Velocity Micro Raptor Z55a

We've come to know the Velocity Micro Raptor chassis very well, having seen it in many builds over the years. The style is restrained, maybe too tame for some, but a good fit for those who prefer a minimal design and even better for a professional setting.

Apart from two blue LEDs on the top fans, the Raptor Z55a is anything but flashy. It's a tall and skinny tower, measuring 17.5 by 7.25 by 20.5 inches, so it won't take up a ton of desk space.

Some Raptors we've seen were plain black boxes, but the Z55a has a side-window cutout within the left panel. The view of the high-end components (and a little LED lighting) lets the system show off its power while still looking at home in an office setting.

The side door comes off easily with just a tug, so no tools are required. To put it back on, you just line up the pegs and snap it back into place. Velocity Micro's assembly is super clean, with no excess wires or mess.

As you could have guessed from the $3,599 price, this configuration comes well equipped. Besides the 16-core AMD Ryzen 9 3950X processor, it includes an Nvidia GeForce GTX 2080 Super graphics card, 16GB of memory, and a 1TB NVMe solid-state drive plus a huge 4TB hard drive.

There's also a 240mm liquid cooler installed on the CPU and a 750-watt EVGA power supply, with an Asus X570-Pro AM4 motherboard holding all the good stuff.

Finally, the ports. This chassis has plenty of them, but none on the front panel, though you will find an optical drive there. There are two USB 3.1 Type-A ports and two audio jacks on the top of the case.

Around back, there are seven more USB 3.1 Type-A ports and a USB-C port, plus HDMI, DisplayPort, and Ethernet ports. The graphics card supplies its own HDMI and dual DisplayPort connections and a USB-C port.