Chieftec Pro Cube CI-02B-OP Case Review

Exterior

The case looks pretty decent at first glance, with a compact cube design, but it’s clearly not so small that it can’t handle some decent sized hardware either. There’s a good amount of ventilation on the left side, so any extra heat from your GPU should be blown clear easily enough.

The front panel looks pretty funky, with a lot of mounts and I/O stuff on the top half, but a bulged out lower section for mounting your cooling.

There’s a 5.25″ bay and a 3.5″ bay, so you can get a CD-ROM and floppy drive in here if you desire. However, more modern solutions like a hot-swap drive bay and a card reader will do great here.

The front panel has the usual power controls, two USB 3 ports and HD Audio jacks.

The mesh design is nice, too, as it means you won’t have trouble with airflow. However, keep in mind that this case is sold bare, so you’ll need to provide your own fans.

Around the back, you’ll find another fan mount, which again comes with no fans. There are a few other ventilation bits back here, such as the section in the lower left, providing airflow for the SSD tray.

I haven’t seen rear grommets in forever, but you’ll find two here! They’re great for passing through cables or for running an exterior radiator. Not common these days, but I am still glad to see them included.

Up on the top, you’ll find a fairly large dust filter located right above the motherboard.

With it removed, you can see there is a single 120/140mm fan mount. However, you’ll get a decent amount of passive cooling too, since heat travels upwards anyway.

On the base, you’ll find four large feet, each with thick rubber ring feet to stop the case from sliding around and scratching up any surfaces.

Finally, there’s a small but robust-looking dust filter for the PSU. When it’s time to clean it, side it out, and you’re good to go.