The Gungnir 100 is a mid-tower PC case from MSI, featuring a full tempered glass side
panel, a clean black design, and of course RGB lighting. In this review we’ll take
a look at what the case has got to offer and help you decide if you should use it for your
next PC build.
The case is all black with plastic top and front panels, one metal side panel while the
other is tempered glass.
The case is 51cm deep, 52.5cm high and 22.7cm across, and weights in at about 9.3kg.
The 4mm tempered glass side panel comes off by first removing four thumb screws and then
taking off the panel, personally I prefer hinge designs as they’re easier to open
and close. I also personally thought the glass was a little too tinted, even with all my
internal lighting it was a bit dark with it on.
Inside there’s space for your standard ATX motherboard, micro or Mini-ITX, and even EATX
support up to 27.2cm long. There’s space for graphics cards up to 400mm in length,
and clearance for a 170mm tall CPU cooler. Towards the bottom are two of the 2.5” drive
bays, and there’s also space down the front for a longer 420mm radiator.
On the back of the case we’ve got the power supply space down the bottom, 7 slots for
PCIe expansion, and an included 120mm addressable RGB fan, more on this in a bit.
Underneath there are some large rubber feet, and a removable dust filter towards the back
for the power supply which slides in and out.
On the other side the metal side panel is removed by first taking out two thumb screws.
On this side we access to the two 3.5” drive bays down the bottom towards the front, and
there are two more 2.5” drive bays just above this. Including the other two 2.5 inch
spots on the other side, there’s 4 in total, and the two 3.5” bays can also be used to
mount 2.5” drives. Above the 2.5 inch drive bays on the back there's a 1-to-8 addressable
RGB hub, which connects to the motherboard and lets you sync the front panel and fan
lighting. Three of the 8 spots are in use, so you can attach more lighting here such
as light strips. There’s also a metal cable routing cover which can be removed by taking
out three screws, you’ll have to remove this to access the cable management holes
that we saw on the other side. There’s room for a 200mm power supply down the bottom,
however based on how it looks with my 180mm unit that would probably be a pretty tight
fit unless you’ve got flexible cables.
On the front of the case towards the top there are some lighting effects, and also down the
bottom, giving this sort of underglow effect. The front panel comes off by pulling it from
the bottom, giving us access to 3 included 120mm fans, although these aren’t RGB like
the one at the back of the case. There didn’t seem to be a fan hub included and I didn’t
have one, so I had to use four of my motherboards system fan headers for all four case fans.
There also didn’t appear to be any dust filtering on the top or front, and the only
air intakes appear to come from the sides.
The front I/O is found on the top, and from left to right there’s the power button,
hard drive LED, USB 3 Type-A port, 3.5mm microphone and headphone jacks, second USB 3 Type-A port,
and a button for cycling through lighting effects. This controls the lighting for the
top and bottom of the front panel, as well as the single fan at the back of the case.
There are 7 different built in effects using this button, all with different colour options,
it took me a while to cycle through them all. You can also hold down the button for 3 seconds
which will allow it to be synched with the motherboard, as there is an RGB cable from
the previously mentioned hub which you can connect to the board, and this lets you sync
the front lights and fan with your system. In my build I’m using the MSI Z390 ACE motherboard,
so it was easy to sync all lights with MSI’s light sync software. I’ve also got MSI’s
RTX 2080 Ti Lightning graphics card, so I was also able to sync the lighting of that
with the rest of the system.
The top panel can also be removed by pulling it up from the front after first removing
the front panel, you’ll only need to do this if you’re installing cooling along
the top like I did. I installed the 360mm radiator for my Fractal S36 cooler up the
top, the largest size supported up here. You’ll want to do this after first routing cables
through though, as you can see it was a very tight fit with my power cables to the motherboard.
The front panel lighting at the top and bottom can also be customized if you’ve got access
to a 3D printer, basically you can put in your own design that will show through the
light. Unfortunately I don’t have a 3D printer so haven’t been able to try this myself
and can’t demonstrate it, but it looks like you can download the required templates from
the MSI website.
For up to date pricing on the Gungnir 100 case check the links in the description, as
prices will change over time. At the time of recording, here in Australia it’s going
for $159 AUD, or you can get the non RGB version if flashy colours aren’t your thing for
$40 AUD less. We seem to be one of the first regions to get the case, so I don’t currently
have US pricing, but I’ll update the description once available, which I’m told will be in
around 2-3 months from the time this video goes up.
So what did you guys think about the Gungnir 100 case from MSI? Overall I liked the simple
and clean look, there’s a good amount of space inside as there are no drive bay cages
up the front, however as mentioned the 360mm radiator up the top was a tight squeeze, definitely
doable though. I found the cable holes around the motherboard area plentiful, making it
very easy to work with and cleanly route cables. Generally I think I’m pretty bad with cable
management, but I think my build turned out pretty nicely here, but I guess you can always
let me know otherwise.
It was nice that you’ve got the option of synchronizing the case lighting with the rest
of the system, otherwise there are also quite a few colours and effects built in that you
can use without needing to connect the hub to an RGB capable motherboard. Personally
I would have preferred a hinged door for the tempered glass side panel as I think that’s
just easier to use, but realistically you probably won’t need to open it up all that
often anyway once you’ve built the system. USB Type-C would have been a nice addition
to the front panel I/O for a modern case, but otherwise I can’t think of much else
I didn’t like about it.
Let me know your thoughts about MSI’s Gungnir 100 case down in the comments, and if you’re
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