Over the last couple of years, relative newcomer Montech has sidled its way onto our best-PC-case lists by producing mainstream-quality chassis at low cost. (The company has also done some high-end models.) Today’s focus, though, is off the market map: a mainstream PC case with a decidedly un-mainstream appearance. The $109.99 Heritage Pro is a low-slung MicroATX PC case with a carry strap and a classy leather finish, and those unique trappings will likely override any thermal, acoustic, fitment, or even price concerns, if you’re smitten with the look. We’d give it an award for the best leather-bound PC case on the market, but we’re pretty sure it’s the only one, too. Look upon it and make your judgment.
Design: A Whole New Meaning for “Cable Hide”
Rather than load up its Heritage Pro with hefty panels or internal features to justify the price, Montech poured its budget into that leather aesthetic: Portions of the face and side panels are wrapped in that brown hide, and a thick strap of it serves as a carrying handle. The Heritage Pro is available in a choice of black or white sheet metal, and Montech further enhances the appearance of the white version by coating its plastic parts in a silvery aluminum finish.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
The 14.6-inch-tall, shoebox-style mini-tower arrives with its handle packed inside, with the handle hardware expanding its width from 9.3 to 10.4 inches. The leather-topped left side visually delimits a diagonal glass panel that spans the Heritage Pro’s length front to back.
Bottom-front ports (two USB 3.x Type-A, one Type-C) sit astride the Heritage Pro’s buttons and audio jack. The large button features an indicator light behind its translucent power logo, while the smaller button engages the motherboard’s reset pins, and the 1/8-inch combo jack works with the stereo headphone and monaural microphone of a one-plug headset.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
The Heritage Pro’s back panel has five PCI Express card slots but no power-supply bay; that’s been relocated internally. All that’s here is a power jack that feeds an extension cable that leads to the internal power supply mount, along with a 120mm exhaust fan that’s factory-mounted to 1-inch-long screw slots. (The power supply mount can work with ATX or SFX power supplies.) Also seen here, the right side’s panel features the same vent pattern and lack of dust filtration as the front panel. It also has the same diagonal leather highlights as the left panel.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
As for the PCI Express card mounting area, we’ve heaped past praises upon Montech for including internal slot panels on some of its full-ATX mid-towers priced as low as $70, so we view the folded-out tab of the pricier Heritage Pro with a bit of sadness. Its 22mm clearance gap is certainly big enough to avoid the kind of card-install interference we’ve run into, now and then, with this kind of design, but maneuvering cards in this manner still seems an unnecessary inconvenience.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
The Heritage Pro’s bottom panel provides a triple 120mm fan mount that is also capable of supporting some 360mm-format radiators—if your motherboard has the clearance—and is covered in a rigidly framed dust filter. The filter’s frame attaches to the case via six permanent magnets, plus some securing tabs on one edge.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
The Heritage Pro’s other dust filter is a perforated foil sheet that Montech slid, loosely, under the edges of its top panel, in a manner that discourages its removal—at least by us. We’d suggest using a vacuum cleaner or compressed air to clean it in situ.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
A fan mount built into the top panel is long enough to host up to three 120mm or two 140mm fans, as well as radiators up to the 360mm format. Though the top is long enough that a 420mm radiator mount could have been placed there, radiators that large might have interfered with power-supply installation, thus the 360mm official suggestion.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
A slightly different point of view lets us see the potential problem, where the power supply mounting flange sits only 2.5 inches below the top panel when left in its factory position. It also sits 10.5 inches above the bottom panel and 9.3 inches above the front panel’s port card, and it can be moved downward if needed.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
The Heritage Pro gives builders 1.1 inches of cable space behind the motherboard tray, which will be extra-important to anyone who wants to employ its side fan mount. You see, the location of the power supply mount up front blocks fans from being installed on the motherboard side of the mount. That leaves the space between the right side panel and the motherboard tray as the only place to put side-panel fans, if you want to use those mounts.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
Alternative mounting points visible below allow the power-supply bracket to be spaced an inch or two farther away from the top panel, compared to the factory position.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
A removable drive tray covers most of the usual access hole for the back of the motherboard and its CPU-cooler support area. This tray can house two drives: two 2.5-inchers, or one 3.5-inch and one 2.5-inch.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
Building With the Montech Heritage Pro
The Heritage Pro comes with three reverse-flow case fans, a manual, the leather carrying strap, a PS/2 (full ATX) to SFX power-supply adapter, and a compartmentalized hardware pack with all the screws required to fill the case, plus a bunch of cable ties. For those who haven’t seen this kind of fan before, a reverse-flow fan blows air out the open side, rather than the usual side with the frame.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
Once our hardware was installed, we connected the motherboard to the case’s Type-C port via the case’s Gen 2×2 (Type-E) cable, and the Type-A ports via the usual 19-pin USB header cable. The audio combo jack connects via an HD Audio cable, and the power/reset buttons and LED via an F_PANEL combined front header. The rear power jack on the case connects to the PSU via the internal power supply extension cable. The case’s PWM fans also connect directly to our motherboard’s 4-pin fan headers, and each fan has a pass-through power output to allow the entire set of four fans to connect via a single motherboard header, if desired.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
Montech lists a maximum power supply length of 165mm and a maximum GPU length of 400mm, though we measured 452mm of card clearance without power-supply intrusion and only 160mm of power-supply clearance with graphics card intrusion. You can install a far larger power supply if you limit the card length to 366mm (which is still huge), and the power supply mount can be lowered to provide more cooler clearance at the top, if that’s your druthers.
Speaking of fan clearance, we installed the included fans motor-down on the bottom panel with their reversed-flow fins blowing upward, and noticed that their side frames were less than 2mm below the edge of our motherboard and only around 8mm vertically from its surface. In some instances, routing cables around a fan’s frame will require it to be temporarily removed.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
The case looks kind of cute just sitting there, doesn’t it? This angle even highlights the Montech logo that the factory embossed into its leather cover at the Heritage Pro’s bottom rear corner.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
Testing the Montech Heritage Pro
For this test fest, we had to swap in the MicroATX motherboard from our most recent case-testing configuration cabinet. No worries there, as we’ll be comparing it to other MicroATX cases. Here’s our parts lineup…
Here’s the Heritage Pro measured against a host of other recent MicroATX cases. Our CPU runs a little hot in the Heritage Pro, but it’s nothing that our custom thermal limits couldn’t handle, and it’s still as close to the class-leading Thermaltake The Tower 300 as it is to the trailing SilverStone Sugo 17 in that test. It also sits firmly mid-pack in voltage-regulator cooling temperature, and its intake fans even put it in the lead for GPU cooling. (Remember, lower is better regarding these temperatures.)
The acoustic benefit of wrapping the edge of its tempered-glass sound barrier with plastic and leather comes into focus as the Heritage Pro fights to contain the noise of its fans, and ours, when measured from the other side.
Verdict: Leather Luxe or Dinner Deluxe? You Decide
Like the leather trim, the Heritage Pro’s reversed fans are more about form than function. And while there’s nothing wrong with the function, just know that as a buyer, you’re mostly paying a premium for the form.
Based on the pricing history of other Montech cases, we’re pinning the price of the Heritage Pro’s unique styling at a $30 to $40 markup. If that sounds like the price of a good lunch, the Heritage Pro might be for you. On the other hand, if it sounds like the price of a cheap night out for you and your significant other, that might be a harder sell. Still, it’s all about how much you value the look: steaks for an evening, or cowhide on your PC for years to come. That’s what’s on this menu.
Pros
The Bottom Line
High-quality leather trim sets apart Montech’s Heritage Pro as a uniquely appointed, mid-priced chassis for a luggable, lovable MicroATX PC build.
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About Thomas Soderstrom
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