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

Product Information

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.

Their previous cases are some of the most popular choices for Mini-ITX builds around thanks to their premium materials and minimalist aesthetics. From early images and specs, the new LOUQE Raw S1 offers an increase in size without compromising on much of anything. Aesthetically, the Raw S1 has a unique look that blends a modern style with aggressive, “gamer”-esque patterns and details. Red details on the interior, sand-blasted aluminum, and interesting cooling lines accentuate the look. However, most of the build is a simple sheet of aluminum. LOUQE has masterfully balanced these aesthetic choices with performance thanks to small features like a floating top plate and uni-body construction. It is extremely similar to the Corsair One in size, while their designs differ dramatically. Both are slim, vertical cases that are 12 liters in volume that can fit almost anywhere.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. Despite its unique design, the case’s thermals do not suffer. LOUQE has tested temperatures in the chassis with two different GPUs. Using the 3D-mark Firestrike extreme benchmark, the Nvidia RTX 3080 FE (2-slot) reached 70 °C with the case closed. In the same test, an EVGA RTX 2070 FTW3 Ultra (3-slot) reached just under 60 °C. The Raw S1’s ability to fit 3-slot graphics cards is a nice step-up from some competitors. It supports triple-slot GPUs up to 145 x 65 x 320 mm in size. For comparison, the Ghost S1 fits dual-slot GPUs up to 143a x 45 x 305 mm. And when all said and done, the Louqe Raw S1 is hands-down the nicest ITX chassis I’ve ever had the honor of working with. From its stunning, elegant single-piece external shell to the simplicity with which a system inside it pieces together, the Raw S1 is a chassis that I’m going to remember.

Air Temp is measured by the mobo, and it's obviously high. This is because the cooler is blowing hot CPU air right on the mobo sensors, but it's still useful for relative measurements.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. 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. The CPU Cooler Test - I'll get to this in more detail, but it convinced me thermals are acceptable which is not really the case. 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! The only real catch to this chassis is that it relies entirely on the AIO for airflow. But in testing, we found that this setup is perfectly adequate, even when we threw our high-TDP i5-11600K and RTX 3080 Ti graphics card at it.