Our Verdict
Thermaltake’s Tower 500 affords large air and water-cooling potential in a novel and fascinating chassis, nevertheless it’s overpriced for what you get.
- Wonderful air and water-cooling assist
- Superb view of your {hardware}
- Good cooling
- Roof must be eliminated to detach facet panels
- Fundamental equipment and options
- Costly for what you get
Regardless of wanting like a vivarium for unique pets, and being large for a mini-ITX case, the Thermaltake Tower 100 proved to be standard with air and water-cooling fans. Individuals appreciated its distinctive design, ample working house and affordable value. The Thermaltake Tower 500 right here, although, could be very completely different.
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Thermaltake Tower 500 specs
Thermaltake Tower 500 specs:
| Dimensions (W x D x H) | 388 x 398 x 608mm |
| Materials | Metal, plastic, glass |
| Out there colours | Black, white |
| Weight | 14.8kg |
| Entrance panel | Energy, reset, 1 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Kind-C, 2 x USB 3, 1 x USB 2, stereo, mic, LED management |
| Drive bays | 6 x 3.5-inch, 4 x 2.5-inch, 2 x 3.5-inch/4 x 2.5-inch |
| Type elements | E-ATX, ATX, micro-ATX |
| Cooling | 6 X 120mm facet fan mounts (followers not included), 2 x 120mm/140mm rear fan mounts (2 x 120mm followers included), 4 x 120mm base fan mounts (followers not included), 2 x 120/140mm roof fan mounts (followers not included) |
| GPU cooler clearance | 275mm |
| Most graphics card size | 355mm |
Thermaltake Tower 500 design
Out there in black or white, the Thermaltake Tower 500 prices $180, which is a a lot increased value than that of the Tower 100, and the case itself is far greater too. It’s not as gargantuan because the Tower 900, nevertheless it nonetheless stands 60cm tall and measures almost 40cm deep and extensive.
Unusually, although, it doesn’t appear that massive on a desk, as its footprint is beneath 40 x 40cm, with the depth being a lot shorter than your typical ATX case. It offers you a terrific view of your {hardware}, benefiting from a top-to-bottom view of the primary chamber, with half-width glass panels on the facet.
The motherboard sits on its facet with the I/O panel dealing with upwards, with holes within the rear of the case on the prime, permitting you to string by cables for keyboards, mice, and displays. The entrance panel is pretty commonplace, with 4 USB 3 ports, a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Kind-C port, audio jacks, and energy and reset buttons. We anticipated to see a couple of extra options right here, or within the field, which makes the worth tag really feel a bit steep.
One key non-compulsory additional is a customizable shade LCD panel. This sits in a alternative panel for one of many decrease facet vents and features a 3.9-inch display screen that hooks as much as your PC utilizing a USB header. It seems nice, however we’d have favored this to be included as commonplace, and the additional $100 for the panel equipment is steep too, on condition that bigger customizable shows price far much less cash, and the Tower 500’s ample variety of flat surfaces can present loads of houses for them.
Thermaltake Tower 500 options
One characteristic we’ve beloved concerning the variations of the tower we’ve seen within the flesh up to now is the detachable panels. The roof, 4 facet panels, and decrease vent panels all detach. It’s not fairly as swish because the totally detachable roof you get in a few of Fractal Design circumstances, such because the Fractal Design Meshify 2, nevertheless it makes constructing a PC a lot simpler work than with a typical ATX tower, particularly if you happen to’re water-cooling your PC.
Talking of which, in contrast to its mini-ITX sibling, the Tower 500 could be very water-cooling-friendly, with house for 360mm radiators within the sides, two 240mm radiators within the base with one sat on its facet, and both a 240mm or 280mm radiator within the roof. There’s an enormous 275mm of CPU cooler clearance and lots more and plenty of fan mounts too.
The left and proper sides of the case every home a trio of 120mm followers, the rear of the motherboard tray affords a house to 2 120mm or 140mm followers, and the trio of roof and base radiator mounts add six extra 120mm mounts, with the choice of two 140mm followers within the roof as a substitute.
That’s greater than sufficient cooling to deal with any system you possibly can home inside this case, which is one benefit it has over your typical mid-sized ATX tower. Out of the field, solely two 120mm followers are included, with each performing as exhausts and one drawing air away from the facet of the GPU. Once more, given the worth, we’d have favored to see extra and maybe some RGB lighting too.
In fact, the case could possibly be so much shallower if Thermaltake ditched the rear chamber, however this doubles as an space to stow cables, in addition to home as much as six laborious disks or a mixture of as much as two laborious disks and 4 SSDs. With eight laborious disk mounts in complete, that’s excess of many ATX circumstances, which even have far much less beneficiant cable stowage, and your complete tray that holds them in place is detachable too.
Constructing a PC on this case, as we’ve talked about, is pretty straightforward, however what’s not as straightforward is getting inside it. It’s important to take away the roof part to take away any of the panels that help you get at your core {hardware}, and this setup might get previous in a short time if you happen to’re a daily tinkerer.
Thermaltake Tower 500 CPU temperature
The Thermaltake Tower 500 CPU temperature delta T of 47°C can be on par with the bottom outcomes we’ve seen from latest case checks, with the CPU benefiting from the massive quantity of air contained in the case. Buried within the depths of the case, the 2 1,500rpm exhaust followers had been simply eclipsed by the noise made by the remainder of our system.
Thermaltake Tower 500 GPU temperature
We had been shocked to see the Thermaltake Tower 500 GPU temperature delta T sitting at a low of 41°C regardless of no followers pointing at it, nevertheless it does sit inside a couple of inches of the vented facet panel. Regardless of the glass environment, you’ll haven’t any hassle cooling a robust GPU on this case.
Must you purchase the Thermaltake Tower 500?
The Thermaltake Tower 500 is a clean canvas, because the air or water-cooled PC you possibly can home inside could possibly be monstrous – much more so than the case’s dimension suggests. With six laborious disk mounts, 5 radiator mounts (together with two 360mm ones), extra fan mounts than you possibly can shake a stick at, and primarily limitless graphics card and CPU cooler clearances, air and water-cooled methods haven’t any limits. We additionally love the view you get of your {hardware} by the glass panels – this case will look good with a water-cooling system put in inside it.
Whereas it’s nice to see distinctive and fascinating case designs just like the Tower 500, it’s laborious to justify its $180 price ticket. If you happen to can afford to construct an attention grabbing water-cooled PC, then the Tower 500 will give it a horny room with a view, however everybody else can get higher worth elsewhere. If this aquarium-like windowed PC case isn’t proper on your wants, try our full information to the perfect PC circumstances.
