Test Setup
Case Testing, But Smaller
The FPS Review ITX Case Testing Rig has been set up to accommodate the testing challenges posed by ITX cases. A set of components has been assembled that can pull around 400W from the wall and is designed to determine the air cooling capacity of a smaller enclosure.
The Yuel Beast Motif Monument serves a dual purpose here, first for this review, but also as a benchmark for future reviews as a reference point for unrestricted system performance.
The Challenges of Downsizing
When working with the components available, particularly the i5 10600K, Shadow Rock 3 HSF, and Biostar ITX Z590 motherboard, we ran into the inescapable conundrum that sets the bar for entry for tuning performance-based systems in small form factors.
Our biggest stumbling block was the CPU. This particular i5 10600K sample just plain runs hot and once hot its memory controller gets flaky and a subsequent blue screen of death awaits the current performance run.
In a quest to set up our VCore and LLC we were able to slowly uncover a tuning regime that would eventually bring us to our final tested state.
Notes About Specific Components Used
The Intel i5 10600K, Biostar Valkyrie Z590I, ASUS RTX 2070 Twin, and Silverstone 1000W PSU have all been previously reviewed by this site. Added to this is the be quiet! Shadow Rock 3 White with a pair of Arctic P12 PWM PST ARGB 120mm fans which are both higher-performance and lower noise than the stock be quiet! fans, as well as an NVMe SSD to keep the system compact and cable runs to a minimum.
The CPU tops out at 4.7GHz all-core in this configuration, with 135W of power draw under continuous Cinebench R23 loads pushing it to over 90C. The RTX 2070 is able to pull 185W with its power limit set to 108%. Together with the motherboard and fans, the system pulls about 410W from the wall under a combined Cinebench R23 and Furmark load.
And a quick note about the Arctic P12 PWM PST ARGB fans. These fans tend to let the fan assembly, that is the part with the fins that are attached to the hub, ‘droop’. This can occur with the fans in a vertical orientation, say as intake or exhaust on a case or front-to-back air cooler, and it happens more so when the fan is oriented to blow up, such that the fan blades ‘fall’ a bit below the frame.
This results in the fan blades making contact with whatever the fan is mounted to. While likely not good for the life of the fan itself, and problematic if the fan is prevented from spinning altogether, the common result is simply a lot of racket. Typically when something is protruding into the path of a fan blade, it’s usually a loose cable. With the Arctic fans, having blades that can strike outside of the fan frame is a somewhat puzzling problem to troubleshoot, since an errant cable is not causing the noise. Luckily the problem can be addressed with the introduction of a spacer to set the fan ever so slightly further away and prevent the blades from striking.
RGB Lighting
The Yuel Beast Motif Monument has no lighting built in, however, the Corsair memory and Arctic fans do include RGB which was turned on for the review pictures. Note that the Biostar Valkyrie has an extremely limited RGB page in its BIOS which does not allow the selection of white, while Biostar’s Windows software crashed the system when launched all but once. This behavior prevented us from tuning the RGB lighting to match and resulted in the fans having a far cooler (bluer) shade of white than the memory lighting.
For this review, all lighting is set to ‘white’ as available in appropriate software suites, defined as #FFFFFF or 255 / 255 / 255.
Discussion (15 replies)
Join Discussion →I kinda like it. But yeah, $200 is steep for such a minimalist case. Also a bit worried about fan noise since there are no panels to attenuate it, but I guess with an open case that is always gonna be what it's gonna be.
Also, great photography there - especially the one of how it was shipped, don't see that often and it's appreciated.
Thanks for the great review. I kind of like it as well. I'm still looking for that 'perfect' case but such an ask is wildly open to interpretation and the needs of the user. I feel we're lucky that in the last 10 years, or so, so many have come up with their own take on changing it up. I'm always curious about doing an ITX build and something along these lines also leaves options for those that want to bend the rules with a much longer GPU that normally couldn't fit in a standard ITX case.
Looks like a good case to demo a great looking air cooler at CES or something.
Let me know when the ATX version is out. :)
Looks good.
I am currently using an open air case - though not as open.
I have 2 fans in my AIO, my 2 m.2's each have a heatsink and mini fan hooked up to the mobo as a case fan, and I have the 3 fans in my GPU.
My worst noise situations are: 1) On boot the AIO whines a bit as it is powering up. Once going there is only a faint humm in a perfectly quite room. 2) My GPU has 3 fans and can get a bit loud - though in a white noise kinda way not a whine or super annoying way, not every game stresses the GPU enough for the fans to turn on or to go to max speed. When using the speakers for sound I just turn it up slightly and when using my Corsair Headset I cant hear the gpu at all.
I just looked up my order date for this case, 9.7.21, so about 8 months and no sign of dust, easy enough to blow it off if/when it happens.
I'm wondering what kind of ITX system I could build now and how to justify needing a second computer to myself. :) Aside from my i7 Laptop, work computer, ipad, etc.
The one thing that seems to get my attention the most is my external 12gb HD. That makes the most annoying type/level of noise in my system and it really isnt all that bad. I could always put it in the case.
Not as open as the reviewed one, but close:
They just finished selling out their Atlas II run - these cases are built in batches, and the company hit a rough patch due every imaginable thing going wrong (pandemic, hurricane, etc.).
They have been responsive over email though, for those interested, and have a Discord up. In the last six months they've gone from 'we're getting out of the business' to 'we'll see!', given the amount of interest.
On a side note, I showed the title shot to one of the clerks at Microcenter while checking out earlier today, and he instantly knew who Yuel Beast was.
Well, my wife's is an ITX, i5 9400 with 1050Ti, and runs like a dream in a Fractal Design Nano.
My 'Linux desktop' which I'm putting together now will be an R7 5700G, in a Cryorig Taku - the case has basically zero provision for advanced CPU cooling, so the 8700k that's thermally limited and 1660 Super that are in there now will be getting swapped to something else, while the AMD setup will be running onboard graphics and a 10Gbit NIC.
(side note: there is exactly one AM4 ITX board that has Thunderbolt, the ASRock X570 PHANTOM GAMING-ITX/TB3, and it would not work with the 5700G, or any CPU / memory combo that Microcenter had on hand - they charge $30 for ~30 minute BIOS upgrades by the way! - so the ASRock is going back to Newegg; I've had good luck with them in the past, but I'm going with ASUS for this setup as it really does just need to work)
8700K parts will be going in a Hyte Revolt 3 - if the case isn't a disaster. Has provisions for a 280mm AIO, and I have a spare ~5yr old H115i with new Arctic fans to give it a shot in. This build will be waiting until I whittle down the case review log, before Brent yells at me... :D
All in all, ITX is what you make of it. Part of the draw for me is understanding that modern computing does not require the 'biggest' and 'baddest' for most computing needs, including gaming and content creation workloads. You almost never need more than two memory slots, for example, one to two M.2 slots is plenty, and a single x16 PCIe slot is also plenty for a high-performance GPU, NIC, or SAS controller as the case may be.
In general, if you don't need an external card at all, you can go real small, while possibly keeping all the features you need.
On the other hand, ITX can still go big, and when it comes to more adventurous layouts like the Yuel Beast Motif Monument, or NZXT H1 v2 (non-self-combusting-edition), and a slew of others, one can get massive amounts of performance into a small package!
NAS. This is the main reason that I use 10Gbit networking, and just picked up a switch with 10Gbit and 2.5Gbit ports - to be able to throw high-capacity spinners at a box somewhere else. I did unfortunately wind up putting a pair of 8TB drives in my desktop, and I'm... contemplating picking up some large SATA SSDs to replace them, just due to the shear noise and all of the initialization delays (booting, opening File Explorer) that they bring.
As for dust: I've historically been a 'positive pressure, filter all intakes' builder, and I don't really like straying from that where possible. For case reviews, I did wind up getting a handheld blower instead of buying crates of canned air, but what I'd really like to pick up is one of those vacuums that grounds out static electricity buildup. Also lots and lots and lots of Zeiss wipes!
An open case directly on a carpeted floor. You, sir, are a very brave elf.
It does look great though.
Its hard to tell from the photo - the feet have it 2" off the floor, with only the AIO Radiator and Power supply being that low. Mobo has more the 6' clearance.
I have considered putting something under it just because the way the carpet is its at a slight angle. I'd need something 12"*18" to put under it.
So this would do the job: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B076G1797P/?tag=thefpsreview-20
That would be big enough. I would think static would be the biggest fear there - and I have had a computer die because it was sitting on a carpet before -- I didn't even touch it, but people walking across a carpeted floor can build up a charge in the carpet.
With static the fear, I don't know that a plastic board would be the best bet - plastic builds up static fairly easily (that's why carpet does, it's often made of plastic fiber). Short of a grounded metal plate., maybe a bamboo cutting board of the same dimensions? Or a pine shelf slab from Home Depot or something.
I suppose you've had it for however long now though, if it isn't an issue, it isn't. And the computer I toasted was years ago, so maybe I'm just chasing ghosts.
Honestly it sounds like your case was not properly grounded. Maybe a bad socket? Could be worth while to have checked. Any kind of static discharge should go through the case and be harmlessly dissipated through the ground.
Could be - that was 3 houses and 3 apartments ago, so someone else’s headache now
I keep wanting to build ITX but the price vs space saving just really doesn't pay for itself over mATX, does it?
"Case" yeah, right. A PC Case is also called an enclosure. The term does not apply here.
Yuel Beast calls it a 'chassis' ;)
Back on sale:
https://yuelbeaststore.com/products/motif-monument