Many computer cases have crossed my desk over the years, but none have dressed as dapper as the Hyte X50. Even as rounded and custom-cut glass panels become more common in computer cases, the X50 manages to stand out, and not just because of the unique color offerings.
Hyte has taken the curved-glass aesthetic and carried it across the whole case, propping up the fully rounded body on squat little half-dome legs. It's a combination of cute and sturdy that you're unlikely to find in any other computer case. Friends who have seen the X50’s bubbly glass panel and trendy matcha paint job have compared it to the distinct design of evergreen kitchen gadgets like the KitchenAid stand mixer or, somewhat less generously, to that car that Homer Simpson designed.
Everything from the overall look to the little details has been accounted for, and apart from a small speed bump for AIO CPU cooler owners, it’s easy to build a quiet and well-cooled machine. The biggest problem I have with the X50 is my own desire for perfection. Like other Hyte cases I’ve reviewed before, the generously sized windows don’t give you much leeway for messy or mismatched cables. If visible cable ties, uneven fan placement, or mismatched colors bother you, you’ll have to do some extra legwork on your way to the beautiful system of your dreams.
Open Design, Quiet Operation
Photograph: Brad Bourque
Despite tons of open fan grates and mesh panels, the X50 is stunningly quiet. Even under load, with the fans kicked up, I struggled to hear any fan or system noise. At one point I was trying to troubleshoot an unrelated GPU issue and kept having to peek down underneath to see if the fans were spinning up at all. That’s largely thanks to the noticeably thick tempered glass panel, which Hyte says is specially laminated to reduce noise outside the case, and at least anecdotally, it works quite well.