ASUS TUF Gaming GT302 ARGB Review – The Air Flows, The Cable Goes

The new BTF components released by ASUS all has a common feature: they’re designed to hide cables out of sight. Now, a key part of that is the motherboard, and ASUS have just the product for that. However, it needs a compatible case to accommodate the new layout – and this is where the ASUS TUF Gaming GT302 ARGB chassis comes in. In this review, we’ll show you the build process, plus all the ins and outs of the case.

Click here to purchase the ASUS TUF Gaming GT302 ARGB via Shopee

Unboxing

What you get from the TUF GT302 ARGB is a rather huge box that packs the case itself, plus a small box of accessories that you’ll need in the build process. We’ve laid out all of them as below:

• User manual
• Vertical PCIe bracket
• Standoff screw socket
• 25x motherboard / 2.5″ drive screws
• 8x 3.5″ drive screws
• 4x PSU screws
• 8x cable zip ties
• 3x side panel clips
• 2x panel screws (unlisted)

One odd thing we found in the parts list is the presence of what looks like a pair of side panel screws, which is not needed for this case as none of the 4 panels of the case uses screws to secure themselves. It’s also not listed in the user guide, so we’re not exactly sure what they’re for. Note that there are additional instructions included on the product support page on ASUS’s website which are not listed in the included user guide.

Walkaround

The main theme of the GT302 case is perforations, and there are tons of them. The only spot where no airflow is allowed to go is the tempered glass side panel which you can swap with the mesh panel if needed. ASUS says both side panels are interchangeable – and while that works on paper, surely nobody wants to see all that cable mess behind the motherboard, right?

Moving on to the front and rear side of the case, here you can see a total of four 140mm TUF AR140 ARGB fans (likely an exclusive model for this case) pre-installed, which should give you the idea of just how wide and tall this case is. The case is big enough to accommodate EATX motherboards, a GPU that’s up to 407mm long, and a PSU as long as 220mm – plenty of space given.

Coming to the top side, it is also tool-free accessible by pulling the panel off from the rear side. Here, you can fit up to a 360mm radiator that can handle the most demanding CPUs available on the market today, and its entirely removable so you don’t have to awkwardly hold the radiator in place to put the screws in. The bottom side has a mesh for the PSU’s fan to pull fresh air in, plus a pair of screws holding the 3.5″ drive cage in place.

The front panel I/O is standard affair, with a pair of USB Type-A ports, a USB-C port, and a 3.5mm combo jack accessible in front.

Here’s how it looks like with all the tool-less panels removed – both the top and front panels comes with integrated dust filters and can be easily re-installed at any moment. Most corners of the GT302 are easily accessible as lots of panels are removable by screws, though the case itself is quite hefty due to its size, so pay extra attention when you’re moving the case around.

Side note, be careful when removing the glass panel – pulling from the side tab can cause an uncomfortable amount of flex to my liking, so I opted to remove the top panel first before removing the glass panel as a safe measure.

Specifications

ASUS TUF Gaming GT302 ARGB

Case Form Factor	Mid-tower ATX
Motherboard Support	EATX (12″ x 10.9″), ATX, mATX, mITX
Dimensions	235 x 520 x 485 mm
Internal Volume	Unspecified
Front I/O Panel	2x USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5Gbps) Type-A 1x USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 (20Gbps) Type-C 1x 3.5mm headphone jack
Drive Bays	2x 2.5″ drive bay 2x 2.5″/3.5″ combo bay
PCIe Slot Layout	Horizontal 8 slots, vertical GPU mount supported (3 slots)
Case Fan Support	Front: 3x 140 mm Top: 3x 120/140 mm Rear: 1x 120/140 mm
Pre-installed Fans	TUF AR140 ARGB fans (3x front, 1x rear) 3.0 mmH₂O static pressure 115 CFM airflow
Water Cooling Support	Front: 140, 280 mm Top: 120, 140, 240, 280, 360 mm Rear: 120, 140 mm
Side Panel Type	Tempered glass / aluminum mesh (interchangeable)
Onboard RGB Lighting	RGB via TUF AR140 ARGB fans
Max. Graphics Card Dimensions	407 mm (length)
Max. CPU Cooler Height	165 mm
Max. RAM Height	Unspecified
Max. PSU Length	220 mm

Click here to purchase the ASUS TUF Gaming GT302 ARGB via Shopee

Test System

CPU	Intel Core i9-13900K
Cooling	ASUS ROG Ryujin II 360 Cooler Master MasterGel Maker
Motherboard	ASUS TUF Gaming Z790-BTF WIFI
GPU	ASUS TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER BTF White OC Edition
Memory	Kingston FURY RENEGADE RGB DDR5-6400 CL32 (2x16GB)
Storage	Samsung SSD 980 PRO 256GB (Boot) Kingston NV1 1TB
Power Supply	Cooler Master MWE Gold 1250 V2 Full Modular 1250W
Case	ASUS TUF Gaming GT302 ARGB
Operating System	Windows 11 Home 23H2

Installation

Like any standard case, we’ll start from installing the motherboard first (with CPU, RAM & SSD installed). One convenience of this case is the pre-installed standoff screws, so you can skip that step and install the motherboard right away. Since we’re installing the TUF Z790-BTF WIFI motherboard that feature backside connectors, some extra care is needed to avoid scratching the case with the header pins exposed behind the motherboard.

Next up is installing the cooler – in our case, we’re installing the ASUS ROG Ryujin II 360 AIO cooler. Usually this means pressing the radiator against the top bracket and hope that you can get the screws in, but this case allows you to remove the entire top bracket and install the radiator externally. Once done, you can reassemble the panel back onto the case itself, and install the AIO pump on the CPU. At this point you can bring all the associated cables to the back, as we head to the next step, PSU.

While the case accommodates large PSUs like ours (which is a CM 1250W unit), getting the cables tucked into the tiny space is the challenging part, especially as most of the length from PCIe 8-pin connectors is now excess length. If you do not have 3.5″ HDDs for your setup, I suggest removing the drive cage (pictured above) to allow the cables more room to tuck into. With all of that done, it’s time plug the cables, and subsequently, cable management.

The TUF GT302 ARGB has got most of the routing work done for you as far as front panel I/O and fan cables are concerned, so you just need to put it into the correct spot. That being said, cable management is not going to be perfect with backside connectors, as some cables will be routed shorter than usual, particularly the PCIe 8-pin connectors. The case comes with plenty of pre-installed routing channels around the rear side of the case to help with this process.

Finally, just install the GPU: in our case we have the cable-less ASUS TUF RTX 4070 Ti SUPER BTF White OC card that can be installed without worrying about cables getting in the way. If you’re installing a conventional GPU instead, note that you’ll have to bring the PCIe 8-pin / 12V2x6 (12VHPWR) cables forward. Given that this is a massive case, you can fit a card as long as 407mm – enough futureproofing in case next-gen GPUs get even larger.

Admittedly, it’s not the easiest thing to keep the cables tidy behind especially given the uneven cable length, but that’s the beauty of backside connectors. See, no cables! This is about as clean as a desktop PC can get. From here, just install all the panels (front, sides, top), connect the power, and we’re off to the races.

And that’s it! A cable-free setup that has long been the endgame of DIY PC builds. I’d say the installation process isn’t too much different than a conventional system, and in some ways it’s simpler as all the cables are now grouped together on a single place without the need to go back-and-forth with the case.

Performance

In terms of how the case copes with the worst-case scenario, the GT302 ARGB does it pretty decently. Here is the 10-minute cooling stress test that puts out nearly 600W of combined power, and we can see the GPU is still fairly safe from hitting the thermal limit of 84°C. For reference, we tested the TUF RTX 4070 Ti SUPER BTF card in a separate review that resulted in temperatures of low 60s in an “open air” scenario (side panel removed) to compare against other GPUs we previously tested in the open-air bench rig.

One small footnote: while the cooling performance is excellent thanks to nearly a full case’s worth of airflow, one downside is the noise levels. There’s no insulation to speak of – if the CPU is pinned to its limits and demands full fan speeds, these AR140 fans can get very loud. We measured around 52-53 dBA from a meter away, which is pretty much the same as putting a gaming laptop under its most extreme fan profiles. I suggest giving the fans further tuning if you’re comfortable with trading off the cooling with less fan noise.

Conclusion

There’s a lot to like about the ASUS TUF GT302 ARGB case: for one, the case is well-engineered to accommodate a plethora of configurations, and none of them is likely to affect the large amounts of airflow the case can deliver thanks to its powerful fans. The massive case size fits even the largest GPUs out there, and the ability to install a backside connector motherboard is a big plus, making this a highly flexible chassis.

However, there are some parts that can do with improvement, mostly relating to fans. As mentioned, the fans get very loud, so hopefully the next iteration has a quieter fans pre-installed; and while we’re at it – ASUS, please include a fan controller hub as well, since this case oddly lacks one. One more thing, perhaps a slightly improved side panel installation mechanism can be implemented so I don’t get so nervous trying to remove the glass panel. I quote Zack from JerryRigEverything: “Glass is glass, and glass breaks.”

Finally, the price: the GT302 ARGB will cost you RM559 today, which sits on the expensive side of the PC case pricing spectrum. For the price though, you do get a few creature comforts that helps simplify the installation process, and the case will be ready when the backside connector design goes mainstream sometime in the future.