The ProArt PA602 is an imposing tower case from Asus. It’s primarily aimed at creators with a generous architecture focused on storage, graphics, and cooling.
Its coat bears the characteristic signature of this family that we discovered through several tests such as those of the ProArt X670E-Creator WIFI and ProArt Z690-Creator WIFI motherboards.
E-ATX compatible, it is equipped with substantial equipment ranging from an air guide to a VGA mount, including two 200 mm fans, an IR dust detector, transport wheels, and a power button lock function.
We tested it to find out in detail its performance, its benefits, and its possibilities. Can it accommodate a gaming setup? Is its ventilation efficient and quiet?
ProArt PA602 overview
This is the very first time that GinjFo has tested a box aimed not at gamers but at content creators and other professional users. As we’ll see, it also supports large gaming setups without any particular constraints.
His arrival allows the ProArt family to grow. It now offers monitors, laptops, motherboards, graphics cards, and cases. As we have indicated, this PA602 is primarily aimed at enthusiasts and professionals with high requirements in terms of computing power and storage. These two criteria, which are dear to the fields of creation, video and photo editing, and 3D, require special equipment and ventilation accordingly.
The case surprises even before it is unpacked since its cardboard is simply huge. The size and weight of the set do not facilitate handling, which explains an unconventional opening. The top of the cardboard can be removed after it has been detached from the base using four plastic fasteners.
Once relieved of its various protections against the hazards of transport, it reveals a slender silhouette due to a width that is much less important than its height. This says a lot about its dimensions as it has two 200 mm fans on the front.
In figures, this PA602 comes with measurements of 593 x 560 x 245 mm and a weight of 15.8 kg when empty. His signature is based on a sleek and unadorned style. There’s no RGB while its front side offers an airy ribbed structure.
We are not far from an airflow-oriented case with a surface protected by a filter (45% porosity) allowing the two front fans to express themselves.
The front panel, consisting of several parallel bars spaced 15.5 mm apart, is removable, while on the side a small LED indicates the presence of dust that requires cleaning of the filter.
Air is drawn in by the two front 200mm fans. The latter are 38 mm thick solutions supported by a third 140 mm PWM fan placed at the rear in extraction. The breakdown scheme is therefore as follows. Cool air is sucked in from the front and then sucked in by the graphics card and rear fan in the exhaust position. The hot air is then exhausted from the top, the rear and a small side area at the tempered glass side panel.
We thus find an airflow going from front to back and supposed to pass through all the hottest components of our configuration (graphics card, chipset, M.2 SSD or the cooler).
Asus cleverly uses the side curves of the case to offer two handles for easy handling.
It also hides two buttons to unhook the front panel to access the dust filter.
The connectors are placed on the top. It consists of a Power button that can be deactivated using a locking latch, two USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports, one USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 Type-C port, two USB 2.0 ports, a Reset button, and a fan control button.
The case is equipped with a HUB that unifies the power supply to the three fans. Management driven by this button offers either a +12V mode, i.e. a fan at 100% of its capacity, or a PWM mode driven by the motherboard.
The case has a metal chassis and a dress combining plastic and tempered glass. The left side panel provides an unobstructed view of the setup.
It comes with a small ventilation grille highlighting its membership of the ProArt range. The base on the sides also has an opening allowing air to circulate.
The two panels (tempered glass and steel) clip onto the chassis and their opening is associated with two rear buttons.
It’s simple, fast and devilishly effective.
The rear is very airy with the presence of several grilles with circular openings. The power supply is positioned on the bottom and a set of 8 expansion slots equipped with perforated PCIe brackets accompany a protective grille for the rear fan as well as a tool-free mounting system for the graphics card.
In a bundle, an adapter allows you to reposition the expansion slots vertically to use the graphics card in the same orientation.
However, the Riser cable is not part of the bundle.
Finally, the top is equipped with a filtered grille that can be removed from the back over almost its entire surface. Note that it frees up additional space dedicated to the Wi-Fi antenna.
This allows for simple storage for a minimalist look.
We find the same approach on the bottom with a filter removable from the front. On the other hand, it requires the front panel to be dismantled.
Finally, two small plastic wheels at the back make it easier to move around because once equipped with an imposing configuration, the kilos add up quickly.
It is clear from this little overview that this ProArt PA602 is an imposing case. In the Grand Tower format, it adopts a slender silhouette with a height well above its width.
His equipment is generous. It features fully filtered openings, carry handles, tempered glass side panel, unique and understated ProArt styling, ventilation control, USB 3.2 Gen 2×2, tool-free openings, transport wheels, and multiple air vents to facilitate the passage of air and its ventilation to work properly. On the subject of casters, if the proposed solution was not enough, Asus has provided the possibility of installing four casters as an option.
The internal architecture is organized around two bedrooms. The main display panel accommodates the motherboard with support for a large number of form factors ranging from E-ATX to Mini-ITX to ATX, Micro-ATX to DTX and Mini-DTX.
There is no shortage of space since the graphics card benefits from 450 mm compared to 190 mm for the height of the cooler and 190 mm for the length of the power supply.
The front is equipped with two imposing 200 mm PWM fans with a thickness of 38 mm.
They bring fresh air to the configuration through a flow directed using plastic baffles on the lower part of the chamber. They are working to better target some key elements of the configuration, namely the graphics card and the processor. They are also responsible for the construction of the second space for the power supply and hard drives.
A third 140 mm PWM fan with a thickness of 28 mm is present at the rear in the exhaust position in order to exhaust the hot air to the outside. The box offers management of all these little people through a Rheobus capable of driving up to six PWM fans.
Naturally, this breakdown pattern can change. The PA602 supports a 120 or 140 mm at the rear, 3,120 or 140 mm at the top and 2 x 200 mm at the front. Watercooling is possible with the support of a 120, 140, 240, 280, 260 and 420 radiator on the top with the addition of three other references in 120 or 140 mm. The use of liquid cooling is also possible with support for a 160 and 420 radiator on the top.
An adjustable VGA mount is also included. It is equipped with foam at the contact area with the graphics card. This material is also present on the side pillars of the frame where the tempered glass panel rests.
Finally, the second air reflector is also used to conceal part of the motherboard wiring (ATX, SATA, USB).
Its distance from the motherboard area is adjustable by a few cm to facilitate assembly and cope with the different formats supported (E-ATX. Mini-ITX).
On the storage side, everything takes place in the back. The case is equipped with five dedicated 2.5-inch turntables, four of which are placed on the front and the last one at the rear area of the motherboard socket. This location is not ideal, however, as it is a source of heat. For the two 3.5-inch hard drives, we have three steel trays that are also compatible with 2.5-inch hard drives on the bottom and a dedicated plate on the back of the motherboard tray.
Finally, the organization of the wiring is helped by several “cable guides”, velcro fasteners, and fasteners positioned in strategic places.
Test protocol.
Please note: We have changed our entire box testing platform.
We are now using the following configuration:
- Motherboard> ROG Strix Z590-E Gaming Wi-Fi
- Processeur > Core i9-11990K,
- Ventirad > Noctua NH-D12L,
- Crucial Ballistix 4 x 4GB DDR4-2666MHz 16-17-17-36 RAM >
- > TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 3070 OC Edition 8G graphics card,
- Corsair RM850 > power supply,
- Hitachi HDT 72 1010SLA360 1TB > Hard Drive
- SSD 1 > IronWolf 510 1,92 To,
- SSD 2 > OCZ Vector 180 240 Go.
We measured the temperature of the hard drive, SSDs, graphics card, CPU, and motherboard via software. We use the HWMonitor app. We work with a fully loaded configuration, i.e. with a high load on the CPU, GPU, SSD, RAM and HDD. During these tests, a sound level meter is placed on a stand 25 cm from the front of the case. The latter is a SL_200 calibrated using an SLC-100
The CPU cooler is in PWM mode through the “standard” profile proposed by the motherboard after calibration with Fan Xpert 4.
When we talk about noise pollution, it corresponds to two different qualities. The first is the level of soundproofing to muffle the noise of the various mechanical parts such as the hard drives, the CPU cooler or the graphics card, while the second concerns the ventilation which inevitably generates noise. It is related to the speed of the fans, the size and architecture, the shape of the chassis openings and the type of fastener used. The measurements correspond to a study with a fully fanless configuration and without a mechanical hard drive, so that the noise corresponds exactly to that of the ventilation.
ProArt PA602, performance
Editing
As we’ve said many times, this PA620 is imposing. Its dimensions ensure a generous architecture, so our ATX platform has space to take its place. The second baffle is dismantled (two Phillips screws) to make it easier to install the ATX, two SATA or USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 Type C once the motherboard is in place. There are no particular difficulties.
The power supply unit is located in the second chamber. However, it requires the first plastic reflector (at the bottom of the case) to be dismantled followed by a metal cover.
There are three Phillips screws on the side of the tempered glass panel and one screw on the back of the motherboard tray to remove. We advise you to put everything back in place at the end of the assembly, once the wiring has been arranged.
For the storage part, there is no quick fixing. The 2.5-inch SSD sits on one of the four dedicated panels on the side and is attached with four Phillips screws.
For the hard drive, we chose one of the three bottom trays, and again four Phillips screws are needed. These baskets do not have a vibration-damping system.
The PWM HUB requires a SATA connection for its power supply and it must be connected to a 4-pin Chassis Fan card providing PWM management. The graphics card installs without encountering any obstacles or compatibility issues. The VGA mount is convenient because its stem offers rotational adjustment and its arm is retractable in height.
Finally, all that’s left to do is optimize the wiring, a phase helped by the many fasteners, velcro fasteners, and cable guides available on the back. Don’t forget to replace the metal cover and baffle to make the most of the airflow generated by the two 200mm fans at the front
Cooling
The case is natively equipped with two imposing 200mm fans at the front, one 140mm at the rear, numerous openings for air passage, and baffles to direct the flow to the critical elements of the configuration.
In use, all this gives us a high cooling potential. In PWM mode, we have a very solid balance sheet with two fairly similar rest and burn curves except for the CPU and the graphics card. This reflects a very moderate rise in the temperature of several critical elements such as the VRMs, the RAM and the chipset. In burn, our configuration requires cooling to the point that the PWM management works at full speed, i.e. at 12V. We do not record any critical values and no triggering of Thermal Throttling. The GPU, M.2 SSD and CPU are running at 100% capacity.
Here is the balance in +12V with our configuration at 100% of its capacity against two other cases, the Morpheus from DeppCool and the Dark Base 701 from be quiet!. We always work with temperature deltas. The red dotted line reflects the temperatures obtained with PA602. It takes first place with the best cooling profile. Against the Dark Base 701, we have a difference of 3°C on the processor side and 4°C for the VRAM. The most striking results concern the storage part.
Noise pollution
Our sound level meter records noise pollution between 35.5 and 52.8 dBA depending on the charge level of the box. The maximum value is recorded with a turbine configuration at its maximum and a ventilation at 100%. With a fanless and HDD-less configuration, this figure drops slightly to 52.3 dBA which is still high. The PA602’s ventilation system is not a model of silence. The main source of noise is related to the two front 200mm.
This ProART PA602 is not a silence-oriented camera and at full throttle it expresses itself effectively.
The balance sheet on the hard drive side gives us nuisances between 34.2 and 39.2 dBa, an average profile due to the fact that there is no particular solution to avoid vibration transfers and the “sound box” effect in the case.
Conclusion:
This ProArt PA602 is a nice surprise. Offering a unique style to the ProArt brand, it offers a very generous architecture designed for storage, a large graphics card, massive AIO water cooling and large cooling requirements. To achieve this, it is equipped with an airflow-oriented dress, two 200 mm fans at the front and a 140 mm fan at the rear, a PWM HUB and a ventilation management system offering an instant switch between +12V and PWM. Asus equips it with USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 for fast transfers with external storage units, two wrists and wheels to make it easy to move around, a tempered glass panel or a latch to lock the Power button to avoid inadvertently shutting down the PC.
Added to all this is a neat design, style and little touches such as baffles, a quick attachment for the graphics card, a VGA support and an IR dust detector in the front filter. The results are therefore positive but be careful, this ProArt PA 602 is not a silent case. The ramp-up of his fans is accompanied by a rise in his voice. Available at around €220, Asus is positioned on the high-end with good arguments. A touch of brushed aluminum and the use of less plastic would have been a plus.
