be quiet! destroys their tempered glass side panels so you don’t have to

Tempered glass has become one of the most popular additions to PC case designs in recent years, replacing the plastic windows that adorned older offerings. 

Over time many consumers have questioned this change, wondering why brittle glass is being used to replace the acrylic, a material that is both easier to shape and cheaper to produce. Yes, real glass can offer some extra rigidity and deliver a clearer view at your PC components, but is glass a safe material for home users?  

In the video below, be quiet talks about tempered glass in-depth, discussing the material’s properties, how the panels are manufactured and how resistant the material is to breaking. 

For those who are more interested in the smashing process, the video also showcases tempered glass case windows being shattered via drops on hard flooring or using thrown projectiles, alongside some failed attempts. 

Tempered glass is also known as toughened glass, signifying the material’s ability to resist greater forces than normal glass without deformation. In simpler terms, tempered glass is more scratch resistant than normal glass, though the tempering process comes with other upsides and downsides. 

If you watch the video below you will see that tempered glass will shatter into granular chunks, not a collection of sharp shards, making tempered glass safer to clean up by posing less of a cutting risk. This could also be seen as a downside, as shattering tempered glass can also create glass dust, which is dangerous to inhale.