I bought this scam PC case... And it actually arrived

The video opens with a retrospective nod to a Kickstarter prototype from eight years earlier and a candid note about the long wait and the controversy surrounding the project partners Calios and Streacom. The host emphasizes that this is a fanless, completely passive cooling PC case powered by a loop heat pipe and a large copper heat exchanger, with no moving parts and no fans or pumps inside the enclosure. He then immediately acknowledges the case’s weight and the premium price, especially for the copper edition, while also highlighting the ethics concerns that have shadowed the collaboration. The build journey begins with unboxing, mounting a motherboard, and selecting a CPU cooler, revealing the case’s quirks, such as tight tolerances, unusual mounting angles, and the need for careful alignment to avoid interference. As the project progresses, the team tackles mounting a GPU cooler, a process described as exceptionally intricate and highly dependent on the exact GPU model, with a GPU cooler upgrade voucher included for later compatibility. The system is powered with a 850 watt PSU positioned for convection cooling, and while there are obvious challenges, the crew demonstrates that the setup can function with the unconventional cooling approach. The first boot produces RGB lighting and a surprisingly quiet operation, prompting further exploration with a thermal camera to observe how heat is distributed across the CPU, GPU, and memory. Over hours of testing, heat soak behavior is documented, with GPU temps remaining manageable while some components run hotter, but the overall performance remains impressive for a passive cooling design. The discussion turns to long-term viability, cost, and value, with the copper version priced at about $2,000 and the standard version around $1,000, concluding that while the engineering achievement is striking and visually striking, the decision to purchase hinges on whether the user values aesthetics and novelty as much as raw performance. The video ends with a nod to the sponsor and a reminder about privacy and data protection, tying together the spectacle of an ultra-premium, highly specialized PC case with the broader themes of consumer expectations and delayed delivery of Kickstarter-era hardware.

Topics · Technology · Computing · Product reviews · DIY PC builds · Hardware engineering