These new wooden panels give Corsair's PC cases a retro makeover

(Image credit: Corsair)

In my experience, we all have two PC gamer wolves raging inside of us. One of them loves RGB lighting, sacrificing sleep for the sake of more gaming, and energy drinks that hopefully taste better than this one backed by crypto. The other wants all the lights off, no more than three peripherals on the desk, and is eyeing off a cosy-core handmade mouse mat and these Noctua beige keycaps.

As these things go, the one you feed is the one that grows. Though that second does start getting mighty hungry after you hit about thirty. Thankfully, you don't always have to choose between either wolf, and Corsair is here to prove it with its new wooden PC case panels.

The panels are for Corsair's popular 4000 Series lineup of mid-tower sized cases. This includes the iCUE 4000X RGB case, which like the iCUE 5000T we reviewed, is known for its showy RGB lit prowess. This way you can have the best of both wolves with your toned down natural wood look backed by bright whirling lights.

The lattice cut wood looks like it'd do a great job of still allowing visibility into the PC, much like regular venting does today, and Corsair insists it's still just as good for air flow. These new wooden panels have been tested against the 4000D and 5000D Airflow panels to ensure they deliver the same level of cooling on top of aesthetics.

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These panels, which are reminding me more and more of my grandma's old front door the more I look at them, come in three different options. The darkest wood looks to be the Teak veneer, followed by the Sapele veneer. Bamboo looks like a much lighter bright colour, and is renewable sourced. You can get a good look at each by adjusting your preference on the listing website and checking out the pics.

The panels are available for preorder on the Corsair website for £49.99 or $54.99. Based on the listing, it looks like this will come with a complete set of front, top, and side panels so you can have your PC looking like the catholic confession box from every movie I've ever seen when they ship in four to five weeks.

If this has been all too much wood for you, but you're liking the idea of a rustic touch to your case, you're in luck. One of Fractal Design's newest cases is also rocking the wooden aesthetic but with a more modern looking front panel-only vertical design. It could be that a splash of tree is the new trend in gaming cases. For those who want to go all the way, check out this all-wood DIY beauty from simpler times.

Hope’s been writing about games for about a decade, starting out way back when on the Australian Nintendo fan site Vooks.net. Since then, she’s talked far too much about games and tech for publications such as Techlife, Byteside, IGN, and GameSpot. Of course there’s also here at PC Gamer, where she gets to indulge her inner hardware nerd with news and reviews. You can usually find Hope fawning over some art, tech, or likely a wonderful combination of them both and where relevant she’ll share them with you here. When she’s not writing about the amazing creations of others, she’s working on what she hopes will one day be her own. You can find her fictional chill out ambient far future sci-fi radio show/album/listening experience podcast right here.

No, she’s not kidding.