Hyte Y60 PC Case Review

Conclusion

We love it when we see a new manufacturer try something different within the PC market. To many cases are carbon copies of each other, so it is great to see Hyte enter the market with something that’s different. 

With the Y60, Hyte has established themselves by creating something unique. Yes, we have seen many of the Y60’s design elements in other cases, but you can’t honestly say that the Y60 is a copy of anything else. That said, the Hyte Y60’s uniqueness has a cost.

The only major criticism that we have of the Hyte Y60 is that its design is restrictive. Its vertical GPU mount forces all other add-on cards within the PC to use half-height PCIe slots. This means that users of sounds cards, networking cards, and capture cards will have limited options. That said, options are available within that form factor, and many buyers are willing to work within those limitations to build a PC with the aesthetics they want.

We have enjoyed looking at the Hyte Y60, so much so that OC3D’s main video editing system is now contained within this chassis. We like this case enough for it to sit on our desk. If that’s not high praise, I don’t know what is. Hyte may be new to the case market, but they know how to design a great looking PC case.  

With regards to cooling performance, the Hyte Y60 did not do well in our testing in its out of the box configuration. Simply put, this case is designed to be used with liquid cooling components or an all-in-one CPU liquid cooler. Our testing uses an air-cooled CPU and only uses the case’s stock fan configuration. Our testing setup uses a sub-optimal hardware configuration for the Hyte Y60. Whether or not this is a problem with our testing or a problem with the Hyte Y60 is debatable. If you add more fans or use an AIO liquid cooler, the Hyte Y60 will offer better thermal performance. This case benefits from having more fans.

Another minor gripe that we have with the Y60 is that it uses open rubber grommets, which allows users to see into the rear of the chassis. Some users will expect standard closed rubber grommets, as seen in most other PC cases. Even so, at best we can call Hyte’s choice an aesthetic preference, and we don’t necessarily disagree with it.

When considering the amount of tempered glass that this case uses, and the fact that it ships with a well designed PCIe 4.0 riser card out of the box, we don’t consider the Y60’s $199.99 pricing to be that unreasonable. PCIe 4.0 riser cards are expensive, and having three tempered glass panels is expensive. It is also worth remembering that this case has a very unique design. 

While we could call the Hyte Y60’s design restrictive, the real question is whether or not we consider these restrictions worth it. The quick answer to that question is yes. Is this a great airflow case out of the box if you aren’t using an AIO? No. Is the case’s PCIe slot configuration restrictive? Yes. Were we willing to work around those limitations to place our video editing rig inside this chassis? Yes. The Hyte Y60 is a great looking PC enclosure that’s visually striking.

So what do we think of the Hyte Y60? We love it. This is a case that users will need to put some time and effort into to get the most out of it. That said, we believe that that effort is worth it. For that reason, the Hyte Y60 has gotten the OC3D Exceptional Aesthetics Award. We look forward to seeing what’s coming next from Hyte.  

 

You can join the discussion on our review of Hyte’s Y60 chassis on the OC3D Forums.

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