Hyte Y40 Review

Trendy among show systems, PC builds with vertically mounted graphics cards are getting way more common, as case makers accommodate DIY-ers who want to give that look a shot. Designs that stand the card parallel to the motherboard have but a single major issue that has prevented adoption by more buyers: The case may allow for it, but those expensive PCI Express 4.0 riser cables required to make it possible are usually sold separately. Of the several cases we’ve reviewed of late that support vertical mounting as an aesthetic option, some have required buyers to splurge on additional brackets to mount the card, and none has included the cable in the box. New brand Hyte changes that, with its glassy, glossy Y40 ATX mid-tower ($149.99), which marries lots of glass and a bundled riser cable to offer a slick basis for a PC build with a vertical card mount.

Available in red, white, or black finishes and enclosed on two sides with tinted tempered glass, the Y40 features fan mounts on the top, bottom, right and rear panels, along with separate dust filters for the bottom intake fan and the power supply's air inlet.

Hyte places its front panel ports at the bottom edge, making it obvious that the company would prefer you to place its case atop, rather than beneath, your desk. The single audio jack combines stereo headphone output and monaural microphone input, the two Type-A USB ports connect to a USB 3.x Gen 1 cable, and the single Type-C port uses a USB 3.x Gen 2 cable. Power-on indicator lighting surrounds the power button.

A unique double set of expansion slots around back includes seven half-height slots in the normal position, plus four "remote" slots at full height. The design allows builders to fill all but one of the seven half-height slots with expansion cards while retaining a full-height graphics card up to 422mm in length.

The part that makes it so easy to keep six of the original seven slot locations open (even if only for half-height cards) appears to be nothing more than a piece of plastic and metal bracket that guides the included PCIe 4.0 extension cable over the top of nearby cards. It can be placed in any of the half-height slots, though the further down it goes, the more tightly its cable will be bent. Designed to hold a graphics card with an extra-thick cooler, the four full-height slot covers serve only a single PCIe x16 physical connector via that cable. But if you have one of the latest mega-beast GeForce RTX 4090 cards, you’ve got the girth.

As for motherboard support, this is really an ATX case. Though I noted no obstructions that would preclude the use of larger boards, PCBs greater than the standard 9.6-inch depth of ATX will obscure the Y40's cable passages, and those longer than 10.8 inches will interfere with the placement of 140mm fans on the dual-fan side mount. So we'd plan around ATX here.

While radiators up to 280mm format can be placed inside the side mount, users who want something bigger will find a 360mm-format mount on the top panel that can hold radiators that are actually up to 410mm long (including end caps). Offset to the left from motherboard standoffs, a big radiator cleared the surface of our motherboard by around 52mm and even left 6.6mm of clearance between our radiator fans and the tops of our 44mm-tall memory heat spreaders. Those who choose this space for their radiator will need much of that offset regardless of the height of their memory modules since, at 20mm, the space between the motherboard and top panel is thinner than most of the devices that users would mount here.

The dual 140mm/120mm fan mount is offset approximately 18mm from the surface of the motherboard tray. Combining that distance with the length of standoffs would allow 25mm-thick fans to (barely) clear the edge of an oversize motherboard…were cabling not a concern. A drive tray that fits to the back of the motherboard tray is drilled to accept a single 3.5-inch or two 2.5-inch drives.

Hyte's stated 224mm power-supply depth limit extends from the power supply's mount to the intake fan. Removing the fan would give users an extra 140mm of space, since the included 120mm model lines up with the rear edge of the optional 140mm mounts.

The Y40 includes a folded instruction sheet, a handy Phillips-to-hex socket for repositioning standoffs, individual resealable bags of screws, a breakout adapter for connecting individual headphone/microphone leads to its headset combo jack, and five ratcheting cable ties that may or may not be Zip branded.

Cables off the chassis itself include two three-pin fan (one shown below), HD Audio (for the front panel's headset jack), an FPANEL combination block (for the power button and LED), USB 3.2 Gen 1 (for the two Type-A front-panel ports) and USB 3.2 Gen 2 (for the Type-C front-panel port). Though the combined FPANEL connector still confuses some builders, it's a 24-year-old Intel spec that was adopted by most motherboard brands over a dozen years ago: It simply took another decade for case manufacturers to get aboard.

Today's sample build inside the Hyte case uses the ATX motherboard option of our standardized test configuration:

The graphics card does a great job of hiding cable entry points along the motherboard's bottom edge from this angle, while top-edge cables are hidden at most view angles by the top-mounted radiator. We placed Corsair's radiator there to assist in cooling the motherboard's CPU voltage regulator, and recommend that anyone using the side mount for their closed-loop liquid cooler consider placing at least one additional 120mm fan on the top panel above their CPU socket.

Then again, a full set of fans would make the case look more complete in a show build, and the decision to put a 360mm radiator on top or a 280mm unit on the side would be the builder's concern. To create a fair performance comparison, we just tested this sample with the same component set as previously used to test similarly sized cases.

Lian Li's O11 Dynamic EVO was the closest review sample we could find to matching the Y40's glass face and side, but it unfortunately has an enlarged side chamber similar to the H9 Elite from NZXT…so we included both. By the time we were configuring charts, the Y40's noise data led us to add the Fractal Design Pop XL Silent to the mix and alas, all four samples ended up within 3 degrees F of each other regarding CPU temperature. Not much that's telling there.

The Y40 ties for worst with the O11 Dynamic EVO in voltage regulator temperature, owing primarily to the dimensional relationship between the thing that provides the airflow (our radiator's fans) and the thing that needs it (the heat sinks surrounding our CPU socket). In the case of the Y40, the extreme leftward offset and low positioning likely leaves the motherboard's upper heatsink outside of the fans’ flow path.

As for GPU temperature, the Y40 finishes in an approximate three-way tie with the Pop XL Silent and the H9 Elite, all three are edged out by the O11 Dynamic EVO.

Sound-pressure-level results show how the Y40's glass front panel roughly matches the Pop XL Silent's damped plastic front panel in the amount of noise it allows to escape. The glass reflects more noise back into the case, so anyone standing behind the case might think it louder. (We don't do that.)

Like the O11 Dynamic EVO that came before it, the Hyte Y40 performs adequately without even filling its side vent with fans. Likewise, building out either of these cases as intended will increase its cooling performance and noise. Conversely, the Hyte Y40 does something the we’ve not seen any of its competitors do: It supports a vertical graphics card bracket and cable without excluding the use of any other expansion slots.

Then again, while its competitors force builders to choose between one vertical or multiple horizontal full-height cards, the Y40 opens up your options by simultaneously supporting one full-height card vertically and multiple half-height cards horizontally. Like the top radiator mount that's offset far enough to fit radiators past 50mm-tall DIMMs but low enough that the offset was actually needed, and like the side panel that supports 280mm-format radiators but not longer ones, it's all a balancing act for a case that costs $150 but includes a special cable worth $40 to $60. In short: It performs on par with its spiritual kin, and it's a great case choice if you like the look and know you’ll use the cable.

Want to install a vertical-mount graphics card, but not give up the rest of your expansion slots? Hyte's Y40 lets you do that, and simplifies building a showy system for a moderate price.

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