Building or upgrading a PC is primarily an exercise in pragmatism—assembling a list of parts in order to meet a need. Most of the time, creativity is confined to hunting down the best sales or finding budget-friendly alternatives to name-brand components. That is, until it’s time to pick a case, which is one of the few choices where fashion becomes a legitimate consideration. That is where the GameMax Vista COC Mid-Tower PC Case comes in.
The choice used to be simple: would you like your rectangle to be white, grey, or black? But now, on top of choosing between a full spectrum of colours and a range of shapes that would make Euclid blush, a new consideration has emerged — transparency. Transparent cases are having a moment right now, and it’s easy to understand why. It’s satisfying to watch all those expensive parts at work, not to mention it’s a convenient way to monitor how much cat hair is collecting in your heat sinks.
Common as they have become, these “aquarium” cases still come paired with a premium price tag. But, coming in at half the price of a comparable tower is the GameMax Vista COC, a Mid-tower ATX case with tempered glass panels that offer a 262 degree viewport into your build. The case comes equipped with five pre-installed 120mm ARGB fans, RGB accent lighting, and a custom 12cm fan mounted on the motherboard plate, positioned right behind the CPU socket. It’s that 12cm fan that earns the case its giggle-inducing “COC” designation—short for Cooling Overclocking Chassis.
“GameMax adopted a minimalist approach to the Vista’s visual design.”
For both the money and the right build, the Vista COC is an excellent case, offering premium features and a sophisticated design. However, it comes with some delicate parts and engineering quirks that should be carefully considered before making an investment.
GameMax adopted a minimalist approach to the Vista’s visual design. The GameMax Vista COC Mid-Tower PC Case features a stylishly angled front panel and a slight taper along the top, complementing its otherwise understated aesthetic. The case comes with a subtly textured matte-black or flat white finish over the metal and ABS panels and lightly tinted tempered glass for the front and side.
An opaque black finish has been applied to the top and bottom of the glass panels to conceal their mounting points, while the edges remain unmasked where the glass meets, giving the appearance of a seamless connection. When the RGB lights are set to hold on a single colour, the GameMax Vista COC Mid-Tower PC Case can easily be described as elegant.
The controls and I/O suite sit along the top right edge of the case and include a single USB-C, USB 3.0, USB 2.0, and a combination audio jack respectively. While the limited ports aid the aesthetic flow of the GameMax Vista COC Mid-Tower PC Case, separate inputs for headphones and microphone leads would have been more practical—especially for gamers, the case’s intended audience.
“When the RGB lights are set to hold on a single colour, the GameMax Vista COC Mid-Tower PC Case can easily be described as elegant.”
For an ATX tower, the Vista COC has a relatively small footprint measuring just 386mm long, 200mm in width and 449mm in height. Despite its constrained proportions, it can accommodate CPU coolers that are up to 155mm tall, 330mm video cards, and theoretically up to five hard drives (more on that later).
The pre-installed fans are surprisingly high quality; besides being naturally quiet, they come with a rubberized coating over the mounting holes to reduce vibration. There’s also a holographic coating applied to the shaft covers that emphasizes the interior RGB ring and creates an illusion that the centre of the fans disappear into infinity. It’s a small detail, sure, but the whole point of a transparent case is to transform a PC into a piece of art. The choice of fans stands out as thoughtful and makes for a nice way to frame a build.
The five ARGB fans are arranged in a three in three out configuration, taking in air from the bottom and side and moving it through the top and back of the case. However, the bottom rear fan exists in a pretty crowded neighbourhood and depending on the size of your power supply, may not have enough room to breathe.
Venting is done through a mix of square perforations along the bottom of the case and a latticework of diagonal rectangular holes that cover the sides and top sections. The top section of the GameMax Vista COC Mid-Tower PC Case is covered by a fine metal mesh that’s magnetically affixed. That metal mesh needs to be handled with care though, whatever material it’s made of is incredibly floppy and prone to developing permanent creases. Likewise, the peel and stick magnetic strips that hold it in place are incredibly delicate and, in the case of the review unit, already starting to debond.
The GameMax Vista COC Mid-Tower PC Case’s bottom section is, to be charitable, cozy. The bracket that’s meant to house two 3.5” HDD’s or one 3.5” HDD and two 2.5” SSDs is placed way too close to the power supply. When using the GameMax 1050W RGB pro 5.0 power supply unit for this test build, the gap between the hard drive bracket and the back of the PSU was only about three-quarters of an inch.
This made it impossible to have the hard drive shelf installed if I wanted to run power to the rest of the build. I then tried using a Corsair CX750M, a slightly more compact unit, but even it was too long to accommodate the bracket. It was possible to install the bracket after the PSU was hooked up, but the lateral pressure bent the cables to an angle I wasn’t comfortable with.
There is still some headspace between where the bracket is supposed to go and the front of the case, so it’s possible to free float the bracket, but a better solution would be to limit the use of hard drives to SSDs and only use the two 2.5” mounting positions located on the back of the motherboard plate.
Tight tolerances are a bit of a running theme with the GameMax Vista COC. Though it’s built for full-sized ATX motherboards, it’s a tight fit. Which isn’t a bad thing, but it will require PSU connectors with generously long cords as the only reasonable place to port them through are at the front of the board. There are some ports on the floor that separate the PSU/Hard drive compartment from the rest of the tower but would require squishing them between the USB connection pins and the 120mm fans. Additionally, the ports will only be usable with a PSU that sits low enough to run wires over.
The removable metal side panel is also incredibly thin and prone to bending. It’s thin enough that while closed, it formed a bulge when resting against wires that sat between it and the motherboard plate. Unlike a higher end case, the PCI slot covers are punch outs so choosing to remove one is a permanent decision. This is an expected feature for this price range, but it’s worth keeping in mind when planning a build.
For an entry level tower, the GameMax Vista COC Mid-Tower PC Case offers premium features at an outstandingly low price, but that low price comes at the cost of versatility and durability. While it can technically fit all the parts it’s designed to accommodate, this case is best approached with small form factor components in mind. However, once assembled, the GameMax Vista COC is a striking looking tower that’s both quiet and in every sense of the word — cool.
