Hyte Y40 review

Hyte kinda blew up in early 2021; its Y60 chassis changed the game in the world of PC cases in a wild way. As soon as you could blink an eye, every media outlet, influencer, and PC enthusiast had one of those shiny fishbowls strapped to their Instagram page, complete with the latest hardware. And for good reason.

The thing is, with some of the more mainstream companies, they tend to err on the side of caution when it comes to radically altering their chassis designs. Certainly over the years. Predictability in sales is far more important than radical features and ideas that might flop or cause a major loss. These things take time and money to design and manufacture, so return on investment is key. Hyte, sister company to the system builder iBuypower (one of the best gaming PC manufacturers out there currently), took that very idea and went "to hell with it", launching the Y60.

It revolutionized the scene at the time, with angled glass panels, default vertical GPUs, and a whole host of innovative new design tech and cooling solutions that really took things to the next level. It effectively created a whole new case segment and form factor known as "fishbowl chassis" that, although technically started by Lian Li and the now legendary PC O11 Dynamic, was really cemented in place by little ol' Hyte. In fact, even today, manufacturers are still playing catch-up with the idea.

Here's the thing: the Hyte Y60 is a seriously chunky case, and although highly successful and eventually leading to the equally wild Y70 Touch, complete with an in-built 2.5K vertical IPS monitor, it didn't quite pin the market for that traditional staple mid-tower form factor that PC gamers know and love. That's where the Hyte Y40 comes in.

A far more budget-oriented solution, the Y40 takes a lot of the design aesthetics of the Y60, and Hyte as a whole, and condenses it down into a more traditional form factor and design without compromising on airflow or functionality.

You still get the powder-coated finishes in black, white, or red; you still get those half-height PCIe slots and vertical GPU solution as standard; and you still get some epic cooling options as well. But the real kicker is the price. This thing starts at $100 in the US, and because of that and the wild amount of features it comes with, it radically pushed the price down of some of the staple mid-tower cases that held the majority of the market share for many years as a result.

So, what is it then that makes the Y40 such an interesting chassis? Besides it's price, of course. Without doubt, the first thing that grabs your attention is the overall design. The Y40 has two beautiful tempered glass windows front and side that line the thing top-to-bottom, even encompassing the entirety of the black plastic ventilated PSU shroud that saturates the bottom of the case. It almost borders the entire thing, and the shroud itself adds a unique element to the overall look and feel. It's also got what feels like a beautiful powder-coated finish. The white sample I have on review is a more traditional satin/matt styling, but the Cherry Red is very much a gloss option for those looking for something with a bit more punch.

Then there's the internal design. It's intake airflow is managed by effectively three fans. Two, that you fit on the side yourself, as either 120 or 140 mm options, and one 120 or 140 mm hidden away underneath that PSU cover, drawing air in from the floor (Hyte include a 120 mm here as standard, pre-routed, and cable managed for you). For exhaust, you've got three 120 mm in the roof (again, you'll need to buy and fit these), where ideally your AIO would go (although you can run it on that side-mounted location), and lastly, there's the option to theoretically install a 120 or 140mm in the rear as well (with a 120 mm coming with the case as standard).

The big party piece, however, is that vertical GPU setup. By default, Hyte includes a PCIe 4.0 riser with the Y40. There's no option to buy the case without it, and depending on which color you pick up, you'll get a similarly colored premium PCIe riser solution as well. The reason for that is the actual design of the PCIe slots. As standard, the Y40 houses seven half-height horizontal slots (one of which is taken up by the riser) and four vertical slots for your GPU. Without a riser solution, unless you're running a half-height card, you cannot use this case with a horizontal GPU.

That does mean that a lot of the builds you'll see in the Hyte Y40 are kinda homogenous with one another, the only major difference between them being which graphics card you've installed. But that does mean there's a phenomenal amount of clearance available for your GPU of choice; even the chunkiest of RTX 4090s will fit in this thing no sweat. Although, do bear in mind Hyte recommends you keep the height (depth?) of the card to 80mm for optimal airflow, so it doesn't get too close to that tempered glass panel.

As for building in the Y40, it's insanely easy to pull off. I've built in two of these multiples times now, both with air-cooled and AIO solutions, and every time the build has gone incredibly smoothly, and I'm mostly wrapped up in 45 minutes to an hour from start to finish.

That homogenous single-build style, although forcing the builder a certain route with their setup, effectively means Hyte has a lot of control over how you should build in this case. Because there's effectively only one 'way' you can build it, it can make sure that the way you build an ATX rig is as flawless as possible. Cable cutouts are perfectly matched; there's a cutout in the PSU cover that's ideal for 12VHPWR cables or PCIe power in older systems; fans are pre-routed and cable-managed, and clearances are ideal for any mid-range or premium ATX build. Although do bear in mind it doesn't support E-ATX or larger motherboards sadly, as you'd block off the cable cutouts for the 24-pin and those side connectors.

That vertical GPU in particular does a lot of the heavy lifting here too, hiding any front I/O cables, USB 2.0 internal cables, or HD Audio passthroughs located on the bottom of your motherboard, as well as blocking out those ugly GPU power cables I mentioned earlier as well.

Flip around to the back, and although cable management options here are fairly minimal (there really are only some cable tie-off points, and that's about it), it doesn't really matter, as everything is well hidden with fairly minimal effort.

In fact, it's the cable management that honestly is this case's only weakness. What it could use is some plastic channelling and velcro straps here and there to better route some of the chunkier cables, such as the 24-pin ATX and EPS power, and perhaps some rubber grommets, or a cable tidy bar, to keep everything else looking a touch more discrete from the front. Plus, if you're not careful and you just tuck all your spare cable length underneath the PSU cover, you can accidentally block the 120 mm intake fan located underneath there as well.

There's also some argument to be had that it could probably use a removable radiator bracket up top and potentially some integrated lighting as standard (something Phantek's latest XT View does remarkably well at an even lower outlay), but really, given the quality of the panels, the internal design, the sound-dampening baked into the rear, and more, it's easy to let those flaws go and just enjoy that sub $100 price.

Thing is, it's just incredibly easy to build a system in this—even a budget or entry-level rig—that looks radically good for very little outlay, and these additions could potentially bump up the cost on an already phenomenally affordable chassis.

The Y40 represents one of the best cases out there on the market today, particularly if you're looking for something that delivers top-tier quality on a shoestring budget. It's almost impossible to build a system in this thing that doesn't look good, and that is telling. With some slight tweaks and improvements here and there, the Y40 could be out of this world.