I'm a first-time builder, I got the exact case and motherboard featured prior to finding this video and then found this and was so lucky. followed this step for step and it made life so easy. especially the part with the drivers. you my friend are a godsend.
Same. Just started building while waiting on a couple more parts. Stopped where I'm at for the day in favor of checking this video out to get a handle on the case features. Thank you, Christopher.
I still can’t. They have power daisy chained to Sys Fan and I’ve daisy chained the 3 pin rbg connectors together like shown in the video but the fan lights seems to flicker and the tbh case button doesn’t change the fans, just the button colour. Update: Turns out the actual RGB I/O board thingy that controls the case RGB was faulty on mine. Works perfectly via motherboard. Contacted Fractal and they sent me a new board. Hope this may help someone!
I did my first ever build the other day for my daughter's first machine, using this case. This vid was a great help and definitely removed some of the stress going in and during the actual build. Thank you.
thank you for this video. It was my first time building a pc with rgb fans and yours was the clearest explanation on what to connect and where. Of course it's not rocket science, but when you're a begginer it helps a ton to get explanations about the simplest things!
Got my pop air for my first build, just gathering components at the moment. Will definitely be coming back to this vid multiple times 😂 very informative thank you!
Thanks so much! This was my first build and I was kinda panicking when the guide I was following didn't really match what I was doing. The slowed down and in-depth instruction was very helpful!
Thanks! A very detailed guide and review for casing. Find it useful and informative as you showed us the steps to go through building with this new case. Thumbs up!👍
Getting ready to build in this case and your video was super helpful, especially the case cable installation part that I couldn't find anywhere else. Thanks very much!
You've been a massive help. From finding out my motherboard placed the RGB pins in an inconvenient space for the fans, to making me feel better about putting the card in the graphics card slot... I credit you with the success of my first ever PC build haha Absolutely phenomenal case. I love it so much already
You called the usb type-c cable optional - I just want to make sure that's true. I'm currently building my PC using this case, and I had no clue it didn't come with the usb-c cable.
Man this video is just what i needed. I got the same case, Gigabyte Aorus x670 motherboard and Be Quiet pure loop AIO. I couldnt figure out how to connect the fans together and where to put on motherboard. This video helped a tons. Will try when i get home
I built my first PC using this case a few months ago and just today found out you're supposed to use standoffs when installing the motherboard. Really glad to see it has them pre-installed cause I really don't want to take it apart.. Also for whatever reason when daisy-chaining the case fans only one worked so I plugged them all in separately, they all work now at least!
It's unbelievable how lacking the case manual is. I've build few systems before but never with RGB fans and the fan connections stumped me completely. Great video.
nice addition for the drives/windows installs. first time builder, so this is very informative! thank you! Saw your meshlicious video, and im working on it this weekend!
Fantastic presentation. I’ve been considering this case simply because of the 5.25 drive bays, and after watching this I feel this is the best choice for me. The only thing I’m not crazy about is the location of the 5.25 drives. I would prefer them to be at the top like the Fractal Design Focus G Mid-Tower. However, everything about this case looks great.
This was a great video, but I would have liked to see you install some secondary hard drives as well, not just the board-mounted SSD. For the Fractal case in particular, I find their documentation lacking, and I was looking for more info about installing additional SSD/HDDs.
I have a fractal pop air xl, asus tuf z690. My power button plug in was different! Was frustrating, but make sure you read your motherboards😅 other than that, this video saved my life. I was gonna pay $100 to have it built for me. Much more fun to experience it this way:)😊
Thanks for the video. Because my old power supply is dying, i needed to get a new one, and decided since i'm gonna have to redo all the wiring anyways, i might as well replace my old case which is in pretty bad shape anyways. Decided to get the Pop Air XL, so i can fit all the things.
you make the best step by step build vids. yout Hyte Revolt 3 build helped me a BUNCH! This vid will help me with my SFF build with the same, extremely long (359mm) Zotac Extreme 3080 Ti. Thnx!!
Thanks for the comprehensive videos Christopher-just built my first PC in 15 years in this case, and I couldn't have done it without your hard work. With any luck, it posts in the morning...🤞
It’s been a while since you’ve posted so this is a shot in the dark. I actually moved my current PC into this case from another as a size downgrade and aesthetic upgrade. But now that I’m moved into it, I can’t get the PC to power on. I had it working in my other case right before swapping. I believe the Power SW is in the correct spot, my power supply wasn’t unplugged from itself just put back into my mobo and GC, when I swapped back. Not sure what’s going wrong tbh.
It's quite nice to know that this case comes with aio offset brackets. I was "worried" that I would have clearance issues with my 240mm Arctic liquid freezer ii since the rad is 38mm thick and the b650 mobo that I just bought.
Great video! is there any specfic reason you installed the CPU cooler with the tubes going to the left of the case? or would it be possible to install the cooler with the tubes going to the right? Thanks!
Thank you very much! I just build my PC based on the same case (and different but fairly similar motherboard), all thanks to this video and you man! Thank you and have a great life! 🎉😊❤
I've just bought a pop air rgb, msi Z690a pro, and a 12700k, along with a new 850w power supply. Can't wait to build it! Sad thing is I will have to use it with my 1070 until I can afford a 3080 XD talk about bottleneck.
I can’t for the life of me find the USB C cable ( 14:42 ) I don’t see it anywhere on my case. I don’t have anything that looks like that cable. Edit: looks like you have to pay extra for it. It’s not included (you might have mentioned that already). Hopefully I’ll be just fine without it 🤞
Know it’s an older video but thanks for uploading! Just bought a new build with this case and following this definitely helped along the way. Although I had some different hardware such as the motherboard it still was very helpful seeing most of the process done. My only tick is that you didn’t show how to plug in the modular psu. I went to boot it up for the first time and got nothing because I apparently didn’t plug in all the correct wires into the back of the psu😅 So just gotta figure out why my rear fan isn’t spinning now and then I think I’m good! Thanks for the video.
Based on the RGB wiring and no mention of the ARGB header on the mobo (unless i missed it sry), you didn't synchronize the RAM RGB to the rest of the RGB daisy chain correct?
Thank you for the detailed build @Christopher. Just wondering though, why did you install the AIO with the pipes facing backwards, kind of touching the back exhaust fan? Doesn't that impede the exhaust capability? I thought it was more standard to install it facing towards the front.
Your videos are amazing! Very clear - couldn't ask for better. I'm curious as your video here looks to only be approx 1 year old...yet I just bought a Prime Z790-A-WiFi and the pin arrangement doesn't match what's in your video i.e. Power SW. Do the Mboards change that quickly or is there a model difference here that I'm not seeing?
Thanks for the video! Just hooked son up with a new gaming PC for his 20th b-day (OMG!). Appreciate the detail as the case docs are a bit slim and couldn't figure out why we couldn't get the RGB button to control things. Docs aren't super clear with using the SATA power plug for the lights. I figured it was related but didn't catch that the SATA light connector just went into a SATA drive power plug. Very nice case for the price and hard to beat. When do you think is a good time to move to a radiator for cooling? Got him a i5-10400F Processor with the MSI Z490 Gaming Carbon Wifi board.
First, thanks for this video. It was very helpful. You mention that you can plug the cable for light into the "argb header" or into the motherboard if we want the motherboard to control the lights. I bought an MSI PRO Z790-P WIFI DDR4 motherboard. Where would I plug this into the board so software can control the lights? I would ultimately like to use an Elgato StreamDeck to control all of the lights on my PC so I can turn them off at night while allowing the PC to still run. Thank you.
I got to the part of turning the pc on, and mine said boot failure detected, then gave me the option of “load optimised defaults then boot” “load optimised defaults then reboot” or “enter bios” help please I’m totally lost what to do next! 😓
I heard the Zotac version is 2nd to an actual preferred Nvidia version. Truth or false idea? 🤔 💡 Very good presentation Christopher, no nonsense or hype. A nice change from others who tend to get Hollywood's.
sadly my Mobo has an angled usb port so the pretty bulky usb connector just won't plug in. If anyone has any tips or solutions i would be very thankful.
I have the same exact case. I never built a computer before. I was wondering is the sata power for the case controller required if i decide to plug in the case fans into the rgb led header on the mobo?
Hi, is there any magical incantations to have the fans light up ? they are spinning, I've connected the 3 RGB to the top header of the case, but there's no RGB at all. Thanks
@@thesorus yup that was exactly my issue, I missed it the first time around. Now all fans are lit and spinning, everything looks to be working except I'm staring at a black screen lol no graphics card yet but that shouldn't be the reason...
Okay, i put my everything together, thanks to you 😂 I only need gpu and cpu (i can put in the cpu later cuz when you put on it new paste, you have to take down the cooler, so yeah... I built 80% of my pc and waiting for cpu and gpu to finish xdd) Im so impatient... 😅
I spent forever looking for the other front header cables only to see that the only one in the case is the power switch 😂 funny that they show a power led cable in the manual though!!
Hi, was going to use this video as a guide for building my own PC. But I am getting the mini variation of this case. I would assume the instructions would still be same? (same cables etc.)
My splitter for the fans only has 2 pins instead of 3 is it still okay to connect them? Really wish you went slower on that part it’s very confusing to newcomers since there’s about 20 different ways to connect it
Hey there, great video great help! I have 1 question, my PSU is TX750M Corsair which has 4+4 for CPU. Motherboard is MSI Z690-A pro which has 8 + 8 and CPU is i5 13600k. I am planning to change PSU in the near future, is there anyway for the moment that I can connect the above mentioned components?
Great video. Question. The case specs note a 170mm max PSU length, but I don't see anything that would block one longer, like 180mm other than possibly the ventilation being off center. Do you see any concerns going longer by 1 cm being an issue with PSU?
My RGB Fans of this case stop working as soon as I restart my PC. They only start working again if I unplug them from the RGB Controller and plug them in again while the PC is running. Next restart, they're off again. Any ideas? (I daisy chained only the three RBG fans which come with the case and connected them to the RGB Controller)
I have a similar build but needed to order the lga1700 brackets for my aio. Will I have to order the cable extensions aswell or are they not necessary?
I'm a first-time builder, I got the exact case and motherboard featured prior to finding this video and then found this and was so lucky. followed this step for step and it made life so easy. especially the part with the drivers. you my friend are a godsend.
Just got this case today and couldn’t figure out the case fans. Thanks so much for this video.
ive built several PC's but ive always had the case fans pre installed to the fan hubs. these case fans have 4 connectors on each fan. kinda confused
Same thing with me
Same. Just started building while waiting on a couple more parts. Stopped where I'm at for the day in favor of checking this video out to get a handle on the case features. Thank you, Christopher.
Are those DC fans?
I still can’t. They have power daisy chained to Sys Fan and I’ve daisy chained the 3 pin rbg connectors together like shown in the video but the fan lights seems to flicker and the tbh case button doesn’t change the fans, just the button colour.
Update: Turns out the actual RGB I/O board thingy that controls the case RGB was faulty on mine. Works perfectly via motherboard. Contacted Fractal and they sent me a new board. Hope this may help someone!
I did my first ever build the other day for my daughter's first machine, using this case. This vid was a great help and definitely removed some of the stress going in and during the actual build. Thank you.
im about to build a pc using the exact case, and WOW! was this video was super helpful!! definitely going to subscribe
thank you for this video. It was my first time building a pc with rgb fans and yours was the clearest explanation on what to connect and where. Of course it's not rocket science, but when you're a begginer it helps a ton to get explanations about the simplest things!
Got my pop air for my first build, just gathering components at the moment. Will definitely be coming back to this vid multiple times 😂 very informative thank you!
just wanted to say thank you. built my first ever pc there about 3 weeks ago. got a ton of knowledge from your video gg :)
@@HarveyWallbanger1 i’m building in this case soon, anything I should know?
Those are DC fans, right?
Thanks so much! This was my first build and I was kinda panicking when the guide I was following didn't really match what I was doing. The slowed down and in-depth instruction was very helpful!
You got a new subscriber my man. I love that you don't use a fake voice or go off tangent. Good info, good level of detail, great video!
Thanks! A very detailed guide and review for casing. Find it useful and informative as you showed us the steps to go through building with this new case. Thumbs up!👍
Glad it was helpful!
You are a legend for this video. This was my main resource for doing my first build using his case.
Getting ready to build in this case and your video was super helpful, especially the case cable installation part that I couldn't find anywhere else. Thanks very much!
Just bought the Mini Air Pop case and the part where you setup all fans and rgb (14:50) was extremely useful for me! Tx
You've been a massive help. From finding out my motherboard placed the RGB pins in an inconvenient space for the fans, to making me feel better about putting the card in the graphics card slot... I credit you with the success of my first ever PC build haha
Absolutely phenomenal case. I love it so much already
Oh wow! I think I want to get this case. I’m a first time builder and pretty nervous, so to find this video?! A lifesaver 😭
Used this guide repeatedly when helping my friend build his first computer. Thank you so much!
Thanks so much for this video. I was doing my first ever build and using this case. This video answered almost all of my questions.
Thanks, man. You saved me with the fan connections walkthrough - Fractal's instructions for connecting them were hilariously vague.
You called the usb type-c cable optional - I just want to make sure that's true. I'm currently building my PC using this case, and I had no clue it didn't come with the usb-c cable.
it's not included. i wish to know which one to buy from amaz
Yeah it’s not included you gotta buy one and install it kinda stupid
So i dont need to buy one extra ,right?
@@cenanklnc878 You do. The type D from Fractal Designs.
@@cenanklnc878 only if you want a USB C port on your front IO
Damn Ron Weasley back with another dope build. Lets go!
Man this video is just what i needed. I got the same case, Gigabyte Aorus x670 motherboard and Be Quiet pure loop AIO. I couldnt figure out how to connect the fans together and where to put on motherboard. This video helped a tons. Will try when i get home
Where would I plug the argb header into because I can’t plug it into the case only the motherboard
Same
Thanks for the excellent guide! Can't wait to use this on my Birthday for my build! Bought my AIO through your link!
I built my first PC using this case a few months ago and just today found out you're supposed to use standoffs when installing the motherboard. Really glad to see it has them pre-installed cause I really don't want to take it apart.. Also for whatever reason when daisy-chaining the case fans only one worked so I plugged them all in separately, they all work now at least!
It's unbelievable how lacking the case manual is. I've build few systems before but never with RGB fans and the fan connections stumped me completely. Great video.
nice addition for the drives/windows installs. first time builder, so this is very informative! thank you! Saw your meshlicious video, and im working on it this weekend!
good luck
great video, really helped me, especially with the whole argb controller situation
Thanks for this video, I set up my fans to consider the system temperature and everything works perfectly.
Thank you for this! I couldnt figure out the RGB. You are a life saver
Fantastic presentation. I’ve been considering this case simply because of the 5.25 drive bays, and after watching this I feel this is the best choice for me. The only thing I’m not crazy about is the location of the 5.25 drives. I would prefer them to be at the top like the Fractal Design Focus G Mid-Tower. However, everything about this case looks great.
This was a great video, but I would have liked to see you install some secondary hard drives as well, not just the board-mounted SSD. For the Fractal case in particular, I find their documentation lacking, and I was looking for more info about installing additional SSD/HDDs.
its actually best amongst all
Thank you for this video, it was highly useful while i was building my first pc :)
I have a fractal pop air xl, asus tuf z690. My power button plug in was different! Was frustrating, but make sure you read your motherboards😅 other than that, this video saved my life. I was gonna pay $100 to have it built for me. Much more fun to experience it this way:)😊
Thanks for this vid! I couldn’t figure out how to plug my fans and it was very helpful
Thanks!
Welcome!
have the pop air case and was struggling with the case fans and rgb connectors for hours, thank you for your help sir
Thanks for the video. Because my old power supply is dying, i needed to get a new one, and decided since i'm gonna have to redo all the wiring anyways, i might as well replace my old case which is in pretty bad shape anyways. Decided to get the Pop Air XL, so i can fit all the things.
you make the best step by step build vids. yout Hyte Revolt 3 build helped me a BUNCH! This vid will help me with my SFF build with the same, extremely long (359mm) Zotac Extreme 3080 Ti. Thnx!!
Thanks for the comprehensive videos Christopher-just built my first PC in 15 years in this case, and I couldn't have done it without your hard work.
With any luck, it posts in the morning...🤞
It’s been a while since you’ve posted so this is a shot in the dark. I actually moved my current PC into this case from another as a size downgrade and aesthetic upgrade. But now that I’m moved into it, I can’t get the PC to power on. I had it working in my other case right before swapping. I believe the Power SW is in the correct spot, my power supply wasn’t unplugged from itself just put back into my mobo and GC, when I swapped back. Not sure what’s going wrong tbh.
Thank you for this video. I got a a pop xl for a new pc build a couple of days ago and this was excellent, subscribed.
It's quite nice to know that this case comes with aio offset brackets. I was "worried" that I would have clearance issues with my 240mm Arctic liquid freezer ii since the rad is 38mm thick and the b650 mobo that I just bought.
Just the video I needed to see :)
Really helpful video, watched it a lot for my first build. thanks a lot
I'm considering to buy this case.This video very useful
This video helped me so much! Thank you the fans were driving me nuts
Absolute great vid mate much appreciated
Great video! is there any specfic reason you installed the CPU cooler with the tubes going to the left of the case? or would it be possible to install the cooler with the tubes going to the right? Thanks!
Thank you very much! I just build my PC based on the same case (and different but fairly similar motherboard), all thanks to this video and you man! Thank you and have a great life! 🎉😊❤
Excellent video, very helpful. Many thanks. 👍
I've just bought a pop air rgb, msi Z690a pro, and a 12700k, along with a new 850w power supply. Can't wait to build it! Sad thing is I will have to use it with my 1070 until I can afford a 3080 XD talk about bottleneck.
this is the best simple walkthrough,
got this case and spent a long while trying to search for a type c cable to attach just to realize its an add on
very detailed tutorial finnaly build my first ever pc thank you very much!!!
thank you for teaching!
Looks like it will be assembled well！！！
I can’t for the life of me find the USB C cable ( 14:42 ) I don’t see it anywhere on my case. I don’t have anything that looks like that cable.
Edit: looks like you have to pay extra for it. It’s not included (you might have mentioned that already). Hopefully I’ll be just fine without it 🤞
Thank you for helping me to connect the fans and more Thank you!
Know it’s an older video but thanks for uploading! Just bought a new build with this case and following this definitely helped along the way. Although I had some different hardware such as the motherboard it still was very helpful seeing most of the process done. My only tick is that you didn’t show how to plug in the modular psu. I went to boot it up for the first time and got nothing because I apparently didn’t plug in all the correct wires into the back of the psu😅 So just gotta figure out why my rear fan isn’t spinning now and then I think I’m good! Thanks for the video.
Life saver! Thank you so much!
Thank you so much for the video. I had a bit of issues with the rgb fans, I feel like an idiot I didn't think about removing that huge red dongle :)
A big help, though my pc didn't turn on. Not even any activity from the power supply so my guess is that's the faulty part.
Excellent video, thanks
Based on the RGB wiring and no mention of the ARGB header on the mobo (unless i missed it sry), you didn't synchronize the RAM RGB to the rest of the RGB daisy chain correct?
Thank you for the detailed build @Christopher. Just wondering though, why did you install the AIO with the pipes facing backwards, kind of touching the back exhaust fan? Doesn't that impede the exhaust capability? I thought it was more standard to install it facing towards the front.
Agreed- thats the only thing he kinda missed. Otherwise really good informative video!!
Thanks for the video, building my daughters PC in this case and the instruction manual isn't the best, especially for the rgb fan.
Is the cooler a good one and the case? IS the rgb case available in black inside? Is the Corsair 4000X better? What is resizable bar?
God I want that AIO, thankfully I can order through the UK store and ship to myself in the USA!!!!!!!
Your videos are amazing! Very clear - couldn't ask for better. I'm curious as your video here looks to only be approx 1 year old...yet I just bought a Prime Z790-A-WiFi and the pin arrangement doesn't match what's in your video i.e. Power SW. Do the Mboards change that quickly or is there a model difference here that I'm not seeing?
Gonna purchase this case for my second pc build ! Most helpful build guide for sure !
Thanks for the video! Just hooked son up with a new gaming PC for his 20th b-day (OMG!). Appreciate the detail as the case docs are a bit slim and couldn't figure out why we couldn't get the RGB button to control things. Docs aren't super clear with using the SATA power plug for the lights. I figured it was related but didn't catch that the SATA light connector just went into a SATA drive power plug. Very nice case for the price and hard to beat.
When do you think is a good time to move to a radiator for cooling? Got him a i5-10400F Processor with the MSI Z490 Gaming Carbon Wifi board.
First, thanks for this video. It was very helpful.
You mention that you can plug the cable for light into the "argb header" or into the motherboard if we want the motherboard to control the lights. I bought an MSI PRO Z790-P WIFI DDR4 motherboard. Where would I plug this into the board so software can control the lights? I would ultimately like to use an Elgato StreamDeck to control all of the lights on my PC so I can turn them off at night while allowing the PC to still run. Thank you.
Super helpful! Thanks!
Debating between this case and P400A. Non-RGB for both, and I think this case is just better. The DVD drive is just too good to pass up.
People still use DVd's?
I got to the part of turning the pc on, and mine said boot failure detected, then gave me the option of “load optimised defaults then boot” “load optimised defaults then reboot” or “enter bios” help please I’m totally lost what to do next! 😓
I heard the Zotac version is 2nd to an actual preferred Nvidia version. Truth or false idea? 🤔 💡 Very good presentation Christopher, no nonsense or hype. A nice change from others who tend to get Hollywood's.
Thanks Steve, I haven't tested the cards performance, just the temps, but it is massive
Superb. Thank you.
For either the lower or side HDD mounting positions would it require a straight SATA cable rather than a right-angled one? Looks like it.
sadly my Mobo has an angled usb port so the pretty bulky usb connector just won't plug in. If anyone has any tips or solutions i would be very thankful.
I have the same exact case. I never built a computer before. I was wondering is the sata power for the case controller required if i decide to plug in the case fans into the rgb led header on the mobo?
Hi, is there any magical incantations to have the fans light up ? they are spinning, I've connected the 3 RGB to the top header of the case, but there's no RGB at all. Thanks
Same here, not sure what's going on...
@@SniperPFL I first missed the part at 20m to plug in the case sata cable to the power supply sata cable.
At least for me that was it.
@@thesorus yup that was exactly my issue, I missed it the first time around. Now all fans are lit and spinning, everything looks to be working except I'm staring at a black screen lol no graphics card yet but that shouldn't be the reason...
How do I install a fan on the top? I am not sure what screws to use and which holes to use
Okay, i put my everything together, thanks to you 😂 I only need gpu and cpu
(i can put in the cpu later cuz when you put on it new paste, you have to take down the cooler, so yeah... I built 80% of my pc and waiting for cpu and gpu to finish xdd) Im so impatient... 😅
I spent forever looking for the other front header cables only to see that the only one in the case is the power switch 😂 funny that they show a power led cable in the manual though!!
So do I have to buy the usb type c connector or does it come with the case as an optional cable
Hi, was going to use this video as a guide for building my own PC. But I am getting the mini variation of this case. I would assume the instructions would still be same? (same cables etc.)
My splitter for the fans only has 2 pins instead of 3 is it still okay to connect them? Really wish you went slower on that part it’s very confusing to newcomers since there’s about 20 different ways to connect it
@24:34 no ram clearance issues? What about taller ram with heat.sink or RGB ?
Nah theirs a offset mound on the top of the case you can see it at 24:41
Hey there, great video great help!
I have 1 question, my PSU is TX750M Corsair which has 4+4 for CPU. Motherboard is MSI Z690-A pro which has 8 + 8 and CPU is i5 13600k. I am planning to change PSU in the near future, is there anyway for the moment that I can connect the above mentioned components?
Hello I would like to ask why in my case there is no usb 3.1 gen 2 type c cable? Thanks
Thank you very helpful video
My case fans are spinning but not lighting up... Any help? I've tried moving connections around, idk...
So the Fractal case controller had no problem with the 5 fans connected together?
Great video
Anyone has a problem that system fans dont follow the fan curve when all of them are connected together and plugged in with one header?
I only wish that the front had an easy to remove filter for cleaning
where can I find the usb-c cable? is it uncluded or did you add it?
How can you syn the GPU and RAM RGB to the fans RGB all together?
Great video. Question. The case specs note a 170mm max PSU length, but I don't see anything that would block one longer, like 180mm other than possibly the ventilation being off center. Do you see any concerns going longer by 1 cm being an issue with PSU?
My RGB Fans of this case stop working as soon as I restart my PC. They only start working again if I unplug them from the RGB Controller and plug them in again while the PC is running. Next restart, they're off again.
Any ideas?
(I daisy chained only the three RBG fans which come with the case and connected them to the RGB Controller)
I have a similar build but needed to order the lga1700 brackets for my aio. Will I have to order the cable extensions aswell or are they not necessary?
Can you just not control the ARGB if your power supply isn't modular?