so this has been somewhat of a
disappointing year for cases and I'm
looking forward to 2018 because it's
supposed to get better right so welcome
to our worst case trends of 2017 there's
been plenty let's discuss right after
this the new master liquid all-in-one
coolers are available in 120 and 240
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fans that are controlled via this hub or
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ML 120 ln 240 l down below so i'm making
this video to be like a reference point
to which we can look back and see if
anything that we discuss here today with
you and also in the comments gets
addressed within the case industry so
let's go now these are not in particular
order so the first case then would be
the lack of type-c integration on the
front io of cases type C on motherboards
has been sort of the mainstream for like
a whole year so not only is it much
easier to route because the cable is
smaller but of course USB 3.1 gen2
speeds are awesome and the case a you
should accommodate for it next I really
dislike included fans unlike 90% of the
cases because there's this cheap generic
black fans
coolermaster for example on their most
premium closure has the same fans as on
their budget stuff we see fans with
molex connections or single color LED
fans that to ruin the whole color
coordination and also where's my no
offend option upon check out I really
would love to see that become the
standard across all price points in 2018
and speaking of price why does it feel
like cases are getting more and more
expensive without the budget
introductions to compensate for the
Rises and prices for the premium stuff
and the only exception I can think of
this entire year is the faint expiry
hundred which is a fantastic $59
enclosure that has pretty much all the
same features that you'd normally find
on cases twice the price the next big
trend is lack of interior variety it
seems like there's this one formula for
a case interior and everyone is
following it without risking to deviate
from the pack to create something
actually unique for example vertical PCI
brackets for GPU installation it's
on majority of cases now but aside from
coolermaster and now EVGA no one is
offering the mounting accessories to be
included with the case to actually
utilize that slot for your graphics card
it's a slow catching trend that is not
evolving with the frame so the GPU is
way too close to the side panel so
temperatures are actually worse and you
can check out our investigation with
that right over here every case now has
a power supply shroud which is awesome I
love them but everyone is doing the same
thing so the 30% of your enclosure is
basically identical on majority of cases
so we have cutouts on the shroud for the
front radiator cutouts for the PCI
cables start for SSDs and some design
graphic near the power supply area to
indicate the brand it's fine I'm not
complaining about the features but
nobody is doing anything different aside
from a few brands like be quiet with the
dark base 700 with the modular plates on
the power supply shroud or the flexible
mounting points for the SSD caddies on
the h7 100 I because of that perforation
but aside from that and like a few maybe
other examples everything is basically
just copy and paste and we're also
seeing so many identical interior frames
across brands because they're multiple
case suppliers but not many cakes
manufacturers so it's very easy for a
company to redesign the exterior a
little bit but keep the inside and we're
seeing that happen so often so the
latest antic piayed case has the same
frame as the one year old silverstone
red line of five that has the same frame
as the raid max delta the latest
BitFenix enzo case has the same frame as
this DIY PC brand that I've never heard
of that resembles this z9 neo by Zelman
that looks similar to the Cougar MX 330
that is the same frame as the NR max
grace mesh and it looks like only a
handful of companies are trying to do
something unique and different for the
interior to keep the excitement going
but it seems like the interiors are
getting bigger for the mainstream which
is wrong now I understand the logic
behind wanting to check off as many of
the boxes and compatibility things as
you want for the consumer but cases
today are just way too big for the
average build of maybe 240 millimeter
all-in-one cooler one single graphics
card or
is beefy CPU tower and so what happens
most of the time is all this wasted
space around the hardware and not
everyone's doing a custom water loop
with dual GPU graphics cards so why our
case is getting bigger I think we need
to remove the perception that bigger
cases have better air flow or that
they're somehow more premium because
that's just not true everything in 2017
in terms of color coordination has been
a black frame potentially with certain
color coordinated accented pieces but
only for a few brands but everything
else is color customizable through RGB
illumination which has taken a life of
its own but why don't we see different
materials aside from you know steel
aluminum plastic and tempered glass why
don't we see any wood on cases to just
add a little bit of really cool
aesthetic pieces on the exterior of the
frame why don't we see any fabric
covered front panels to just potentially
tie it in to your living room for HT pcs
and stuff like that and why don't we see
any recycled materials coming back into
the case industry so that you can feel a
little bit better I don't know about
actually recycled materials integration
inside the frame itself but perhaps for
packaging and that would be nice now the
biggest visual trend for 2017 in my eyes
has been tempered glass and what started
is this fantastic way to eliminate that
crappy scratch brown acrylic side panel
with glass has turned it into a little
bit of a disaster
so the initial price gems for the T G
model was a little bit too high and then
charging $50 40 G panel upgrade is just
ridiculous I also think it was
artificially inflating the quality of
the case just because it's shiny it
doesn't mean that the frame itself is
good we saw this with I need these who
were one of the first to actually
release a case with three tempered glass
side panels but with a terrible metal
frame and really poor quality it was
actually one of the reasons why we
didn't accept the review sample because
the frame itself I could see was poor
and charging like a hundred 60 bucks for
three side panels
it was obviously they were trying to
take advantage of the market and the
rising popularity in T G so yeah and now
tempered glass has spread all over the
case and because you're limited on glass
shape
and everyone ends up basically with the
same design although I have to give EVGA
some credit for trying something new but
having a solid white glass panel kind of
defeats the whole purpose of the
see-through and the reflective
properties of glass you know what I
haven't seen you at all is tempered
glass on the power supply shroud that
would be cool in certain segments to
potentially reveal what's inside but
mirrors mirrors on the interior to
potentially highlight certain things
with lighting that would be cool however
the biggest fail of this year has to be
the huge oversight and front air flow
and how choking the fans has become this
running phrase among case reviews that's
just sad so this actually comes back to
tempered glass because either due to
design decisions so users can see there
are GB fans or you know whatever
interior is or due to silent properties
where the fans have just no air to
breathe because the paneling it just
completely closed off and we saw this
with the H 500 P a particular airflow
focused case turned out to be not what
anyone was expecting especially because
of those giant 200 millimeter fans the
latest Leonie case suffers from the same
showcased priorities with tiny
ventilation area on the front panel
the latest EVGA case actually totally
blocks the front fans with only small
gaps on one side and when I did my tests
we got 10 degrees cooler temperatures
when the panel was removed the latest be
quiet dark bass 700 has incredibly
restrictive airflow entrance as well
because you know for silence I guess and
companies should not be afraid to open
up that front panel and you know with
the nice balance of a fan rpm and
unrestricted airflow you can still have
nice silent and quiet system with good
cooling temperatures and nice front
airflow also can we please have a
standard configuration for the top
radiator mount something with guidelines
so the case manufacturers know what to
do because majority of them are still
centered which kind of sucks if you
don't have enough height for the
motherboard the radiators simply will
not fit or interfere with your
motherboard so anything that will be
offset closer to the side panel would be
appreciated and many cases don't have
sufficient
room above the motherboard tray to
accommodate a standard set of fans and
radiator and you don't need a super tall
case for that
potentially reduce the height of the
power supply shroud and move the
motherboard tray down a little bit to
have appropriate room at the top for the
most common cooling situation in 2017
the new tesora gram SD spectrum is one
seriously beautiful keyboard with perky
RGB illumination macro customization
built-in and comes with to source new
removable optical switches that are dust
and water resistant with linear reds or
clicky blues full details on the SE
spectrum down below and so I am eager to
see what 2018 has in stock for case
reconfiguration and reinvention because
I am yeah
2017 was a little bit of a
disappointment and so that is all my
thoughts about the worst case trends of
2017 let me know if you agree and share
your discontent about the case industry
in the comments below
let's have that chat I'm looking forward
to reading everything you say thanks
much for watching make sure to check out
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subscribe and we'll see you in the next
case video
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