Today for review I’ve got another product from our friends at Thermaltake, this time it’s one of their newest cases called the Element G. This case has a lot of great features, it’s well made and it looks good as well. It has enough room for seven 3.5” hard drives and even space for two more 2.5” HDDs or SSDs so you’ll never run out of storage space. So read on to learn more about a very nicely designed case…
Specifications:
Gaming
- Colorshift Fan with 6 color changing pattern for optimal gaming experience
Glittering
- Three enlarged color shifting fans creates most eye catching appearance
Gradational
- Adjustable fan speed control for performance mode or silent mode
Gigantic
- Massive storage capability with 7 x 3.5” and 2 x 2.5” HDD or SSD bay
Glaciated
- Excellent thermal performance with glacial airflow
Case Type: Mid Tower
Material: SECC
Front Bezel Material: Plastic
Color : Black
Side Panel: solid w/23cm side fan
Motherboard Support: Mini ATX / Full ATX
Motherboard Tray: No
5.25″ Drive Bay: 3
Ext. 3.5″ Drive Bay: 0
Int. 3.5″ Drive Bay: 7
With Additional 2 x 2.5″ HDD / SSD bay
Expansion Slots: 7
Front I/O Ports: USB 2.0 x 2, HD Audio ports
Cooling System
-Front (intake) :
–200 x 200 x 20 mm Touchcolor (600~800 RPM, 12~14 dBA,49.735/65.30 CFM)
–2 x 120 x 120 x 25 mm (optional)
- Rear (exhaust) :
–140 x 140 x 25 mm TurboFan (1000 rpm, 16 dBA, 50.0 CFM)
- Top(exhaust) :
–200 x 200 x 20 mm Touchcolor (600~800 RPM, 12~14 dBA, 49.735/65.30 CFM)
- Side(intake) :
–230x 230 x 20 mm Touchcolor (600~800 RPM, 12~14 dBA, 57.0/76.0 CFM)
- VGA (exhaust) :
Two 60 x 60 mm fan (optional)
Dimension (H*W*D):
480 (H) x 230(W) x 521(L) mm
18.9(H) x 9.1(W) x 20.5(L) in
MSRP: USD : $149.99
Unboxing:
The Element G is packaged very well, in fact in comes wrapped in a blue cloth bag for protection.
On the front of the case you’ll find only three 5.25” bays. Below the bays and behind the grill is a 200mm cooling fan that you’ll se a bit later.
The top has another 200mm fan that acts as an exhaust. On the top you’ll also find the power and reset switches along with a fan speed control knob and four USB ports. No there is no eSATA port..
The left side has a bigger 230mm fan, while the right side is plain.
On the back you’ll find a 140mm fan pre-installed along with space for two more 60mm fans that can be used to help cool your video cards.
On the bottom of the case you’ll find four feet along with ventilation for the bottom mounted power supply.
The front bezel comes off easily with the use of the handle, it just pops right off for easy access. The fan filter is the sponge type, and each bay cover also has a filter built in. To install your 5.25” devices you’ll need to remove the metal bay covers. Once the front bezel is off we can also get a better look at the front fan.
Let’s take a look inside now.
I took the right side off first. I was pleasantly surprised to see that some wire management was already done in the case. Thermaltake included several clips and secured many of the wires already. The motherboard tray does have a cut out space where your CPU would be to make installing or changing cooler easier. The tray is also not removable, this isn’t a big deal to me, but to some it might be.
So I went over to the left side of the case and removed the panel where I found something very unique and interesting. The side fan does not have to be connected to a molex like other fans would need to be. The power connection is actually built into the case and the door itself so that when you put the side on the connection is made. I like this feature quite a bit honestly.
Once the side is off we can get a better look inside of the case. If you didn’t notice from the back view, the inside of the case is painted black.
The hard drive cage is removable, it’s secured with two screws, one at the top and one at the bottom. The cage is basically tool less for the installation of the drives, but you’ll learn more about that in the next section when I install my system in there.
The front fan is positioned to keep you hard drives cool, it blows air right through the cage.
To install your power supply you’ll have to remove the divider, but it’s much more than just a divider as you can install 2.5” drives onto it.
Here’s a couple more inside case views, the back fan and inside of the 5.25” bays:
Inside of the little brown box is where you’ll find several bags of screws for the installation and a bag of zip ties as well.
If you noticed in the above picture, there was a package taped to the power supply cage. In that package is two 120mm fan holders that can be used instead of the 200mm front fan. If you use the two 120mm fans instead of the single fan then you should get more airflow into the case really.
Installation, Performance, Comparison:
I was using the NZXT M59 case for my HTPC/Gaming/Video capture computer but it was in an accident. One of my children, or possibly my wife smashed into the side of it with something and busted the side window making it vibrate or rattle a bit when the side fan was running. I’m taking that computer and putting it in the Element G case.
The computer basically consists of : Gigabyte P35 Motherboard, IntelC2Q9650, ATI Radeon 4870 1gig, PhysX Card, Blu-ray and DVD/RW drives, card reader and three hard drives.
The first thing I started with on the installation was the hard drives, I’ve got three of them two 500Gb and one 750gb. The system used by Thermaltake for the hard drives is unique but a bit flawed. The instructions don’t mention that you need to stagger the screws on one side of the hard drive for it to fit in the rack correctly. On left side you can use the two holes farthest apart but on the other side you’ve got to use the holes that are closest together, or just one and then you can add the second screw later or you could use all three if you want to really secure the drives.
On the left side of the rack you can use the two screws or three, the third on goes into the hole in the rack so the drive cannot be removed without taking the rack out.
After that I installed the rest of the system. When I flipped the case around to look at the back I noticed that the CPU cooler bracket does not line up with the hole in the motherboard tray. This will make it fairly hard to change out the CPU cooler if need be.
There is plenty of room on the back of the tray to route your wires if need be and all of the holes allow for you to easily run the wires through the case.
Here’s the hard drives installed before a little wire management:
Speaking of hard drives you can install 2.5” drives above the power supply on the rack that is there. This is not a bad idea, but once you run all of your wires around space is limited.
The 4870 is a fairly large card but it fit fine into the case along with everything else. I found that if I had my CPU cooler rotated so it was vertical it didn’t leave much room at the top of the case, so I mounted it horizontally which left me more than enough room to make the connections up there.
The power supply area is fairly tight when it’s closed, I learned that I should have connected the wires before putting the rack over top of the PSU. The PSU I’m using is an Ultra X4 750Watt, and it’s about the size of a standard PSU, but it was a tight fit getting it in there.
Here’s the front with my optical drives and card reader installed. 3.5” devices do not fit in the Element G normally as there’s no space for them, but I had an adapter which I used for my installation.
When powered on the power button lights up a very bright blue and the hard drive activity light is a dark yellow or almost amber in color.
The front, side and top fans are controlled but the knob on the top of the case. This knob not only controls speed of the fans but it’s a button as well that you can push to cycle through the colors of the fans. They can be solid red, blue or green or off, and they can also blink as well.
Speaking of the fans, they are quiet even when on high which is nice.
I had no real issues installing my system into the Element G, but I found that some edges of the case are sharp. I got cut twice actually, one was a little cut on my hand and the other was a fairly deep one to my thumb. A lot of the case has rolled or non-sharp edges but there are some places that are sharp enough to cut you or maybe your wires.
As far as cooling ability, I saw no real difference in temperatures compared to the NZXT M59 that I was using before. With the fans on low the case does provide good cooling for your system.
Conclusion:
The Element G is nicely made overall, it’s solid and sturdily built with a good design as well. The Element G is aesthetically pleasing also, I like the black with red accents, it’s kind of plain yes, but it works well.
You should be able to fit most any system in there, and with room enough for seven 3.5” hard drives and two 2.5” drives you’ll never run out of storage space I’m sure.
The Element G works well at cooling your system and it does so quietly even if the fan are turned on high speed. This case can work fine for any kind of setup like as an HTPC that I’m using it for.
It’s a very nice case with a lot of great features really.
Yes there are some small issues or cons, but they don’t detract from my overall view of the case though.
Pros:
+Quiet
+Lots of room for storage
+Room enough for most any system
+Fairly easy installation
+Wire management built in
+Many places to route wires
+Side fan power connection built into case
+Well made
Cons:
-Sharp edges inside
-Instructions could be better
-No 3.5″ bays
-Hole in mobo tray doesn’t line up with CPU socket placement in some cases
-Not much room near the top of the case
Ratings
Overall: 4 out of 5
Performance: 4 out of 5
Aesthetic: 5 out of 5
Build Quality: 5 out of 5
I would like to thank Thermaltake for the opportunity to review the Element G and for their support of Bona Fide Reviews.
Disclosure: This product was given to Bona Fide Reviews for review by the company for review purposes only, and is not considered by us as payment for the review, we do not, and never will, accept payment from companies to review their products.
{ 3 comments }
Looks nice, a little plain but nice :) Reminds me a little of the scout….
It's very cool!
It's very cool!
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