LOUQE Raw S1 Mk I (Rhodium Grey) Mini-ITX Computer Case

Product Information

Despite its unique design, the case’s thermals do not suffer. LOUQE has tested temperatures in the chassis with two different GPUs. Using the 3D-mark Firestrike extreme benchmark, the Nvidia RTX 3080 FE (2-slot) reached 70 °C with the case closed. In the same test, an EVGA RTX 2070 FTW3 Ultra (3-slot) reached just under 60 °C. The Raw S1’s ability to fit 3-slot graphics cards is a nice step-up from some competitors. It supports triple-slot GPUs up to 145 x 65 x 320 mm in size. For comparison, the Ghost S1 fits dual-slot GPUs up to 143a x 45 x 305 mm. This case needs custom length power/fan cables (without sleeves, since you can't really see them anyways) because space is so limited. I recommend using PET hookup wire, since it's easy to work with and very thin. As I'll get into later, maximum airflow is very important. There are two other cooler options recommended by the community: Scythe Big Shuriken 3 Rev. B and the Thermalright AXP120-X67. Both of these have top mounted 15mm fans, but a 25mm fan can also apparently fit, closing the gap to the shell with a little more wiggle room.

Air Temp is measured by the mobo, and it's obviously high. This is because the cooler is blowing hot CPU air right on the mobo sensors, but it's still useful for relative measurements. That, plus the money you spend on the case is money you’ll save on cutting the RGB and not caring about what your motherboard or GPU look like – not only do you not see the internals – you simply can’t fit much in here. The spine-and-shell design make the RAW S1 extremely easy to build in. With the shell off, you have plenty of room to install components, route cables, etc. I definitely recommend following the instructions since there are a few things to remove before the shell can be taken off. All of the included cables (PSU input, power switch, USB-C, PCI-E 4.0) were easy to install and route. There's some community unhappiness with the fact that the USB-C cable uses the mobo I/O instead of the internal connector. It's certainly easier, but there's no reason Louqe couldn't have added a hole in the case bottom with a proper USB-C internal cable. Once that's all done, I'm going to test the other two coolers I mentioned above, and add an intake duct for the GPU. For most getting into the mini-ITX cases, you can't go wrong (and may not go any further) going with the NR200. It's much smaller than the big cases you may have been using, and it's easy to build in. You don't necessarily have to get the Max version if you weren't planning on going with an AIO build. However, if you were, then it doesn't get much easier than the Max with the large 850W PSU and AIO already installed.An anemometer is a device that measures air speed. I measured air speed at 9 points around the exhaust vent and multiplied the average by the approximate area of the vent openings to get an airflow number in CFM. It's not perfect, but it will get us some ballpark numbers. At 50% with no gasket, the air speed was below the resolution of the anemometer (0.1 m/s), so I had to bound the calculation. We see a 2X improvement at max fan speed and a >4X improvement at silent fan speeds. Because of this, I would actually say the Raw S1 is perfect – because it does a 100% job at achieving what the designers set out to achieve: a simple, easy-to-work-on minimalist system that looks the part and cools well.

This increase in size can be found across all specs comparing the two cases. CPU Heatsink height support also increases from 66 mm in the Ghost S1 to 75mm in the Raw S1. This is, of course, largely thanks to the extra 4 liters of volume that the Raw S1 comes equipped with. It is important to note, however, that it is still an extremely small case. The PSU will be mounted with the input AC connector pointing up, as close to the front side of the shell as possible. This serves two purposes: it moves the cable routing out of the airflow path, and it points the PSU exhaust up instead of forward, which should help a tiny bit. tl;dr: Louqe's RAW S1 is a beautiful, high quality case with awful thermal design that can be somewhat mitigated with mods For completeness' sake, I ran a set of tests with all the mods. The vented top fan still doesn't really make much of a difference. As an experiment, I tried to figure out the minimum fan speed required to get close to maximum performance. It turns out that with every fan at 75%, I can get within 1% of CPU performance. It's extremely loud, though, and it still doesn't get the GPU Temps down.These tests are not completely scientifically rigorous; I didn't do repeat testings, and I don't expect that other owners will see the exact same numbers. Again, the point is to share the experience I've had. That being said, my testing did give some really important insights into what the thermal design problems with this case are. My guess is that the GPU cooler moves enough air that some of it happens to escape through the top. I don't have a great explanation for the CPU; I suspect the vent changes some internal turbulent flow pattern that keeps hot air closer to the CPU/mobo.