The hottest trend at Computex 2023 is The War on Cables, where PC accessory makers are doing everything they can to hide power and data cables in PC builds. While many solutions so far are very specific to one brand, such as Corsair’s proprietary iCue Link daisy-chain cooling or Asus’ motherboard-GPU combo, case maker SilverStone is here to offer a more modular and broader open solution. there is. Gordon Ung reports from the front.
SilverStone offers a pair of new full-size ATX PC cases, the C-341 and C-542, both compatible with motherboards with rear power and data cable connections. This allows all power supply rails to be placed on the back of the case, so all cables (except for the cables for the GPU and the processor cooling unit) are gone. MSI and Asus motherboards displayed in cases on the show floor show how pristine the internal builds are, even with components from other manufacturers. The rear of the case is also slightly wider to accommodate all cables.
The SilverStone C-341 is particularly interesting because it flips the usual internal motherboard layout for cases. The motherboard is mounted on the left side of the case frame rather than the right side, and the right side of the case is open to access the main chamber. Thermal management can be much easier with a bottom-mounted power supply that places the PCIe ports at the top of the case rather than at the bottom. These fans can be exhausted directly from the top of the enclosure. tidy.
Both cases are full retail designs rather than concepts, so they should hit the market later this year. Subscribe to PCWorld on YouTube for detailed updates on the latest PC hardware trends.