Friday, 7 January 2022

CES Roundup: The Wildest PC Cases of the Show

(Image: CbyberPowerPC)
There’s a pretty broad swath of PC hardware shown off each year at CES, and for some reason the designs shown off by PC case manufacturers always seem to be some of the craziest. It’s an interesting engineering situation, since PC cases literally have to include certain features in order to ensure they can run at decent temperatures, be accessible for upgrades, and so forth. How manufacturers work around those requirements is what catches our attention, more so than just a chassis that looks like a gundam. With that in mind, here’s some of the more eye-catching and interesting cases we stumbled across from CES 2022.

InWin N515 Nebula

InWin is widely known to have some of the most creative case designs at every year’s show, and this year one of its most attention-grabbing is the company’s new “nebula” effect, which it has applied to both a chassis and a new AIO cooler. As the name implies, the effect reproduces what appears like a field of stars inside an infinity mirror. The “stars” glisten, change color, and soar through the “sky” with mezmerizing effect. InWin created the effect by shining an ARGB light source through a laser-etched “bubble formation” with mirror on both sides of it. Naturally the lights are addressable and can be synced to all the popular RGB software applications from MSI, Asus, etc.

CyberPowerPC’s Kinetic Series

CyberPowerPC’s kinetic chassis is actually a good example of a design that adds some visual flair to a system and helps it perform better — theoretically. The basic concept of the chassis is quite simple: it has 18 triangular vents that open and close in response to temperatures inside the case. When they are moving they do indeed look like a kinetic piece of art as they softly flutter open or snap shut; it’s a really cool looking effect. According to Tom’s Hardware, the vents are controlled by 18 servo motors that connect to a post and collar, and you can fine tune the temperatures at which they open and close with software. That all sounds great, but those servos better be quiet.

Hyte Y60 ATX PC Case

Hyte is a sister company of iBuyPower, and its newest chassis is unique in that it has three glass panels, proving a wraparound view of your glorious PC hardware. This is exactly the type of case that people who care about wiring and color-matching cables would appreciate, as it lets you admire your handiwork in a way that’s just not possible with a single glass side panel. Also, as Techspot points out, it’s perfect for people with DIY liquid cooling setups. Due to its compact size, the GPU has to be mounted on a PCIe riser cable, but that just adds to the aesthetic in our opinion. The case will cost $199 and be available in March in black and white, all-black, or black and red.

Showcase PC Hologram Case

Everything about this technology demonstration feels a little off, and it may never see the light of day, but it’s certainly cool to look at. Showcase PC is a company we have never heard of, but it was showing off its hologram PC case at CES and it’s at least unique. Showcase can project a hologram inside and around your PC, so you can have animated fish swimming around, a tiger roaring at you, a lightning storm, and so forth. It’s reminiscent of iBuypower’s Snowblind technology, which puts an LCD in the case’s side panel to display a variety of effects. The company offers both “solo” and “dual” hologram cases, with the dual version able to project the hologram both inside and above the chassis. According to the company’s website, it achieves this with “synchronized videos,” but no further explanation is provided. The dual hologram case will sell for the ludicrous price of $499, and should be available by December 2022, according to the website.

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