**Case Review: Thermals and Build Quality**

As a budget-conscious individual looking for a reliable case, I've got to say that the Versa H17 is an excellent option. With a price tag of around $40, it's hard to find a better deal. In this review, we'll take a closer look at its thermal performance and build quality.

**Thermal Performance**

To test the thermals, I used a system built with an AMD 2400G CPU and a GTX 1660 TI GPU (Asus Phoenix variant). This setup might not be ideal for thermal testing, as it's known to have high temperatures. However, this was the system I had available at the time.

During intense usage (FurMark on the GPU and Prime95 on the CPU), both components thermal throttled. While gaming, temperatures remained relatively manageable except for the GPU, which still experienced some heat issues. It's worth noting that even in an air-conditioned environment, this GPU might thermal throttle due to its design.

**Build Quality**

One of the most important questions when evaluating a case is how easy it is to build in. I'm pleased to report that the Versa H17 was a breeze to work with. Cable management was also straightforward, although there are no rubber grommets or cable covers over the routing holes. However, this wasn't a significant issue.

The case can accommodate most GPU sizes, but if you have a particularly short graphics card like my Asus Phoenix variant, it might be challenging to route the power cable neatly. If your motherboard has a different front IO layout (e.g., USB 3 on the right side instead of the bottom), you may be able to manage the cable more effectively.

**Power Supply and Dust Filter**

The power supply has a dust filter for its intake, although it's not magnetic or slide-mounted. Considering the price point, this is an acceptable compromise.

**SSD/HDD Installation**

Installing SSDs or hard drives requires a bit more effort than using a simple caddy system. However, the process isn't overly complicated. You'll need to screw three rubber grommet hood screws into the drive, then slide it into position and secure it with a fourth screw. Be cautious not to use the wrong screws, which could lead to some rearrangement.

**Conclusion**

In conclusion, I believe the Versa H17 is an excellent case for budget-conscious buyers looking to build or upgrade their PC. It's easy to build in, has decent thermal performance (considering its price), and won't break the bank. While it may not be perfect (lacking captive thumb screws on side panels and being prone to fingerprints), these issues are relatively minor.

If you're considering this case for your next build or upgrade, I'd recommend giving it a try. Just remember to keep an eye out for any potential thermal issues with your GPU, especially if you're using a high-performance model like the one mentioned above.

**Recommendation**

I would definitely recommend the Versa H17 to anyone looking for a budget-friendly case that won't compromise on build quality or performance. It's a great option for those who want to upgrade their PC without breaking the bank.

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: ennow if you've ever had about a forty US dollar budget for a pc case you'll know that the selections pretty grim and it's quite difficult to find a case that doesn't look like an OEM dell from about twenty years ago but i may just have found an amazing budget option which is also ma TX and it kind of made me think after building in it why is ma TX not more popular because it's a really awesome form factor enter the Thermaltake versa h17 now there are three versions of the Thermaltake Versa h17 there's a version with a template to our side panel but that makes it a bit more expensive than you should reasonably pay for this case then there's a version with an acrylic side panel and the version that I'll be reviewing today which just has a solid metal side panel this version of the case goes for exactly 40 US dollars now first off let's just deal with the elephant in the room which is the front airflow performance and honestly this case has a very restrictive front panel it's got these two slits on the side which is supposed to give you airflow but they're really restrictive the only real place for air to come in is this slot in the bottom of the front panel but honestly it isn't enough in my opinion now while talking about the front panel let's look at the front panel IO and it's not too bad on this case especially for $40.00 you get a USB 3.0 port you get two USB 2.0 ports and then a headphone a microphone jack a reset button and a big start button now honestly the front IO is not bad for a $40 case but I think the coolermaster Q 300 has a better approach because it gives up the USB 2.0 ports for two USB 3.0 ports which i think is better and another issue that I have with the front panel IO is the actual cables that lead to your motherboard are quite badly dealt with in the top there and it makes it really difficult for you to cable manage it in a way that it doesn't look like a bird's nest and then another issue with these actual cables is that they're not sleeved all the way to the connector so it means that it's quite easy to have a catch-up and mustard effect on the actual motherboard end of the connector although because it's an M ATX case one you have a graphics card actually occupying that slot you can't really see those cables so that's a bit of a benefit now let's get back to the actual airflow situation in this case now it comes with 120 millimeter fan occupying the rear exhaust slot in the case now it's not a great fan but it does have one huge redeeming factor which is the fact that it doesn't use a molex connector which is a cardinal sin in case design and some more expensive cases actually do make this mistake it uses a three pin cable which you can just plug straight into your motherboard and then there's also a space for either 120 millimeter or 140 millimeter fan in the top which also has a magnetic dust filter so you could use it as an intake and quite hilariously this case does support a 360 mold radiator in the front although this cutout in the basement doesn't give you a huge amount of space for a radiator and fans so I think a 240 millimeter radiator would work better although I wouldn't really recommend putting a radiator in the front of this case just because of how bad the front airflow is now with all of the talk of airflow out of the way let's have a look at the actual thermal performance of this case now the system that I'm using to test the thermals here is actually a system that I built in a recent video about buying a PC with my first ever YouTube paycheck it's got an AMD 2400 G CPU in it with a stock cooler and then it's got a gtx 1660 TI in it which is an asus phoenix variant and honestly it's thermals are really bad even in the best situation so it may not be the most fair use case now as far as the actual thermals go while running fir mark on the GPU and ida 64 on the cpu and the motherboard both the cpu and the graphics card actually thermal thermally throttled during this very intensive test however temperatures weren't much of a problem during gaming except for the graphics card again but honestly that GPU will probably thermal throttle if you have an air conditioner pointed straight at it honestly it's not a sis's finest hour but I may actually do a separate review video on that graphics card now one of the most important questions around any case is what does it actually like to build in and honestly I have no complaints it's really easy to build and cable management was quite easy although there aren't any rubber grommets or cable covers over the actual routing holes but still it wasn't too much of an issue you can fit pretty much any sized GPU in this case although I would say that if you have a very short graphics card like this Asus phoenix variant it's quite difficult to neatly route the power cable to the GPU although if your motherboard does have a different front io layout and you've got the USB three on the on the right side instead of the bottom you may be able to write the route of the cable up at the bottom but I honestly didn't have any space for that we got a new cat check him out look at him he's so noisy don't jump don't jump don't do that to yourself you're gonna die but honestly the full power supply basement cover does make cable management much easier because it's kind of a hole you can just stuff everything in now the power supply does have a dust filter for its intake although the dust filter isn't magnetic or on a slide II think but honestly what can you expect for a $40.00 case and then as far as SSD or hard drive installation goes it's actually not as easy as having just a caddy that you can clip in but it's not too difficult how it works is you screw three rubber grommet hood screws into the SSD and then you slide it into position and then to lock it down there's a fourth screw that you actually have to tighten down and because of the fact that there's one specific screw hole that you have to use to lock it down it could mean that you could use the wrong grommeted screws and then have to kind of rearrange all of them but honestly that could just be because I'm a bit incompetent in conclusion I think the Versa h17 is a really great case for the budget if you have about $40.00 this would be on the top of my list of recommendations and honestly I think the fact that it ma TX form-factor isn't much of an issue because a lot of the cheaper B 450 motherboards from AMD are actually ma TX and the same goes for cheaper Intel motherboards I think however the case isn't perfect it doesn't have captive thumb screws on any of the side panels but that's not a huge issue it picks up fingerprints quite easily so it does mean that you have to give it a good wipe down after you've built it and the front airflow is really bad and with that it brings me to the end of the video if you liked it do like and subscribe to the channel for more videos like this one I've got an Instagram and a Twitter account so go check those out and until the next video bye byenow if you've ever had about a forty US dollar budget for a pc case you'll know that the selections pretty grim and it's quite difficult to find a case that doesn't look like an OEM dell from about twenty years ago but i may just have found an amazing budget option which is also ma TX and it kind of made me think after building in it why is ma TX not more popular because it's a really awesome form factor enter the Thermaltake versa h17 now there are three versions of the Thermaltake Versa h17 there's a version with a template to our side panel but that makes it a bit more expensive than you should reasonably pay for this case then there's a version with an acrylic side panel and the version that I'll be reviewing today which just has a solid metal side panel this version of the case goes for exactly 40 US dollars now first off let's just deal with the elephant in the room which is the front airflow performance and honestly this case has a very restrictive front panel it's got these two slits on the side which is supposed to give you airflow but they're really restrictive the only real place for air to come in is this slot in the bottom of the front panel but honestly it isn't enough in my opinion now while talking about the front panel let's look at the front panel IO and it's not too bad on this case especially for $40.00 you get a USB 3.0 port you get two USB 2.0 ports and then a headphone a microphone jack a reset button and a big start button now honestly the front IO is not bad for a $40 case but I think the coolermaster Q 300 has a better approach because it gives up the USB 2.0 ports for two USB 3.0 ports which i think is better and another issue that I have with the front panel IO is the actual cables that lead to your motherboard are quite badly dealt with in the top there and it makes it really difficult for you to cable manage it in a way that it doesn't look like a bird's nest and then another issue with these actual cables is that they're not sleeved all the way to the connector so it means that it's quite easy to have a catch-up and mustard effect on the actual motherboard end of the connector although because it's an M ATX case one you have a graphics card actually occupying that slot you can't really see those cables so that's a bit of a benefit now let's get back to the actual airflow situation in this case now it comes with 120 millimeter fan occupying the rear exhaust slot in the case now it's not a great fan but it does have one huge redeeming factor which is the fact that it doesn't use a molex connector which is a cardinal sin in case design and some more expensive cases actually do make this mistake it uses a three pin cable which you can just plug straight into your motherboard and then there's also a space for either 120 millimeter or 140 millimeter fan in the top which also has a magnetic dust filter so you could use it as an intake and quite hilariously this case does support a 360 mold radiator in the front although this cutout in the basement doesn't give you a huge amount of space for a radiator and fans so I think a 240 millimeter radiator would work better although I wouldn't really recommend putting a radiator in the front of this case just because of how bad the front airflow is now with all of the talk of airflow out of the way let's have a look at the actual thermal performance of this case now the system that I'm using to test the thermals here is actually a system that I built in a recent video about buying a PC with my first ever YouTube paycheck it's got an AMD 2400 G CPU in it with a stock cooler and then it's got a gtx 1660 TI in it which is an asus phoenix variant and honestly it's thermals are really bad even in the best situation so it may not be the most fair use case now as far as the actual thermals go while running fir mark on the GPU and ida 64 on the cpu and the motherboard both the cpu and the graphics card actually thermal thermally throttled during this very intensive test however temperatures weren't much of a problem during gaming except for the graphics card again but honestly that GPU will probably thermal throttle if you have an air conditioner pointed straight at it honestly it's not a sis's finest hour but I may actually do a separate review video on that graphics card now one of the most important questions around any case is what does it actually like to build in and honestly I have no complaints it's really easy to build and cable management was quite easy although there aren't any rubber grommets or cable covers over the actual routing holes but still it wasn't too much of an issue you can fit pretty much any sized GPU in this case although I would say that if you have a very short graphics card like this Asus phoenix variant it's quite difficult to neatly route the power cable to the GPU although if your motherboard does have a different front io layout and you've got the USB three on the on the right side instead of the bottom you may be able to write the route of the cable up at the bottom but I honestly didn't have any space for that we got a new cat check him out look at him he's so noisy don't jump don't jump don't do that to yourself you're gonna die but honestly the full power supply basement cover does make cable management much easier because it's kind of a hole you can just stuff everything in now the power supply does have a dust filter for its intake although the dust filter isn't magnetic or on a slide II think but honestly what can you expect for a $40.00 case and then as far as SSD or hard drive installation goes it's actually not as easy as having just a caddy that you can clip in but it's not too difficult how it works is you screw three rubber grommet hood screws into the SSD and then you slide it into position and then to lock it down there's a fourth screw that you actually have to tighten down and because of the fact that there's one specific screw hole that you have to use to lock it down it could mean that you could use the wrong grommeted screws and then have to kind of rearrange all of them but honestly that could just be because I'm a bit incompetent in conclusion I think the Versa h17 is a really great case for the budget if you have about $40.00 this would be on the top of my list of recommendations and honestly I think the fact that it ma TX form-factor isn't much of an issue because a lot of the cheaper B 450 motherboards from AMD are actually ma TX and the same goes for cheaper Intel motherboards I think however the case isn't perfect it doesn't have captive thumb screws on any of the side panels but that's not a huge issue it picks up fingerprints quite easily so it does mean that you have to give it a good wipe down after you've built it and the front airflow is really bad and with that it brings me to the end of the video if you liked it do like and subscribe to the channel for more videos like this one I've got an Instagram and a Twitter account so go check those out and until the next video bye bye