MSI’s newest entry in the case market is well thought out and includes nice quality of life features.
Our Review
MSI is on a mission to impress with its ever-expanding lineup of cases. Unlike some makers that flood the market with a large and confusing range, MSI is taking things slowly and carefully. The new MPG Sekira 100R is a well-designed and great looking new PC case in the range.
The Price
At around $220 (street price) it sits comfortably in the mid-range bracket, and has enough features to well justify its reasonable cost.
Technically it’s a medium sized version of the larger MSI Sekira 500P, yet it can amply contain motherboards up to E-ATX with room to spare. It shares the 500P’s design aesthetic, which, to my eyes, is a pleasingly simple and stylish look with little flourishes here and there turning it into something that’s easy to love.
Initially I was concerned the ventilation might be inadequate. The front has a full-sized cover (split attractively into a brushed aluminum top area, and tempered glass in the lower section) and air is sucked in via 2.5cm vents running from top to bottom along the edges. This design has proven restrictive in other cases I’ve built in, but the width and length of the openings ensure very good airflow, while preserving its rather nice appearance.
The Coolness
Along the top there’s room for two fans or a 240mm AIO radiator. If you’re looking to mount a 360 AIO cooler you’ll need to mount its radiator vertically in the front. The Sekira 100R ships with three 120mm ARGB fans in the front, and a single ARGB 120mm fan at the rear. They’re all hooked into an ARGB controller board behind the motherboard plate, with one spare connector available, and the installed plugs are nicely taped in place so they won’t get knocked out during a build.
There’s an easily removable HDD mount for two drives, along with a SATA SSD mount inside, and another on the rear. They too both pop out easily if you’re doing an M.2-only build, and the resulting cavity is plenty large enough for good airflow and the longest of graphics cards. The PSU cavity is a separate enclosure to the main area.
Overall Experience
Overall build quality was excellent; MSI has done a great job with ensuring good paint coverage, no sharp edges and screws and fasteners that go in easily. I did appreciate that the rear fan ARGB and power cables are wrapped up in velcro tape to keep things tidy.
The only downside to the case is that both side panels are held in place by the top panel clamping down on them. That means the rear panel will likely fall off every time you remove the top panel to then remove the front panel in order to access the insides. This aspect of the design made final assembly a headache – trying to hold and align both side panels while fixing the top panel in place and getting a screw in was a tiresome pain.
But a big plus goes to the front I/O ports. You get a pair of USB 3.2 and a Type C, as well as audio plus mic, and a single button that cycles the ARGB colours – fantastic for those with simple RGB tastes that couldn’t be arsed installing an app for that purpose.
The Sekira 100R is a classy looker with good airflow let down only by the poor panel attachment system.
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