LOUQE Raw S1 Mk I (Rhodium Grey) Mini-ITX Computer Case

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Is it perfect? From one point of view, no. It doesn’t have air filtration. There’s no real front IO, and no room for expansion. But none of that is what the Louqe Raw S1 is about. Extra fans, filtration, and expansion space would make the chassis bigger and more complex, entirely defeating the point.

There are two other cooler options recommended by the community: Scythe Big Shuriken 3 Rev. B and the Thermalright AXP120-X67. Both of these have top mounted 15mm fans, but a 25mm fan can also apparently fit, closing the gap to the shell with a little more wiggle room.

It goes without saying that this is a unique and visually striking case, whether you're a fan of the particular aesthetic or not. I'm going to skip commenting on the looks and artistic merit to focus on the practical aspects instead.

What sets the Louqe Raw S1 apart from the crowded world of PC cases is that it isn’t afraid to go in a totally different direction and limit your options. There is no tempered glass, no watercooling support, no RGB, nothing that falls into the typical trends of today’s day PC case design. And that, I applaud. It takes courage as designers to swim against the current and try something like this.

The Louqe Raw S1 is more than just a case – it’s arguably a functional work of art.

My guess is that the GPU cooler moves enough air that some of it happens to escape through the top. I don't have a great explanation for the CPU; I suspect the vent changes some internal turbulent flow pattern that keeps hot air closer to the CPU/mobo. This increase in size can be found across all specs comparing the two cases. CPU Heatsink height support also increases from 66 mm in the Ghost S1 to 75mm in the Raw S1. This is, of course, largely thanks to the extra 4 liters of volume that the Raw S1 comes equipped with. It is important to note, however, that it is still an extremely small case. At 50% with no gasket, the air speed was below the resolution of the anemometer (0.1 m/s), so I had to bound the calculation. We see a 2X improvement at max fan speed and a >4X improvement at silent fan speeds.

However, you can fit a PC in here. There’s no AIO support, nor air filtration. So yes, there are sacrifices, but it offers among the easiest build processes – chances are you’ll be done building within the hour and have a very tidy end result. It will also happily fit huge triple-slot graphics cards, despite its ultra-compact 12-litter frame, and with a fancy ‘Cobalt’ PCIe 4.0 riser cable, there’s hardly a thing about this case that isn’t ultra-premium. It even has a carrying handle.So if you're going into the small cases, enjoy your journey down the rabbit hole! You'll wonder why you ever put up with large towers! An anemometer is a device that measures air speed. I measured air speed at 9 points around the exhaust vent and multiplied the average by the approximate area of the vent openings to get an airflow number in CFM. It's not perfect, but it will get us some ballpark numbers. For most getting into the mini-ITX cases, you can't go wrong (and may not go any further) going with the NR200. It's much smaller than the big cases you may have been using, and it's easy to build in. You don't necessarily have to get the Max version if you weren't planning on going with an AIO build. However, if you were, then it doesn't get much easier than the Max with the large 850W PSU and AIO already installed. This case needs custom length power/fan cables (without sleeves, since you can't really see them anyways) because space is so limited. I recommend using PET hookup wire, since it's easy to work with and very thin. As I'll get into later, maximum airflow is very important.

Because of this, I would actually say the Raw S1 is perfect – because it does a 100% job at achieving what the designers set out to achieve: a simple, easy-to-work-on minimalist system that looks the part and cools well.I'm fairly sure that the same issue affecting the CPU performance is affecting the GPU. It's just not able to pull in cool air from outside. People using triple slot GPUs seem to have fewer issues, presumably because the fans are closer to the shell. A duct would probably help this, but it would have to be custom-designed for every model. The PSU will be mounted with the input AC connector pointing up, as close to the front side of the shell as possible. This serves two purposes: it moves the cable routing out of the airflow path, and it points the PSU exhaust up instead of forward, which should help a tiny bit. Louqe's CPU Cooler Test and their support recommend adding an A12x15 fan on top of the NH-L12 GE cooler to achieve silent performance. You can get extra 120mm fan clips from Noctua for free to mount it, and you should get "silent" full performance! An important note: the Corsair One case is only available in prebuilt configurations, severely limiting GPU and CPU options. Meanwhile, the Raw S1 will support most graphics cards and CPUs on the market thanks to its construction. The Raw S1 is a more subtle design than the Corsair One, opting for simple sides and vents instead of the Corsair One’s LEDs and large vents. Instead, the Raw S1 looks much closer to its smaller brother, the Ghost S1. There are almost no markings or features on the outside of the case. In fact, the front only features one small button for power, and I/O options are limited to a single Type-C placed on an angled panel. This does make me wonder a little about Louqe's quality control, and what kind of awful drill press their manufacturer is using. I have noticed a pattern of occasional QC issues like this popping up on Discord, but to Louqe's credit, their support does a great job of taking care of any issues.