For our practical test, the following components found a place in the case:
For such a compact ATX case, the installation went quite quickly. It is recommended to completely expose the top side before starting the installation. This also facilitates the installation of a possible water cooling system. The upper mainboard cables should be plugged in before installing the radiator, otherwise the individual slots will be covered. The cable grommets are overall very well placed. One exception, however, is the leftmost feedthrough on the PSU cover. This is, we think, for the HD audio cable of the front ports. The problem is, however, that there isn’t enough room to route the cable when the power supply is installed. Even if the cable is first plugged in and then the power supply is inserted, the cable and power supply get in each other’s way. Other, much thinner, cables also get claustrophobic here.
The new closing mechanism of the side panels works very well, but it also has a small drawback that affects the right side panel. If you don’t take cable management that seriously and belong to the “main thing is that the lid closes” team, you will be forced to lay the cables neatly in the Meshify 2 Compact. Otherwise, the sometimes small space of 17 millimeters becomes apparent and the side panel simply pops open again. In our case, the problem was caused by a PWM controller, for which we first had to find the right position so that the side panel would stay closed. But cable extensions of the power cables can also become a problem here. Its connectors are usually quite high as well.
The interior space is rather tight in some places. If you decide to install an AiO water cooling system, it is important to pay attention to the height of the motherboard components. These must not exceed a height of 40mm. This includes the voltage converter cooler, but also the mainboard I/O cover. In our case, we didn’t get in the way of the RAM. We installed an Alpenföhn Gletscherwasser 240 Highspeed, where the radiator and fan together have a build height of 5.2 centimeters. There is still some space left, but it shouldn’t be much thicker. Before buying, you should check whether the desired water cooling fits there. If it doesn’t fit, the radiator can still be installed in the front.
For our performance test, we demanded a lot from the installed components. We made the processor sweat for 20 minutes with the Prime95 stress test. The graphics card was not spared either; we also stressed it for 20 minutes with the free FurMark GPU benchmark. The values below show how the temperatures behave in stress situations.
There was no doubt that the cooling concept works and the temperatures confirm that. The processor stays very cool at 62.7 °C even at 50% fan power. However, the powerful glacial water also contributes its part to that. Everything stays in the green zone for the graphics card as well. It got a maximum of 68°C during our 20 minute load and that with a case fan performance of 50%.
Even during a longer session in Verdansk (COD Warzone) the graphics card stayed at a constant 62°C. A very good operating temperature. In other cases, we reached around 65 °C in the past. Thus, the Meshify 2 Compact convinces in the performance test!