Ikea, eat your heart out. Flat-pack customPCs for all!
What can two guys operating out of a farm in Essex bring you? Well, some of the most custom-designed cases you can imagine, for starters. Parvum Systems is widely renowned for its stunning bespoke cases. Custom-built from the ground up for enthusiasts, its innovative designs come flat-packed, ready for assembly. The custom-cut acrylic panels comprise the exterior and interior of the chassis, allowing for a multitude of different layering effects and colours.
One of the options Parvum has among its entire range of cases is the ability to include acrylic inlaying. The bread and butter is simple. You send Parvuman inlay idea, via one of the approved file formats, and it’ll inlay the design into the front panel or wherever you’d like, using what colours you’d like. As you can see, it can look pretty snazzy, especially if you have a sexy three-letter logo like we do.
It’s a fairly painless affair when putting together your snazzy new case too, but you’ll need a touch of patience, and it can take time to align all of the panels correctly. One thing you need to be wary of is how sharp the acrylic can be. It’s quite possible to slice open your hand on a chassis during construction, only to be left limping around your keyboard, covered in tissue… we might be exaggerating a little perhaps, but you’ve been warned! There’s not much you can do without sacrificing the clean look of the case, and to be fair, we’d rather keep it that way.
For cooling, this microATX chassis is well-endowed. You have room for two 120mm fans in the front, two 120mm fans in the roof and two extra 80mm fans in the back of the case. At least in the first half of this case. The S2.0 comes compartmentalised into two separate divisions, one to hold your power supply, cable mess and hard drives, the other to show off your clean and crisp build. But if that just doesn’t sound like enough room to manoeuvre, Parvum will extend the chassis, allowing for three 120mm fans in the roof, as opposed to the regular two, for just £20 extra. Storage is provided with support for four 2.5-inch drives and an additional pair of 3.5-inch drives, all hidden away in the back of the case, hanging upside down from the roof.
When it comes to building in the S2.0, the layout of the chassis and the smooth, curved design built into the motherboard tray really help keep the aesthetics clean and simple. Graphics card support can be a little limited – rather superb if you’re running water-cooled graphical horsies or just a single GPU, but otherwise it can get a little cramped. Especially with blower-style card coolers. There just isn’t enough room for two cards to breathe together in this case. But considering this is an incredibly feature-rich, compact microATX case, compromises have to be made somewhere.
Front I/O consists of an LED Dimas switch for power and reset, and two USB 3.0 ports. No inclusion of audio input or output means you do lose out on connectivity a smidge, but also avoid the extra clutter from not having that cable.
Investing in Parvum’s S2.0 case is like walking into modding heaven. If you’ve an idea for a design, it can do it. If you’re after a premium DIY case to house your new mATX monster, these boys have you covered! It’s definitely worth looking into getting one of these beasties if you’re interested in small form-factor builds.
This customisation does come at a cost, but when you consider the manufacturing process, materials and the time and effort Parvum puts into making these, it adds up to pretty decent value for money. The CaseLabs of the UK, home-brewed acrylic euphoria. ZAK STOREY
SPECIFICATIONS
Form factor mATX, ITX
Dimensions (W x H x D) 275 x 305 x 420mm
Cooling Front 2x 120mm; Top 2x 120mm; Rear 3x 80mm
CPU cooler clearance 152mm
Storage support 2x 3.5-inch; 4x 2.5-inch