and they won't you'll take away the wrong thing so make sure you understand that aspect as well if you're using the charts for anything anyway there's a lot to talk about here Patrick wrote up his thoughts on the best cases and I've added some of my own and then we also have the worst trends category at the end technically the best worst trends because you need to pick the superlative version I'll just you get the idea let's get into the roundup we'll start off with this year's an overall winner the best overall award the most coveted award goes to fan tax for its $90 400 a enclosure our review and thermal measurements focused on the digital version of the case with a mesh front panel and three RGB intake fans it's not hard for a mesh fronted case to excel in the thermal category but the P 400 a in particular uses a fine metal mesh rather than having an extra filter layer to catch all the dust their own performance with the digital zat 3 intake fans its price considered as well and the mesh front panel are what makes the P 400 a our winner as on the inside it's an inexpensive steel chassis that fantex has used in multiple products it's nothing new it's not at all exciting but at the same time reusing that chassis as part of what makes the P 400 a so cheap relative to some of its competition in the instance of this case just like in real life it's the outside that matters in our exhaustive review of the P 400 a digital we found that performance was functionally equivalent with both white and black front panels debunking some of the earlier theories that the paint might inhibit air flow so feel free to buy either one we also found that CPU thermal improvement from panelists results at minimal gain over the stock performance and this is good provided sufficient static pressure the P 400 a does excellently while maintaining a mesh that is fine enough to stop a good deal of dust we'll talk more later about the cases thermals and our best out-of-the-box thermal section but we can cover some build quality notes now the P 400 a is one of the most basic cases possible but that's not necessarily a bad thing the case offers about two and a half centimeters of clearance between the motherboard tray and the steel side panel including built-in velcro straps for cable management with greater depth the P 400 a can also fit EA TX motherboards as it lacks a cable management bar although you'd face some cable routing restrictions in such a configuration we also appreciate small features like the external physical button controls for LEDs rather than foreseen reliance on software that nobody wants Construction is overall thin and nothing special but it's heavily vented and that's a major upside we'll talk more about the fan tax P 400 a in a few moments but let's first cover some cases that were even better in specific targeted areas the next award is for best mechanical design which we're granting to Lian Li for its $200 11 dynamic XL we went back and forth on this particular award the O 11 Excel is an iteration on a case that was last year's best all-around winner the O 11 dynamic and it's still one of the best cases on the market and the Excel has some cool new features but one of our most memorable interactions with the case was snapping the fragile plastic tabs that secure a fan tray on the bottom of the case that's not a plus in the mechanical design category obviously but it's outweighed by the other things the strength of the O 11 families layout is what makes up for this downside and pushes that 11 XL to the top of our list the over-engineered hot-swap hard drive bays the bottom-to-top airflow the side intake that allows for a sealed front panel without ruining performance for once and the flexibility of power supply mounting locations are all excellent features and the exhales extra size allows Liam Lee some room to breathe with clearances on radiators and other components the side intake covers are one of the most flexible parts of the design they can be used as SSD mounts removed to allow fan mounting or radiator mounting or replace with an e ATX extension for extra motherboard compatibility the O 11 XL may not include fans but it offers a large build canvas that's well suited for both air cooling and open-loop cooling this case uses thicker paneling for a sturdier build uses hot swap drive sleds with solid metal handles and swappable power supply and hard drive cage positioning are also afforded a panel design that manages to offer security while still eliminating screws as compared to traditional cases is another one of the o 11 family's strong points this is a larger version of Lian Lee's 11 dynamic from last year and it's well deserving of the best mechanical design award and as for the O 11 dynamic it doesn't fall into this video because it's not a 20-19 case but if you're looking for a really good case at about 100 130 dollars or so the ole 11 dynamic still gets one of our highest recommendations though you will need to buy some fans with it and it's great for air and liquid cooling setups our next award is for best budget case which we're assigning to the cooler master and our 600 although the combination of its name and look make it completely forgettable the cooler master and our 600 remains one of the better built cases in its price category at sixty to seventy dollars the case takes the boxes but also implements the ultra fine mesh that got the fantex P 408 to the top of the charts and the NR 600 also has tempered glass and mesh front and all the basic requirements for a budget gaming PC in the modern era this is the kind of case that Walmart should have been using for its dtw series but then it be not completely terrible so it probably didn't really fit the spec sheet the NR 600 spine mesh acts as a combinatory dust filter and air inlet opting out of a secondary dust filter to instead maximize the cooling capabilities the case has some shortcomings like it's limited 140 mm fan supports despite the presence of mounting holes for said fans but it sacrifices our overall outweighed by the price and the presence of better features the case didn't meaningfully gain our panelists tests illustrating that it's already able to breathe at its maximum potential and the stock configuration as for the build quality although there are minor fit and finish issues inside the case offers a generally standard interior for system building while still being affordable but with some of the new exterior features as an aside people disagree all the time about what constitutes budget and you'll probably see that in the comments of this video our definition is simple it has to still be an actually good case and that's objectively and it also has to be me 50 to 70 dollar price point this case used to be closer to 60 but tariffs have pushed cooler masters prices up in general and it still falls within our range at the time of writing this content we didn't test any $50 cases that were new this year that were actually good so none of those were viable obviously because none came across our bench that weren't newer than well this year we have an honorable mention for the best budget case category and that'll go to the Thermaltake versa j24 it's more expensive than the NR 600 but it comes with three 120mm fans the main issue is that the front panel is an open grille backed by a dense foam filter so you just can either choose between sub optimal thermals with the foam or good thermals with practically no filtration and the foam removed still it seems like the four fan version is sometimes available for less than $70 which is a pretty good deal for users willing to do some light modding the next GN award is for best out-of-the-box thermals a long-standing viewer favorite meme that's become a reality the fan Tech's p400 a wins this one and this section is why the P 400 a received the best overall category because it was good in general but also specifically the strongest in box thermals we broke a long dry spell for fantex content on gamers Nexus when we reviewed the evolve acts in October of last year it received our most overhyped of work for 2018 it wasn't a bad case but it was more flash than substance not the incredible game changer that we'd been led to expect imagine our surprise then when fans X unveiled an airflow oriented version of the P 400 a case that we previously mutilated for poor performance the p4 100 a RGB scored high-end performance results across all of our charts the CBO tortured temperature of 48 point 2 degrees Celsius delta T over ambient for the stock people hundr day was on par with the Coolermaster H 500 feet mesh and the Silverstone pmo watt wildly forty-nine point one degree Celsius delta T results for GPU thermals fell between the PMO one and the age 500 M match it's in excellent company in both categories with only the real heavy hitters like the half X and the RL 0-6 reliably outperforming it out of box in noise normalized thermals where we set competing stock case fans to the same noise level to test efficiency and eliminate brute force performance the fans XP 480 proved itself a strong competitor the key to its success is a mesh front panel with no additional filtration combined with three 120mm intake fans and the digital RGB version specifically this isn't a case that will hermetically seal out dust but it will do a great job of keeping components that cool straight out of the box no additional fans required if you want a cheaper version there's the P 418 on digital but then you'll need to budget for some fan purchases fan tax has come a long way in the last few years and we hope to see the company continue to improve its thermal awareness the next award is for best noise levels which were bestowing upon the fractal Massif is - technically the best scoring case in our noise chart since the last round of awards is the thermal take a 500 TG however we reserve the right to not give awards to cases that aren't good the a500 only tested well for noise because it's got a sealed front panel and Thermaltake launched the case with an insane $250 MSRP which is exactly what it continues to cost today as it sits on warehouse shelves instead this hoard goes to the fractal mesh by s2 our review of the mattress is - was subdued in its praise since we've already seen Mastiff occasions and asked to vacations from fractal and we gave the s to an award for being a pointless refresh but the case itself is solid we don't typically associate mesh fronted cases with low noise levels but fractals use of relatively slow 1,000 rpm dynamic x2g p14 fans 140 mils in combination with the mesh means that little noise is generated while still maintaining an acceptable airflow that and we haven't reviewed any be quiet cases this year to compete with it we're giving this award for noise levels not noise suppression adding aftermarket fans to the s2 will absolutely make it noisier but out of the box it's doing well noise normalizing for thermals is a new test that we added just this year so we don't have test data for a couple of the eligible cases still it's a safe bet that the P 400 a RGB would win even if we did it was already at 38 point 6 DB for the torture tests that it won for best out-of-the-box thermals and we noise normalize down to 36 DBA however fantex has won enough things already and we'd like to spread the love and give some deserved recognition to the NZXT age 710 during 100% speed torture tests it was at 39.6 DBA but slowing it down to hit the 36 DBA threshold had it tied with the P 400 a RGB and our GPU thermals and about 4 degrees Celsius warmer in CPU delta T over ambient measurements that's got something to do with the 4 fans that NZXT he's stuck in there to make up for their hot box design but much like J we digress we've complained plenty about the way NZXT sees thermals are going and it's important to recognize that noise normalized thermals are one category where they can still do well if there's a single good thing about sealing off the front panel and relying on side intake vents it's that fan noise can't blast the user the NZXT h7 10 follows up the H 700 design that we previously liked primarily for its industry-leading build quality at the price point and superior cable management the noise normalized performance as a bonus we really really want to see NZXT try a mesh case but the company doesn't seem interested the next award is not actually an award but it's more of a teaser for something to look forward to in the next couple of weeks the category is called best case we're currently in the process of reviewing and it goes to the Lian Li land cool - if you're asking how many cases we are currently in the process of reviewing the answers want we've gotten a ton of requests to review the Leon Leon Cole - yes we have the case and yes we are in the process of reviewing it it's different enough from the land Cole one that it's already gotten some points just for not being another half-hearted refresh but we don't want to hand out one of our other awards until we've gotten some hard performance numbers on how it does it's hard to argue with a $90 case the features like hot swappable drive bays and hinged magnetic doors but there's still a lot more to look at in the review stay tuned for this one our final award is for the best worst trend in cases this time it's assigned to pointless product segmentation we also assigned Intel and AMD one share each this worst trend award in our CPU roundup for 2019 already published the case industry has confused itself with its multi various options now afforded by RGB a RGB tempered glass deal sound and panels color options and fan counts rather than pick a few SKUs that are objectively good many of the manufacturers have opted to just make everything and dilute the market with garbage or half good things the BitFenix Nova mesh is one of the most recent examples of this although a bit Phoenix addressed our criticisms of the Enzo sort of by improving thermal performance at mesh safai in its cases the company also split the products into far far too many variations just to be clear the part of the Nova mesh where shaming here isn't the performance it's the fact that there are so many different nearly identical case skews this year's worst trend is stuffing digital shelves with as many different versions of the same case as possible searching BitFenix Nova on newer at the time of this writing turns up a whopping 26 results with separate listings for the original Nova Nova acrylic window Nova TG Nova master of a cheat Nova mesh TG excuse me batch TG RGB Nova mash TGA RGB alphabet soup as well as separate listings for black or white versions of each case and some third-party retailers none of these cases we've reviewed are as bad about this as the Nova but there are plenty of other manufacturers doing this even the P 400 a has a base and a digital version and as a refresh of the P 400 which already had several variants there has to be a better way to do this and it might be a more modular approach where a base chassis is sold with upgrade four panels available and that'll recap everything for the best cases of 2019 hopefully this helped you out again if you're interested in them the links on the description below we also have the full reviews on the site and on the YouTube channel for think all of these cases and then the land cool to review will be coming up shortly once we get through Black Friday and Cyber Monday season hopefully this helps out subscribe for more go to store documents access net to helps out directly or to pick up one of your own GN award tear down cubes and you can also go to patreon.com/scishow his exes we'll see you all next timeit's that time of year again where we decide which case manufacturers deserve our praise and a G entered on crystal and which deserve eternal shame and have to pay $19.99 for their own on stored of cameras exits net last year the lien leo 11 dynamic took the prize for best all-around and the silverstone pmo - and fractal defined s - took home the best worst trend for the unforgivable sin of being pointless refreshes also the PMO - is just a bad case this year's Award nominees pick up from where we left off starting with the lackluster Thermaltake level 20 MT in December of 2018 and ending in November of 2019 let's take a look through the best cases for 2019 if any of these interest you there'll be links in the description below and we also have separate full reviews of all these cases on the channel before that this video is brought to you by us and the G on store although the companies have to earn their awards to get them you can buy your own GN tear down crystal at store doc here is axis net we also recently restocked our blueprint heathered true royal t-shirts anniversary edition teal logo cotton shirts and the large mod mats are also in stock and shipping now if you want to support our work over the past year head to store documents axis net and additionally we're working with Eden reforestation projects through November to plant 10 trees for each item sold on the store click the link in the description below as always with these roundups and end of your best of awards we're not doing a heavy focus on data instead we're focusing on the bigger picture of what should you actually buy now that all the data's been collected for the year if you're interested in all the data for any individual case may be really excited about one of them you can check out the review for whatever that may be and it'll have everything there additionally if you're new here knowing our testing methodology which is explained on the site a gamers access dotnet in some of our case reviews that's important because the otherwise you can look at the numbers and they won't you'll take away the wrong thing so make sure you understand that aspect as well if you're using the charts for anything anyway there's a lot to talk about here Patrick wrote up his thoughts on the best cases and I've added some of my own and then we also have the worst trends category at the end technically the best worst trends because you need to pick the superlative version I'll just you get the idea let's get into the roundup we'll start off with this year's an overall winner the best overall award the most coveted award goes to fan tax for its $90 400 a enclosure our review and thermal measurements focused on the digital version of the case with a mesh front panel and three RGB intake fans it's not hard for a mesh fronted case to excel in the thermal category but the P 400 a in particular uses a fine metal mesh rather than having an extra filter layer to catch all the dust their own performance with the digital zat 3 intake fans its price considered as well and the mesh front panel are what makes the P 400 a our winner as on the inside it's an inexpensive steel chassis that fantex has used in multiple products it's nothing new it's not at all exciting but at the same time reusing that chassis as part of what makes the P 400 a so cheap relative to some of its competition in the instance of this case just like in real life it's the outside that matters in our exhaustive review of the P 400 a digital we found that performance was functionally equivalent with both white and black front panels debunking some of the earlier theories that the paint might inhibit air flow so feel free to buy either one we also found that CPU thermal improvement from panelists results at minimal gain over the stock performance and this is good provided sufficient static pressure the P 400 a does excellently while maintaining a mesh that is fine enough to stop a good deal of dust we'll talk more later about the cases thermals and our best out-of-the-box thermal section but we can cover some build quality notes now the P 400 a is one of the most basic cases possible but that's not necessarily a bad thing the case offers about two and a half centimeters of clearance between the motherboard tray and the steel side panel including built-in velcro straps for cable management with greater depth the P 400 a can also fit EA TX motherboards as it lacks a cable management bar although you'd face some cable routing restrictions in such a configuration we also appreciate small features like the external physical button controls for LEDs rather than foreseen reliance on software that nobody wants Construction is overall thin and nothing special but it's heavily vented and that's a major upside we'll talk more about the fan tax P 400 a in a few moments but let's first cover some cases that were even better in specific targeted areas the next award is for best mechanical design which we're granting to Lian Li for its $200 11 dynamic XL we went back and forth on this particular award the O 11 Excel is an iteration on a case that was last year's best all-around winner the O 11 dynamic and it's still one of the best cases on the market and the Excel has some cool new features but one of our most memorable interactions with the case was snapping the fragile plastic tabs that secure a fan tray on the bottom of the case that's not a plus in the mechanical design category obviously but it's outweighed by the other things the strength of the O 11 families layout is what makes up for this downside and pushes that 11 XL to the top of our list the over-engineered hot-swap hard drive bays the bottom-to-top airflow the side intake that allows for a sealed front panel without ruining performance for once and the flexibility of power supply mounting locations are all excellent features and the exhales extra size allows Liam Lee some room to breathe with clearances on radiators and other components the side intake covers are one of the most flexible parts of the design they can be used as SSD mounts removed to allow fan mounting or radiator mounting or replace with an e ATX extension for extra motherboard compatibility the O 11 XL may not include fans but it offers a large build canvas that's well suited for both air cooling and open-loop cooling this case uses thicker paneling for a sturdier build uses hot swap drive sleds with solid metal handles and swappable power supply and hard drive cage positioning are also afforded a panel design that manages to offer security while still eliminating screws as compared to traditional cases is another one of the o 11 family's strong points this is a larger version of Lian Lee's 11 dynamic from last year and it's well deserving of the best mechanical design award and as for the O 11 dynamic it doesn't fall into this video because it's not a 20-19 case but if you're looking for a really good case at about 100 130 dollars or so the ole 11 dynamic still gets one of our highest recommendations though you will need to buy some fans with it and it's great for air and liquid cooling setups our next award is for best budget case which we're assigning to the cooler master and our 600 although the combination of its name and look make it completely forgettable the cooler master and our 600 remains one of the better built cases in its price category at sixty to seventy dollars the case takes the boxes but also implements the ultra fine mesh that got the fantex P 408 to the top of the charts and the NR 600 also has tempered glass and mesh front and all the basic requirements for a budget gaming PC in the modern era this is the kind of case that Walmart should have been using for its dtw series but then it be not completely terrible so it probably didn't really fit the spec sheet the NR 600 spine mesh acts as a combinatory dust filter and air inlet opting out of a secondary dust filter to instead maximize the cooling capabilities the case has some shortcomings like it's limited 140 mm fan supports despite the presence of mounting holes for said fans but it sacrifices our overall outweighed by the price and the presence of better features the case didn't meaningfully gain our panelists tests illustrating that it's already able to breathe at its maximum potential and the stock configuration as for the build quality although there are minor fit and finish issues inside the case offers a generally standard interior for system building while still being affordable but with some of the new exterior features as an aside people disagree all the time about what constitutes budget and you'll probably see that in the comments of this video our definition is simple it has to still be an actually good case and that's objectively and it also has to be me 50 to 70 dollar price point this case used to be closer to 60 but tariffs have pushed cooler masters prices up in general and it still falls within our range at the time of writing this content we didn't test any $50 cases that were new this year that were actually good so none of those were viable obviously because none came across our bench that weren't newer than well this year we have an honorable mention for the best budget case category and that'll go to the Thermaltake versa j24 it's more expensive than the NR 600 but it comes with three 120mm fans the main issue is that the front panel is an open grille backed by a dense foam filter so you just can either choose between sub optimal thermals with the foam or good thermals with practically no filtration and the foam removed still it seems like the four fan version is sometimes available for less than $70 which is a pretty good deal for users willing to do some light modding the next GN award is for best out-of-the-box thermals a long-standing viewer favorite meme that's become a reality the fan Tech's p400 a wins this one and this section is why the P 400 a received the best overall category because it was good in general but also specifically the strongest in box thermals we broke a long dry spell for fantex content on gamers Nexus when we reviewed the evolve acts in October of last year it received our most overhyped of work for 2018 it wasn't a bad case but it was more flash than substance not the incredible game changer that we'd been led to expect imagine our surprise then when fans X unveiled an airflow oriented version of the P 400 a case that we previously mutilated for poor performance the p4 100 a RGB scored high-end performance results across all of our charts the CBO tortured temperature of 48 point 2 degrees Celsius delta T over ambient for the stock people hundr day was on par with the Coolermaster H 500 feet mesh and the Silverstone pmo watt wildly forty-nine point one degree Celsius delta T results for GPU thermals fell between the PMO one and the age 500 M match it's in excellent company in both categories with only the real heavy hitters like the half X and the RL 0-6 reliably outperforming it out of box in noise normalized thermals where we set competing stock case fans to the same noise level to test efficiency and eliminate brute force performance the fans XP 480 proved itself a strong competitor the key to its success is a mesh front panel with no additional filtration combined with three 120mm intake fans and the digital RGB version specifically this isn't a case that will hermetically seal out dust but it will do a great job of keeping components that cool straight out of the box no additional fans required if you want a cheaper version there's the P 418 on digital but then you'll need to budget for some fan purchases fan tax has come a long way in the last few years and we hope to see the company continue to improve its thermal awareness the next award is for best noise levels which were bestowing upon the fractal Massif is - technically the best scoring case in our noise chart since the last round of awards is the thermal take a 500 TG however we reserve the right to not give awards to cases that aren't good the a500 only tested well for noise because it's got a sealed front panel and Thermaltake launched the case with an insane $250 MSRP which is exactly what it continues to cost today as it sits on warehouse shelves instead this hoard goes to the fractal mesh by s2 our review of the mattress is - was subdued in its praise since we've already seen Mastiff occasions and asked to vacations from fractal and we gave the s to an award for being a pointless refresh but the case itself is solid we don't typically associate mesh fronted cases with low noise levels but fractals use of relatively slow 1,000 rpm dynamic x2g p14 fans 140 mils in combination with the mesh means that little noise is generated while still maintaining an acceptable airflow that and we haven't reviewed any be quiet cases this year to compete with it we're giving this award for noise levels not noise suppression adding aftermarket fans to the s2 will absolutely make it noisier but out of the box it's doing well noise normalizing for thermals is a new test that we added just this year so we don't have test data for a couple of the eligible cases still it's a safe bet that the P 400 a RGB would win even if we did it was already at 38 point 6 DB for the torture tests that it won for best out-of-the-box thermals and we noise normalize down to 36 DBA however fantex has won enough things already and we'd like to spread the love and give some deserved recognition to the NZXT age 710 during 100% speed torture tests it was at 39.6 DBA but slowing it down to hit the 36 DBA threshold had it tied with the P 400 a RGB and our GPU thermals and about 4 degrees Celsius warmer in CPU delta T over ambient measurements that's got something to do with the 4 fans that NZXT he's stuck in there to make up for their hot box design but much like J we digress we've complained plenty about the way NZXT sees thermals are going and it's important to recognize that noise normalized thermals are one category where they can still do well if there's a single good thing about sealing off the front panel and relying on side intake vents it's that fan noise can't blast the user the NZXT h7 10 follows up the H 700 design that we previously liked primarily for its industry-leading build quality at the price point and superior cable management the noise normalized performance as a bonus we really really want to see NZXT try a mesh case but the company doesn't seem interested the next award is not actually an award but it's more of a teaser for something to look forward to in the next couple of weeks the category is called best case we're currently in the process of reviewing and it goes to the Lian Li land cool - if you're asking how many cases we are currently in the process of reviewing the answers want we've gotten a ton of requests to review the Leon Leon Cole - yes we have the case and yes we are in the process of reviewing it it's different enough from the land Cole one that it's already gotten some points just for not being another half-hearted refresh but we don't want to hand out one of our other awards until we've gotten some hard performance numbers on how it does it's hard to argue with a $90 case the features like hot swappable drive bays and hinged magnetic doors but there's still a lot more to look at in the review stay tuned for this one our final award is for the best worst trend in cases this time it's assigned to pointless product segmentation we also assigned Intel and AMD one share each this worst trend award in our CPU roundup for 2019 already published the case industry has confused itself with its multi various options now afforded by RGB a RGB tempered glass deal sound and panels color options and fan counts rather than pick a few SKUs that are objectively good many of the manufacturers have opted to just make everything and dilute the market with garbage or half good things the BitFenix Nova mesh is one of the most recent examples of this although a bit Phoenix addressed our criticisms of the Enzo sort of by improving thermal performance at mesh safai in its cases the company also split the products into far far too many variations just to be clear the part of the Nova mesh where shaming here isn't the performance it's the fact that there are so many different nearly identical case skews this year's worst trend is stuffing digital shelves with as many different versions of the same case as possible searching BitFenix Nova on newer at the time of this writing turns up a whopping 26 results with separate listings for the original Nova Nova acrylic window Nova TG Nova master of a cheat Nova mesh TG excuse me batch TG RGB Nova mash TGA RGB alphabet soup as well as separate listings for black or white versions of each case and some third-party retailers none of these cases we've reviewed are as bad about this as the Nova but there are plenty of other manufacturers doing this even the P 400 a has a base and a digital version and as a refresh of the P 400 which already had several variants there has to be a better way to do this and it might be a more modular approach where a base chassis is sold with upgrade four panels available and that'll recap everything for the best cases of 2019 hopefully this helped you out again if you're interested in them the links on the description below we also have the full reviews on the site and on the YouTube channel for think all of these cases and then the land cool to review will be coming up shortly once we get through Black Friday and Cyber Monday season hopefully this helps out subscribe for more go to store documents access net to helps out directly or to pick up one of your own GN award tear down cubes and you can also go to patreon.com/scishow his exes we'll see you all next time\n"