Thermaltake Element V

Posted 03/05/2010 at 2:45pm | by Nathan Edwards

The V could be for "very old design, very overpriced"

Since we reviewed the Thermaltake Element S (August 2009), Thermaltake has unleashed a dizzying deluge of Elements, from mid-towers G and T to the small-formfactor Q. The first full-tower, the Element V, feels like a bizarre mix of budget case and deluxe enclosure.

The Element V chassis comes with support for MicroATX, ATX, EATX, and various server motherboards, and its motherboard tray includes a CPU backplate cutout. At 21x21x8.7 inches, it’s a full three inches shorter and three inches shallower than the Corsair 800D, which is one of the biggest cases we’ve tested. Still, the Element V is roomy enough inside to accommodate a Radeon HD 5970, the longest PCI-E graphics card on the market, with an inch or so to spare.

Because the Element V is made of steel, not aluminum, it’s quite cumbersome, weighing 31 pounds empty. The side panels are similarly beefy, although we like the integrated 14cm fan in the left-side panel and the small plastic window above it. It’s good that the window is so small, because the inside of the case is unpainted, unlike the Element S.

The Element V must be one of those heavy elements. It weighs 31 pounds, and not in a good way.

The Element V has 11 5.25-inch bays running from the top to the bottom of the case. That may seem like a crazy amount, but the lower six are dedicated to two 3.5-inch drive-bay cages. The cages can be held in with just one thumbscrew initially, but once you get your drives where you want them, you’ll definitely want to secure the cages with additional screws to prevent them from rattling around. The hard drive bays themselves are a pain—you have to remove the cage from its chassis and use four screws to secure each drive into its recessed cage, which is awkward without a magnetized screwdriver. Considering that virtually every non-budget case on the market these days has some sort of drive-mount rail, Thermaltake’s decision here is baffling—especially as there are no vibration-damping measures. The toolless optical-drive bay clamps are a nonstandard configuration, and flimsier than those found in Corsair, Cooler Master, or Silverstone cases.

The Element V has five fans—two 12cm front intake fans, one 12cm exhaust fan, and two 14cm fans. The 14cm fans on the case’s top and left-side panel are LED-enabled, as is one of the front 12cm fans. The LED fans connect to a front-panel fan-speed control wheel, which also changes the LED colors, but the fans are noisy even at their lowest setting. And though there’s room for more fans in the case, Thermaltake doesn’t sell its LED fans à la carte, so you’ll have to go with somebody else’s.

The case includes an SSD mount, but the SSD must be secured to the bottom of the case from the outside, which is needlessly complex. Worse, instead of using two double-headed 9-pin adapters for the front-panel USB ports, the Element V uses four 5-pin headers—a totally unnecessary and confusing throwback. We haven’t seen a case use these ancient headers in years.

Thermaltake is aiming the Element V at the “eSports” audience, and thus the Element V has a locking left-side panel (to prevent theft) and an optional mount for a water-bottle bracket. But if it really wants to attract a LAN-gaming crowd, Thermaltake would be better off with a lighter aluminum chassis and better hard drive brackets. At $180, the Element V is too much dough for not enough case. You can get the far-superior Silverstone Raven RV02 for that kind of money.