Montech Sky One ARGB Review

Introduction

Meet the Montech Sky One. Out of Montechs premium line of hardware, their Sky One Case offers excellent Airflow paired with a huge compatibility list.

Let's see how it turned out outside the spec sheet!

What's in the Box?

Although considered to be Montech's premium lineup, the Sky One is still coming in the usual Carton Brownisch box covered in a bit of imagery and branding.

Once the box is opened, the case removed, and the fight against the foil and styrofoam won, we will find the beautiful Sky One, ready to be used.

Inside the case, in the drive bracket behind the PSU to be exact, we will also find a small carton box containing a handful of screws, some zip-ties, and a short manual explaining some tricks and how-tos about the case.

Specs

Considering its Mid-Tower size, the Montech Sky One comes with a surprisingly big spec sheet. Down below we added s summary of it:

Compatibility

Mainboard

Inside the Sky One, we can use Up to ATX motherboards under normal circumstances.

Due to the Cable Management bracket being re-adjustable in 3 different positions, we are also able to completely remove it and open up the case to eATX support.

PSU

The ATX PSU which should be installed in its separate compartment in the bottom can by default be up to 170mm long. However, due to the HDD bracket behind it being removable with 2 screws from the bottom, we can remove the bracket and use PSUs as long as we'd like.

GPU

GPU's inside the Sky One can be up to 400mm Long. Fortunately, due to the sag that generally comes along with GPUs this size, Montech includes a GPU Anti-Sag holder integrated into the Cable Management bracket.

CPU Cooler

In terms of CPU Air Cooling, the Montech Sky One can be used with Coolers that are up to 165mm High.

Fans

Inside the Sky One, we can mount the following Fan/Placement combos:

• Front: 3x140/120mm
• Top: 3x120/2x140mm
• Back: 1x120

Cable Management

A refreshing aspect about the Sky one was how easy it was to properly route all of the cables inside of it.

Additionally to the vast amount of cable holes around the motherboard area and the quite big amount of space behind the motherboard, Montech also includes that white cable hiding bracket that was already referenced multiple times.

This bracket can be repositioned by loosening the 2 screws from the backside of the case and moved to the left or right where we will find additional 2 holes for the screws to fit in.

Although it is not the first time we saw such a bracket, it made us remember how useful such a small feature can be to make a finished pc look good.

IO

The IO of the Montech Sky One is what we would consider Up-to-date and absolutely appropriate for an average 2022 all-rounder case.

 With 2x USB 3.0 and 1x USB Type C, there is not much we could want more.

Additionally to the Audio/Out and start button, we will also find a reset button that doubles as a Mode-Switch button for the ARGB Hub/Controller in the back of the case.

Cooling

As mentioned in the Fan compatibility section, there's a whole bunch of cooling hardware that can be fit into the Sky One ARGB.

However, no matter if we can fit 1000x Fans, they still need to be able to get some air into the case.

After building the complete build, we benchmarked the Mesh front panel in order to test its air-passing capabilities. We decided to use an Asus ROG Strix Z690-A Gaming Wifi paired with an Intel 12900k, a Gigabyte Vision RTX 3070, an Arctic Freezer 34 eSports Duo, and a whole bunch of additional Arctic BioniX Fans.

While performing a stress test with and without the Front panel, we found the Sky One's Front Panel to be pushing the temperature up just a single degree.

A very good result considering the hardware we've installed in there.

Design

Fortunately for our eyesight, the RGB implementation within the Sky One ARGB is kept as simplistic as possible. A single RGB strip going from top to bottom and a little glowing Montech Logo in the very top of the Front Panel, that's it.

The same applies to pretty much every other aspect of the case. Being mainly painted in black, the only accent of the case consists of the white Cable Management bracket which, although a completely different color, adds well to the overall look.

If we had to summarize the Sky One's design, we would call it Simple with a touch of RGB.

Installation

Working inside the Montech Sky One was a relatively easy process.

Due to the Cable management bracket paired with the extensive holes around the mainboard, it was easy to manage all of the cables.

We decided to use an Asus ROG Strix Z690-A Gaming Wifi paired with an Intel 12900k, a Gigabyte Vision RTX 3070, an Arctic Freezer 34 eSports Duo, and a whole bunch of additional Arctic BioniX Fans.

Considering the powerhouse that we've installed inside the Sky One, it was relatively easy to fit everything in there.

The GPU anti-sag bracket came in very handy as our VIsion 3070 tends to sack quite quickly.

One of the most exciting things we found within the Sky one was the cable-less front panel. Instead of routing a bunch of RGB wires from the main compartment into the front panel, Montech used a direct-touch system that allows transmitting the signal as soon as the front panel is attached to the rest of the case. This little gimmick made building inside the Sky One even easier.

In the back of the case, we will also find a 6-port ARGB controller. This can be used to easily connect all of our RGB devices in the back while controlling the modes and colors with the reset button of the IO panel. However, if you prefer to use Motherboard control, we can also pass through the signal from our motherboard by long-pressing the Reset button.

Conclusion

Overall, the Montech Sky one was very well received.

Its build quality is more than appropriate considering the price tag and the huge amount of little features and gimmicks was nice to see.

Cable management-wise, it was very easy to work inside the Sky one. The cable management hiding bracket which can be installed in one of three positions helped to hide any excess cables, while the number of cable holes around the motherboard is more than sufficient.

Compared to Montech's X3 Mesh budget-focused beginner case, it was delightful to see that Montech concentrated on improving the little things such as an updated IO Panel, and an ARGB controller behind the motherboard are.

But by far the best aspect of the Sky One is the cooling capabilities. Not only does the Sky One offer extensive Radiator support with Dual 360s in the Top and Front, but with a total of 7 Fans, or 5x 140mm + 1x 120mm,  it is a real cooling beast. This paired with a 1x1mm mesh front panel which allows a very high airflow-passthrough, this is definitely a case that can be used for high-end hardware.

The only -could have been better- that we considered important is the fact that we believe that the Sky One's main competitor is the NZXT H510, a case that slightly underprices the Sky One. We believe that it would be appropriate to slightly lower the price to match or underprice the H510 competition.

But ignoring this minimal point, we were very happy with the Montech Sky One and can absolutely recommend the case to basically anybody who is looking to build a consumer-grade PC without spending multiple hundreds for a decent case.