1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:03,040 Do you know what Cooler Master thinks? They think your life's too easy. 2 00:00:03,040 --> 00:00:07,200 They think you don't make your life harder if you had to build your own PC case. 3 00:00:07,200 --> 00:00:11,520 Which is why they made the cube, which is conspicuously named, 4 00:00:11,520 --> 00:00:15,440 I don't know why they called it a cube. It's not cube shaped. It's not even, even when it's built, 5 00:00:15,440 --> 00:00:19,520 rectangle, box, rectangle, it's not a cube. 6 00:00:19,520 --> 00:00:24,360 Let's not let that distract from the fact that it is a flat packed computer. 7 00:00:24,360 --> 00:00:30,080 It's supposed to be a build as you go experience. It's gonna be step by step, just as I take it out. 8 00:00:30,080 --> 00:00:31,400 And also cool, there's, 9 00:00:33,600 --> 00:00:36,640 yo, this is Lego brand Lego. That's very cute. 10 00:00:36,640 --> 00:00:41,720 A Pico ATX case. Can we just switch to a Lego building video? 11 00:00:41,720 --> 00:00:46,800 So right here in the box, we have printed instructions as well as some build suggestions. 12 00:00:46,800 --> 00:00:50,120 We got a liquid cooler. So I guess we should try and aim 13 00:00:50,120 --> 00:00:54,040 for the fluidly liquid cooled mode. 14 00:00:54,040 --> 00:00:59,960 Well, Kaplaners, Kaplaners, I just don't make the case. Kaplaners like one of you just quit halfway. 15 00:00:59,960 --> 00:01:05,080 And here are the instructions. I am also interested because they have a QR code here 16 00:01:05,080 --> 00:01:09,080 for a video manual. And each step itself actually has a QR code as well, 17 00:01:09,080 --> 00:01:13,000 which is pretty cool. And it links to a playlist. They have a full YouTube playlist 18 00:01:13,000 --> 00:01:16,960 with each individual video for each individual step. That's pretty cool. 19 00:01:16,960 --> 00:01:20,000 These steps are numbered strangely. 20 00:01:20,000 --> 00:01:24,880 And I thought, oh, one motherboard, okay. So it's one, two. 21 00:01:24,880 --> 00:01:28,240 And then you go to step two, which is one. 22 00:01:32,160 --> 00:01:33,840 Oh, God. Three. 23 00:01:35,200 --> 00:01:38,960 One, one, two, one, two, two, two, three, three, one. 24 00:01:38,960 --> 00:01:42,680 A GPU one, but it's not following the ver... Cooler master. 25 00:01:44,800 --> 00:01:48,280 You put in so much effort to make this simple. And this is garbage. 26 00:01:48,280 --> 00:01:54,080 This is just nonsense. Well, let's start. So start, mount motherboard on motherboard tray. 27 00:01:54,080 --> 00:01:59,920 So we'll take out our motherboard tray. The nice thing is that they give you these very clear 28 00:01:59,920 --> 00:02:04,440 markings that are all pressed in all over this backplate. 29 00:02:04,440 --> 00:02:08,680 They have some pre-installed motherboard standoffs. They pre-install everything for what it looks like to be ATX 30 00:02:08,680 --> 00:02:13,640 because we have some ones down here. We don't actually need those because we're doing a micro ATX build. 31 00:02:13,640 --> 00:02:19,640 So we're just going to move one of these into the slot right here for this micro ATX, 32 00:02:19,640 --> 00:02:22,760 just to get that last little mounting point in the right position. 33 00:02:22,760 --> 00:02:25,960 One thing that would be nice to see is just, maybe some labeling on these bags, 34 00:02:25,960 --> 00:02:29,760 just to make it a little bit clearer when exactly I need to use them. It's a lot of screws. 35 00:02:29,760 --> 00:02:33,160 You're definitely not used to getting this many screws with your computer case. 36 00:02:33,160 --> 00:02:36,840 Okay, we've got, we've mounted the motherboard. What's the next step, cooler master? 37 00:02:36,840 --> 00:02:41,320 Mount the PSU on motherboard tray plus motherboard tray. 38 00:02:41,320 --> 00:02:48,740 Is this just an adapter bracket? No, we got ATX, FFX, the instructions are not useful. 39 00:02:49,540 --> 00:02:54,700 So this little bracket is going to go on the end of the power supply like this. 40 00:02:54,700 --> 00:02:58,180 It can support SFX and SFXL power supplies as well. 41 00:02:58,180 --> 00:03:02,980 This is a really fun exploration. I'm sorry I'm doing a rough job of hosting it 42 00:03:02,980 --> 00:03:06,660 because it's very confusing. It's very unusual, 43 00:03:06,660 --> 00:03:10,060 but definitely the most interesting PC build I've been able to do in a long time. 44 00:03:10,060 --> 00:03:13,660 So what this bracket does is it gives us these two little notches on the side. 45 00:03:13,660 --> 00:03:18,820 You see right there and right there. And what that allows us to do is to take our choice 46 00:03:18,820 --> 00:03:22,540 of three mounting positions for our power supply. 47 00:03:22,540 --> 00:03:27,100 I guess it's going to basically allow us to have a little bit of extra height if we want to put a top radiator in 48 00:03:27,100 --> 00:03:31,420 because we do have to route this custom cable 49 00:03:31,420 --> 00:03:36,900 so that it comes out the back of the plate. Oh, that is really cool. So this really, that's how this works as a test bench. 50 00:03:36,900 --> 00:03:40,460 That's kind of neat. So I see how this could cause some issues already. 51 00:03:40,460 --> 00:03:44,660 Basically, if you had a longer GPU, like we have a relatively short GPU, 52 00:03:44,660 --> 00:03:50,220 but if you were, say, getting like one of those large, like 4080s or even the 4070s get pretty big. 53 00:03:50,220 --> 00:03:54,260 If they extend in front of here, you're going to lose the ability to access 54 00:03:54,260 --> 00:03:57,940 a lot of these ports. It's going to go like right there. If you are going with this case, 55 00:03:57,940 --> 00:04:01,860 it might be worth considering an SFXL power supply, but I guess we'll see how much of a problem 56 00:04:01,860 --> 00:04:05,500 it actually ends up being when we get there. It's in there. 57 00:04:06,460 --> 00:04:09,700 It's got a little wiggle, but it's a computer. What's going to happen? 58 00:04:09,700 --> 00:04:13,340 Now we go into the next layer. And as we follow down the layers, 59 00:04:13,340 --> 00:04:16,940 we can see in the box that we have front panel and mounting rear panel. 60 00:04:16,940 --> 00:04:21,340 Oh, that's kind of neat. They come with two of the PCI brackets and already removed. 61 00:04:21,340 --> 00:04:25,100 That's actually surprisingly convenient because that's how it always is. 62 00:04:25,100 --> 00:04:28,460 And especially because you never use the first slot because that's going to be your SSD now. 63 00:04:28,460 --> 00:04:33,340 You're only really looking at the second and third slots for most mounts. I like that saving me a little bit of a step 64 00:04:33,340 --> 00:04:35,700 after adding so many steps. 65 00:04:36,780 --> 00:04:39,940 So I get the idea that it's like, okay, shipping an empty PC case 66 00:04:39,940 --> 00:04:43,620 means you're shipping just a lot of empty, just air. It's all empty in there. 67 00:04:43,620 --> 00:04:47,780 But because this is disassembled, it requires like every bit of it 68 00:04:47,780 --> 00:04:50,860 to be that much more rigid so that it's easier to work with 69 00:04:50,860 --> 00:04:56,820 without warping or bending. And that makes this whole thing a lot heavier. 70 00:04:56,820 --> 00:05:01,780 So how much are they really saving on shipping? Because that's the other big expense for shipping is weight. 71 00:05:01,780 --> 00:05:05,780 No. Damn it. It's micro ATX. 72 00:05:05,780 --> 00:05:10,260 I have to take out this. I have to take out the top PCIe bracket. 73 00:05:11,020 --> 00:05:16,300 I'm so embarrassing. So let's go the front panel, the next step. 74 00:05:16,300 --> 00:05:21,460 Ooh, it's mint green. So I've been informed that this is the Macaron edition, 75 00:05:21,460 --> 00:05:26,660 which is a fancy one that comes with three different colors. And I imagine they're all dessert themed. 76 00:05:26,660 --> 00:05:32,140 This is really cute. I love this. On the front panel, we have a 20 gigabit per second USB type C port 77 00:05:32,140 --> 00:05:35,260 and two five gigabit per second USB A ports, 78 00:05:35,260 --> 00:05:42,860 as well as a combo jack for audio. And a slightly unsatisfying power button. 79 00:05:42,860 --> 00:05:47,500 Look at, look at that cable. Plenty of length that's gonna make it easy 80 00:05:47,500 --> 00:05:51,260 to reach wherever you want to go. This probably is also what they use 81 00:05:51,260 --> 00:05:56,820 for like normal sized cases. Cause like look at how much, look at how much play we got. 82 00:05:56,820 --> 00:06:01,060 I like how there was one screw type for every part of this case, whether that's mount to your motherboard 83 00:06:01,060 --> 00:06:04,440 to put in your GPU to put the case itself together. 84 00:06:04,440 --> 00:06:08,620 That just simplifies my life so much. And I more companies should do this. 85 00:06:08,620 --> 00:06:12,620 It's very annoying when you get like a computer case and you have like four different types of screws 86 00:06:12,620 --> 00:06:17,220 and you're not really sure what each one's for cause they don't label the bags cause they're lazy. 87 00:06:17,220 --> 00:06:20,740 Cooler master went the extra mile here and I appreciate that. I guess to screw this in, 88 00:06:20,740 --> 00:06:24,300 we need to take off this front panel, which is magnetic 89 00:06:24,300 --> 00:06:28,140 and it has a removable dust filter. 90 00:06:28,140 --> 00:06:33,860 Nice, easy to wash. I like that that mesh itself seems pretty dense 91 00:06:33,860 --> 00:06:38,460 and like a lot of it is wasted on the fact that it's a circle structure instead of like a grid. 92 00:06:38,460 --> 00:06:42,260 This is pretty dense cause they're matching the circle design that's on the front of here, 93 00:06:42,260 --> 00:06:45,780 which is just like, there's a lot of extra space. Before we get any further, 94 00:06:45,780 --> 00:06:49,740 we're just going to put in our CPU and RAM real quick. Yo, we got a Star Wars. 95 00:06:49,740 --> 00:06:53,860 We got a lightsaber SSD. Hell yeah, let's go. 96 00:06:53,860 --> 00:06:58,300 B-D-D. Whoa. Ha-cha! 97 00:06:58,300 --> 00:07:03,260 I'm just going to plug the front IO in while I'm here. All right, we got everything wired up. 98 00:07:03,260 --> 00:07:07,580 So now we're going to move on to the next step, which is going to be the bottom panel. 99 00:07:07,580 --> 00:07:10,780 Mmm. At the bottom, we see a fan filter made of the same material 100 00:07:10,780 --> 00:07:16,140 as on the front panel, but this one is magnetic. And we have rails for up to a 240 millimeter rad 101 00:07:16,140 --> 00:07:21,500 or what looks like maybe a 280. Also, we have mounting points for hard drives. 102 00:07:21,500 --> 00:07:25,380 There's going to be a couple of legs that I believe go on at the bottom here that we're yet to get to 103 00:07:25,380 --> 00:07:30,480 in our construction journey. So we're going to move on to the top panel. 104 00:07:30,480 --> 00:07:34,220 On the top panel, we have more of that minty freshness 105 00:07:34,240 --> 00:07:38,660 as well as another layer of, wow, that is going to be pretty restricted for air flow. 106 00:07:38,660 --> 00:07:42,140 It's just like the front panel. And I think this is actually going to be a bigger issue than I thought. 107 00:07:42,140 --> 00:07:46,100 Circles at the front that are going to be blocking stuff. Then a layer of dense mesh in the middle. 108 00:07:46,100 --> 00:07:52,100 Then another series of cutouts on the backhand. I think the reason they did this was to add extra modularity 109 00:07:52,100 --> 00:07:58,420 so that this could be used in multiple different locations. Like this could be the top or the bottom panel. 110 00:07:58,420 --> 00:08:01,900 This could have just been the fan rails and this could have been completely unobstructed, 111 00:08:01,900 --> 00:08:05,860 which would benefit both air flow and probably also fan noise. 112 00:08:05,860 --> 00:08:10,380 And now we got to get our radiator out. Corsair and a lot of other companies 113 00:08:10,380 --> 00:08:13,460 include the pre-installed fans now. It's so much better. 114 00:08:13,460 --> 00:08:17,820 These ones I have to do myself. And we'll screw in this top panel real quick. 115 00:08:18,700 --> 00:08:24,140 Oh boy, a computer builds. But I lack a sense of urgency when I do them. 116 00:08:24,140 --> 00:08:27,340 And they take really long. Stay at home. Don't build a computer. 117 00:08:30,100 --> 00:08:32,500 Yeah. My girlfriend was in that. 118 00:08:34,940 --> 00:08:40,540 It's not that. Just because I let you be friends with her, 119 00:08:40,540 --> 00:08:42,380 it doesn't mean it's our girlfriend. 120 00:08:43,780 --> 00:08:45,300 We're all dating Shay now. 121 00:08:46,780 --> 00:08:51,780 The feet, they just clip in. And if you're having trouble getting them all the way in, you just get them one at a time. 122 00:08:51,780 --> 00:08:56,580 Yo, we got SSD and hard drive. We can mount a hard drive on the bottom, 123 00:08:56,580 --> 00:09:00,980 on the backside of the motherboard background. We have mounts for two and a half inch drives 124 00:09:00,980 --> 00:09:04,820 right there and there. Or a three and a half inch drive going along this way. 125 00:09:04,820 --> 00:09:08,660 So this case actually supports four, three and a half inch hard drive mounts, 126 00:09:08,660 --> 00:09:12,020 which is awesome. I also like this integrated handle on the back. 127 00:09:15,020 --> 00:09:20,100 Could you imagine? That's what we get for supporting not just full ATX, 128 00:09:20,100 --> 00:09:24,100 but also even EATX. You can see we have a little bit of extra space right here. 129 00:09:24,100 --> 00:09:28,340 If we have a smaller power supply that we can get an EATX motherboard in here. Honestly, quite spacious, 130 00:09:28,340 --> 00:09:31,300 especially for the size, for its compact size. I like this thing quite a bit. 131 00:09:32,020 --> 00:09:35,860 It's pretty charming. I will say that actually in the backside of things, 132 00:09:35,860 --> 00:09:39,460 you do have a decent amount of space for cable management. 133 00:09:39,460 --> 00:09:44,340 But the nature of this kind of front mounted power supply 134 00:09:44,340 --> 00:09:47,540 here, you kind of have to round this like little corner 135 00:09:47,540 --> 00:09:50,580 in this tab and it's just gonna be a little bit of a pain. 136 00:09:50,580 --> 00:09:56,420 It's not a ton of room, it's maybe an inch of depth. Cable management is probably not this case's strong suit. 137 00:09:56,420 --> 00:09:59,780 It's always kind of hard to hide cables when your PSU is right there, 138 00:09:59,780 --> 00:10:03,460 as opposed to somewhere at the bottom where you can round them up to the back and then just kind of sneak out holes. 139 00:10:03,460 --> 00:10:08,060 It feels like we're nearly there. We just need this front panel and this back panel to go on. 140 00:10:08,060 --> 00:10:12,420 So it comes with two different types of panels. You can get a mesh panel or a glass panel. 141 00:10:12,420 --> 00:10:16,540 It comes with both. So you can choose which side you want it on, if you want it on the back to hide your cables 142 00:10:16,540 --> 00:10:21,060 or if you want it on the front to hide your cables. I'm airflow focused. I like that stuff. 143 00:10:21,060 --> 00:10:26,020 So say you're using the mesh panel, you can actually take this and mount your radiator to it, 144 00:10:26,020 --> 00:10:29,340 or maybe a couple of fans if you want to get some direct air right to the GPU. 145 00:10:29,340 --> 00:10:31,340 So I think you would take this bracket, 146 00:10:33,060 --> 00:10:36,940 put it on here. You can just toss the radiator in like that. 147 00:10:38,580 --> 00:10:41,980 Nice. We can also actually take this whole GPU out and use a vertical bracket. 148 00:10:41,980 --> 00:10:45,860 It's really impressive how many options they've provided in this case, 149 00:10:45,860 --> 00:10:50,620 while still making it flat-packed, you know? Like surprisingly modular. 150 00:10:50,620 --> 00:10:54,620 And I guess we're gonna use our tempered glass panels gonna go on the back. 151 00:10:54,620 --> 00:10:57,420 Whoa, look at that. 152 00:10:58,420 --> 00:11:02,580 There's so many different colors. Wow, this is the macaron colors 153 00:11:02,580 --> 00:11:06,260 that they were talking about. Neat. 154 00:11:06,260 --> 00:11:10,500 What is this? There's so many mysteries yet to be found in this box. 155 00:11:10,500 --> 00:11:11,900 Shove this on the back. 156 00:11:14,540 --> 00:11:17,620 Come on, squish down wires. The problem with having detents 157 00:11:17,620 --> 00:11:22,900 is that if you have too much outward pressure, they'll just pop off really easy. Obviously still easier to get them on and off in general. 158 00:11:22,900 --> 00:11:25,900 So in here, we have all of the accessories with which you can customize. 159 00:11:25,900 --> 00:11:33,020 I guess you gotta go with the white on the edges, but I could just swap them out like that if I wanted. 160 00:11:33,020 --> 00:11:36,460 Get rid of that filter up there, maybe. And they also have a couple of other things 161 00:11:36,460 --> 00:11:40,980 like we have this tiny little gem here where you can run a cable through it. 162 00:11:40,980 --> 00:11:45,340 And you can put in things like a headphone hook. So look at that, you can just hang it there. 163 00:11:45,340 --> 00:11:50,340 Or if you use two, it's a controller hook. 164 00:11:51,020 --> 00:11:55,060 Incredible. And they come with a second handle, so if you wanna have two handles 165 00:11:55,060 --> 00:11:58,900 or you can just replace the one. So you can get that little hint of mint green in the back. 166 00:11:58,900 --> 00:12:04,260 Overall, as a building experience, it was actually pretty fun. Very nifty being able to put together a flat-packed case. 167 00:12:04,260 --> 00:12:09,780 I am worried about the noise and the airflow coming from these really dense and thick panels. 168 00:12:09,780 --> 00:12:13,380 And I think that some of Cooler Master's claims about environmental sustainability 169 00:12:13,380 --> 00:12:20,260 are really gonna be offset from the extra steel that's required in building this thing. 170 00:12:20,260 --> 00:12:24,220 I don't really know the math about whether steel production or shipping is more carbon-intensive. 171 00:12:24,220 --> 00:12:28,140 Both of them are just carbon-intensive. When we were doing some research and prep for this, 172 00:12:28,140 --> 00:12:31,980 we found a review from Kickeroo that said removing the mesh from your panels 173 00:12:31,980 --> 00:12:36,860 can have as much as a nine-degree difference on your temps on their CPU rad. 174 00:12:36,860 --> 00:12:40,180 So that's why I was kind of like, let's not put the mesh at the top. 175 00:12:40,180 --> 00:12:44,740 I think that the mesh does help a lot though in terms of the looks. 176 00:12:44,740 --> 00:12:48,140 Like you can see on the front, we don't have the mesh. And it just kind of looks messy 177 00:12:48,140 --> 00:12:53,060 with that like cross-hatchet patterns on the inside of the build. 178 00:12:53,060 --> 00:12:56,740 And the mesh really serves to clean up that look when you have it here. 179 00:12:56,740 --> 00:13:02,380 But that's at the cost of nine degrees of thermal performance, which is pretty significant. 180 00:13:02,380 --> 00:13:05,860 There are a couple of things that we had problems with. You can see this top panel. 181 00:13:05,860 --> 00:13:09,700 There's like some paint chips that we already have. And then there was some weirdness with shipping. 182 00:13:09,700 --> 00:13:13,940 I don't know if that's really a QC problem, but something to note. 183 00:13:13,940 --> 00:13:18,500 Also the instructions are kind of wonky. I think that the step-by-step process in the box 184 00:13:18,500 --> 00:13:23,180 is really well thought out and very cool and very nice. And the videos that they provide are really helpful. 185 00:13:23,180 --> 00:13:26,340 The written instructions are kind of a dog's breakfast. 186 00:13:26,340 --> 00:13:29,900 And they could really, really be improved. Cooler Masters also released plans 187 00:13:29,900 --> 00:13:33,860 for 3D printable objects that you can download if you want to print anything that's compatible 188 00:13:33,860 --> 00:13:38,860 with these holes. So if you want more of these little hooks or anything you can come up with, 189 00:13:38,860 --> 00:13:42,300 you can borrow those plans and make something pretty cool. I love that. 190 00:13:42,300 --> 00:13:45,740 I think that's really neat. And the price of this whole kit in Kaboodle 191 00:13:45,740 --> 00:13:49,180 is $90 to $100, depending on the version, 192 00:13:49,180 --> 00:13:52,740 which is a pretty solid price. I think that it's a unique case 193 00:13:52,740 --> 00:13:56,740 and a unique building experience, and that should be factored into the price in my opinion. 194 00:13:56,740 --> 00:14:00,060 But obviously that's a really, really competitive price point. 195 00:14:00,060 --> 00:14:05,260 There's a ton of selection for good, capable cases at $90 to $100. 196 00:14:05,260 --> 00:14:12,580 So you have to really kind of be into the vibe of this whole look and the DIY aspects of it. 197 00:14:13,020 --> 00:14:17,420 You can get a Phanteks P400A case for around $100. I know Lee and Lee has a really great case 198 00:14:17,420 --> 00:14:21,520 for around $100 now. Like if you have worries about thermals, 199 00:14:21,520 --> 00:14:24,580 this might not be the case for you. I think it's really unique. 200 00:14:24,580 --> 00:14:29,580 I like its style, but it doesn't feel super competitive. 201 00:14:29,820 --> 00:14:33,900 If it was a $60 or $70 case, I think it would be really compelling. 202 00:14:33,900 --> 00:14:37,340 It offers quite a bit of compatibility and it's a really fun case to build in 203 00:14:37,340 --> 00:14:40,340 if you are somebody who's like a hobbyist, 204 00:14:40,340 --> 00:14:44,620 somebody who's already in the PC space. But I think at $100 it's kind of tough to recommend 205 00:14:44,620 --> 00:14:48,220 with the scene as it is. I would love to see Cooler Master continue this idea. 206 00:14:48,220 --> 00:14:52,320 I think it's really neat. It's really outside of the box. I like it, but I wanted to love it. 207 00:14:52,320 --> 00:14:56,460 But do you know what I think? You'll love subscribing to ShortCircuit. Thank you so much for watching. 208 00:14:56,460 --> 00:15:01,020 If you like this video, why don't you watch my video on the Fractal Terra? That's a much smaller case, 209 00:15:01,020 --> 00:15:06,300 but it's also very well built, a little bit more expensive. And it's the case that I actually personally own now 210 00:15:06,300 --> 00:15:08,300 because I loved it that much. 211 00:15:13,340 --> 00:15:14,180 No, keep rolling. 212 00:15:18,220 --> 00:15:20,220 Thanks for that.