MSI MPG Velox 300R Airflow PZ Case Review: A Solid All-Rounder

MSI showcased new Project Zero series cases at last Computex including Velox 300R Airflow PZ. This case is available in black and white. This is a mid-tower case that supports regular motherboards up to E-ATX size and backplug motherboards in ATX form factor. I have already tested two of their PANO series cases under the PZ category.

This case has an MSRP of USD 149 and comes with a 3-year warranty from the manufacturer.

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Key Takeaways

• The MSI MPG Velox 300R Airflow PZ is a versatile, airflow-focused case that supports ATX backplug motherboards and comes with two 160mm dual-layered A-RGB fans for better cooling.
• You should buy the MSI MPG Velox 300R Airflow PZ if you want a backplug motherboard with good performance and plenty of specs.
• The only reason to skip the MSI MPG Velox 300R Airflow PZ is if you already have a backplug motherboard.

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The salient specifications are:

Dimension	485x235x518mm
Motherboard Form Factor	Up to E-ATX in standard ATX in the back plug
Storage Drive Mount	4x 2.5” 1x 3.5” 1x 2.5” / 3.5” Combo
Expansion Slot	7x
GPU Support	4000mm Length
CPU Cooler Support	165mm
PSU Support	ATX with 200mm length
Fan Size Support	Front: 3x120mm or 3x140mm or 2x160mm [Pre-Installed] Top: 3x 120mm or 3x 140mm* Rear: 1x 120mm [Pre-Installed] Side: 3x 120mm Bottom: 1x 120mm PSU Shroud: 2x 120mm
Radiator Size Support	Top: 120/140/240/280/360mm Rear: 120mm Side: 120/240/360mm Top: 120/140/240/280/360mm

Packaging And Unboxing

The unit is shipped inside a standard brown color cardboard box. A picture of the PC Case can be seen on the front. The salient features are listed on the side of the packing box. This case comes under the MPG series from MSI.

There are two thick black color Styrofoam pads encapsulating the PC Case.

The following are provided with the case:

• 1x Quick Installation Guide
• 1x Regulatory Notice
• 1x Shout Out Flyer
• 1x Sticker Decal
• Stand-off Screws
• 5” HDD Screws
• Stand-Off Mounting Tool
• PSU Screws
• 5” SSD Screws
• Motherboard/SSD Screws
• Fan Screws
• Clips
• Zip Ties
• Velcro Strips

Design

The MSI MPG Velox 300R Airflow PZ is a mid-tower case that has a dimension of 485x235x518mm. It is made of SPCC, Glass, and Plastic materials. This is a feature-rich design from MSI that includes an EZ Mount Rail on the front which is a smart implementation, multi-purpose bracket, backplug motherboard support, Removable PSU Cover, GPU Support Bracket, USB 3.2 20Gbps Type-C port on the front IO, etc. Let’s start taking a closer look from inside and outside views being our major categories.

Exterior

Unlike the PANO series cases that I have tested, this case does not support a 270ᵒ panoramic view. Being an airflow edition, it has a vented front panel with fine-quality mesh. The side panel has a light-tinted tempered glass with a bolt mechanism. The overall look and feel of this case are luxurious.

Front Panel

This case does not have a glass panel on the front which is obvious from its name “Airflow”. The front has a stylish, vented cover with MSI and MPG branding. It has diamond cut design for the vented portion. You can see two 160mm fans through it. The main frame has line pattern making it quite stylish and bold design.

You can easily pop the front cover out. This will show a fine quality dust filter with magnetic attachment. Removing this dust cover will finally show the two 160mm fans. The mounting rail has two brackets placed on top and bottom sandwiching the fans. This creates a complete outlook covering the exposed area on the rail.

You can remove the two covers from inside of the PC Case for which you will have to remove the side glass panel. The two tabs or lockers are needed to be pressed so that covers are released. You can see the inside view of the case from the front after removing the EZ Bracket.

The EZ Bracket is a smart design. This case does not have a fixed rail mounting design where in multiple rails are available as per size (120mm, 140mm etc). Instead EZ Brackets are two individual brackets that can be attached to 120mm, 140mm or 160mm size. There are mounting holes on the main frame that will adjust according to size. Just install the brackets on the fans and then install it on the case.

Rear Panel

Looking at the rear, you can see stylish vented area on the top right that faces the top mounted radiator.  There is a cutout providing area for the rear IO panel of the motherboard. There are is a rail mount design for the 120mm. 1x 120mm non-RGB fan comes pre-installed.

The middle section has 7x PCIe slot covers that are removable and reusable. This case does not support the vertical graphics mount. The bottom area has a standard ATX PSU mount. The PSU can be placed from the left or right side of the case and secured using 4x Philips screws on the back.

A dust filter for the bottom of the case is non-magnetic and it can be taken out from the rear. This is my gripe with this design. It should have been design to either come out from the front or from the side.

Top Panel

The top has a single large-size metallic panel that is vented. It is hoped on using two captive thumb screws on the rear. This panel covers the top-mounted IO ports as well.

Taking the top panel off will show a fixed fan bracket. Here you can install 3x 120mm or 3x 140mm fans and up to 360mm size radiator. You can adjust the fan position as well. Installing a 360mm radiator on top leaves no room for any adjustment given the length of this case.

There is a cutout towards the front. It can be used to refill the reservoir from the top if opting for a custom loop setup.

The IO ports include:

• 1x USB 20Gbps Type-C Port
• 2x USB 5Gbps Type-A Port
• 1x Mic In/Audio Out Port
• 1x LED Switch Button
• 1x Power Button

Bottom Panel

A single large size non-magnetic dust filter covers the vented design on the base of this case. This cover can be removed from the rear. The PSU bay and multi-purpose bracket have vented design. Large size feet have anti-slip paddings.

Side Panel

The side panel has thick tempered glass which is light tinted. It sits flush with the frame of the case. It uses a bolt mechanism for latching with the frame. The base has two covers that sit in the slits provided inside the frame.

The case has a spacious layout to work within and by moving the cables to the back (optional), we are no longer contended with the cable related decisions on the front except for the graphics card. Even that can be killed if using ASUS BTF graphics card.

Interior

This case supports motherboard in ITX, mATX, ATX (regular and backplug), and E-ATX form factors. The motherboard tray is quite sturdy and well-built. There is a large cutout that has a removable cover on the backside. Standoff screws come pre-installed for ATX form factor. A maximum CPU Cooler height is 165mm.

The cut outs without rubber grommet are strategically designed to accommodate backplug motherboards. The top two cutouts with rubber grommets can be used for cable routing. The side of this tray has inset towards the side frame. There are cutouts on this side with rubber grommets that would come handy for E-ATX size motherboard.

The PSU shroud is a two-fold design. There is a fixed portion attached to the motherboard tray that has three cutouts for cable routing. The main cover is removable. Two screws secure it on the main frame. Optionally, you can install two 120mm fans over the PSU shroud.

MSI has provided a smart design here. Removing the PSU shroud will give you a good clearance to work conveniently on the PSU bay. It has two large size pads on which the PSU is placed. A maximum PSU length is 200mm in ATX form factor.

MSI has provided a GPU support bracket that is secured using two screws from the backside. The height of this bracket is adjustable as per the requirement.

Two dual-layer blade fans in 160mm size and one same design 120mm fans are pre-installed. These fans generate double airflow in a focused pattern. The speed reported in BIOS was 1942 RPM. However, I am not sure if this speed is for the 160mm fans or the 120mm fan. The front fans are A-RGB backlit as well.

The side mount is for 120mm size fans and radiators only. A maximum of 360mm radiator is supported here.

This case has 7x PCIe slots that are removable/reusable. They are vented as well. These can be accessed through the cutouts on the main frame. The case has a multi-purpose EZ bracket on the floor. You can install a 2.5”/3.5” drive combo here or alternatively use 120mm fan for air intake as well.

MSI has taken the feedback from PANO series case reviews and implemented the bracket with fans handling from the top, unlike the bottom mount on PANO cases for which the case has to be screwed from the bottom.

Backside

The backside panel is made of steel material and has a dual sided perforation for effective ventilation. The left side perforation faces the fan mount on the side. The right side perforation area faces the motherboard tray where you can install storage drives on the backside.

The perforation or vented areas have magnetic dust filters. You can see tapes. These are there for added protection during shipping. This panel has the same mounting mechanism as on the glass side.

Now, we are taking a look at the main area of action on the backside. You can see a rail mount design for the side fans (120mm only with 120mm sized radiator up to 360mm). A storage bracket is installed over the CPU cutout in the main motherboard tray area. A second storage bracket is below the first one. MSI has wisely utilized the space. A total of 4x 2.5” or 1x 3.5” drives can be installed.

I have removed the storage bracket and showing the backside view again. There is an ample cable management space on backside.

The PSU bay can house a unit up to 200mm length. You can see two large rubber pads on which the unit is to be placed. A total of 260mm is available for the user to install and handle the PSU and its cables.

A 4-port ARGB and fan control hub is installed on the top. You can see that all three pre-installed fans are connected to this hub. You can still add one more fan and two more A-RGB devices to this hub.

This control hub is SATA-powered and has 4-pin headers for the fans. It is wired to the LED button on the front IO Panel. This is the reason this case does not have a Reset button on the front panel. You can connect this hub to the motherboard using a standard A-RGB connector and a 2-pin fan connector.

IO Cables

MSI has provided:

• 1x USB Type-E 3.2 Connector
• 1x USB Type-A Connector
• 1x HD Audio Connector
• 1x Front Panel Connector
• 1x SATA Connector for Hub
• 1x 3-pin ARGB Connector
• 1x 2-pin Fan Connector

Test Build And Experience

I have used the following configuration for testing of this case:

• Intel Core i7 13700k [253W]
• MSI Z790 Project Zero
• ID-Cooling DX360 Max
• V-Color Manta RGB 32GB DDR5 5600MHz CL26
• ASRock PG Radeon RX 7600 8G OC
• Sabrent Rocket 1TB NVMe SSD [OS]
• Fractal Design ION+ 2P 860W Platinum PSU

Building a PC in this case is a convenient process. I started with the backplug motherboard. It was a comfortable fit. I pre-installed RAM and cooler’s mounting hardware on the motherboard. Usually my next step is PSU but this time, I went with the liquid cooler.

The length of this case is not enough so you will have to wiggle the radiator by tilting it so that it can go inside the case. Once inside, you can easily install it over the top though its position can’t be adjusted as such due to length limitation.

Next, the PSU was installed which is a convenient solution in this case. Then the graphics card was installed and in the last step, cables were routed and connected. I did not do any cable management as I needed to see if the side panel could still be closed with the bulk of cables in the center. It does easily.

RGB Lighting

The above are a few pictures of the test build.

Thermal Testing

The thermal testing was done with an ambient temperature of 27ᵒC and I have used AIDA64 Engineering Stress Test software for this purpose using FPU and GPU.

As you can see, we have good thermal performance on the graphics card and the CPU.

Should You Buy It?

Buy It If

✅You need a case for a backplug motherboard: This case is designed for backplug motherboards like MSI Z790 and B560M Project Zero for example. If you are aiming for such motherboards, this case is the best option for you.

✅You are looking for a good airflow case: The Velox 300R Airflow PZ features a diamond-cut vented front panel with a fine-quality dust filter. It has two 160mm fans on the front. This combination generates good airflow to cool your components.

✅You want good specs: The Velox 300R Airflow PZ carries a good feature set including a GPU support bracket, up to 13 fan mounts, pre-installed three fans, EZ Bracket, USB 20Gbps Type-C port, backplug motherboard support, multiple radiators support, etc.

Don’t Buy It If

❌Your current case supports back-plug motherboards: If you already have a case that can house a back-plug motherboard, then you can skip this case.

Final Words

After testing MSI MAG PANO series PZ cases, this time we tested a premium PZ category case from MSI in MPG line. It is Velox 300R Airflow PZ. As the name indicates, it is designed around airflow concept hence we have a vented front panel with good quality magnetic dust filter. The last weapon in the arsenal providing perfection is in the form of two 160mm A-RGB fans that generate focused air flow.

This case is available in white and black. It supports backplug motherboards in ATX form factor and regular motherboards in up to E-ATX form factor. It has a light tinted tempered glass panel on the side which uses bolts for latching.

The cooling department of this case is quite strong as this case can house up to a 360mm radiator on the top, side, and front. A total of 13 fan points are provided and it already comes equipped with two powerful 160mm fans on the front and a 120mm non-RGB fan on the rear. Optionally the user can install 2x 120mm fans over the PSU shroud. All fan mounts have a rail design.

The front has EZ Fan Bracket which is a concept that I saw on the Fractal Design Torrent case. Both brackets are independent and can be configured in 120mm, 140mm, or 160mm sizes for which there are mounting holes on the main frame.

The top panel is removable and has a fine mesh which is not removable and non-magnetic. The bottom area has a full-size dust filter which is not magnetic. The only caveat is that this dust filter is operated from the rear of the case. The PSU shroud is removable which gives a lot of convenience to the user.

You can install 4x 2.5” drives, 1x 3.5” drives, and a combination of 1x 2.5” and 1x 3.5” drives. The storage department is adequate in this case though only two 3.5” drive mounts could be lacking for some. The graphics card supported length is 400mm and the case comes equipped with a GPU support bracket. The supported height for a CPU cooler is 165mm. The supported PSU is ATX up to 200mm in length.

Another key feature is the USB 3.2 Gen2x2 (20Gbps) Type-C port on the front IO Panel which I saw on PANO series cases as well. MSI has also provided a dedicated Fan ARGB controller hub that can house up to 4x ARGB fans and also control their speed using a motherboard. Last but not least is the multi-use bracket on the floor which can be handled from inside the case.

I have a good time with this case and the ability to provide a clean outlook on the front side is the next big thing in the PC industry. MSI has improved small things from the PANO series and perfected the PZ category case in the form of Velox 300R Airflow PZ. The maximum temperature on my graphics card was 68ᵒC under load and the CPU was at 88ᵒC.