Now about that main bar
Undoubtedly, the most innovative feature on the Tuniq 3 is its 3D core fan assembly. The bar that this mounts to sits across the centre of the chassis and is secured in place by a single screw at the top and a pair at the bottom.
Unfortunately the assembly has to be removed when fitting (or removing) almost anything in the chassis and Tuniq hasn't made the process as easy as it should have done.
We earlier criticised the plastic feet but it's just as well they are so flexible because removing the screws that hold the bar is no easy task. The screw heads on the bottom are not only small but also shallow and obscured by the feet-cum-base, so we found ourselves having to bend the base considerably to get the right angle of attack on the screws.
In our view, Tuniq should have included a suitable L-shaped screwdriver in the box.
It's only when the 3D core fan is eventually removed that we can have a proper look at it. What you see is a holder bar with two 120mm fans attached. These suck air through the chassis to the back.
Sounds like a good idea? Yes it does but it actually creates a couple of problems.
The fans can be angled at up to 90 degrees by screwing them into various holes in the mount. But the space for the screws to hold the fans in place is very tight indeed. And, the harsh reality is that the bottom fan gets in the way of even an average-sized graphics card and is likely to have to be permanently removed.
Worse still, the whole assembly is unusable if the graphics card is much bigger than average. Even with the bottom fan removed, we couldn't fit the main bar into the case when using variants of the R600 and N80 graphics cards.
While we can see what Tuniq was trying to do here - and we do admire its efforts - the chassis would be better off (and, presumably, cheaper, too) without the entire 3D core assembly.
Putting a bright face on this situation, if you are using a modern graphics card and do have to remove the entire 3D core assembly - or even a single fan - then that would at least give you something to use in the empty fan bay at the front of the case.
