Review Montech Air 100 Review: A Case and 4 RGB Fans for $70?

[Admin]

Montech’s Air 100 is a decent all-round Micro-ATX chassis that offers good value for money.

Montech Air 100 Review: A Case and 4 RGB Fans for $70? : Read more

 

[alceryes]

Anyone else see the problem with so many fans in a very small space?
Last pic on second page says it all. The back case fan and the rad fan right next to it are literally trying to pull the exact same air. I would forgo the rear case fan when using a top-mount rad here. Of course, the pic wouldn't look as pretty.

 

[Phaaze88]

@alceryes
Shh, the secret must not be revealed! The world will collapse if too many discover that top and rear fan exhausts next to one another... REDUCES COOLING EFFICIENCY.

 

[g-unit1111]

Looks decent, but who's going to buy from a brand called Monotech when Corsair, Lian Li, and Phanteks exist?

 

[tek3195]

Looks decent, but who's going to buy from a brand called Monotech when Corsair, Lian Li, and Phanteks exist?

Me, and others with limited budget. A quick look at NewEgg for mATX case by the three manufacturers you listed has a price range of $125.64 ~ $199.99. The Montech Air 100 Lite that I just purchased was $52.99. That's a huge difference.

 

[g-unit1111]

Me, and others with limited budget. A quick look at NewEgg for mATX case by the three manufacturers you listed has a price range of $125.64 ~ $199.99. The Montech Air 100 Lite that I just purchased was $52.99. That's a huge difference.

Fractal Design Focus G- $62.99
https://pcpartpicker.com/product/vP...icroatx-mini-tower-case-fd-ca-focus-mini-bk-w

Cooler Master Masterbox Lite - $52.99
https://www.newegg.com/black-cooler...0l-micro-atx/p/N82E16811119331?quicklink=true

Antec Dark Phantom - $59.99
https://www.newegg.com/black-antec-dark-phantom-micro-atx-tower/p/N82E16811129247

Any of those would be better choices. If you haven't heard of the brand, it's probably crap.

 

[tek3195]

Fractal Design Focus G- $62.99
https://pcpartpicker.com/product/vP...icroatx-mini-tower-case-fd-ca-focus-mini-bk-w

Cooler Master Masterbox Lite - $52.99
https://www.newegg.com/black-cooler...0l-micro-atx/p/N82E16811119331?quicklink=true

Antec Dark Phantom - $59.99
https://www.newegg.com/black-antec-dark-phantom-micro-atx-tower/p/N82E16811129247

Any of those would be better choices. If you haven't heard of the brand, it's probably crap.

I admit I didn't go shopping for best deals, I simply clicked on one website and did a quick search for a general idea. I also only looked for the brands you had mentioned in your first post. The examples you've given are not the same brands, but, I would imagine that at some point nobody had heard of them either. Before I bought the Montech case I looked at everything I could find about it, I did my homework. I also didn't buy one of several other better known brands because of cooler clearance, I had to have 160mm for new Frost Commander. The big new cooler was the reason for buying the new case. Even this review didn't call it out as a bad case. There were just a few reviews on you tube and they all seemed to be good. A couple of them raved about it with one calling it his new favorite mATX case. Sometimes you have to give new things a try. Simply never having heard a name before doesn't make for a piece of crap. I mean I've never heard of you before, but I still like you, you're on tom'sHardware.

Edit: Now that I've built in it, I don't know that there is a better choice at that price point. For the Lite model anyway, it's an awesome performer for $52.00. Yes, the holes for top fans need washers and removable expansion slots would have been nice to have, but airflow is ridiculous. I have the exact same thermals as I had with an open bench setup waiting for case to arrive. I run Linux and with GTKStressTest using Matrix:All methods with 8 workers it runs a max 76C with a 160W load according to powertop. Same hour long test repeated three times with same results. I didn't pay any attention to gpu as I don't play any games so it never occurs to me to really check temps. For me, keeping same cpu temps as an open bench seems pretty awesome. Especially with power limits turned up to prevent any throttling from i7-9700. It will run 4.5GHz all cores for an hour drawing 140W~160W load without a hiccup.

I did change the way they mount front fans. I moved fans to inside of chassis to increase distance from mesh and to allow use of side vent strips on front panel. I've got 3x Arctic Bionix P120 in front intake and the two Montech 120mm as top intake. I believe I'm going to remove the P120 that I have in rear exhaust spot and see what it does without it. It may as well be mounted to the rear of Frost Commander 140 and can't move as much air, so I don't know if its needed.