Gorgeous, bare and pricey
Nobody who reviewed HAVN’s HS 360 seems to doubt how good it looks; the argument is over what you pay once you’ve bolted fans into it. PC Gamer gave the HS 360 a 90 and called it “undoubtedly one of the best-looking mid-tower cases in the biz”, while KitGuru scored the HS 360 VGPU 8/10 and Club386 called the VGPU “inarguably expensive” even as it praised the build.
This is a roundup of those three published reviews. GearChamber has not built in, tested or handled this case, and every observation below is credited to the outlet that made it. Where a review covers only one version, we say so.
Two scores and a verdict
PC Gamer’s Jacob Ridley reviewed both versions, with and without the vertical GPU mount, in black and white. KitGuru and Club386 both tested the VGPU model. KitGuru and PC Gamer give numeric ratings; the Club386 review text we read carries a verdict but no score.
| Outlet | Score | VGPU price quoted |
|---|---|---|
| PC Gamer | 90 (HS 360) | $280 / £240 |
| KitGuru | 8/10 (HS 360 VGPU) | £239.99 |
| Club386 | No numeric score | $279 / £239 |
Our consensus score is 85: the mean of PC Gamer’s 90 and KitGuru’s 8/10 converted to 80. Club386 is left out of the maths because there is no number to average. Two scores is a thin base, so treat 85 as shorthand for “very good, with caveats” rather than a precise reading.
The caveats are consistent. All three outlets list the missing fans against it, and all three praise the build and the cable management. A case that looks this good can still leave you short on cooling, as our earlier roundup of Corsair’s Warthog found with a different case.
The glass dividers split the testers
The VGPU model adds a magnetic “Airflow Divider” and a glass guide on an angled fan bracket, and this is where the reviews stop agreeing. Different test benches make a direct comparison unsafe, but the verdicts are clear enough.
PC Gamer measured roughly a 1.4 °C GPU reduction with the glass dividers compared to without, which it says is close to HAVN’s own reported 1.4–1.8 °C. Ridley still wasn’t convinced enough to keep them, and says the dividers didn’t seem to make any difference whatsoever to CPU temperatures. KitGuru found only a “small effect” from the guide that feeds air to the vertical card and “the complete lack of benefit from the new glass divider”, adding that it feels the case “could do without those parts”.
Club386 is the outlier. With a Radeon RX 9070 XT in Cyberpunk 2077’s RT Ultra preset, its GPU reached 51°C with the fans at 1,200rpm. Removing the topmost glass panel pushed that to 55°C and 1,500rpm. That is short of the 7.5°C HAVN claims, Club386 says, but it concludes the dividers “can demonstrably improve the thermals and noise levels” on a vertically mounted card. It also says the airflow guide and divider aren’t hindering cooling for its CPU.
We find the Club386 numbers the most persuasive, because 4°C and 300rpm is a bigger gap than PC Gamer’s 1.4 °C. Even so, nobody calls the dividers pretty: PC Gamer says they clutter the case, and Club386 isn’t a fan of how the glass guide looks.
What it costs once you add fans
The HS 360 ships with no fans, and the price lists get awkward fast. PC Gamer lists $200 (£170) for the standard model and $280 (£240) for the VGPU, calling the VGPU “not worth the extra $80”. Club386 lists £169 / $199 standard and £239 / $279 VGPU. KitGuru, which only tested the VGPU, says you will be able to buy it for £239.99.
Ridley says $40 would get you either 10 standard or six RGB Arctic P12 Pro fans, while three packs of HAVN’s own H12 would run over $100. Club386 says you need at least five 120mm fans to realise the case’s minimum cooling potential, three on the bottom and two on the rear, and that the missing fans push its VGPU’s cost up by £50 in its case. PC Gamer adds that once you consider $300 for the standard option, Cooler Master’s HAF II 500 at $200 and the Corsair Air 5400 with three fans at $230 don’t look so bad.
Club386’s cheaper vertical-mount alternatives are the Arctic Xtender VG (£118 / $142) and the Hyte Y70 (£159 / $189), though it says you’d be giving up some cooling potential and back-connect support. Cooling doubts at a premium price are a familiar story; Corsair’s $239.99 TITAN II LCD drew the same kind of scrutiny.
Two practical points. KitGuru says the weight drops from 19kg on the HS 420 to 15kg, and still calls the new case fairly hefty. PC Gamer says you need a traditional PSU, as the HS 360 can’t take a Corsair Shift unit.
Our take: buy the plain one
- ✅ Buy if you want a showpiece case with rear-connection motherboard support and clean cable routing, and you’re happy to buy fans separately.
- ✅ Buy the VGPU if you already want a vertical card. Club386 says a large chunk of its cost comes from the PCIe Gen 5 riser.
- ❌ Skip if you want a complete build at a modest price: PC Gamer says the lack of fans makes the high price tag even higher for a complete build.
- ❌ Skip the VGPU if you want a simple build: PC Gamer found it cluttered, and KitGuru and Club386 both describe fiddly parts.
We think the standard HS 360 is the one to look at. It is the version PC Gamer scored 90, the VGPU costs $80 or £70 more on the lists we read, and the one clear win for the dividers comes from a single review. If you want the vertical mount for its own sake, fine; if you only want the airflow benefit, two of three outlets give us reason to doubt it’s worth the money.
Scores and prices are as published by PC Gamer, KitGuru and Club386 and re-read on 2 November 2026. Prices can change, and we haven’t checked a retailer.
