They feel like the underdog in the gaming PC space, there is a small contingent of PC enthusiasts that often request Jonsbo cases in the comments on the channel, but other than that we don’t hear much talk of them. It’s a shame really because they’re a brand that never disappoints. Their cases are always incredibly high quality, they’re well designed and well built every time - they just work! The prices are usually pretty competitive too, it’s almost as if they pass on the savings from not marketing their products on to the few consumers that are aware of their existence. I speak in jest of course, but it is sometimes how it feels, and every so often we get the feeling that we need to share the love! This is one of those weeks, we keep getting requests for the D32, and we’ve just come off the back of a fair few mid-tower builds and fancy a change.
Case Overview
The Jonsbo D32 Pro doesn’t have any fancy inbuilt screens, no included RGB fans, nor a fan hub, it’s bare bones. Generally speaking, Jonsbo is about one thing (as far as we’re concerned) - quality. When we plucked the case from its cardboard prison we were pleased to see that had not changed. It’s made from steel and at ~0.8mm thick with a tempered glass side panel it feels reassuringly sturdy, but yet it is still reasonably light weight at ~4.5kg. Aesthetically it looks as if Jonsbo’s D31 and the Z20 had a baby, with the perfect mix of each - the styling of the Z20, but remaining square like the D31. Sizewise it also lands somewhere in the middle of its parents at (l)384mm x (w)207mm x (h)302mm, which is about perfect for an M-ATX case, as it remains small but yet supports larger hardware. Though as you might expect with small form factor, hardware support is a bit of a puzzle, for example your choice of graphics card may well govern how many intake fans can be put on the bottom. Talking of compatibility, let's take a quick look at that:
Power Supplies: ATX up to 200mm/SFX/SFX-L. We chose a TUF Gaming 850w PSU, which is a fairly typical ATX size at 150mm. There is a PSU cage inside the case with a removable bottom, it fits inside the cage without issue including with all cables in situ.
Graphics Cards: With an ATX or SFX-L power supply we’d suggest no bigger than 285mm, with an SFX power supply you could technically fit up to (and perhaps more than) 350mm in length, but you’d likely have to remove the bottom of the PSU cage and properly manage the cables up and out of the way. When it comes to graphics card thickness, if you’re wanting bottom intake fans (which we strongly advise) then a card with a 2.5 slot thickness is about the sweet spot.
Motherboards: M-ATX/M-ATX with back connect/ITX. The case has a moveable motherboard tray which slides the motherboard further towards the centre of the case to allow for back connect motherboards. Doing so will restrict air cooling options. It’s also worth mentioning we’d aim for a motherboard with the PCiE lane in the top slot to keep the graphics card as high as possible.
Air Cooling: there is support for coolers with a height of up to 164mm (Intel) or 163mm (AMD), though moving the motherboard to allow for back connect will reduce this by about 7-8mm.
Liquid Cooling: support for 1 x 240mm radiator up top.
Fan Support: bottom - 3 x 120mm or 2 x 140mm (thickness will depend on graphics card thickness). Rear - 1 x 120mm. Top 2 x 120mm or 2 x 140mm.
We did find the back connect motherboard support interesting, moving the motherboard tray might cause a headache if using a larger air cooler. On the other side of the coin if you’re using an AIO or a smaller air cooler and not using back connect it may be worth moving the motherboard tray anyway to leave more room for cable management.
Parts List
We put a lot of thought into what we wanted from this build. It’s a very portable chassis so we envisioned it being taken to LAN events, so it should be able to run 1080p at high frame rates on max graphical settings. It shouldn’t be too difficult to accomplish using the mid-range hardware chosen
How Was The Build?
This one was exciting, we love a Jonsbo build, but also the small form factor is a favourite. Going small means meticulous planning (hence going more in depth than usual with hardware support), cable management also becomes more challenging when the chassis is shrunken. We do love a challenge and we’ve risen to it.
Stripping down the case was fairly standard, the sides and top each have 2 thumb screws and they slide off, we would have loved to see captive screws to reduce the risk of losing them though! Putting the motherboard together felt a little strange, it’s been a little while since we have done an Intel 14th Gen build, but it all fell together nicely. We do love that the Arctic Freezer 36’s mounting system replaces the CPU mount, it makes it super secure and helps with heat transfer.
Fitting the power supply wasn’t too much trouble, but it is worth mentioning that we did have to remove the bottom of the power supply cage to get it in. There are only 3 screws to remove to take the bottom off. Once replaced we were glad it was there as it kept everything tidy.
The accessory box that came with the D32 had one final surprise for the end of the build, a cover for the 24 pin connector. You connect from the back of the case with 2 screws. It felt like the screw holes weren't threaded on our unit so it took a bit of effort to get it attached. Once on we were really happy for its inclusion, even without using back connect all cables looked naturally tidy from the front.
The cable management wasn’t too much of a bother, there is plenty of space behind the power supply cage to store neatly managed cables. It was a nice surprise as using an ATX PSU typically means longer cables.
Airflow
We decided to use Arctic P12 Max fans to handle airflow. They’re low cost, and have given us fantastic results in the past. They have an RPM range of 200 - 3300, which means at full speed they are absolutely savage, which does result in a fair bit of noise, but also epic airflow. We’d imagine during gaming they shouldn’t need to be any higher than 2000rpm at maximum really, but the headroom is there if necessary. During testing it was proven that they were a good pick, air was taken in rapidly and passed to both the graphics card and aircooler. This was achieved by positioning the fans so that there was an overhang between the fans and the graphics card, sort of an offset. It kept everything well fed. The big surprise was that very little smoke escaped past the air cooler and out of the unguarded mesh top of the case. This build is very air efficient and speaks to the quality of using Arctic fans, both for the case and on the cooler! We’re very happy with the results.
Performance
As we’ve already mentioned the plan was for a LAN event PC, so we’re aiming at 1080p, high frames and sitting somewhere on the top end of graphical settings. As always we’ve run the testing, and we’re quite pleased with how it turned out. Results below:
Ambient temp 20.2°C
Spider-Man Remastered
1920x1080
Very High
137 - 166 fps
57°C CPU
64°C GPU
Forza Horizon 5
1920x1080
Extreme
143-176 fps
63°C CPU
60°C GPU
CPU-Z
Max Temp 78°C
Fan Speed ~3100 rpm
CPU Power Draw 170.6w
Furmark2
1920x1080
Avg fps 240
Max temp 62°C
Hotspot 70°C
Roundup
All things considered this build has been a pleasure. The case is very well designed and built, of course we had the usual SFF limitations to work within, and we caution any of you with SFF desires to do the research on your own projects before diving in. The build will work very well as a LAN event PC, and will reliably pump out high frame rates for all the sweaty try-hard sessions! Would I recommend this build? Yes, but if you’re using the same hardware, if you’re swapping something out and tuning it to your own preferences just be sure everything will fit.
Blog post written by Sam Thwaytes
Full Video Below:
Affiliate Links
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US Links
Case: https://amzn.to/3ChKvzD
MOBO: https://amzn.to/3E0abkV
PSU (850w): https://amzn.to/4jlKc7C
PSU (750w): https://amzn.to/3Cch7ee
Cooler: https://amzn.to/3PI7lUm
Storage: https://amzn.to/40lct5E
Fans: https://amzn.to/4jkGHhE
Keyboard: https://amzn.to/4akHF9N
Mouse: https://amzn.to/4g5gvoH
Speaker: https://amzn.to/3WorYbS
Monitor: https://amzn.to/4e7IIu7
Espresso Machine: https://amzn.to/4apOwOY
UK Links
Case: Coming Soon
MOBO: https://amzn.to/4akI0cz
PSU (850w): https://amzn.to/3PGZTc0
PSU (750w): https://amzn.to/3PG71FC
Cooler: https://amzn.to/40jrx3z
Storage: https://amzn.to/3PKFeDG
Fans: https://amzn.to/3Wp9EPD
Keyboard: not available
Mouse: https://amzn.to/4hogYmZ
Speaker: https://amzn.to/4hfKgUs
Monitor: https://amzn.to/4778eh2
Espresso Machine: https://amzn.to/40lcTsK
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