Asus ProArt PA602 Review | PCMag

You probably know Asus best for its notebooks and smartphones, but the Taiwan tech giant still leans back on its motherboard roots when developing PC cases. Just as its previously reviewed ROG Hyperion mega-chassis reflects its ROG brand’s theme of high-end gaming components, so its ProArt PA602 ($269.99) follows the lead of its ProArt creativity brand: understated, elegant power. This is no blinged-out, audacious gaming tower (leave that to the company’s ROG brand), but a stern, serious monolith of a PC that performs superbly and delivers all the space you could want for a mega-build that can even incorporate an extensive custom liquid-cooling loop. Whether you’re working up your own desktop workstation or designing your own content-creation rig, this case exudes quality and power, and earns our Editors’ Choice award for high-end classic towers.

Design: Small Details, a Greater Whole

Asus rates the ProArt PA602 as an Extended ATX (EATX) case, but there’s a caveat to that. The motherboard tray doesn’t reach the limit of the EATX 12-by-13-inch form factor, but the 10.9 inches of motherboard depth it does support is bigger than most of the oversize boards that Asus itself sells to consumers.

Like the motherboards from which it gets its name, the ProArt PA602 keeps a clean look while being packed with features. Even from a distance, we can see that the tempered-glass left panel has a mesh window to aid in graphics-card ventilation, that the top panel sits between handrails, and that the front edge of the top panel is packed with ports.

Two of those ports are the antique USB 2.0 variety, alas. The Type-C port features the full USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 interface, and the ports marked 3.0 are indeed USB 3.2 Gen 1. The power button on the right side features a lockout switch to prevent accidental presses, and the fan switch on the left side is nothing more than a basic rocker that enables or disables the motherboard PWM signal of the chassis’ integrated (powered) fan hub.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

Beneath the top panel’s hand rails, two forward-facing buttons activate latches to release the front fan cover. A button that’s a little closer to the fan cover allows users to reset the dust-filter service LED located beneath it.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

Behind the fan cover are two 200mm intake fans and a full-length dust filter for the bottom panel’s vents, including the power supply’s air inlet. (It’s at the back of the bottom panel.)

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

Another dust filter slides out of the top of the face panel. This is the one that covers those two giant 200mm intake fans.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

While the back panel features eight expansion slots, a 140mm exhaust fan, and a power-supply mount, the right side features a painted steel panel and a handrail to match the left side. We can also see the second of the front fan cover’s latch buttons tucked beneath the handrail. You’ll also note in this picture below, if you look carefully, a pair of plastic wheels at the bottom of the case. They allow you to scoot the case around your floor or tabletop a bit more easily when the front is tilted back. Given the case’s 30-plus-pound weight empty, you’ll appreciate that once it’s full.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

Two more latch buttons release the tops of the side panels, which tilt to the sides to be lifted off lower mounts. Grabbing the tab that’s above and between those buttons allows you to slide back the radiator cover and lift it away.

A hidden compartment between those three points is designed to hold one of Asus’ foldable Wi-Fi antennas, which explains the presence of a wire slot that leads downward from the radiator cover to a split grommet. Very elegant!

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

We measure a maximum radiator length of 470mm through a 35mm-wide gap (Asus says 34mm), which is large enough to fit most 420mm format closed-loop coolers but a bit thin for the thicker radiators that accompany most custom liquid-cooling loops. The space between that mount and the top edge of our motherboard is a bit wider, at around 47mm, but that just gives you a little extra room to use thick fans up here.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

Removing the radiator bracket gives builders more space to access its fan screws, as well as reach the area to attach/detach the motherboard’s ATX12V/EPS12V power cables (always a tricky squeeze). One note: Getting to the two screws that hold it in place requires builders to yank the L-shaped cubby tray out of the antenna-storage cubby hole. We placed the tray atop right edge of the case for the photo below.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

The ProArt PA602’s motherboard compartment is outfitted with a two-piece removable power supply cover, a vertical cable guide, and a folding adjustable graphics-card brace.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

The cable guide and card brace each slide fore and aft approximately an inch to accommodate motherboards that are less than 10.9 inches deep and graphics cards that are greater than 10.9 inches long.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

The rear portion of the power-supply shroud is painted steel, while the front portion is a matching shade of matte plastic. Two drive cages, one with dual trays and another with a single tray, hide beneath the shroud’s forward portion.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

A removable latch for tool-free installation of PCI Express cards covers the ProArt PA602’s top three slots. That said, most ATX motherboards use the space in front of the case’s top slot for something other than a PCI Express x16 connector (on most boards, the first PCIe slot starts another position downward), so most builds here will support the tool-free removal of graphics cards only up to two slot panels thick.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

The other side of the PA602’s motherboard tray features four 2.5-inch drive trays up front and one on a tray that covers the rear-access hole for a CPU cooler support plate, plus a 3.5-inch drive tray at center-rear. The gap beneath the motherboard tray provides access to the three cage-mounted drive trays, each of which is drilled to support both 3.5-inch and 2.5-inch drive formats.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

The fan hub, mentioned earlier, comes mounted top and center of the space behind the motherboard. It’s not a full-fledged controller; powered directly from the power supply by a Serial ATA power lead, it passively repeats the PWM signal supplied to it by the fourth pin of a motherboard fan header. The extra three cables we spot between the SATA-style power input (left) and six fan headers (right) include a six-pin connection to the dust filter’s IR-powered dirt sensor, a 2-pin connection to the rocker switch that we mentioned in our discussion of the ports, and a 3-pin connection to the motherboard PWM lead.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

Building With the Asus ProArt PA602

The ProArt PA602’s installation kit includes an upright graphics-card adapter plate (shown upside-down) for vertical-GPU installations; a fill panel for those who wish to remove the tool-free card latch; a printed user guide; and four USB Type-A and one Type-C dust plugs. The fasteners include 40 M.3 screws for securing the motherboard and any 2.5-inch drives, 20 #6-32 screws for installing 3.5-inch drives and your power supply, and 10 cable zip-ties.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

The chassis cables include a USB 3.2 Type-E that feeds the top-panel Type-C port at full Gen 2×2 (20Gbps) bandwidth, a 19-pin USB that feeds the two USB 3.x Type-A ports, a USB 2.0 header line for the two low-speed ports, a combined front-panel power/reset/LED block, and an HD Audio cable to connect the four-pole headset combo (headphone/microphone) jack.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

The ProArt PA602’s card brace barely reaches our “only” 11-inch-long graphics card, but that won’t be a problem for the kind of builders who will invest in a case like this, since current high-end cards are a bit longer. A lesser fitment issue was that the 120mm fan slots end a couple of inches from the back of the radiator mount, which forced us to position the radiator around 1.5 inches forward of where we’d otherwise like to.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

A long graphics card is the main thing that will fill the ProArt PA602’s roomy interior from our set of standard test-build parts we use for case review. With a little effort, we can imagine someone using an open-loop liquid cooler to fill the space with pumps, a reservoir, and similar advanced cooling paraphernalia.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

Here’s a peek at our completed test build, which really needs a banana or a small child alongside for a sense of scale. This case is imposing. And as you can see, the side glass is dark enough to obscure the relatively empty forward space.

Testing the Asus ProArt PA602: Superior Cool, Superior Quiet

Our test components were chosen for their ability to apply a consistent thermal load. Here’s a summary of what we used (and have used for testing other ATX PC cases for some time now)…

Since the ProArt PA602 costs more than $260 even from the cheapest third-party sellers, we decided to compare it only to cases of similar shape (i.e. “big tower design”) that cost well over $200. That didn’t leave us many to choose from, since wide “dual-chamber” designs have mostly overtaken that price segment, but we found a few InWin models and a different Asus case that qualified from our testing results pool.

Onward to some numbers. The ProArt PA602 leads in CPU temperature, if only just barely, and only for a few of the 242 temperature readings. After watching the PA602 drop to second place in voltage-regulator temperature, we were surprised to see its clear, consistent victory come through in GPU temperature.

While the PA602’s giant intake fans should have benefitted both the motherboard and graphics card similarly, the position of our radiator over the motherboard’s voltage regulator has a dramatic impact on airflow over its heat sinks. Because its mounting pattern forced us to move our radiator more than an inch forward of our regular placement, we find it fortunate that the PA602 dropped only to second place in voltage-regulator temperature.

Then we moved on to acoustic tests. The ProArt PA602’s fans are not only enormous, but they’re also quiet, thanks to their ability to move lots of air while spinning at low speed. The case shows clear leadership in this group in quietness that, when combined with its leading or near-temperatures, shows overall performance supremacy.

Verdict: One Classy Classic Tower Case

We can’t think of too many people who would pay more than $260 solely for the thermal and acoustic performance supremacy, but don’t let that stop you if you need a roomy chassis with both presence and power. Asus’ big, elegant ProArt case targets the same class of uncompromising content- and data-professional buyers as its ProArt motherboards. Only the price and a few minor quibbles might keep it from outright winning the hearts of PC builders and upgraders who need the very best without the usual gaming bling. Us? We’re sold on it.