Gigabyte and I am going method again – nearly six years. I keep in mind serving to my buddy assemble his PC on the time, which featured an AMD Ryzen 7 1700X and a Gigabyte GA-AX370 Gaming 5 motherboard. On the time, the board was sick. The DIMM slots have been RGB and the VRM cooler is an precise heatsink. Ultimately, I bought the Aorus Gaming 7, which featured RGB on the DIMM slots and PCIe.
Right here in 2023, we have now Gigabyte’s latest case, the C301 Glass. It’s a conventional mid-tower chassis with addressable RGB and an airflow-focused design. Whereas the C301 appears to be like to be a strong competitor, at $100, can it compete with the greatest PC circumstances? We’ll should put it by means of our normal testing to say for positive. However first, listed below are the specs, direct from Gigabyte.
Specs of the Gigabyte C301 Glass
Sort | ATX Mid-Tower |
Motherboard Help |
Mini-ITX, Micro-ATX, ATX, E-ATX |
Dimensions (HxWxD) | 19 x 8 x 18 inches |
Max GPU Size | 15.7 inches |
CPU Cooler Top | 6.69 inches |
Exterior Bays | X |
Inner Bays | 2x 2.5 and 2x 3.5-inch 4x 2.5 inch |
Enlargement Slots | 7 |
Entrance I/O | 1x USB 3.1 Gen2 Sort-C 1x USB 3.0 LED Swap Audio Jack |
Different | Vertical GPU Bracket |
Entrance Followers | 3x 120 or 140mm |
Rear Followers | 1x 120mm |
Prime Followers | 3x 120 or 2x 140mm |
Aspect Followers | X |
Backside Followers | X |
Weight | 17 kilos |
Guarantee | 5 years |
Options of the Gigabyte C301 Glass
Gigabyte is among the greatest names within the part and PC realm, with merchandise starting from peripherals to motherboards, screens, and way more. Heck, the motherboard I’m utilizing in my private rig to write down this evaluation is a Gigabye Z690 Aorus Grasp. Whereas I really like my motherboard, I didn’t instantly love the C301 Glass on sight.
The Gigabyte C301 Glass is an ATX mid-tower that is available in white (like our evaluation unit) or black, and contains 4 aRGB followers. The variety of included followers is sweet for this worth, however they’re 3-pin, so you will want to do some tinkering inside the BIOS to stability sound and cooling ranges.
And whereas the C301’s included followers are aRGB, the lighting is sub-par. The illumination from the followers just isn’t uniform. It’s centered within the heart, across the brand, and in daylight that’s all that lights up. I additionally discovered it bizarre that the followers didn’t have an orange default setting. Isn’t orange the corporate’s shade? Possibly I am simply aggravated as a result of orange is my favourite shade.
Whereas the included followers is probably not the most effective, there are many choices for including your personal. The C301 can match three 120 or three 140mm followers up entrance; three 120 or two 140mm up prime; and a single 120mm fan within the rear for exhaust. For many who plan to put in radiators, the entrance or prime of the case can home 360mm rads no better than 30mm and a 120 within the rear.
The case’s end is diappointing; after eradicating the thumb screws from the PCIe bracket lock, among the paint got here away with the screw. This doesn’t bode effectively for the long-term sturdiness of the paint job – particularly should you plan on including a number of upgrades.
A lot of the remainder of the case is fairly normal – however not all of it. There’s a typical mesh entrance panel, however the panel in entrance of the motherboard tray appears to be like like its lacking one thing. I initially thought it was an area for SSDs, however it’s not. The world simply appears to be like skeletal, with random holes and features punched in it. The case’s product web page doesn’t point out that the world is designed for use for something. Odd.
Whereas a riser cable just isn’t included, Gigabyte does throw in a vertical GPU mounting bracket. So you may mount your graphics card within the backside of the PSU shroud space should you deliver your personal GPU cable.
Room for storage units is respectable: There are two 2.5-inch SSD sleds behind the motherboard tray. And a cage beneath the PSU shroud holds both two 3.5- or 2.5-inch storage units. I’d suggest you take away the cage if it’s not in use, because it limits the quantity of additional cable area.
Whereas I recognize the included RGB controller, one or two fan headers would’ve been good to see right here. Nevertheless, you’re almost definitely going to be changing the followers with brighter ones anyway, so you should utilize the included splitter.
Inner Format
The Gigabyte C301 Glass stands at 19 x 8 x 18 inches (HWD), which is about common lately. Like most trendy circumstances that aren’t on the acute finances and of issues, the C301 comes with pre-installed stand-offs for straightforward motherboard set up.
This case can actually maintain its personal on the airflow entrance, which is clear in our testing outcomes, which we’ll get to shortly.
Normally, I’m not a fan of PSU home windows in circumstances, however Gigabyte does promote the GP-AP1, which options an built-in display.
Testing {Hardware}
Our testing {hardware} is constructed round Intel’s 12 Gen “Alder Lake” platform, particularly a Core i7-12700KF, which is cooled by a Noctua U12s air cooler. Our graphics card is a Gigabyte RTX 3070 Ti Gaming OC.
Acoustic Outcomes for the Gigabyte C301 Glass
Our acoustic exams encompass three situations: We run the CPU at full load, the CPU and GPU at full load, and an optimized mode. The CPU full load take a look at runs the CPU and case followers at their most pace. For the CPU and GPU full load acoustic take a look at, we additionally stress the Gigabyte RTX 3070 Ti Gaming OC and set the followers at 75% pace, as a result of in gaming the followers by no means run at 100% and are far too loud after they do.
For the optimized mode, we run the GPU fan pace at 30% and run the CPU and included case followers on the lowest RPM that they’ll spin.
Truthfully, whereas this case appears to be like prefer it belongs to a Gigabyte-dedicated prebuilt, don’t sleep on the sound take a look at. It’s not the quietest we’ve examined, however not dangerous, both.
Thermal Outcomes for the Gigabyte C301 Glass
For the thermal exams, all case and CPU fan speeds are set to 100%. The Core i7-12700K is about at a hard and fast 4.7GHz clock at 1.3v on all efficiency cores to make sure constant energy consumption throughout take a look at situations. Letting the GPU run at 75% fan pace allows it to keep up its energy goal whereas sticking to at least one set affordable fan pace, in order that the temperature is the one variable.
Once more, similar to within the sound take a look at, the C301 Glass is kind of the performer. Whereas the GPU thermals are common, CPU thermals are nearly equivalent to the Fractal North, which includes a mesh aspect panel.
Backside Line
Over time, Gigabyte has made a huge impact within the DIY PC neighborhood, which spans throughout nearly each piece of {hardware}. The C301 Glass is an honest case general, particularly should you like the best way it appears to be like. But it surely must be $20 or so cheaper to compete, particularly contemplating the problems we had with paint coming off together with its screws. You should buy the Phanteks Eclipse G360A for a similar worth and get significantly better RGB followers, a greater end, and equally good efficiency. The Gigabyte case does include a entrance/prime USB-C port, although, which is one thing the Phanteks case sadly nonetheless lacks.
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