Page 2 – Physical Look – Outside
Like many enthusiast cases on the market today, the DeepCool CH510 Mesh Digital I am reviewing today has a tempered glass side panel. The use of tempered glass allows you to show all your RGB goodies inside, but it can also be messy if you leave fingerprints on it. The other side panel is made out of steel with a matte black finish. It is less likely to show any fingerprints on the steel side panel, but you probably will not see this side as often. For increased airflow, the CH510 Mesh Digital's steel side panel has a ventilation grille near the bottom. The ventilation grille has alternately placed square holes for a unique binary digit pattern to make it more visually interesting. To keep the tempered side glass clean, it is a good idea to have some cleaning cloth around, so you can confidently show off your computer to your friends. In the above photo, you can see a sticker that warns you tempered glass is fragile. I think it is important to keep in mind that we need to be careful when handling a case with tempered glass, as I have cracked a glass panel before when trying to move a computer.
Moving to the front of the case, you can see the base of the front panel is made out of plastic. There is DeepCool's company name and logo printed on top. To allow for high airflow, not only is the majority portion of the front panel mesh, but also there are slots on both left and right sides to allow more air to flow into the case. Near the top of the front panel, there is a glossy portion for the three digit seven-segment temperature display. For now, there is nothing showing since the screen is not powered on, but I will demonstrate it later on in this review. The whole front panel is held on by four ball-and-socket joints, which can be removed with a quick tug. There is also a large magnetic mesh screen behind the front panel for dust reduction purposes. The removable design of the mesh screen makes it really easy for cleaning. It has no opening for an internal 5.25" drive, which means no internal CD/DVD drives can be installed. Having no optical drive is not a big deal in 2023 unless you really want to watch some Blu-ray movies without using an external option. On the top, the CH510 Mesh Digital features an opening for top-mount fans and radiators. A dust filter is provided on top of the case to prevent dust from getting in.
The dimensions of the DeepCool CH510 Mesh Digital are 230mm in width, 470mm in height, and 455mm in depth. I have not seen a mid-tower like this wide for a long time. It really gives me the feeling cable management for this case will be easy thanks to the overall width. I think it would be easier to mount a large radiator for cooling at the front instead of on top given this case is a bit of on the shorter side as a mid-tower. As for the weight, according to the product sheet, is 7.5kg. I think it is not too heavy to move for everyday use.
The front I/O ports and switches are located on the right side of the top panel. Note the power switch and reset switch looks the same, which is interesting, since most cases I have seen have a larger power switch and smaller reset switch to prevent confusion. For the front I/O ports, we get one USB 3.2 Type-A and one USB Type-C port. The single 3.5mm audio/microphone jack is another nice feature of this product. For most of us, we have both laptops and desktops, and laptops are commonly equipped with a single 3.5mm audio/microphone jack only. When we buy a headset, we definitely want something that can be used on both laptops and desktops, so it will be inconvenient if we have to deal with the situation where the laptop has a single jack while the desktop has a dual jack. I do acknowledge some gaming headsets come with a separate headphone and microphone plug, so it could be inconvenient to some. An included Y-split cable would rectify this situation.
In the above picture, you can see the top dust filter is of good quality. It is magnetically attached to the chassis, but the gap between the filter and the chassis is hardly noticeable. Another thing worth mentioning is the connection between the tempered glass side panel and front panel. The connection is pretty smooth. The gap is really small and there are no sharp edges between the two of them. To remove the side panels, users do not need to use any tools. Two captive thumbscrews can be easily unscrewed to pop off the steel side panel. As for the tempered glass panel, it does not need to be pulled backward to detach, since there is no rail mechanism. A pop out of the magnetic lock is all you need to get the tempered glass panel off the chassis. An optional screw can be used to secure the tempered glass side panel if you want to.
The back of the DeepCool CH510 Mesh Digital, like the rest of the case, is simple and clean. There are four major sections at the back; namely, the power supply mounting area, motherboard I/O backplate, rear exhaust, and expansion card slots. There is also a large area of ventilation mesh for airflow. According to the shape of the power supply mounting hole, the power supply is horizontally mounted at the bottom section of the chassis. Since the power supply has already taken this bottom position, the motherboard can only be located above it, meaning the I/O backplate opening is at the top. There are seven conventional expansion slots available on the CH510 Mesh Digital, which is standard for an ATX mid-tower. There are no vertical expansion card slots to show off your video card, as that area is dedicated to the ventilation mesh. As for the rear exhaust, as you can see from the photo above, there is a 120mm fan included from the manufacturer.
There are four plastic stands on the bottom of the case to support the DeepCool CH510 Mesh Digital, rising the case up about 22mm on top of the resting surface for better ventilation. The four stands are near the four corners of the bottom, so there is no doubt about the stability of the case. Meanwhile, there are four rubber strips attached to further enhance the grip of the stands. It is nice to have some rubber feet that can offer some kind of protection to your floor or table surface. You can also see from the above photo a washable filter is attached to the bottom grille of the chassis. The filter is not reinforced by any kind of frame, so it looks a little bit cheap in this regard. Note the power supply of this case is bottom-mounted, therefore the ventilation area behind the filter is actually designed for the power supply. On the right side of the bottom panel are some screw and clip holes to mount the storage drive rack.
Overall, the DeepCool CH510 Mesh Digital is a good-looking computer case made out of metal, plastic, and tempered glass. The gaps between panels are small and even, which shows a high level of assembly quality. The tempered glass also exhibits quality attributes in terms of distortion, or lack thereof.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Outside
3. Physical Look - Inside
4. Installation and Conclusion
