Today's review batch spans six products, from budget cases to a WiFi 8 router that may outlive its own specs. The Corsair Warthog scores 8.5/10 for Halo styling but trips on noisy fans and tight storage, while the NZXT S5 RGB nails first-builders with a 92% value-focused rating. Tom's Hardware champions both the affordable Glorious GMMK Eternal keyboard and the loud-but-steal-priced Bambu Lab R1 CO₂ laser. Finally, the ASUS ROG Rapture GT-BN98 previews WiFi 8 ahead of real client hardware, and the compact Lian Li SX1000P tops its PSU group on transient response.
Today's reviews: a Halo-obsessed full-tower, the first WiFi 8 router, and a compact 1000W PSU
Hardware reviewers have been busy lately, and today's batch covers everything from a $50 budget case to a router that'll cost you about €60 a year to run. You've got cases, a keyboard, a CO₂ laser, a WiFi 8 gaming rig, and a power supply that squeezes 1000W into a surprisingly small box. Here's what the verdicts actually look like.
Corsair's Warthog leans hard into the Halo thing. It's a full-tower that pays tribute to the franchise's armored vehicle, one that picked up a fresh screen presence recently in the Campaign Evolved remaster. Pick it in black or olive-drab green.
Keep in mind that the RS model is the fan-friendly one. The regular Warthog runs €194,90 while the RS goes for €229,90, with a fanless variant trimming another $20. It takes BTF and back-connect motherboards, handles E-ATX boards up to 277mm, and uses InfiniRail sliding steel fan rails plus a pegboard cable tray.
Three reviewers weighed in and mostly came around. KitGuru scored it 8.5/10, calling it a "welcome dose of fun." The airflow isn't its strength though. Stressed with roughly 700W of gear, the fans turned "incredibly noisy" at full speed, and IgorsLAB flagged tight storage limits and the price. For what it's worth, the military styling and tool-free panels make it a fun one to build in.
KitGuru: Corsair Warthog Case Review
Corsair showed us the Warthog case at Computex and we loved what they have done with this overhaul of the mid-tower Frame 4000D. The panels on this case are rugged steel with a military green finish that looks (slightly) better than the alternate black paint job, and they have added a pair of 200mm fans at the front.
IgorsLAB: CORSAIR WARTHOG RS Review: 200 mm Fans and Airflow
In testing, the CORSAIR WARTHOG RS reaches 68 °C CPU and over 63 °C GPU at 50% fan speed; the 360 mm radiator requires removal of the rear fan.
TechPowerUp: Corsair Warthog Review
Corsair's Warthog turns Halo nostalgia into a serious full-tower, with bold styling, tool-free panels, and a clever pegboard cable system that makes clean builds easy. The RS model adds strong cooling, while huge radiator support and GPU clearance make it fit for enthusiast builds.
The NZXT S5 RGB wants to be the exact opposite of flashy. At under $50 it aims straight at first-builders, and it ships with RGB fans plus room for up to ten total, with a Deluxe variant at $59.99 adding two extra 120mm units. TweakTown handed it 92%, with value landing at a juicy 95%.
Thermals sat mid-table out of the box. Adding better fans and a 360mm AIO pulled CPU temps down to the high 60s, which nudged it up the rankings. The trade-offs are honestly spelled out: no BTF support, limited drive space, and no GPU anti-sag bracket. For under fifty bucks it looks and feels more premium than it has any right to.
TweakTown: NZXT S5 RGB Mid-Tower Chassis Review
NZXT's S5 RGB Mid-Tower case pairs tempered glass and included RGB fans with strong value for first-time builders and budget ATX builds.
Beyond the case
The Glorious GMMK Eternal is, frankly, unexciting. And I mean that as a compliment. In a keyboard market fixated on magnetic switches and insane polling rates, the Eternal keeps it plain: ordinary linear switches, a 1,000Hz poll rate, and $99.99.
Tom's Hardware called it one of its favorite 96% boards, mainly because the footprint feels compact without being cramped. Three layers of sound dampening do their job, and the 55g switches feel planted. Yes, the ABS keycaps are generic. But if you want a numberpad without committing to a full-size slab, it's a strong pick.
Tom's Hardware: Glorious GMMK Eternal Review: Fits anywhere, sounds great
In a world of magnetic switches and ultra-high polling rates, maybe you just want a compact keyboard with a 10-key numberpad.
Then there's the Bambu Lab R1, a dedicated 55W CO₂ laser engraver and cutter. Tom's Hardware gave it an Editor's Choice, and it cuts wood, acrylic, leather, fabric, and foam, plus engraves coated metal, glass, and ceramic.
Setup plays out like a standard Bambu printer. Self-aligning mirrors lock in within a minute or so, and a bird's-eye lid camera paired with a toolhead camera means no calibration is needed right out of the box. Two real drawbacks. Thick materials demand a manual lens swap involving six screws, one of which is an absurdly tiny 1.5mm piece. And it's the loudest laser in the group, reportedly "sounds like a jet engine." Still, $2,499 is described as a "steal" against comparable CO₂ gear.
Tom's Hardware: Bambu Lab R1 Review: This one stands alone
Bambu Lab jumps into the deep end of the pool with a 55W CO2 laser.
The ASUS ROG Rapture GT-BN98 gets a bigger headline, partly because it's pitched as the world's first WiFi 8 gaming router. Quad-band wireless combines up to 25 Gbps, and it's sitting around $899. The Guru of 3D ran an early unit.
Here's the rub, though. WiFi 8 client hardware barely exists yet, so the full feature set can't really be stress-tested. Multi-Link Operation couldn't even be evaluated due to a MediaTek adapter hiccup. Early numbers do show the 6 GHz band near 1.96 Gbps, with the two 5 GHz bands in the 700-to-850 Mbps range. It "looks more like a futuristic gaming device than a conventional router," per Guru3D, and the design plus ASUSWRT software earned real praise. The full verdict's just waiting on actual WiFi 8 devices.
The Guru of 3D: ASUS ROG Rapture GT-BN98 WiFi 8 Router (P)review
The ASUS ROG Rapture GT-BN98 marks ASUS’s first major step into the WiFi 8 era, introducing a quad-band gaming router designed for high-speed connectivity, improved wireless consistency, and lower latency under demanding network conditions.
Last up is the Lian Li SX1000P. Don't let the SX name fool you; it's a compact 140mm-deep ATX unit, not an SFX. It packs 1000W into the same tight enclosure as its 1200W sibling.
Hardware Busters ran it against 24 other 1000W units, and transient response came out on top: lowest 12V and 3.3V deviation of the group, plus a clean pass on every transient test. It finished in the upper third overall. The compact chassis costs you something in acoustics and minor ripple, but at $149.99 with a 10-year warranty it's a smart buy if you don't mind an occasional fan hum.
Hardware Busters: Lian Li SX1000P 1000W ATX v3.1 PSU Review
Lian Li SX1000P review: the best 12V and 3.3V transient response of 25 units, Cybenetics Platinum efficiency, and the noise cost of a compact chassis.
Lian Li SX1000P 1000W ATX v3.1 PSU Review - Hardware Busters
