ibuypower lcd panel brands

LCD Spec: 19” transparent TN LCD side panel display with 1280 x 1024 resolution enabling the complete customization of the side panel. Users can configure the digital display to feature video wallpaper, images, or system temperatures in real-time

Way back at Computex, iBuyPower caught our attention with Project Snowblind, a system that trades RGB lighting for a transparent LCD side panel. It was only a concept back then and iBuyPower didn"t have pricing information to share, but that"s no longer the case—iBuyPower is now taking pre-orders for its Snowblind PC starting at $1,499.

We"ll get to the system configurations in a moment, but first let"s talk a bit about the side panel. It"s a transparent and fully customizable LCD panel with a 1280x1024 resolution.

The display connects through DVI on the back of the case to your graphics card and functions as a second monitor. Though it can be used to play games on, iBuyPower recommends against doing so and notes that it was designed specifically for showing off your PC"s guts.

In celebration of its 20th anniversary, system builder iBuyPower is making its Snowblind S and Snowblind Element cases available as standalone products. These cases are unique in that they each feature a transparent LCD panel.

iBuyPower launched its Snowblind series nearly three years ago. At the time and up until now, however, these cases have only been available as part of a prebuilt system, with prices starting at $1,499.

"By offering one of the most iconic cases in the market as a standalone product when the Snowblind has traditionally only been available as a prebuilt system, we are broadening our horizons within the PC and gaming industry while we celebrate 20 years of successful business," iBuyPower says.

The Snowblind Element is based on NZXT"s S340 case, while the Snowblind S is iBuyPower"s own custom design. Both feature a 19-inch transparent TN display, the former with a 1024x1280 resolution and the later with a 1280x1024 resolution. The numbers are swapped because the side panel on the Snowblind Element is taller than it is wide, while the window on the Snowblind S is wider than it is tall.

These configurable screens splash custom images, video wallpapers, and other graphics effects, such as real-time temps. iBuyPower offers some images to get users started, and notes that the free Rainmeter application can be used to create custom designs.

Both cases come in a white color scheme, with three white LED illuminated fans included. Pricing is not cheap, though. The Snowblind Element is available now for $299.99 from Amazon(opens in new tab), Newegg(opens in new tab), and iBuyPower(opens in new tab), while the Snowblind S will be available soon for $249.

There"s also a third option with an LCD screen, the Snowblind Noctis N450. As the name implies, this one is based on NZXT"s Noctis 450. It"s available now for $349(opens in new tab).

iBUYPOWER Project Snowblind - Custom Digital Side PanelFor those who like LCD panels, iBuyPower has put one in a PC’s side panel. The company did this with its new design, known as the Snowblind. The case for this new system combines a traditional clear window display — so you can see all of your no-doubt pricey components — with an LCD readout, letting you put any information you want right where everyone can see it.

The system is pretty eye-catching and was quite an attraction at the iBuyPower booth at this year’s Computex. Championing iBuyPower’s love of customization and providing their customers with options when they buy a full system, the Snowblind is designed to let them do just that.

“Project Snowblind represents the next leap forward in gaming PC customization,” iBuyPower said in a related statement. “Featuring a tailor-made clear LCD side panel, this PC will showcase your hardware like never before, while allowing you to have virtually any graphic display.”

Buyers of a Snowblind system can expect all of the usual standards that they get with an iBuyPower system, but with this particular PC, there is the addition of that fancy-looking LCD display. In the above imagery iBuyPower has had it displaying CPU usage, letting you know exactly what is sipping power from your processor, but the idea is that you could have anything display there.

Theoretically you could have a logo, or system specifications, or a chat window that gives you a heads-up when someone is trying to get in touch — the sky is the limit and iBuyPower is hoping that level of customization and user control will help Project Snowblind become a popular part of its range of systems.

The only downside is that right now getting hold of one of these systems isn’t easy. To do so you need to contact iBuyPower directly for a quote, which likely means it’s going to be a pricey build.

iBUYPOWER Snowblind - Tempered Glass LCD Side Panel Gaming PC!If there was ever a concern that PC gaming was stagnating, a recent spate of new system announcements and Microsoft’s ongoing commitment to Windows 10 gaming should put such concerns to rest. Not only are there the usual upgraded CPU and GPU cycles underway, but gaming system makers are tossing some real innovation into the mix.

One example is iBuyPower, which makes a complete line of gaming PCs spanning price points from low to high. They have apparently moved on from just offering the highest-end components, however, with new cases that incorporate a transparent LCD display in a side panel, PC Gamer reports.

According to iBuyPower, “Project Snowblind represents the next leap forward in gaming PC customization. Featuring a tailor-made clear LCD side panel, this PC will showcase your hardware like never before, while allowing you to have virtually any graphic display.”

You can customize a new Snowblind system by heading over to the iBuyPower site. The company hopes to ship systems by the end of February, meaning that you won’t have to wait too long for one of the more innovative case accessories we have seen in a while.

The Snowblind Element from iBUYPOWER is what you would expect from an NZXT chassis. It is the addition of the LCD side panel that takes it from good to great. If you are looking for the ultimate in dynamic aesthetics, the Snowblind series is hard to beat.

iBUYPOWER is a brand that I think anyone who has been part of the PC community is aware of. iBUYPOWER is a system integrator or SI as its commonly referred to. They offer prebuilt systems suitable for gaming and general use, while also offering some exciting customization options and even the occasional unique and exclusive custom designs. One such model is the Snowblind series, which took an NZXT chassis design and integrated an LCD layer. This feature allows the systems GPU to control an image that is displayed on the side panel with the filter enabling internal components to be viewed through the image on the side panel.

The Snowblind series was initially conceptualized and applied to Snowblind based prebuilt systems from iBUYPOWER. However, iBUYPOWER is now offering the chassis in a DIY form for users who want to build their custom system with an active display filter built into the main window panel.

Key features of the Snowblind Element chassis primarily will be the LCD side panel; however, it being an NZXT based chassis, it has similar fitment of components to what we have seen on a chassis such as the H510 Elite.

Motherboard fitment ranges from ITX up to ATX. The 3.5" and 2.5" storage fitment are numbers at two each. Since the HDD cage does not use trays, they cannot be repurposed for 2.5" drives. The 2.5" drive trays are on top of the PSU shroud, which means they will be visible inside your system through the LCD panel window. The PSU fitment is full ATX, and there is reasonable room to fit most at up to 255mm. The PSU is rear entry via a bracket system. The PSU area is covered by a shroud, which helps to give a more reflective white surface to push light back through the side panel along with creating a more agreeable aesthetic than a PSU at the bottom.

There are also more expensive options, but the one thing the Snowblind series has going for it right out of the box is the LCD panel solution. Any other chassis would require custom work that most may not be comfortable with. With that said, this is going to be exciting as we test the Snowblind Element and asses its performance and features versus the competition in the conclusion.

The main outer box is a brown cardboard box like you would expect a custom system build form iBUYPOWER would ship within. It does not have any relevant information besides the logo and, of course, a shipping label. There are also notes on fragility and informing shippers that computer components are inside, which I can assume is in the hopes the shipper will be kind to the package knowing the sensitivity of components.

The broad opposing side of the packaging now shows the LCD side panel in full effect. This is, of course, a rendering as the things showing on the LCD are semi-opaque in real-world usage and not as solid or bold as shown here. But they are quite visible depending on the angle and the white level of the internal components. The same warning and logo and series moniker are in place as the large opposite side.

The internal protection for the Snowblind Element is very good with soft type squishy foam taking the impacts. The glass/LCD panels are covered with cling film, and the entire chassis is wrapped in a plastic bag to ensure that abrasion damage is mitigated.

Looking up front, we see that the Snowblind Element has a transparent rectangular portion of the front glass, which highlights the front cooling mounting. This means whether you keep the white lit LED fans up front or opt for RGB fans, you can see them from the front. Below the opening, we have the iBUYPOWER logo, which is lit in white by LEDs inside the panel. The only non-glass portion of the front panel is the bottom strip, which appears to be purely aesthetic.

Looking at the main panel, which is the LCD that covers the build chamber is simply blacked out with only a slight hint of what"s inside. When powered on, this will become more friendly to viewing as the internal LEDs are super bright and will punch light through the filter. However, with the system off, it will be quite challenging to see anything inside. Do note that the panel has hinges in the rear and allows the panel to swing open. The panel is held closed with two slide latches that almost blend in up front.

Out back, the Snowblind Element looks like most chassis we have seen with some small differences. Firstly there is a black circle up top; this is a button used to turn on or off the internal LED lighting, which allows you to see the LCD side panel designs being played. You will also notice that the two slots customarily used for a GPU are already cleared of their slot covers since this chassis is designed to be a prebuilt system. There is also a slot with two video ports, which are inputs for the side panel LCD.

We now peek at the other large panel, which covers the cable management area. The panel found here is solid steel and painted white to match the design of the chassis. Two captured thumbscrews affix the panel to the chassis.

Digging into the Snowblind Element, we find when removing the front glass panel that there is a sizeable magnetic filter spanning most of the front of the chassis. There is also a 2-wire cable connecting the front panel logo to an internal lead supplying power for the logo LED. Puling the filter and you get a clearer look at the fans installed along with their built-in fan holder bracket, which likely is used to speed up the assembly of these systems as prebuilds, which are done by hand. To install our AIO, we will be removing this bracket and these fans in favor of the LL fans that come with our H100i Platinum SE white cooler.

Opening the chassis, and we have a view of the inside of the side panel. The hinge pins are pointed downward, and the panel can be lifted and away if you need to do so. Do note that the wiring for the internal screen interface is well integrated, so I would avoid removing the panel and built-in module if possible. The interior LED array you see surrounding the panel is very bright white to help push visuals through the filter due to the natural way an LCD works. You need a lot of bright light to get light through this panel, so it is also recommended to have as many white-based components in the system for the best functionality of the LCD side panel.

Here we have the PSU shroud for the Snowblind Element. The PSU shroud has well-appointed cable passthrough holes for both the SSD bays along with the front panel cables. Also, here is an opening further outward, which allows for passing cables to the GPU if needed. The front of the PSU shroud has a louvered area, which I am admittedly not sure what its purpose is beyond aesthetic. Lastly, is the dual SSD trays which are retained with slide mounting points, and a thumbscrew to lock it into place.

Looking at the rear I/O area from the inside, and we can now see the preinstalled fan. This fan, as mentioned previously, is a 3-pin DC powered 120mm unit. Below this, we have the expansion slots in which the LCD panel module will take one. At the top of the rear, we see the LED control button used to turn off the lighting if so desired.

Here we see the standard screw set, which would be needed to install a system. The main component here is the DisplayPort to DVI cable, which is used to feed the data to the installed module for the side panel display.

The manual for the Snowblind Element is a simple, quick start guide for the side LCD panel. There are no instructions for a user to follow for component installation. If you buy the Snowblind Element, you have to have your wits about you or find some videos online as there are no instructions provided for the build.

Now that we have completed the build, we get to check out how it turned out. As you can see, we replaced the fans and their bracket with a front mount 240mm AIO which is themed white to match the white aesthetic of the build and provide a little extra reflectivity for the side panel function.

Here you can see that this is not our standard test build, as we opted for white parts to best match how iBUYPOWER builds the rig; this helps ensure as much reflective surface for light to punch through the side panel. We deployed ASUS white components in the Strix RTX 2080 Ti and the ASUS X299 Prime Edition 30 to round out the build, which should load up some heat in this aesthetically focused chassis. As you can see, even with such beefy components, there is plenty of room to get everything in place.

The rear looks as it did before, except all the spots are now filled. The GPU feeds down to the side panel module to give the panel display. This will be set up as an extended display and rotated to portrait mode.

Powering the rig on, we see that with the lights off and a short shutter that the filter for the LCD is strong. The front RGB fans having a transparent window means you can adjust your lighting to match the theme of your build even from the front. You can see some of the data across the bottom of the side LCD panel, but I think we should take a better angle here.

Taking a direct look at the side panel and you can now see the custom layout I created for the LCD, and of course, I had to pimp our logo a bit in the central portion. So note that to get some of these gauges working, you will need ancillary applications such as Coretemp and MSI afterburner so that the Rainmeter app can pull the data required.

I saw the Snowblind system when iBUYPOWER first introduced it some years ago. For the longest time, it was only offered as a prebuilt system. Several modders have taken on the task of integrating their panels, and while it is possible, it does not come without risk and some skill required. The Snowblind Element comes with the panel included and done in a neat way that feels like it would be easy.

The first thing must be the LCD side panel. With the world now inundated with tempered glass panels, it is nice to see something that can be aesthetically dynamic. The thermal performance comes in next with great overall results here.

The next thing would be the overall aesthetic aside from the LCD panel, which is beautiful and serves the build well. The build quality is not bad, as I did not find any areas where I felt the component quality was lacking. The quality of the finished LCD panel comes up with the quality of materials as the fit and finish are fantastic.

There are some things I think could be better on the Snowblind Element. First would be the HDD cage, which I would like to see use trays so that users with 2.5" storage can use the cage if they choose to omit spinners. The cooling fitment could use some expansion to enable larger liquid-cooled builds with this excellent feature set. Including a manual with a DIY chassis is elementary. Since this is one of iBUYPOWER"s first standalone chassis I have had hands-on time with, I hope in the future they include an appropriate manual. I am glad they included the guide for the LCD setup, but a build guide is desirable for new users.

Do note that at the time of writing stock of the Snowblind Element was limited but still available, however its less expensive cousin, the Snowblind S, is still readily available. iBUYPOWER confirmed that presently they are low on chassis only stock and will determine soon if they will add more. If you want this feature as a full system, iBUYPOWER can do this as well, with a Snowblind series prebuilt gaming rig.

Update - 1/17/17, 10:57am PT: iBuyPower announced that the Snowblind is now available for preorder on the company"s website(opens in new tab). The minimum configuration features an Intel Core i5-7400, 8GB of DDR4-3000 RAM, a 1TB HDD, and a GTX 1070, with a price tag of $1,499. The motherboard selection is between an MSI Z270 Tomahawk Arctic and a Z270 XPower Gaming Titanium.

iBuypower revealed that its LCD side panel-equipped Project Snowblind has graduated from a concept device to a real thing, with the new Snowblind PC coming to market this February.

The Snowblind is a custom desktop PC with a tempered glass side panel, which sports a translucent 19-inch 1280x1024 LCD display. Although it appears to be regular clear tempered glass with a hinge, it can be programmed to display multiple effects and colors using Rainmeter (an open-source overlay that does the same for standard displays). You can customize it with user-created backgrounds, animations, and widgets that can show your system specifications and real-time CPU, storage, and memory usage.

The display was developed by Intel and iBuypower, and the companies went through five iterations of the panel before approving the final production model we saw at CES. The system we were shown was configured with an Intel Core i7-7700K on an MSI Z270 motherboard (the specific model of the motherboard is not finalized, but we know that it will be white) with 16GB of DDR4, an Intel 240GB SSD, and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070. iBuypower said we can expect to see similar configurations with GTX 1080 GPUs under the video-screened hood.

iBuypower insisted that the case and LCD side panel cost only about $250 to make and said that it wanted to be aggressive in offering its customers a compelling aesthetic technology without launching the total cost into the stratosphere. Although pricing for the Snowblind gaming PC is not yet finalized (pending a decision on which white motherboard the company will offer), iBuypower told us that the aforementioned configuration would fetch between $1,700 and $1,800 when Snowblind arrives at retail outlets (including BestBuy) in February.

Back in 2017 at CES iBUYPOWER teased a concept that they had been working with, a PC case with a monitor built into the side panel. Now that idea itself isn’t completely new, there have been modders who have done it. But what they did was just have the LCD panel and nothing else, leaving a transparent side panel that you can still see everything inside with everything on the display floating and showing up almost like magic. This is well and good for a concept, but producing and selling what is basically a very complicated case mod is a whole different story and frankly I didn’t think they would do it. When last year at CES 2018 they actually introduced their Snowblind series of builds which included this feature I was surprised and impressed and it had me considering trying to do the same thing myself with a build. Buying a full build from them for the feature didn’t really make sense given my experience with PCs. Well at the start of this month they made that a lot easier with the introduction of their first individually sold case, the Snowblind. Well today I finally get to check it out in person. I’ve been collecting white components to go inside the build and today I’m going to check out iBUYPOWERs first case and check out its side panel window LCD as well!

So iBuypower is normally a boutique PC builder but over the last 5/6 years, one of the trends for boutique builders was to work with case manufactures and make your own variation. Alienware did this long before as did VoodooPC back before they were picked up by HP just like Alienware with Dell. Unique cases help create a brand image and also help set normal boutique builders apart from what the smaller builders can do as well as what DIY builders can do at home. As I already mentioned the Snowblind Element case started this was as well. The reason I bring all of that history up is because I wasn’t surprised at all when the case came inside of a big brown iBuypower box with the case box inside as well. Just like you would see if you bought a PC from them.

With that history in mind, I was also impressed with the packaging of the Snowblind Element. They could have gone really simple with a sticker on the iBuypower box and saved money and time but it has a full-color box. It is decked out in white, no surprise there. The front has both the model and iBuypower branding down at the bottom. Then they focus the picture of the case on the side which is, of course, its main feature. They have the side panel list up with a smoke in the background, gauges, and their logo, similar to how they have displayed the case at events. The back of the box is different from the front, with a different angle shot with more color on the side panel. This one also shows the front of the case with two LED fans lit up and a white logo. This also lists what can be found in the box but you have to assume that this was designed originally for when they sell the full build. There isn’t going to be a gaming keyboard, mouse, power cable, or software disc inside. They may actually want to put a simple white sticker over each of those, I’m sure someone will try to take advantage.

When you dig into the box, up on top you will find that the case is supported in the middle of the case with a combination of cardboard and foam. This gives the foam strength but also has the softness of the foam. When I pulled the case out (upside down opps) I also found that it was wrapped up in a plastic bag as well. The bag wasn’t really covering the entire case however, I’m guessing when they finished putting the LCD in the bag didn’t get put back on completely.

Inside, along with the case, you get a quick start guide. Which is a single paper folded up. This is focused exclusively on the LCD aspects like how to use the included cable, how to configure your monitor, what the button on the back does, and what software to use to get the look they get for the side panel. They even have their custom rainmeter gauges uploaded on their website for download.

I should also point out that in addition to plastic on the side panels and the front glass both glass panels came with a tempered glass sticker. I always hate these, but I get it. But most companies have been careful to use static cling or similar stickers, however these aren’t. They are paper-based and were a pain to take off with paper ripping and staying on not to mention the adhesive. You may notice in a few pictures later that I thought I had all of the adhesive off, but I later noticed I didn’t.

If the Snowblind name wasn’t any indication, the main housing for the Snowblind Element is bright white but this angle that shows the left side panel and the front doesn’t really show it that well. These are the two sides of the case that have tempered glass panels. Both of which are trimmed out in black. The left side panel is set up like a traditional case which is a pleasant change from other cases with a tempered side panel. What I mean by that is the case doesn’t use four thumbscrews to hold the glass panel on. In fact this side doesn’t use any thumb screws at all. There are two plastic clips towards the front of the case that have to be held at the same time to open the side panel up. Now the side panel window is the key feature in the Snowblind Element but when it isn’t powered up you would never know that. It has an LCD screen built into it which without the lighting turned on gives the side a tinted look. iBuypower also trimmed this panel out with the black to help cover up all of the areas you wouldn’t want to see when looking in. This is a don’t mind the man behind the curtain trick that you are starting to see on cases where the original tempered glass side panels on cases would show EVERYTHING. This included wiring and also even the edge of the inside of the case used for mounting. I’ll take this cleaner look every time.

Now the Snowblind Element with its glass front and side panels is clearly not a big airflow case. This was one of the downsides to the move to tempered glass, back in the “old days” acrylic side panels could get ventilation or even fan mounts. But you wouldn’t want to cut into that fancy LCD screen either. The look that the glass and the black and white theme gives is a simple and clean one. There is just the one white iBuypower logo on the front which is backlit and the two fans are visible as well. I actually think the case might look better with the front panel still slightly tinted, you get full view of the fans as well as the fan mouse and the magnetic mesh fan filter that sits in front of the fans. But I do like the simple look.

Around on the back of the case, we can finally see more of the white. The case is actually made out of SECC steel and that carries on around to the back. Back here we can see that it is a mid-tower case with its full ATX support. There are a total of 7 PCI slots but you will have to work around the LCD screen controller already using one of the slots as you can see with the DVI and VGA ports. I was surprised that our case came missing two slot covers, I mentioned earlier that the packaging looked disturbed so it could be that our sample had been used previously or it was tested before being shipped out. Both happen often, sadly this means you couldn’t consider our experience with the case as any sort of indication of reliability because if used or tested before the chances of there being an issue as much smaller.

Anyhow the back of the case has your normal rear I/O on the top left and a 120mm fan mount for the included exhaust fan just next to that. All of the PCI brackets are vented for a little extra airflow and the case also has holes above the brackets as well. Each slot comes with a black thumbscrew with a Philips head on top to give you the option to go it by hand or to use a tool. The brackets also have a slide up cover above them as well that will need to be moved or removed to install PCI/PCIe cards. Then down at the bottom is the bottom mounted PSU hole. The PSU is a bracket and is also held in with thumbscrews, which is similar to what I saw on the NZXT H400i. This isn’t a huge surprise, it is really clear that iBuypower worked with NZXT on this case and it is a variation of the NZXT S340 Elite with a few changes. One of the big changes is that the entire back panel is all white to match the rest of the case. Up at the top there is also a small black button that has been added. This is a manual shutoff for the LED lighting inside of the case.

The right side of the case is about as different as it could possible be from the left side. Where the other side is black with tempered glass and an LCD screen. This side is bright white and all steel. It also doesn’t mount like the other side does. The left side is mounted like a car door where this is old school two thumbscrews and all of the clips on the side panel. You slide it on and off which is helped by the handle at the back.

So up on top of the case, the front I/O is all the way as forward as you can go and it is also offset to the right as well. You get a white power button with an LED around it, then a hard drive status LED over on the other end. Between those, you have both microphone and headphone jacks and two USB 3.0 plugs. All of the jacks and the hard drive LED have legends under them in a light grey. The top of the case does give us some more clues to some of the ventilation of the case. For starter there is a top fan mount that is slotted for 120mm or 140mm use. Then at the front we can see that the front glass panel does offer some way for the two front fans to breath. There is an inch deep gap between the front and the fans that run up to the top here where they can pull in air from. Of course, there better be a matching vent on the bottom and even then it isn’t really enough surface area if you are running two 140mm fans, but maybe it is closer if you have two 120mm fans which by the way is what comes with the case.

Okay, the bottom view of the Snowblind Element does show that slot at the bottom of the front panel but it is smaller than the one up on top both in width of the slit and depth. While down here we can see the PSU ventilation slots and the slide in plastic fan filter as well. You can access that from the back of the case. Which by the way, the front filter is held in with magnets and can be accessed from the top without pulling the front off. I like the feet, the case is rectangle-shaped feet that hold the case up a little higher than normal, which I"m sure your PSU will thank you for that. They are almost two inches long as well and have rubber on them so they should grip decently.

Getting inside the Snowblind Element isn’t too difficult but I wouldn’t call it easy as well. The two clips that hold the side panel on are easy to use, but holding those two clips and trying to pull the panel open without growing a third hand was interesting. That said when opened up I couldn’t wait to take a look at the LCD side panel. I will say though, BE CAREFUL. For one, this is an LCD screen, hitting the inside of the panel could damage it. More importantly, the tempered glass side panel is heavy, add in everything for the screen and when you open the side panel up it can want to tip over. Especially after you take the steel back panel off. I would hate to see someone dump their brand new case over and bust the glass or worse. While it does have a hinged design that you can lift off, there are cables running from the side panel inside of the case so removing the side panel wouldn’t be recommended.

SO what makes it all tick? Well if you are getting old like I am, you might remember old school projectors at school. I don’t mean one that you hook up to a PC or TV. I mean the style that a teacher can write on plastic sheets and project on to the wall. When I was in school and we used those, there were LCD screens you could sit on top of the projector that would shine the light through the LCD. That is basically what is going on. The backlighting used in a normal monitor is gone and they have the LCD panel attached to the glass side panel. Then the inside of the case is all white and around the edge of the LCD are bright white LEDs to light everything up to get that backlight. I knew this is how it all worked, but I was impressed when I opened the case up to see all of the plastic casing used to hold the lighting around the window. This is the difference between going with what iBuypower has done and patching this same setup into your own case. This is a complete product.

Now, just like with a monitor there has to be a controller for the screen to translate the incoming signal and they have tucked that and the power inside. This is also covered up with a nice white plastic panel. There is no idea solution, unlike with a laptop or an all in one, with a traditional PC case the display connection that the LCD needs is going to be outside at the end of your video card. So they use a PCI slot and on the outside, this has a DVI or VGA connection that you can loop back into your GPU. They also include the cable for that as well.

So moving to the rest of the interior there are a few things to note going on. For starters, if you look really close you can spot the NZXT logo under the big CPU bracket cutout, which confirms what I was mentioned earlier. Of course, the wire runner that runs to the right of the motherboard is also a big clue, which is a signature NZXT feature used to hide wiring. It works really well for this case because you want the most white possible and this covers an opening or black grommets and black cables. iBuypower did slap their logo on it as well. The case has a PSU bottom mouse design and the PSU and wiring are all enclosed in its own bottom section which covers up more potential black with a big bright white box. Ironically though the front of the case then has a big black cover over top of the front fans, which combined with the rear fan that is black is really the only black you will find in the case. Other than the black standoffs and screws. Seriously though, for years silver screws were the norm. This would have been a great one to go back to them on.

So at the rear of the case, the Snowblind Element does come with a 120mm fan and it isn’t a fan I’ve seen before. It is branded as Arc and it is a simple black frame clear blade non-LED fan. Above that you get a peek at the LED power button that I mentioned on the back of the case. You can see how it is tucked away next to the rear I/O. This powers all of the LEDs for the LCD side panel to give you a manual option to turn them off while keeping your PC on.

Here is a closer look at the white wire cover that runs almost the full height of the case. The ibuypower logo looks really good here and it is in a spot that will most likely not get covered as well. Then you have the front fan housing which basically looks like someone messed up and put their mouse vent inside the case. This is actually how the two 120mm front fans are mounted. They attach to the plastic louver cover than the cover attached to the front of the case. If the front panel design which restricts airflow isn’t enough, let"s give even more resistance here inside. Not only that but it also airs most of the air that is coming in, up.

Moving around to the backside of the case. We can finally see inside of the magical PSU box down at the bottom. It runs the full length of the case which means you can fit huge power supplies if needed and you have all the room you could ever want for hiding wiring. The area behind the motherboard tray, on the other hand, is a little tighter, I would be very careful to keep all of your thick wires over there by the wire hider which has more room. The PSU area does have two 3.5 inch drive mounts and it also came with a few accessories. There was an NZXT branded box with three different types of screws including PSU screws and a few extra motherboard standoffs as well as an extra thumbscrew. There is also a nice sized bundle of zip ties as well. I mentioned it earlier but given the goal of going as bright white as possible, this is the one time that the silver screws that every case used to come with would be a better choice over black screws. You also get a magnetic fan filter that you can use on the top of the case if you mount a top fan as an intake. Then you have a relatively short DisplayPort to DVI cable for hooking up the LCD to your GPU.

I went ahead and also installed our RTX 2080 SUPER Founders Edition and that did give me a little trouble. The slide up panel above the PCI brackets was still too tight for me to angle the card in, so I had to remove one of the thumbscrews on the panel to give more space. After that, the card went in and with thumbscrews for everything I was able to quickly get it tightened up.

This case design is slightly dated and you can tell here at the back when you start wiring. I installed the power supply and ran all of those wires without any problem. But the mess of wires from the LCD, front panel, pump, and all of the fans can be a big mess. Especially with the Corsair fans adding RGB connections to them as well. Most of the wiring isn’t going to be a problem when tied up and cleaned up. But the 24 pin you want to keep in the deeper cable routing track as well as avoid putting any plugs between the motherboard tray and the door. There is room, but it has its limitations and it doesn’t have the wiring tracks like the H400i had.

Lastly, before hooking your PC up, you can also connect the LCD screen to your GPU. The cable included is more than long enough and isn’t exactly elegant. But there isn’t going to be anything elegant without right angle adapters or something.

Powered up and we have RGB lighting lit on the Corsair memory and kit and the bright white lights in the Snowblind Element are lit. I will point out that with the AIO kit that only one fan worked until I got the software installed, not sure why that was. But they look really good through the front window that iBuypower has on the front here. The iBuypower logo looks good lit up as well!

Now the Snowblind LCD panel isn’t designed to be used as a normal monitor, nor would you ever want to try to game at the weird resolution. But I did boot it up first with that as our monitor. You will have to follow the included instructions and set the screen to portrait mode and set the correct resolution. It"s funny booting into the BIOS as well.

Because frankly, the LCD on the Snowblind Element is the main feature of the case I spent most of my time playing around with it. I was really interested in seeing what ways you could use it. Frankly even just toying around with backgrounds was fun. I was really curious about the contrast when using say a black background. Could you block out all of the light and basically close down your side panel window. Yes and no, you can still see through it. Especially when I hadn’t had the chance to turn off the RGB lighting on the memory and pump lol. But it cuts out most of the view. Which makes dragging and getting a clear window really trippy. I can totally see this being used as a way to highlight components. I did a mockup, but time in photoshop would work better and could have labels. Maybe boxes that show each component, a black background, and lines going to each thing explaining what you have inside your build. While toying with this I made a short video showing the contrast between black and white.

I knew I wanted to show PC hardware info on the side panel and my wife of all people has had a lot of experience using Rainmeter so I knew I wanted to toy around with that. iBuypower also highly suggests it as well to the point where they also have their own skin available to download.

Anyhow after playing around for a while I finally got serious and finished reading iBuypower’s instructions and in addition to Rainmeter, they also recommend Wallpaper Engine which is a Steam program. Their documentation also mentions that they sometimes include it, but I assume that is with their full builds. I didn’t see a code or anything so I went ahead and picked it up. It is $3.99 on steam, not a big deal. I’ve used a lot of programs that allow for custom backgrounds specific to each monitor and that is kind of what I expected honestly. What I found was a lot better. Yes it does do backgrounds for each monitor. But they actually have a repository of uploaded backgrounds and a lot of them offer a lot of customization and sometimes integration with Corsair iCue as well to tie it in with case or peripheral lighting. Most of the backgrounds are moving and sometimes interactive. I snapped the picture below using one of the backgrounds I found someone made for Corsair and it had 6 different background themes that completely changed the look.

Performance in the typical aspects like noise and power weren’t that bad, but by swapping out the fans I tainted all of that testing right from the start. The one Arc fan left in the case wasn’t that bad for noise or airflow but the LL120’s were still much quieter. More importantly, but taking that large fan cover off on the front I opened up airflow, though it is still limited by the gaps in the front panel. Overall, I wouldn’t go in expecting this to be a HAF case. In fact, I would never attempt a dual GPU setup or a video card that needs lots of airflow because that area is where the case is going to suffer. But shipping the Snowblind Element with two front fans and a rear exhaust fan helps compensate for that.

The Snowblind Element case was just as exciting to get set up as it was seeing iBuypower show off their first builds at CES a few years ago. The side panel window/LCD is, of course, the main feature of the entire case and it makes this a completely unique case option when compared to the rest of the cases on the market. Of course you could try to mod your own LCD panel into another case, but it is going to be very hard to reach the level of detail reached here. All of the lighting, wiring, PCBs, and everything else is all tucked away and integrated into the case with the exception of the display connection which there isn’t another option buy to connect at the rear of the case. On top of all of that the case itself has a simple/clean look that I really dig.

Now don’t get me wrong, the LCD screen is a novelty, but frankly, there are a lot of things that we do for aesthetics and for the novelty. Side panel windows themselves could be considered the same, not to mention RGB lighting which is EVERYWHERE. The main thing here though is if your case is even in a position where this could be cool at all. Taking this build to a LAN is going to get all kinds of attention, for example, setting it up on your desk you can actually use some of the rainmeter readouts, but if you have it tucked away up under your desk I don’t see you getting the use out of it. Even at the simplest of configurations you can use the screen to change colors and do transitions and combinations of colors that aren’t possible with normal lighting. Live backgrounds have been cool as well. I bet someone much more creative than I could do some really cool stuff.

So what are the downsides? Well the case itself constricts the front fan airflow with its design. iBuypower does include two front fans and one exhaust which helps a lot. But I wouldn’t jam in an ultra hot GPU. When building in the case, I also ran into at least one situation where actual case instructions would have been nice. All the Snowblind Element ships with is a small but useful manual on setting up the LCD aspects. The other big deal is you really have to plan out your build ahead of time. This isn’t something that is going to work perfect with just whatever you have floating around. You really do need to have as many white components as you can. It will work without them, but you won’t be able to see anything in those areas. Thankfully there are white and silver motherboards and GPUs, awesome white memory from a few companies, and white AIO coolers as well as air coolers as well.

As for pricing? Well you are buying a monitor AND a case, right? On top of that all of the work to integrate it into the case. They are selling the Snowblind Element for $299 and that is about what I expected to be. Is that cheap? No not at all. Also if you aren’t buying the Snowblind Element for the LCD side panel then you are wasting a lot of money. This is otherwise a mid-level case once you take that out of the equation. In fact, if this price point isn’t in your range, iBuypower has a second Snowblind case at $199 right now as well. With all of that said, its less about this being a good deal and more about how cool it is to completely customize your side panel. If that interests you, then this is the case for you.