HYTE Y40 Up Close: Truly a Next-Gen Case for Next-Gen Hardware

At first glance, the HYTE Y40 may seem like a short and stout Micro-ATX tower, but up close, it’s actually an ATX mid-tower that just so happens to look stout, and ready for the latest generation of CPU cooling solutions and 4-odd slot graphics cards. The Y40 retains HYTE’s essential design language of making sure the front-left panel seems like a contiguous glasshouse. The case is horizontally partitioned, with the bottom compartment having the PSU- and drive bays, while the upper compartment has a spacious motherboard tray. This is where things get very interesting.

The HYTE Y40 is unconventional in that all the 7 expansion slots of its motherboard tray are half-height (low-profile), while there are four full-height vertical slots, which is where you’re supposed to install your graphics card. HYTE includes a PCI-Express 4.0 x16 riser with the case. All other expansion cards need to be half-height. Most aftermarket non-graphics add-on cards these days, such as WLAN cards, 10 GbE cards, USB/Thunderbolt cards, or even some sound cards, are half-height and include low-profile brackets anyway. The case is much longer than the motherboard tray itself, which opens up room for a 280 mm radiator mount along the plane of the motherboard tray. The Y40 offers clearance for graphics cards up to 4 slots thick, up to 94 mm tall, and up to 42.2 cm in length (the ASUS ROG Strix RTX 4090 should fit). There’s also room for CPU coolers up to 18.3 cm in height.

Cooling options include three 120 mm vents along the top panel, which can hold on to a 360 mm radiator, two 140 mm vents along the motherboard tray that can hold up to a 280 mm radiator, and one 120 mm vent each along the rear- and bottom panels. Front-panel connectivity includes two USB 3.2 type-A, one USB 3.2 type-C, and a 4-pole 3.5 mm headset jack. The case measures 439 mm x 240 mm x 472 mm (DxWxH). HYTE is pricing the Y40 at USD $150.