Seasonic Arch Q5 Q503, Glasfenster, 650W ATX

Der schlichte Midi-Tower kann in der Praxis überzeugen und mit einer guten Verarbeitung, vielseitigen Installationsmöglichkeiten und viel Platz für große Hardware punkten. Im Fokus steht ganz klar das vorinstallierte Connect-Modul, welches ein sauberes und vor allem schnelles Kabelmanagement ermöglicht.

Das Arch Q503 ist ein weiteres PC-Gehäuse von Seasonic. Auch bei diesem Modell gehört ein CONNECT-Netzteil zum Lieferumfang, das das Kabelmanagement optimiert. Der Midi-Tower ist dabei das bisher günstigste PC-Gehäuse mit CONNECT. Ob es überzeugt, klären wir in unserem Test.

The Seasonic ARCH Q503 is an innovative, exciting, and attractive (+average sized) chassis, as it’s a 448 x 215 x 482 mm (L x W x H) mid-tower chassis focused on delivering high quality. With that model, Seasonic presented a case with sensible functionality without overloaded features. Yes, some chassis have a more modular, RGB, or even a more unusual design. Still, regarding clean and simple cable management, the Arch Q503 outperforms the best competitors. It’s an E-ATX motherboard compatible (up to 277 mm) case, which allows the installation of a combo of 360 + 280 + 120 water cooling radiators or even a 165 mm high air-cooler. You can fit here up to six drives (three 2.5” + three 3.5”/2.5” bays). You get three fans in a bundle (two at the front, one at the back). The installation of the parts went pretty smooth, but it’s better to connect the cables to the Connect module first before securing it to the chassis. The cable management is perfect, thanks to the custom cables provided for the included PSU. The glass panels are dark but not too dark. The finished build looks intelligent and understated. Front I/O includes USB Type-C. The build quality is excellent, but you probably would expect that for the price. Speaking of it – it’s 279.99 EUR (650W)/299.99 EUR (750W), so you pay a steep price for this innovation and get a cleaner PC build. But you need to remember that the PSU has a ten years-long guarantee. We see that the sort of person who will buy the Arch Q503 is the type who cares about 80 Plus ratings and will consider a Gold-rated PSU to be the absolute minimum they would consider. From the not-so-good things, the front panel is restrictive – Core i9/Ryzen could be a bit ambitious in this case, at least with the default configuration of fans. The no tool-free assembly of expansion cards and drives and only simple dust grilles instead of dust filters, especially the dust grilles on the front, which are relatively coarse-meshed, are also the negatives. Last but not least - the case and Connect package price is (somewhat understandably) high. So, we grant the “Recommended” award, but if it were cheaper (like the Q704, which price has dropped quite visibly), it would be more than welcome. We applaud Seasonic for bringing innovation to the case and power supply market.

As a standalone case the ARCH Q503 may not offer anything new (especially in terms of looks, although we don’t see models with both side panels made out of tempered glass a lot) but combined with the PRIME CONNECT GOLD power supply units it certainly offers a far better degree of cable management compared to regular cases. On top of that however the CONNECT SSR-750FA power supply unit also performed extremely well in terms of rail stability so it’s not a model aimed just to improve on how the ARCH Q503 looks. Unfortunately, the 135mm fan used is quite loud when at full load and as a matter of fact since it’s the same unit used in the SYNCRO CONNECT 850 model Seasonic has probably used an even more aggressive profile this time over (the SYNCRO model was far more silent). Interior space is good overall, yes, it’s far from stellar and the fact that you only have room for an 360mm radiator at the front may disappoint some users but overall, it features more room than your average mid-tower.