Hyte Y70 Touch

Hyte's showcase PC chassis aren’t necessarily cheap, but they stand out in a sea of derivative cases. (Hint to case makers: Not every case has to imitate the classic Lian Li O11.) One way they stand out: Several Hyte chassis we've tested have included a PCI Express 4.0 riser cable for vertical video card mounting, a key accessory that competitors like to charge around $50 for as a separate option. That inclusion gave top value to the Hyte Y40 and even made the pricier Hyte Y60 an acceptable buy. But as the "Touch" in the name implies, Hyte had an even fancier inclusion in mind for its Y70: A 1,100-by-3,840-pixel IPS touch screen built into the case, mounted catty-corner to the front. In a high-visibility case like this, showing off your PC's innards, your RGB tastes, and your cable-routing skills is one thing. Incorporating a slick second display into your chassis, though, is the new floor for high-end PC-case conversation starters, and the Y70 Touch makes it easy.

The Design: A New Point Of View

Hyte’s earlier Y60 was famed for an angled corner chop that drew more eyes to the components within. But the company later found, via modders who started tweaking the chassis and sharing their efforts online, that this small vertical strip could also be the perfect place for a screen on which to show off a builder’s custom artwork or even to display system stats. The Y60 panel (sourced from third parties and not originally designed for that use) was only 550 pixels wide by 1,920 high: The one in the Y70 Touch is twice as pixel-dense in both directions (1,100 by 3,840), giving it four times the pixel count of that $150 part.

Software downloadable from Hyte's site, called Nexus, governs the screen setup. The software not only allows freeform display but incorporates some widgets for things like weather, PC performance stats, and even a calculator.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

Beneath that high-resolution display is a selection of front-panel ports. Their location will only be useful to those who prefer to place their PCs on top of their desks, but if you're hiding this chassis under a table, with its touch screen out of reach and out of sight, let's just say: You're doing it wrong. A headphone/microphone combo jack is next to the two USB 3.x Type-A and Gen 2x2 Type-C ports. Power-indicator LEDs surround the transparent power button.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

Beyond the screen, of course, the key interior feature that sets the Hyte Y70 Touch apart from its competitors is a full row of seven half-height PCI Express expansion slots in normal orientation, in addition to the full-height slots that are set off to the side, for holding a graphics card vertically. A fan mount with a multisize (120mm or 140mm) multi-position fan grid is also carried over from previous models, and even the pair of drive mounts were on the Y60 we reviewed last year. The number of full-height slot panels increases from the Y60’s three to four, but those panels merely give mechanical support to the thick rear mounting brackets of some of today's highest-end graphics cards. (There’s still only a single PCIe 4.0 x16 slot to feed your vertically mounted card.)

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

The right panel covers the power-supply inlet at the rear and a tall fan mount up front with a series of ventilation slots that are backed by a rigidly framed dust filter. (Because why not use a dust filter as a structural component…right?)

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

As for cleaning that filter, the best way will be from the outside, with the upholstery brush of a vacuum cleaner, assuming that the bristles are soft enough not to scratch the paint. (We weren’t able to remove the filter from either the side panel or the top panel.)

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

An external dust filter on the bottom covers a fan bracket that’s capable of holding up to three 120mm or two 140mm fans, but anyone planning to put a radiator down here should first ask themselves where their graphics card will go, since the vertical graphics card’s slot bracket sits atop this 1.5-inch space.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

In the picture below, the vertical-mount bracket for your video card is shown mounted to the floor of the interior, its interface connections covered with a protective sticker. A PCIe 4.0 x16 card connector at the other end of its cable slides into a motherboard’s corresponding slot, and the cable’s flexibility allows it to fit motherboards with slightly lower slot placement. A plastic cover joins that card connector to one of the seven slot covers on the bracket, raising it above any half-height cards that users might decide to place in any of the six remaining slots.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

In addition to the above-mentioned slot cover that includes a cable guide, Hyte includes a slot cover that contains a DisplayPort input for the Y70's front-panel display; you'll need to feed a short DisplayPort loopback cable (included) from your video card's rear I/O to this connector. Since that cable is highly likely to be used (why else would you pay this case's going rate?), Hyte counts just six of the case’s seven half-height slots as usable, as it should.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

Though it also provides a place to secure the riser cable’s relocated expansion slot, the interior floor primarily functions as a visual separation between the motherboard chamber and any bottom-mounted fans or bottom-routed cables. Large holes between the fan cover portion of that panel and the motherboard tray provide passage to any cables that need to reach headers at the motherboard’s bottom edge.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

Large enough to hold 360mm-format radiators up to 406mm in length and wide enough to hold 280mm-format radiators up to 1.5 inches to the left of the motherboard’s top surface, the top radiator mount sits 100mm (3.9 inches) above the motherboard’s top edge to provide exceptional space for “fan sandwich” (push-pull) cooling configurations. It’s also removable, with two thumbscrews facing it from the opposite side of the motherboard tray and two locating pins facing the case’s left side.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

Though Hyte applies the Extended ATX (EATX) label to this case, the motherboard tray of its Y70 Touch is exactly standard ATX size, and we wouldn’t want to hang the forward edge of a 13-inch-deep motherboard over a side-mount radiator. Conversely, most EATX-labeled gaming and overclocking motherboards are less than 11 inches deep, and the Y70 Touch’s side radiator mount is 12 inches from the back of the case. Tall enough to support 360mm-class radiators up to 406mm long, and wide enough to support 280mm-format radiators instead, the side radiator mount is recessed approximately 3.25 inches behind the motherboard tray.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

The radiator offset takes up much of the space at the front of the power-supply chamber, and two 3.5-inch drive trays take up more of the leftover space above the power-supply brackets. Measuring from its mounting plate on the back panel, the space remaining for power-supply installation is 10 inches deep.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

Building With the Y70 Touch

Corsair and FSP sent specific parts to complete our test system: Thanks to the commonality of 240mm radiator mounts, the iCue H100i RGB Pro XT closed-loop cooler fits most of the things we build. And thanks to its SFX casing and PS/2 adapter plate, the FSP Dagger Pro 850W offers similar installation flexibility.

Getting back to the Y70 Touch, its 3.5-inch drive trays have additional holes to fit 2.5-inch drives. The installation guide even shows how to hang a 2.5-inch drive from the top edge and another from the bottom edge so that two 2.5-inch drives can be installed, per tray, via two screws each.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

The Y70 Touch installation kit includes five reusable cable straps and nine cable ties, a short DisplayPort cable for connecting your graphics card’s output to the corner panel’s input, a splitter cable for connecting the combined headset jack to headsets that have separate headphone and microphone cables, a Phillips socket for removing and installing hexagonal standoffs, and several replacement clips for the ball snaps at the top edge of both side panels or the four corners of the top panel. You also get screws for power-supply installation, screws for installing 3.5-inch hard drives, and a set of flange-head screws for installing the motherboard and any 2.5-inch drives.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

Cables include power-button and LED leads on a combined Intel-style front panel connector, HD Audio for the front-panel combo jack, SATA power and USB 2.0 inputs for the touch-screen display, a first generation 19-pin USB cable for the two Type-A ports, and a modern Type-E internal cable for the front-panel Type-C port.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

Hyte combines the case touch screen’s power (SATA) and haptic (USB 2.0) cables into a single USB Type-C connector that has nothing to do with the case’s front-panel Type-C port. Next to it is the place (mDP) where the I/O panel’s DisplayPort cable feeds graphics data into the touch-screen display.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

Our full ATX motherboard fits perfectly, but a case that’s designed to hold the latest high-end graphics solutions (such as the RTX 4090) certainly makes our old RTX 2070 look tiny.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

With its 1,100-pixel width and 3,840-pixel height, the touch screen makes a fairly good display for scrolling through the PCMag homepage as well as a handy spot to put a status panel...

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

The touch action is responsive, and the unique case screen is guaranteed to turn heads the first time anyone sees it. The 45-degree canted design of the screen, though, while enhancing visibility, means you need to put the case on one side of your desk for maximum exposure.

Testing the Hyte Y70 Touch

For comparison purposes, the most similar of recent cases are Xigmatek’s Aqua Ultra Combo (with its vented top installed) and NZXT’s H9 Elite. We’re adding the previously mentioned Hyte Y40, as well, since it represents a more traditional design from the same company, tested with the same hardware.

The difference in CPU temperature among these cases is fairly minor and puts both Hyte cases mid-pack, despite significant differences in layout between those two.

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The Y70 Touch falls to third place in voltage-regulator temperatures, but it still beat its contemporary, the Y40. Note that the Y70 Touch top panel supports radiators in two positions. We mounted ours as close as possible to the motherboard so that its fans would draw warmed air away from the heatsinks of our motherboard’s voltage regulator.

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The Y70 Touch graphics temperature was so poor in our test configuration that we rechecked to verify 100% fans and ran the test again, to see only a minor change at best. If you’re using an air-cooled card, we suggest adding a few intake fans to its bottom mount since airflow in this area doesn’t…er, flow...well enough, it seems, when the only fans installed are two at the top.

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With plenty of glass to reflect sound inward and no fans of its own to leak noise outward, the Y70 Touch is supremely quiet. It even beats the Y40 and roughly ties the Pop XL Silent from Fractal Design.

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Verdict: Screen Gem

As an independent reviewer, I’m going out on a limb to say that the noise from the graphics card being reflected back into the graphics card parallels the heat from the graphics card that also appears to have never left that vicinity. You’re going to want some bottom-mounted intake fans, and the noise from those fans will probably reflect from your desk toward you. Since the graphics card that runs so hot in the Y70 Touch is also responsible for most of the noise that we’ve experienced in other cases, I’m rating the overall performance a wash (neither negative nor positive) and recommending the case only to experienced builders who know how to make it perform exactly the way they intend.

Of course, this case is really more about the display panel, and if you want the elegant screen that this case touts, you won't be dissuaded by the relatively humdrum affair of adding a fan or two. (Or the extra expense; you're already out almost $400.) You can find better-performing big cases out there, but we challenge you to find one with more sheer, effortless curbside appeal right out of the box.