Facepalm: Self-contained liquid cooling kits have brought watercooling to the masses, but that doesn’t mean mixing H2O with electronics is always a good idea. Add live animals to the equation and you’re just asking for trouble.
The Y2 fish tank chassis from Metalfish is an aluminum computer case with a built-in fish tank mounted on top that can support micro-ATX or mini-ITX builds. It features dual 90mm cooling fans and can accommodate one 2.5-inch hard drive as well as dual-slot video cards up to 200mm in length. CPU cooler height is limited to 90mm.
I’ll be the first to admit that the Y2 chassis looks neat, but that’s about as far as I’m willing to go.
Overlooking the obvious hazard associated with unnecessarily adding water to your computer case, one must also consider heat. I’m no marine biologist but I’m pretty sure that subjecting fish to constant temperature changes probably isn’t great for their health.
This isn’t Metalfish’s first aquatic-themed chassis. The aptly-named Fish Cube is also designed to house fish in the same enclosure as a PC but puts the two side by side instead of top to bottom.
Even more amusing is the fact that Metalfish wasn’t the first to market with an aquarium-themed computer case. Nearly 20 years ago, premium aluminum case maker Lian Li launched its PC-6010 ATX chassis with an optional $99 fish tank side panel.
While Lian Li’s chassis was equally sketchy in terms of risk, it notably relied on colorful plastic fish instead of the real thing. It also came with a pump to circulate the fish, cold cathode lighting and even plastic gravel to complete the look.
Most of the specs of the Y2 are printed in Chinese on brochure-style images that can’t easily be translated. It does appear to utilize a Flex power supply and has RGB lighting as well as LED lights for the fish tank up top. There also looks to be a USB-powered pump / oxygenator and a remote control for the RGB lighting.