Designing cases for the sub-$100 segment of the PC case market can prove challenging, even for more established brands such as MSI. It’s terribly crowded and involves cutting corners with design to keep costs low while offering more premium features, like tempered glass, to compete.
The MSI MAG Forge 112R is one such PC case. It costs just $90 yet somehow manages to include four ARGB fans, a full tempered glass side window, a mesh front panel, and decent specifications for the price, accommodating full-size ATX motherboards and larger graphics cards.
We spent a good week testing out the MAG Forge 112R from MSI, building a standard AIO-cooled system inside the chassis to determine whether it’s worth considering. It’s easy to use, even for beginners, and MSI includes just about everything you’d need for building a PC from scratch. If you happen to be familiar with more expensive PC cases, it’ll be immediately apparent just how basic the cable management is, but it’s not a dealbreaker so long as you employ a healthy number of cable ties.
Source: MSI
MSI MAG Forge 112R Case
Solid yet affordable
MSI’s affordable MAG Forge 112R PC case is a great choice for those with tighter budgets for their PC builds. Four ARGB fans are preinstalled inside a sleek-looking chassis with support for larger GPUs and motherboards.
- Brand
- MSI
- Material
- Steel, tempered glass
- Motherboard Size (Max.)
- ATX
- Graphics Card Size (Max.)
- 330 mm
- 3.5″ Drive Slots
- 2
- 2.5″ Drive Slots
- 3
- Power Supply Size (Max.)
- 200 mm
- Exterior Dimensions
- 409 x 214 x 505 mm
Pros
- Good value
- Stealthy design
- Mesh front panel
Cons
- Front fans obstructed
- Weak cable management
- Limited USB connectivity
Pricing and availability
The cost of the best PC cases can hit $1,000, depending on the dimensions, features, and component support. The MSI MAG Forge 112R costs just $90, which is lower than many PC cases out there and allows MSI to target a wider audience that isn’t comfortable spending more than $100 on the chassis alone. This is the only version of the case available and includes four ARGB fans preinstalled by MSI.
Design and features
A few weird choices
The MSI MAG Forge 112R is packaged securely with enough foam and is wrapped in a plastic bag, which is the standard affair with most PC cases. Once unpacked, the MSI MAG Forge 112R is an attractive chassis with a sleek, dark design and all-black construction. The front panel is mostly a mesh affair, allowing for plenty of cool air to be sucked in by the three 120mm fans preinstalled by MSI. Interestingly, the lower half of the bottom fan is obstructed by a panel with MSI’s company logo, which hampers the fan’s ability to effectively bring in cool air. We’d like to see this removed to match the competition, such as the excellent NZXT 7 Flow RGB.
It’s easy to use, even for beginners, and MSI includes just about everything you’d need for building a PC from scratch.
Still, having such an expansive mesh panel helps pin the MSI MAG Forge 112R case as a great PC case for airflow. The sides are equipped with a sheet of tempered glass and coated steel. The top panel holds the 240mm radiator and two 140mm fan mounting, as well as another mesh grill for exhausting hot air. There are two USB 3.0 ports for the front I/O but no USB-C, which is a shame as most modern motherboards for AMD and Intel come with a dedicated header. A power button, LED, and RGB lighting button are also present for quick access to various functions.
There’s not much to say about the rear of the MSI MAG Forge 112R, which has a standard ATX layout with a single 120mm fan mount at the top, seven PCI slots for expansion cards, as well as cut-outs for the I/O and PSU. Speaking of the PSU, there’s a small grill with a dust filter for the power supply to draw in cool air from underneath the MAG Forge 112R, so it doesn’t have to intake heated air from the CPU and GPU.
The tempered glass panel can be removed with four Philips screws, but thankfully the other metal side panel is tool-free, with just two thumbscrews holding it to the main chassis. Behind the motherboard tray are a single 2.5-inch SSD slot, an RGB hub with all the fans already connected, minimal cable management, and access to below the PSU shroud. A removable HDD cage is present, which can hold two 3.5-inch drives, though I’d recommend removing it altogether if you’re using at most one 2.5-inch drive. Getting rid of the cage provides additional space for routing PSU cabling and improves airflow.
Building a PC and thermals
Beginner-friendly process
In order to put the MSI MAG Forge 112R to the test, we used an AMD Ryzen 9 7950X processor, 32GB of DDR5 RAM, an AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX, and a Gigabyte X670 Aorus motherboard. The processor and GPU alone are rated at 170W and 355W for TDP, respectively. We used a 240mm NZXT Kraken AIO liquid CPU cooler, which was installed in the top panel.
Building the system inside the MAG Forge 112R was an easy process and follows the same steps as most ATX PC cases. There’s ample room in the main compartment to lay down and secure the ATX motherboard.
The PSU is installed within the shroud to separate the power plant from the rest of the system, which can prove useful for power supplies without modular cabling. Having four preinstalled ARGB fans is a nice touch, and even without any RGB LEDs on our NZXT AIO (aside from the pretty water block), the inside of the chassis was a pleasant light show when powered on. Supporting graphics cards up to 330mm in length should cover most AIB offerings on the market, though you may experience trouble with the largest of GPUs, notably Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080s and RTX 4090s.
We expected to see some high temperatures even when using the best PC case and CPU cooling available. It’s simply how the Zen 4 processors on the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X are designed, and the MSI MAG Forge 112R is no exception to this rule, resulting in a stable stress test reading of 84 degrees Celsius. Gaming comes in at between 60-70 degrees Celsius, depending on the current load. The Radeon RX 7900 XTX was able to run as designed without a problem, clocking in at an average junction temperature of 81 degrees Celsius and an overall temperature of 67 degrees Celsius. Noise is higher thanks to the large mesh front panel, and we measured 48dBA, which is normal for such a setup.
Should you buy the MSI MAG Forge 112R?
You should buy the MSI MAG Forge 112R if:
- You want a spacious mid-tower PC case with good airflow and thermals
- You want some RGB lighting with a dedicated controller
- You have an AIO with up to a 240mm radiator to install
You shouldn’t buy the MSI MAG Forge 112R if:
- You want to build your own open-loop water cooling solutions
- You have an AIO with a radiator larger than 240mm
- You don’t want RGB lighting
The MSI MAG Forge 112R is a PC case designed for those with tighter budgets, but you wouldn’t be able to tell unless you build a system inside the chassis. It’s designed with a sleek, stealthy look and has a large tempered glass side window to showcase all your internal components. The inclusion of four ARGB fans is a great touch, and it even performed well in tests. Even with an AMD Ryzen 9 7950X, this chassis has no issues exhausting all the heat.
I’m a big fan of what MSI was able to achieve with this case.
I’m a big fan of what MSI was able to achieve with this case. Every part that one can see without taking the panels off is designed well and feels sturdy. It’s clear where corners were cut to keep costs low, such as cable management, which falls short of what’s available with competitor PC cases. However, so long as a healthy number of cable ties are used, it’s possible to create a clean look behind the motherboard tray, but it would have been good to see some form of channeling, especially given an RGB controller is included for MSI’s own Mystic ecosystem.
Source: MSI
MSI MAG Forge 112R Case
MSI’s affordable MAG Forge 112R PC case is a great choice for those with tighter budgets for their PC builds. Four ARGB fans are preinstalled inside a sleek-looking chassis with support for larger GPUs and motherboards.