Tryx Luca L70

New PC case maker Tryx is going in a different direction than most of the mid-2020s field. The first offering of a typical new case brand inevitably gets labeled a knock-off by some enthusiasts, but the $239.99 Luca L70 is different enough from anything we’ve seen to be its own offering. This is no design with a mere reworked face panel to fit an existing low-cost body. The Tryx team shot directly for the high-end market; the company only clipped the edge of the target, however. The Luca looks good, but it is pricey, lacks fans, and has a few concerns around Tryx's build and engineering choices. Our favorite value-minded "aquarium"-style showcase model remains the Corsair 3500X ARGB, and at the higher end, the Lian Li O11 Dynamic EVO.

Design: A Surprisingly Flexible Aquarium

While aquarium-style cases that have no corner support between the glass face and side panels have been around for a couple of years, the design still appears fresh. The same can be said for the side-mounted front fan bracket and the access holes for installing Asus Back to the Future (BTF) or MSI Project Zero reverse-connector motherboards. Instead, it's something that isn’t quite apparent—yet—that makes the Luca L70 stand out: Its power supply bay can be repositioned to sit either above or below its motherboard tray.

A sturdy aluminum handle (topped by quirky, semi-redacted space gibberish) that sits at the same level as the left and rear edges of the top panel also separates the Luca L70 from similarly marketed cases. So does the manner in which the top panel slopes. It runs from back to front or from left to right in the same way a shower pan declines toward its drain.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

Four USB 3.x Type-A ports and a Gen 2x2 Type-C port sit next to a headset combo jack on the front panel. A bit off to the left is the plastic light diffuser of a hidden power-on indicator LED, and to the left of that is a flush power button that, at a glance, appears to be a portion of the rest of this forward-facing aluminum edge.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

The L70’s bottom panel hosts a triple 140mm/120mm fan mount covered by a full-length dust filter. The latter slides out from under the edge of the front panel for easy cleaning convenience. Also visible near the center of this photo are the Luca L70’s adjustable graphics-card brace and a removable cable-concealment panel.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

Rather than being supported by the usual set of four case feet, the Luca L70 rests on a crisscrossed platform beneath its bottom panel. Several air gaps of around a quarter inch thickness help air flow more effectively between the various sections of this unusual stand design.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

The fully vented rear panel features a removable power supply mounting plate, a 120mm fan mount, and a vented spacer for additional bottom-panel radiator clearance. It’s important to remember that these are the parts that can be moved around to create a different case configuration.

Also visible is the thick aluminum panel of the right side, which is vented at the front for its corresponding radiator mount.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

The top panel has even more radiator space than the bottom panel, though much of that space is blocked by the power supply bay you can see in this default configuration. A sheet-metal box at the rear that acts as a secondary top handle makes it possible to lift the case from either side, with your left hand holding a top handle and your right hand under the opposing (bottom front or bottom rear) corner.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

Tryx tells us that the Luca L70’s power supply bay supports a 190mm unit at most, but our standard test unit from Cooler Master is a little bigger than that. We measured a depth of 235mm, though builders hoping to take full advantage of that space must also consider how tightly they’d like to bend their cables to get around the front plate.

The two knurled screws that appear loose in the photo are the ones that secure the power supply to the mounting plate, while the other two secure the plate to the removable power supply bay. As for the bay’s removal, it’s secured by that tiny screw seen to the right side of those knurled screws.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

The L70’s removable motherboard tray is held at the front by two more knurled screws and at the back by its I/O panel. Tryx fills 10 of the standard nine mounting holes with standoffs, as the tenth standoff (near the third expansion slot) has always been optional for ATX boards. Motherboards that lack a hole in this location will often suffer a ground fault that prevents power-up if installed over that standoff. Remove it if yours doesn't have a hole there.

There’s enough space behind the graphics-card brace to fit oversize motherboards up to 11.8 inches deep: While most such motherboards are labeled EATX, the case’s inability to properly support the entire range of EATX (up to 13 inches deep) should disqualify it from carrying that label.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

An old-fashioned, swiveling expansion-card-bracket clip resides over the slot cover screws on a swivel. Rather than having tabs to engage the screw holes, however, it simply has holes that clear the heads of the screws, not actually locking anything down by itself. The springs and latch make it feel like a quality part, but we question its utility.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

Two hinged panels located behind the motherboard tray are designed to support up to nine 2.5-inch drives or two 3.5-inch drives, plus five 2.5-inch drives while still leaving room to pass cables.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

Designed only to hold three 2.5-inch drives, the forward hinged panel you can see below has magnets on both sides to secure it flat against either the back of the motherboard tray or the back of the side radiator mount. The rearward panel holds both 3.5-inch and 2.5-inch drives and can slide upward off its hinge pins.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

Building With the Tryx Luca L70

The Luca L70’s hardware kit includes a #2-Phillips-to-standoff hex adapter socket, several types of screws, three standoffs, a pack of zip-style cable ties, three Velcro-brand cable straps, an installation guide, a cover for the view hole on that’s on the side of the power supply bay, and a decorative property tag. The case ships with the property tag hanging from its prominent top handle.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

Once our hardware is installed, we’ll connect the case to our motherboard using its one-piece F_PANEL connector to serve its power button and LED; to the HD Audio connector to serve its headset combo jack; to dual 19-pin USB 3.x connectors to feed its four Type-A ports; and its Gen 2x2 (Type-E) connector to power its Type-C port.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

So, about that shiftable power-supply mount. Leaving the Luca L70’s power supply bay up top would have forced us to mount the radiator of our closed-loop cooler to the case's bottom, to the side, or to the front portion of the top. As none of these allows our cooler’s fans to properly cool our motherboard’s CPU voltage regulator, and since the effectiveness of our power supply as a motherboard cooler is undetermined, we decided to take the safest path and put our CPU cooler where the power bay had been. PSU on the case bottom, then.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

The alternative configuration used for our test looks much as it has for most of our other tests, which should at least make this a fair comparison.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

We previously mentioned that the rearward drive tray supports a couple of different drive configurations, and here’s what half of that looks like: The space currently occupied by a 3.5-inch drive can instead be equipped with two 2.5-inch drives, and the other (empty) half of the cage supports two or three more drives in the same two configurations.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

Though we didn’t use any of the above drives, you wouldn’t see them if we had. The parts you can see look fairly good lit up (below), but completing the aesthetic would have required us to fill its front-right and rear mounts with matching fans.

(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)

We do have one caveat that emerged from the build. The side panels are held on solely by snaps and lack any secondary means of securing (such as screw tabs) for transporting the finished system. In our experience, the aluminum side panel slid off and the hinged glass front panel popped open almost at a suggestion (i.e., with very little pressure applied). That's a concern especially when you're dealing with glass.

Testing the Tryx Luca L70

We’re testing the Luca L70 with the ATX variant of our most recent case testing kit:

Relying solely upon the fans of our CPU cooler for ventilation, the Luca L70 still achieves fourth place in CPU, motherboard, and GPU cooling. We can try to imagine how much better it might have cooled with more fans, but the temperatures seen here are at least cool enough to keep the system running at full speed.

The lack of additional chassis fans also keeps the Luca L70 quiet: Disturbed only by the noises of our internal components, the L70’s quietness is a metric where only the single-fan Cougar FV270 can compete. Of course, you'll probably add several fans of your own, so take this with a grain of salt.

Verdict: Poised for a Price Cut

With the build complete and performance proven to be at least adequate, our only remaining concern is whether or not the Luca L70 is built like a $240 case. Ours arrived with everything finished well (some reviewers, note, received samples with QA issues), apart from the less-than-secure panels we observed. But that level of quality is table stakes for half the asking price, or a little more.

The major push behind the Luca's high price is likely the collection of precision fitments that make the power supply bay, the motherboard tray, and the lower filter panels movable, and the two main glass panels meet just right at their seam. We're dubious of how many folks need the two PSU placement options. Anyone looking for a good deal will probably save their money by purchasing a case that supports only their desired configuration, and leave it at that.

Though the Luca L70 looks good enough built out, expect the premium fans you'll want to install inside to push the case-and-fans total as high as $300. You won't want to shell out that much unless you're keen to show off your build. You'll need to possess enough charm to draw an audience to see this showpiece...and have the need for the exact kind of flexibility it delivers to make it worth the extra bucks.