Gamerstorm Macube 310P Video Review

GamerStorm Macube 310P Video Review

GamerStorm Macube 310P Specifications & Features

GamerStorm Macube 310P Review: The Verdict

So, in case you didn’t get a chance to watch the video let me give you a small recap of what was mentioned.

The GamerStorm Macube 310P is a rather sleek looking mid-tower case measuring in at 425x495x215mm’s (LxHxD) and weighs in at a respectable 8.33Kgs. With a solid SPCC steel construction, ABS plastic clips and feet and a 3mm tempered glass side panel.
CPU coolers up to 165mm’s and PSU lengths up to 160mm’s are supported. Graphics cards up to 330mm’s or 13” are supported too. Colours are available in white and black in the P and non-P variants.

The external design is stunning with smooth edge curves all the way around. The front panel is a full metal panel with the GamerStorm logo printed on it at the bottom. The P designation gives the roof a cut out to add extra ventilation, exactly where the P designation comes from and what it means we have no idea as no documentation for it was available on their website or in the manual. The non-P version will give the top panel a full covered panel like the front of the case. These panels are held in place with plastic nibs on each corner and can very easily be removed and reinstalled with minimum fuss.

What makes this case so pleasant to look at is the uniform 13mm intake and exhaust around the front and top edge of the case. It’s the thing that was immediately noticed when the case came out of the box. It has a very premium look to it and it’s no surprise it won a 2020 iF Design Award for its appearance. DeepCool says the Macube 310 “is not just a computer case, but also a work of art”. Based on this award, the iF Design Foundation would seem to agree.

The IO on the front of the top panel consists of a blue power LED, a power button, 3x USB3 ports, headphone and microphone jacks and a reset button.

Moving around to the rear we are greeted with a 120mm fan mount with up to 5 mounting options for minor height adjustments. The motherboard rear panel cut out on the left, 7 PCI slots and a full-size ATX PSU mount at the bottom.

The bottom of the case houses 2 rails with pads for feet to stick the case to a desk surface. These rails double up as the guide rails for the front and rear side panels to sit into to close. It’s a nice design feature which adds to the aesthetic the case is going for. Also, there’s a mesh dust filter covering the power supply air intake which is easily removable to be cleaned.

The rear panel is a full covered plain panel, which speaks volumes for the understated look, it’s fit for purpose. Worth a note is the tab on the top right side which when pulled releases it away from the chassis. It’s held in place by 2 large strong magnets, with a force of 24.5N or 2.4KGs, whatever that is, a nice touch. If this worries you GamerStorm have also included 2 metal clips and foam pads to hold the panels in place.

Finally, the tempered glass side panel. It’s lightly tinted and 3mm think with an attractive black ABS plastic handle spanning almost the full length of the glass pane. This is also held in place with a pair of magnets identical to the rear panel. Personal opinion, this approach is best as anything tool-less when done right is a big plus. Overall, the case gets a thumbs up here with all the external panels.

Let’s start with the internals and we may as well move to the rear of the case once again.

Starting at the top, 3 cut-outs for cable routing and the 4x 3-pin fan controller is screwed to the back of the motherboard tray. The cable is plenty long enough to route to the CPU header on any motherboard.

Running down the centre are 3 more cable routing cut-out’s and the three of these have rubber grommets to hide the cable clutter. Conflicting here as for the cost of the grommets, GamerStorm should have covered every single hole for a more premium feel inside the case.

Below the large backplate cut-out you can spot 2 2.5” hard drive/SSD mounting plates. These are held into place with a single screw. It’s a typical spot for these 2.5” drives to be mounted so nothing to note here. The left-hand side you can make out a thumbscrew, this is to tighten the GPU holding bracket, more on that later.

At the bottom, you slide the PSU in the space to the right and push to the rear to add the screws. It was a little disappointing to find all the cables from my 165mm PSU had to be removed just so it could fit into the gap between the hard drive cage on the left-hand side. This was made a little easier by the fact it could be unscrewed and push to over to the left more to re-attach the power supply cables.

A 140mm power supply is recommended to be used in this case, as when the hard drive cage is back in place it left almost no room for cable management whatsoever. That being said the PSU used here was 165mm’s and is longer than recommended and while it does fit, I wouldn’t recommend it purely to make removal and reinstallation so much easier.

Had the hard drive cage been able to be removed and put it back after cabling was done it would have been so much better, but the fact that the hard drive cage is not removable from the case at all is disappointing. If you choose not to use it you are forced to keep it in there taking up valuable cabling space. It’s riveted together so, without taking tools to it, it’s staying where it is.

The final thing to note is the ample 23mm of cable management space. Plenty for routing and storing cables down the rear panel.

Moving to the inside, things get more normal.

The only included 120mm fan is found on the left-hand side. It wasn’t mentioned earlier but it terminates with a 3-pin or 4-pin Molex connector. DeepCool, it’s 2020, these need to stop. No-one is using Molex connectors to power fans anymore. The actual fan is decent enough, so I’d be inclined to keep it and slip off the Molex connector and carry on.

As mentioned before 7 PCI slots with small holes cut into each of the plates, presumably for ventilation.

Back to the top and the 2 cut-outs are visible once again, grommets here would have looked so much better!

Motherboard support is ATX, M-ATX and ITX and installing the motherboard into this case was a breeze. The inside provides a large unimpeded space to get in and do your work with minimal effort. You can make out the 3 cut-outs down the side of the motherboard. The grommets here are of good quality.

The bottom section of the case is covered by a shroud with an opening on the right-hand side to clear space for fans and radiators so up to a 360mm radiator with fans can be installed in the front.

Finally, the GPU support bracket is in the lower mid-section of the case and this is a metal plate that can spin on an axis which is locked down to the back of the case with a thumbscrew. It’s a basic but very effective way to give support to larger graphics cards that are prone to sagging.

Final mention is the top of the case. Up to 3x 120mm fans can be installed here to provide exhaust out of the top of the case. GamerStorms’ manual and website say there is no room for radiator installations and we can confirm this, rather disappointing to be honest. The case only needs to be 50mm’s taller to accommodate with adequate space this so this is something I’d love to see in a second revision.

Thermal performance in the Macube 310P is fine, taking into account it’s forced us to use the front of the case to mount the radiator as an intake, the graphics card was the only thing that I noticed had an increase in idle temps, this is due to it intaking warm air passed on by the radiator. It is for this reason that I prefer to mount the radiator in the top of the case as an exhaust where possible. CPU temperatures were fine with the large intake area along the front of the case allowed plenty of air to be pulled in for cooling performance. Under load, CPU temperatures were 3ºC cooler being mounted in the front of the case vs in the roof of my Fractal R6 that Dave uses full-time. Graphics card temps, however, were increased by 9ºC and were constantly pushing 90ºC due to it intaking warmer than usual air from the radiator, a little warm for our liking.
This being said, air cooling could well offer a better alternative in balancing temperatures between the CPU and GPU as the only included fan is the rear 120mm exhaust fan out of the box. It depends on the trade-offs you are willing to make.

GamerStorm Macube 310P Review: Final Thoughts

So, overall, GamerStorm is onto a real winner here in the aesthetics department both externally and internally and with neat additions like the GPU support bracket included it can only add to the positives. Even more so when you consider the price, at the time of the review, availability of the Macube 310 non-P version is £64.99 at scan.co.uk in white and black.

However, GamerStorm tried just a bit too hard to keep the size in check and have lost out on some points here. Increase the height to add room for radiators in the roof and increase the shroud length in the bottom of the case to support longer modular PSUs in the bottom and GamerStorm have an absolute winner on their hands. Macube 310P V2 anyone?

There is no denying the Macube 310P is one of the best-looking cases Play3r has seen for a while and without a doubt walks away with the Play3r Design Award. One of many similar awards we’re sure of it.

Huge thanks to DeepCool and GamerStorm for sending in the Macube 310P for review. I look forward to seeing more from them soon.