Main factors of curiosity embrace the recessed motherboard tray, ventilated rear chamber cowl, and irregular energy provide location up within the entrance. It’s not all excellent news, nonetheless. The ability-supply space has some air flow issues we’re not completely satisfied about, however there are some mechanical upsides.
The rear followers take away as a single piece with out changing into a proprietary nightmare, which is a welcomed characteristic. The case tries to plan round back-connect boards, operating into the chicken-or-egg drawback that each boards and instances are going through.
As at all times, we have now some critiques of the case, however we had been additionally general proud of its construct high quality and meeting. The instances land at $130 to $140 with followers or $100 to $110 with out them.
Specs
| Mannequin Title | HS01 PRO | HS02 PRO |
| Shade | Black / White | Black / White |
| Dimensions | (L*W*H) 480*235*368mm (Case) / 563*323*573mm (Carton) | 480*235*368mm (Case) / 585*334*532mm (Carton) |
| MB Assist | ATX /Micro-ATX / Mini-ITX (Again-Linked MB Supported) | ATX /Micro-ATX / Mini-ITX (Again-Linked MB Supported) |
| Entrance I/O | USB3.0*2 / Sort-C*1 / Mic*1 / Energy Button / Audio*1 / LED Button*1 | USB3.0*2 / Sort-C*1 / Mic*1 / Energy Button / Audio*1 / LED Button*1 |
| PCIe Slots | 7 | 7 |
| Compatibility / Most | CPU Cooler 170mmGPU 400mmPSU 200mm ATX / SFX | CPU Cooler 175mmGPU 420mmPSU 200mm ATX / SFX |
| Drive Assist / Most | 3.5” HDD 22.5” SSD 4 | 3.5” HDD 22.5” SSD 4 |
| Pre-installed Fan(s) | Backside 120mm*3Rear 120mm*2 | Backside 120mm*3Rear 120mm*2 |
| Fan Assist | High 120mm*3Front 120mm*3 / 140mm*2Bottom 120mm*3Rear 120mm*2 | High 120mm*3Bottom 120mm*3Rear 120mm*2 |
| Radiator Assist | High 120 / 240 / 360mmBottom 120 / 240mmRear 120mm | High 120 / 240 / 360mmBottom 120 / 240mmRear 120mm |
| Mud Filter | Backside | Backside |
| EAN | 4710562747621 / 4710562744712 | 4710562741377 / 4710562745719 |
| Guarantee | 1 Yr | 1 Yr |
Specs copied from producer supplies, please learn evaluate for our personal measurements and opinions
The Construct
Montech might be best-known for its King 95 chassis. The corporate has had some hits and a few misses because it began, however the HS01 and HS02 blur the traces between a extra conventional case and a dual-chamber case.
The large advertising play is towards inversion. Circumstances have inverted up to now, however a few of the unique invertible instances we lined had been troublesome to flip round and required dozens of screws.
Fashionable invertible instances, just like the be quiet! Mild Base collection, have made this course of approach sooner.
Inversion is the headlining characteristic of the HS instances, and the method is extraordinarily straightforward. The highest cowl strikes to the underside, the underside filter and legs transfer to the highest. That is it.
The method is optionally toolless: the legs are magnetic, however they can be screwed into place when the case is not inverted. The principle draw back of creating the method so easy is that elements of the case that are designed to work right-side-up aren’t altered in any respect within the inversion course of, so the aspect panels and rear fan bracket are put in upside-down when the case is inverted and the PSU energy swap turns into inaccessible.
Different elements of case configuration are additionally straightforward to take care of. The highest panel is magnetic and pulls off simply. The corporate makes use of a rubber/faux leather-based strap on the again. The rear two-fan bracket comes off as a single unit (which we preferred), and the rear growth slots rotate vertically with minimal effort. Eradicating the highest panel provides fast entry to the PSU switches (like energy and eco mode), in addition to the RGB hub connections in Professional variants.
The HS02 has what Montech calls “an 8° Curved Glass entrance pane.” It’s not 8 levels — it’s 90, so perhaps they meant the radius of the bend was 8mm.
The media package got here full with an illustration of the nook with an 8° label although. Both approach, the bend is, in truth, 90 levels in whole, and the entrance panel butts up towards the aspect panel to look (form of) like a steady pane, related in some elements to the King 95. It isn’t as spectacular because the HAVN HS420 (learn our evaluate), nevertheless it’s positively cheaper. The glass panels are beveled the place they meet the angled plastic pillars for a flush match.
The chassis design strikes us as being optimized for back-connect boards. Again-connect boards have gotten some traction, however they aren’t a good portion of the market but. Case makers have a problem: It is too early to prioritize back-connect on the expense of compatibility with regular boards (until advertising particularly for a back-connect board), but in addition, not constructing for it in any respect means no adoption of change.
The motherboard and followers have what Montech describes as a “sink-in design,” that means that ATX and even mATX boards are surrounded by steel on all sides. As a consequence, it is troublesome to achieve board connections with regular motherboards (which is most of them): for instance, we had been compelled to make use of the inventory flat EPS12V cables for our SilverStone PSU as a result of our custom-sleeved CableMod replacements could not cleanly match. Routing the 24-pin cable required an uncomfortable bend, and becoming the USB headers into place was almost inconceivable. There isn’t any good route for the GPU energy cable both, though that is a standard problem with open-bottomed instances and never particular to Montech.
The PSU space leaves lots to be desired: Sadly, we find yourself with 3 layers of blockages from the PSU case mesh, the inside cowl door mesh, and the outside panel mesh. The 2 case panels overlap and hinder one another, which already overlap with the PSU air flow. Stacking 3 layers atop one another reduces circulation and will increase resistance, which may improve noise or minimally cut back cooling. Fortuitously, PSUs are usually much less thermally delicate, however we’d prefer to see fewer overlapping obstructions.
With the PSU mounted down, we discovered our regular SilverStone PSU pushed the duvet up with out screws to carry it in place, which we added.
The PSU mounting bracket might be rotated to mount both a typical ATX or a smaller SFX PSU; this bracket then slides into place and is screwed to the highest of the chassis. There isn’t any explicit motive to make use of an SFX PSU with this case. The extension cable that runs from the rear of the case to the bracket on the entrance have to be routed via the bracket earlier than it is put in.
That is principally an air cooling case, which is how we’re testing it. Radiator assist is restricted, although. The entrance of the HS02 clearly does not assist radiators since there aren’t any mounts, however even within the HS01, the PSU placement overlaps with the entrance fan mount. Meaning there’s solely house for mounting on the surface of the chassis, and solely regular 25mm thick followers match (no radiators and no extra-thick followers). On the high of the case, Montech claims assist for radiators as much as 123mm huge, which is a strict restrict because of the bumps on the ATX PSU bracket that pokes via, leaving small bumps to intrude with clearance. The underside mount works nice for radiators aside from obstructing the underside fringe of ATX boards, however Montech (accurately) does not declare compatibility above 240mm because of the cramped house. There isn’t any 140mm-wide radiator compatibility in both case, and solely the HS01 has assist for any 140mm followers.
Typically talking, we do not like all of the plates and covers and brackets that Montech has stuffed into the HS01 and HS02. They cover some cable litter, generally at the price of thermals, however most litter can be invisible behind the metal aspect panel anyway. There are occasions the place we like any such characteristic, however with this case, there are already tradeoffs within the depth and the accessibility for some connectors in some areas. Sacrificing extra of that for the steel plates can generally work towards it. Even nonetheless, cable administration house is beneficiant, however we might fortunately commerce a few of that house for higher entry to regular motherboard connectors and a few small clearances in the primary chamber.
Shifting on to the {hardware}: Circumstances typically embrace a set of “SSD” screws for attaching 2.5″ drives. The HS01 and HS02 don’t, nonetheless: because the handbook notes, each screw included within the accent package is 6-32 TPI. The instances declare compatibility with as much as 4 2.5″ drives, so the screws are an odd omission. It’s not a giant deal to convey your individual screws, however not normal for a case to chop this nook.
The entrance panels of the HS01 and HS02 aren’t straight interchangeable since there are some variations to the assist constructions, just like the assist nook pillar within the HS01 and a few plastic trim within the HS02 that’s not on the HS01. This was inconvenient for our testing, nevertheless it’s unlikely to ever come up from a buyer perspective, so it doesn’t matter a lot until you wished to swap it later.
All variants embrace ARGB lighting strips on the backside of the case, with the Professional instances additionally together with ARGB followers and a built-in controller. The followers use separate (normal) connections for ARGB and fan management, which we typically choose, nevertheless it does result in a complicated mess of wires. Should you’ve purchased into one of many proprietary RGB ecosystems, the Professional instances actually aren’t one of the best for working with that.
Thermals
The Professional variants ship with followers and the non-Execs don’t, so all inventory checks proven right here signify Professional efficiency. We examined the HS01 inventory and inverted, however Montech’s advertising supplies push the “pure airflow” chimney impact angle, so by that logic, inverting the case with out rearranging the followers ought to result in worse efficiency. We’ll see.
CPU Full Load Thermals – Noise-Normalized
We’ll begin with noise-normalized CPU thermals, which suggests we use our hemi-anechoic chamber within the lab to gather extremely managed noise information for comparability.
Inverting the case didn’t produce a major change. The HS01 Professional ran at about the identical temperature in each checks. The glass panel versus mesh panel additionally had minimal influence.
The inventory fan structure is similar in each instances, that means that the HS01’s mesh entrance received’t do a lot until the followers are re-arranged; if something, it might enable some air to flee the place we’d fairly maintain it in. The CPU averaged 49 levels Celsius above ambient within the HS01 Professional, 52 levels on the P-cores, and the outcomes for the inverted HS01 and for the HS02 had been inside the regular vary of variance. The followers had been run at barely completely different speeds in every of the three configurations to hit the 27 dBA threshold, which is the place the chamber comes into play (as we will really measure these tiny acoustic variations now), however that wasn’t sufficient to make a distinction thermally.
Montech’s personal reasonably dearer King 95 Professional with a glass entrance beat the HS instances on this check with a mean of 47 levels above ambient. The Antec C8 ARGB (learn our evaluate) can be dearer, nevertheless it has comparatively weak CPU cooling with the inventory fan structure, and the HS instances beat it by 1-2 levels. Extra conventional designs just like the Lancool 207 (learn our evaluate) and 216 (watch our evaluate) fly previous the HS01 and HS02, setting a ceiling and giving perspective on cooling. The G400A (learn our evaluate) additionally accompanies these two.
GPU Full Load Thermals – Noise-Normalized
The vary for the GPU thermal outcomes was simply as tight, with the inverted HS01 averaging 42.8 levels above ambient and the HS02 averaging 43.2, which is inside variance, however that’s nonetheless not even one full diploma of distinction.
It isn’t a shock that the chimney impact is not an element when lively airflow is concerned, neither is it a shock that altering the entrance panel has no influence when there aren’t any followers put in on the entrance of the case.
Though the completely different configurations did not make a lot distinction, the HS instances carried out effectively general for GPU thermals, respectably near the C8 ARGB’s 42 diploma common. Just like the C8, the HS instances have backside consumption followers that power cool air straight into and thru the GPU and with minimal obstruction past a mud filter. The King 95 Professional additionally has backside consumption followers, however they’re much less efficient, leading to a 48 diploma common. The Flux Professional and Lancool 207 stay leaders right here, however one is in a special worth class and each are completely different kinds.
GPU Full Load Thermals – Full Pace
Full pace case followers are subsequent, dropping the noise management and testing GPU thermals.
At full pace, we will lastly see a distinction between at the least the common and inverted HS01 outcomes, with the inverted structure averaging 40 levels above ambient to the common structure’s 42 levels above ambient. The underside consumption followers transfer sufficient air that flipping them to the highest of the case the place they will breathe extra freely is helpful. The inverted structure additionally directed barely extra noise in the direction of our mic placement, however not sufficient for an audible distinction at 38.5 versus 38.0 dBA. The common HS02 end result intently matched the HS01 end result at 42 levels, however the HS02 was quieter (as measured from the entrance) on account of its strong entrance panel blocking noise egress. The drop to 35.8 dBA is noticeable, if barely. Nonetheless, keep in mind that on the 27 dBA threshold efficiency and noise ranges had been each equal.
As earlier than, the Antec C8 ARGB’s GPU cooling is on par with the efficiency of the HS instances at 41 levels above ambient, with noise ranges equal to the HS01. The King 95 additionally averaged about 37 dBA, however with worse GPU thermals, averaging 46 levels.
CPU Full Load Thermals – Standardized Followers
Our standardized set of followers cannot be put in within the HS02 because of the lack of 140mm mounts, which made this check easy. We put in the 2 140mm consumption followers on the entrance of the HS01 and the one 120mm exhaust within the decrease of the 2 rear slots.
With this structure, common CPU temperature was 41 levels above ambient and 45 levels for the P-cores. For this case particularly, these are decrease than the inventory outcomes, however that is not shocking given the extra direct airflow aimed on the CPU cooler. It’s additionally fully regular efficiency for a mesh-fronted case on this check, touchdown between the Fractal Meshify 2 Compact (watch our evaluate) and Phanteks P400A Digital (watch our evaluate). The Antec C8 and King 95 Professional outcomes on this chart had been each examined with aspect consumption, so efficiency is predictably worse than the HS01.
GPU Full Load Thermals – Standardized Followers
However, transferring to the conventional front-to-back structure with the standardized followers damage GPU thermals. Eradicating the inventory backside consumption followers that made the HS01 aggressive on this class led to a mean GPU temperature of 45 levels above ambient, which is not horrible, however allowed the King 95 Professional and C8 ARGB to take the lead at 43 levels for each. Montech’s inventory fan structure looks like one of the best compromise.
VRM & RAM Full Load Thermals – Noise Normalized
To complete issues off, we’ll transfer again to the noise normalized testing. VRM thermals had been almost similar for every of the three examined configurations, averaging 33 levels above ambient within the HS02 Professional, which lands the HS instances in the midst of the chart between the C8 ARGB at 33 levels and the King 95 Professional at 31.
The SPD Hub sensor readings from the RAM advised an analogous story: all three configurations averaged near 25 levels above ambient, near the C8 ARGB’s 24 diploma common, though the King 95 Professional scored effectively on this particular occasion at 21 levels.
Conclusion
Montech’s power has at all times been within the price range house. The Montech HS01 Professional and HS02, nonetheless, are form of in that mid-range class with their costs. The latest tariff scenario is clearly going to have an effect on that market. Montech contacted us to substantiate MSRPs just a few days previous to launch, so hopefully these costs will keep steady for a while.
As a fishtank case with a curved nook, the $140 HS02 Professional is a fairly priced different to the dearer instances that match that description just like the HAVN HS420, Antec C8 Curve, HYTE Y60 (watch our evaluate), and even Montech’s personal King 95 Professional. We critically suggest watching the construct part of our video evaluate, as a result of there have been some options we did not like, nevertheless it’s as much as you to determine whether or not the financial savings are price it. Should you use a back-connect motherboard, which will remedy lots of the points we noticed, together with with cabling.
The HS02’s thermal efficiency wasn’t abysmal or superb. It was nice. Of those two instances, we’re extra keen to just accept middling efficiency from the one that appears fascinating, in different phrases, the glass-fronted choice.
The HS01 has larger cooling potential because of its mesh-front panel, nevertheless it’s additionally extra generic: there aren’t a ton of fish-tank instances that may compete with the HS02’s worth, however there are lots of, many $100-$150 mesh-fronted instances that may compete with the HS01. These embrace choices just like the Lian Li Lancool 207, Fractal North (watch our evaluate), Phanteks G400A, or lots of the different instances we have reviewed up to now couple years are all viable alternate options to a mesh-fronted case. There’s lots of competitors at that worth class.
Should you love Montech’s case right here or actually like the way it seems, we will say “it’s nice.” We do assume the fish-tank model makes a little bit extra sense for most individuals. Should you actually desire a mesh case, there are higher alternate options.
