Author: Matt

Introduction

The Thermaltake Element T (VK9000 Series) is one of ThermalTake’s latest cases to enter the ‘Element’ series. Sporting plenty of space for fans, I think it’s safe to say that this is designed more for the gamers amongst us and the more performance demanding of users. So lets open it up and see if it’s up to the job.

About Thermaltake

Thermaltake Technology was established in January, 1999 and has been market to the world with “Thermaltake” brand name ever since.

The brand personality of Unique, Aggressive, Vivid, and Stylish makes Thermaltake an expert in creating Exciting things and Fascinating environment for gamers and enthusiasts, also Keep them Constantly High physically and mentally. Excellent technical expertise and integration ability, plus dare to experiment on the new possibilities give Thermaltake the source of authority in the market. Moreover, Thermaltake get close to consumers and observe lead users’ behavior and requirement, to design aesthetic and high quality products which will greatly improve system performance and bring the user to the up most potential. With innovative design and unique style, Thermaltake products spread rapidly among the enthusiasts in DIY market and soon become the number one choice for PC DIY enthusiast worldwide.

Features

• Tactic – Tactical appearance for optimal gaming experience.
• Transformable – Preserved fan opeing for 120mm to 200mm at top and fron panel, 120mm to 230mm at side panel.
• Titanic – Massive storage capability with 7 x 2.5″ and 1x 2.5 HDD or SSD bay.
• TtXGameShield – Security lock for kayboard and mouse for Lanparty event.
• Transportation – Thumb Screws for 3.5″, 5.25″ devices and PCI slots for secure transportation.

Specifications

The Package

The Element T arrives in an almost completely black box with a red stripe covering the top right hand side of the box. On the front of the box in the centre, the front of the element T is shown with its 200 x 200mm top fan glowing red in the background, almost giving the case a mysterious appearance. The product name “Element T” is written in fairly large writing in the top right corner with the slogan, “Create For Pros” written just below as is “VK9000 Series”.

The back of the box contains a lot more information about the product including information about “The Cooling System”, “External Structure”, “Appearance”, “Ventilation” and “Internal Structure”. All of these sections include labelled images for cohesion.

On the sides of the boxes, the only information available are the Features and Specifications which are located on the first page of this review.

The case itself is packaged inside a translucent plastic bag, with the manual located on the top of the case, securely surrounded between two styrofoam sections, protecting the case from bumps that may have occured during delivery.

There are various accesories included with the Element T, which are:

• Screws for Hard Drives, CD Drives, Other Drives
• Motherboard Standoffs (if you choose to use them)

The Thermaltake Element T (Exterior)

As you can see, the Element T has been very well designed with its completely black back and sides and dark gray ABS Plastic front. Just from looking at the Element T, you can see certain features which we’ve witnessed on other cases have reviewed here at Tech-Reviews, mainly the front panel ports located on the top of the case, which have recently been seen on the Cooler Master Scout Case. This for me, is an appealing factor as it gives the case a somewhat more clean look about it as there aren’t any buttons or ports taking up space on the front panel.

The front panel ports consist of the following:

• Power Switch
• Reset Button
• Microphone and Headphone Jacks
• Two USB Ports

The buttons on the front panel are made from aluminuim and finished off in a bright red colour.

The top of the case is fairly minimalistic as the only feature is the massive red 200mm LED fan which is one of the main cooling devices inside the case. Thanks to this fan, hot air produced inside the case can be easily and immediately exhausted.

The back of the case is home to another case fan, a 120mm fan this time, providing even more cooling to the case.

Towards the bottom of the rear of the case there are 7 expansion slots/ PCI plates which are secured in place with tool-less clips. A grill situated on the right of these is also in place ot help exhaust the heat from the graphics card.

Right at the bottom of the case is where the PSU will be mounted, which seems to more popular nowadays over the previously popular top mounted PSUs.

The side panel features a mesh window where a fan of upto 230mm can be fitted.

The Thermaltake Element T (Interior)

The interior of the case is made entirely of steel and is the raw grey colour.

There are four bags of screws included with the Thermaltake, these can be found attached to one of teh drive bays. The Element T has been designed in such as way that it only requires screws to hold the hard drives in place.

As we mentioned on the previous page, this case sports a bottom mounted PSU. Also, it features a mount for your PSU to allow air to flow underneath to provide extra cooling. There are ridges on the mount ensuring the PSU doesn’t slide out if the screws come loose.

Up to 11 drives can be installed in this case including 3 x 5.25″ and 1 x 3.5″ accessible drives and 6 x 3.5″ and 1 x 2.5″ hidden drives. As mentioned previously, all of the hard drives are held and secured in place with the use of thumb screws only but there are two security clips for one 5.25″ drive and one 3.5″ drive. There is also an option to install a card reader or FDD reader in the 3.5″ space provided. For extra cooling, fans may be installed in front of the hard drives. They can be installed in a variety of ways:

• 120 x 120 x 25 mm fan x 2 or
• 140 x 140 x 25 mm fan x 2 or
• 200 x 200 x 20 mm fan x 1

In the image below you can see the 200mm fan (top) and 120mm fan (rear). The 200mm top fan glows a bright red once turned on.

There are not too many places for cable management but more than normal cases. Behind the motherboard plate there is a large hole which is positioned underneith where the processor would be mounted. The reason for having a hole underneith the processor is because many high-end CPU Coolers require a back plate to be installed on the bottom of the motherboard, so this is a very useful feature for someone who changes their hardware often.

Installing

The first thing that I installed in the Thermaltake Element T was the motherboard. The Element t’s motherboard tray has a unique design by having rasied points where some of the motherboard standoffs would be. One critisim is that there are many points on the motherboard tray which need standoffs and therefore you can’t get away with simply using the raided points. On a positive note, the motherboard installs easily and without problems and has more than enought room. Even though the Element T’s top fan and rear fan are close to the motherboard like the Cooler Master Storm’s are, these are not nearly as close.

Just like the hard drives and optical drives, 5.25″ drives are installed in the same way, just slide the drive into the place, secure with the four screws and it’s done. In terms of installing hard drives, cd drives, and other drives the Element T had to be one of the most hassle free cases I have used. When the front cover is removed you can see that the hard drives are in clear view, this is because one or two fans can be attached to the front cover to provide cooling for the hard drives. When looking at the back of the front cover, you can see that the black mesh panels in front of the cd drives are removed by the use of two clips either end of the panel, these are very easy to remove and requires no effort whatsoever.

If we take a closer look at the now installed hard drive, a test I used to see if it was secure in place with just the screws was to see if it moved at all by applying different amounts of pressure to it. The test showed that the drive was impossible to move out of place using just your own force. These test result applied to the other drives secured in place in this manner as well, making it a very secure case and meaning that if you picked it up the and shook it violently (i don’t know why you would do that in the first place but lets say you did!), the hard drives would stay in place. Also, remembering that one hard drive and cd drive have a security lock on them adding even more protection and security.

The CPU Cooler that I used was the Akasa AK-876, a very quiet fan, not necessarily the best cooler out there but a good cooler none-the-less. The AK-876 does not require a back-plate but with the available window in the back of the motherboard plate, this makes installing CPU coolers that require a backplate very easy and also, a very useful feature for many enthusiasts. The Element T has space for cable management, however, there are no cable ties included to do this.

Finished Job

Upon completing the installation I couldn’t wait to see how the Element T sounded and performed. Thankfully, it started up first time and sounded relatively quiet even with a 200mm fan whirring around all the time. The red LEDs behind the On/Off button and Reset button are very bright and all of the LEDs look pretty impressive with the light off, especially the 200mm fan’s red LEDs as they take up nearly half of the top of the case.

Conclusion

Based on looks, the Element T is definitely targeted at gamers and overclockers/”Pros”. I came to this conclusion based on the amount of cooling available for the case (upto five fans, two of them being 200mm and over). The Element T offers a lot of space for fans, some pretty cool LEDs, easy to install hard drives, cd drives etc. All of this bundled, with the fact that it is a very clean looking case, costs a minimal amount of just £57. The Element T is currently available in the EU but will be available in the UK by the end of August. A brilliant budget case if you are looking for a case to withstand all your overclocking needs.

There is only one problem I can think of. The case look a whole lot better if the front panel was made of a stronger material and was painted in maybe the same colour as the rest of the case (black) as the front is currently a dark gray and doesn’t look too appealing.

Bottom Line: For less than £60, the Element T provides all the features you need in a case: lots of space, security, relatively compact and it looks great, so for the price it’s definitely worth a look.