Last year, we coveredCooler Master’s unconventional, sneaker-shaped series of Mini ITX form factor specialty PCs, the uber-expensiveCooler Master Sneaker X. Now listings for the Cooler Master Sneaker X with just the case, cooling, and PSU are starting to pop up online, ranging from roughly $985 USD (at Skycomp Technology, an Australian retailer) to $1,028 USD (at PC 21, a French retailer) depending on the store.
The Cooler Master Sneaker X makes for a bold choice in PC cases, to say the least, even when you’re buying just the case for about a grand and not one of the prebuilt full PCs which started at $6,999 on release. Its giant sneaker-shaped design features a Mini ITX motherboard and pre-installed fans including a 360mm AIO liquid cooler to facilitate decent performance in a factor not otherwise particularly conducive to good airflow. Fortunately, Cooler Master’s established pedigree in cases, fans, and power supplies make the Sneaker X PC case purchase (which includes fans, AIO, and 850W Gold PSU all supplied by Cooler Master) a generallyreliablepurchase, if perhaps difficult to justify at the price point for all but the most enthusiastic sneakerheads.
At a footprint of 5.6 x 12.0 x 25.6 inches (650 x 306 x 651 mm), this is far from the smallest and most compactMini ITX PC caseyou could get your hands on. It’s hardly a practical pick for any of our more generalized “Best Cases” lists, but it’s not really targeted at mainstream customers, either. However, if we must include a practical critique of such a customized PC case at such a high price point, we can’t help but highlight the fact it only has a single 2.5-inch drive bay — surely more could have been possible within such hefty dimensions, right?
Fortunately, the pre-installed 360mm AIO and clearance for triple-slot GPUs up to 304mm in length should still allow for some high-performance PC builds in this chassis, so long as the limitations of the 850W SFX PSU are respected (or replaced, if you so choose). There are definitely more price-practical ways to achieve such desired performance, though.
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Christopher Harper has been a successful freelance tech writer specializing in PC hardware and gaming since 2015, and ghostwrote for various B2B clients in High School before that. Outside of work, Christopher is best known to friends and rivals as an active competitive player in various eSports (particularly fighting games and arena shooters) and a purveyor of music ranging from Jimi Hendrix to Killer Mike to the Sonic Adventure 2 soundtrack.
