Although there are a lot of tricks in the case market now, playing with appearance, playing with glass, and playing with structure, etc., but as one of the foundations of the case, heat dissipation has always been an important part for many players, especially if you need to stuff a high-end platform into the case, the heat dissipation performance of the case is particularly important, and there is no shortage of cases with strong heat dissipation capacity on the market, and now ASUS is also bringing their new chassis that focuses on heat dissipation: TUF GAMING GT302 ARGB equipment library.
As the new ASUS TUF GAMING mid-tower chassis, the size of the GT302 is still relatively standard, which is more in line with everyone's traditional understanding of the chassis, and for the popular "sea view room" chassis that is not cold, you will prefer the style of the TUF GT302. One of the most selling points is that the TUF GT302 chassis comes standard with 4 14cm 28mm ARGB fans, which are good for heat dissipation, and in addition to the installation support of fans, radiators, and graphics cards, it is also possible to do not refuse, and 8-slot PCI is also a rare configuration in the mid-tower chassis.
appearance
ASUS TUF GAMING previously had a GT301 musket mobile phone case, with tactical "binding" + angular + tough line design, it has a unique appearance in the chassis, this time TUF GT302 has changed the style, replaced with a square shape, less combat character, but more dignified sense of luxury, whether it is a gamer, or a content creation user can be very matched.
On the front of the case, TUF GT302 has a concave design, two straight bezels set off a large area of mesh openings, so that the front is not too single, and each square has a large opening area (8*8mm), and the number of openings is so large that it almost covers the entire front, revealing the meaning of "I have strong heat dissipation" without hesitation.
With such a large mesh, there is nowhere to hide the three 14cm thick fans that come standard on the front of the TUF GT302, which not only ensures sufficient airflow exchange area, but also allows the fan's ARGB lighting effect to not be blocked too much, maintaining a good aesthetics, not to give up the appearance for heat dissipation.
In terms of case color selection, although TUF GT302 is only black and white, its white version is more thorough, in addition to the external all-white, the same color of the glass frame, the internal hardware structure of the chassis is also all white, and the standard fan, module cables are white, and the details are well done enough.
The TUF GT302's front I/O port is placed on the upper part of the front of the case, and it doesn't feel abrupt to arrange it neatly, but the important thing is that it is equipped with a USB 3.2 Gen2x2 Type-C port, which can provide 20Gbps data transfer rate with ASUS's own new mid-to-high-end motherboard, which will be the interface configuration that the mid-to-high-end chassis should have in 2024.
In terms of the side panel of the case, the left side is tempered glass, and this time, the right side panel of the TUF GT302 is almost covered with mesh on the entire surface, and the side panels on both sides can be installed interchangeably, so if you want to have better heat dissipation for the graphics card, then you can put the mesh panel on the left, of course, ASUS can actually consider providing side panel accessories separately for purchase, so that some players who like to have a full mesh can be satisfied.
The same mesh is wide open and the top of the case, even at the tail of the case, it is basically a hole where the hole can be made, the entire chassis is almost a hole, there should be many people who will worry about the dust problem, ASUS is on the front, top and bottom of the TUF GT302 are equipped with dust filters. In particular, the dust filter here on the front has also been optimized in the shape of a gourd to reduce the impact on the air duct of the front fan, and combined with the large area of the mesh on the front, the porosity of the entire front can reach 36.5%.
Interior & Installation
Inside the TUF GT302 case, its motherboard can be installed with a width of up to 280mm E-ATX, and ASUS still has many high-end motherboards with this board size, which requires moving the front side of the cover forward, and the default is ATX motherboard installation. And here is the support for the back of the motherboard, for the latest BTF 2.0 specification, that is, the reverse interface of the motherboard is reserved, at present, ASUS has a lot of this kind of back motherboard, such as the latest TUF Gaming Z790-BTF WIFI is very suitable.
Thanks to the high height of the case, TUF GT302 has made 8-slot PCI, which not only adapts to the slot needs of some high-end motherboards, but also provides more ample vertical space for graphics card installation, especially when installing vertical graphics card brackets, it is a lot of help, and the upper part of the power compartment here is also made of large mesh, yes, it really loves mesh.
The top of the TUF GT302 adopts a whole piece detachable design, which is convenient to install the radiator and fan outside the case first, and then install it on the chassis.
On the back of the case, there is a dual-disk 3.5+2.5-inch hard disk cage at the bottom, and there are two 2.5-inch hard disk bays on the front side, the number of up to 6 hard disks is enough for today's mainstream players, and on the back cable management, there are some Velcro and clips available, but there is no fan hub, just a three-point wire to connect the fan and lights.
As for the actual installed part, there is no difficulty to say, for such a relatively large ATX mid-tower chassis, TUF GT302 leaves plenty of operating space for installation, and its top cover can also be removed, which is very easy to use when installing a water cooling radiator, in addition, it has installed the front 3 + rear 1 fans from the factory, and the connecting cables have also been arranged, which greatly reduces a lot of tedious work.
Since there are 4 pre-installed 14cm fans, I believe that the vast majority of people will not remove them for others, so although TUF GT302 has multiple positions to install water cooling, but installing a water cooling radiator on the top is definitely the first choice, and in terms of installation support for graphics cards, the 407mm length limit is still enough for most of the current Big Mac graphics cards, and although the box is equipped with a vertical bracket as standard, it is not equipped with a PCI-E extension cable.
In addition, because TUF GT302 supports back-plugged motherboard installation, so that the back power cable, USB, audio and fan and other interfaces are easier to plug and plug, this time the front switch wiring also uses an integrated switch plug, one head is connected, and the reserved wiring space of the power compartment is also more, of course, because there is no wiring plate design on the back, so if you are not very confident in your wiring technology, the back should not be easily replaced with a side-permeable glass panel.
Thermal testing
Chassis
Since the TUF GT302 outperformed the open platform in our case cooling tests, we used an actual bake-to-burn test to verify the results, using a Core i9-14900K locked at 210W, an overclocked RZ620 BK air-cooled cooler, an ASUS ROG STRIX Z790-A GAMING WIFI S, AND AN ASUS ROG STRIX RTX 3080 V2 GAMING OC WHITE LHR GRAPHICS CARD, AND INSTALL THREE LIANLI P28 FANS ON TOP OF THE TUF GT302 CHASSIS TO SET SILENT MODE (1300 RPM).
Judging from the baking test results, the CPU temperature rise of TUF GT302 is lower than when the platform is open, and the heat dissipation capacity is indeed the top level of the current chassis, which is largely due to the four powerful 14cm thick fans, which blow the inside of the chassis cool, as for the graphics card, it is the same as the open platform, and it is also an exaggeration to suppress the RTX 3080 graphics card to such a low temperature.
A fan is standard
In the test of the standard fan of the chassis, the data comes from the self-made air volume and air pressure test device of the super energy network, which is prepared according to the relevant national standards and ISO standards, and measures the air volume and air pressure of the fan through the multi-nozzle/orifice plate of the pipe test air chamber, as well as the air volume under different system impedances (ordinary radiator, ordinary tower radiator), monitors the real-time speed of the fan through the speed tester, and measures the full speed of the fan and the noise value under the ordinary radiator in a special silent cabinet.
Our air volume and wind pressure test device
If you are still vague about the air volume, air pressure, and system impedance, you can refer to our popular science article "Really Understanding the Air Volume and Air Pressure of Cooling Fans".
Judging from the test results, the TUF GT302 chassis comes standard with a 14cm thick fan with very good performance data, the maximum air volume is the largest among the 14cm fans we have measured, and the maximum static pressure is also a relatively high level among the 14cm fans.
summary
After the Genesis, GT502, Light and Shadow and other different types and positioning cases, the TUF GAMING GT302 ARGB equipment library can be said to further complement the ASUS case line, and there is also an ATX mid-tower case with excellent heat dissipation at the mid-range price, equipped with 4 14cm ARGB 28cm thick fans as standard, and the good heat dissipation performance brought by the multi-sided large mesh hole, so that performance gamers have another case choice.
In addition to heat dissipation, TUF GT302 is also the consistent excellent level of ASUS chassis in terms of compatibility and convenience of installation, mature and perfect, basically nothing to find fault with, in addition to a simpler and neat appearance style, it is also not easy to aesthetic fatigue, and it is more in line with the mainstream appearance orientation in the PC DIY market, and it can be sold for a long time.
However, the initial price of 799 yuan,It's still a little more expensive in the same type of mid-tower chassis,Especially in the cheaper price with a fairly strong heat dissipation performance of competing products,Of course, ASUS is still more favored by most computer users in the brand,Especially if you install the motherboard、Graphics card、The heatsink is the ASUS family,It does have irreplaceable advantages。