When it comes to building a gaming PC on a strict budget, you often would want to focus on getting as much performance as possible, leaving little room to budget for PC cases.
This is where Montech comes in with the Air 100 Lite, which offers tons of goodies such as included case fans, plenty of drive mounts, and lots of airflow for the price of only RM169.
Montech Air 100 Lite Specifications
| Model Name | Montech Air 100 Lite |
| Colour | White / Black |
| Dimensions (LxWxH) | 405 x 210 x 425mm |
| Net Weight | 6kg |
| Motherboard Support | mATX / mini-ITX |
| Expansion Slots | 4 |
| Drive Bays | 2 x 2.5-inch 2 x 2.5/3.5″ |
| I/O | 1 x USB 2.0 2x USB 3.0 1x Headphone 1x Microphone |
| Fan Support | Front: 3 x 120mm / 2 x 140mm (3 x 120mm included) Top: 2 x 120mm / 2 x 140mm Inside: 2 x 120mm Rear: 1 x 120mm (1 x 120mm included) |
| Clearance | PSU: 160mm CPU: 161mm VGA: 330mm |
Design
The Montech Air 100 Lite has an airflow focused design in an all-white enclosure. It comes with a swivel style tempered glass that covers the entire side of the case, with a pull tab for easy access. The tempered glass is tool-less too.
The perforated front panel has a magnetic design, allowing users easy access to the front fans. There is no mesh filter however. At the top, you get perforated grilles that support up to two 120mm or 140mm fans, and includes a magnetic mesh filter that has to be installed from the inside. That would mean if you plan to install top exhaust fans, the screws will be exposed instead of being hidden under a mesh filter like other PC cases.
At the back, you get the usual 120mm exhaust fan and four expansion slots. To save cost, Montech has opted for “cut out” style brackets where you have to pry it open yourself, instead of screw-in brackets. Do keep in mind that if you remove your GPU for whatever reason in the future, you will leave empty slots instead of covering them with brackets.
In terms of I/O, the ports can be found at the top with two USB 3.0 slots, a single USB 2.0 slot, a headphone and a mic port. Most headsets uses a single headset 3.5mm jack anyways so you will need a splitter for this.
You also get four built-in case fans, which is great as you can save some money here. They are 3-pin fans too, so you can adjust the fan speed in the bios. There is a PSU shroud that covers the entire length of the case to hide your cables, with a cut-out for front radiator mounting
Moving on to the right side, you don’t get much room for cable management, however there is a wide channel at the top for you to route your cables. Montech has included velcro straps to aid with cable management. As a budget case, it comes with lots of mounts for your SSDs and hard drives, with the hard drive cage being removeable should you want more room for your PSU cables.
Overall, while the Montech Air 100 Lite looks sleek and modern, it does come with some archaic designs to save cost. It is not a dealbreaker for me considering the price point and features, however I’d be willing to spend an additional RM10 to 20 for more niceties.
How It Feels To Build?
Despite the lack of room at the right side of the Montech Air 100 Lite, cable management was easy thanks to the cable routing channels and velcro tie-down points. There are grommets that hide your cables from sight too.
There are also pre-installed stand-offs for the motherboard so installation is very straight-forward. Do note that if your motherboard I/O has a heatsink, it may interfere with the rear fan during installation. You just need to remove the fan, install the motherboard, then reinstall the fan.
As there are four fans pre-installed, you might need to get an additional fan splitter or fan hub. This is mainly due to the small number of fan headers in mATX or mini-ITX motherboards.
Thermals
The Montech Air 100 Lite is an airflow focused case, therefore it scores well in the thermals department. Under HeavyLoad stress test, the CPU temperature managed to hover between 65-70°C, while GPU temperature maintained a cozy 68°C. System temperature stayed below 50°C.
Final Thoughts
Just because you want to build a budget PC does not mean you will lose out on essential features from budget cases, and the Montech Air 100 Lite has a lot to offer.
For only RM169, you get a lot bang for your buck, and frankly speaking, this has all you need.
For more information on the Montech Air 100 Lite, please visit the official product page here.
