Cheapest PC Case Ever?

How well can a $25 open air PC case actually work? This video walks through replacing a bulky test bench frame with one of the cheapest open air racks available. It turns out that even a budget frame can be surprisingly functional if you value airflow, visibility, and quick hardware access:

The rack we’re using for our test machine is just too big and bulky, so we’re going to replace it with this. Well, not exactly this. This. Let’s give it a try and see what happens.

This is the test machine I use in my home office. It’s basically cobbled together from spare parts, including the frame that it’s in. The frame isn’t a proper test bench frame or anything like that. It’s actually a frame from an old GPU mining rig that has some of the pieces removed.

So eventually I got sick of dealing with this big bulky frame, and since no one seems to want to throw away any test bench racks that I could scavenge, I needed to buy something. This is the cheapest open air frame I could find on Amazon. It’s sold under a number of different brands, but it’s basically the same product. At only 25 dollars, however, it’s significantly cheaper than an actual test bench rack.

I’ll put a shopping link to a cheap open air case attached to the video if you want to take a look.

Anyways, let’s put it together real quick and see how well it works.

Now why do I use an open air case rather than a traditional PC case? Well for one, it’s easy to clean. Every so often I just blast the thing with a cordless duster and that’s it.

Another great reason is so I can visually monitor the equipment that’s being tested. Now I’m not ashamed to admit I’ve plugged some pretty questionable things into this machine over the years. The ability to monitor parts for odd sounds, bad fans, burning smells, and even smoke coming from equipment is essential.

The third reason I use an open air case is simply ease of access. With an open air case, all the components are easy to get to and many of them can be added or removed in just a few seconds. Parts like the GPU and RAM can often be switched out multiple times an hour while testing. Not having to squeeze into a PC case every time makes things a whole lot easier.

So what do we think of the new open air case? Not bad. It’s certainly an improvement over the GPU mining frame we were using before. It only took about 10 minutes to put together and maybe another 20 minutes to switch over all the components.

Now if you’re considering using an open air case, there are a few things to keep in mind. While they are easier to clean, open air cases can accumulate dust quite a bit faster than a traditional PC case. Also, having components out in the open means that there’s a greater risk of damage to your computer from things like accidental falls or spills.

Finally, if you have a lot of pets in your environment, your mileage may vary on how viable having an open air case may be.

That being said, I’m told that CPU crypto miners often use open air cases like this, which seems to make sense.

Do you have any experience using open PC frames like this? If so, let us know in the video comments! 👍