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Thermaltake Element T Case


Date
: 08/23/09 – 02:34:04 PM

Author
:

Category
: Cases

Page 1 : Index

Manufacturer:
Thermaltake

It's been a short time, but Thermaltake is back with us here at Overclockers Online with another product. Continuing with the mad dash of new cases Thermaltake has sent another from the Element series for us to take a look at.

Following in the Element G's wake, today we have the Element T. The Element T falls in the budget line of the Element series but still offers some flexibility for upgrading.

Page 2 : Package and Accessories

Packaging on the Element T is very much like the Element G. On the front you have a black background with a fading shot of the case powered on and on the back is a fairly extensive listing of the features along with illustrations.

On the sides you get a list of specifications and a short snapshot of the featured themes.

Packaging for the Element T is a little different than the G, you don't get the cloth like bag but a plastic one instead.

Accessories include manual, warranty, thumbscrews for the hard drives, motherboard standoffs, 5.25′ thumbscrews and a bag of misc screws and hardware.

Page 3 : Specifications

I grabbed specifications straight from Thermaltake's product page here..

Specifications:

Features:

Page 4 : Exterior

As you can see the entire front is a mesh which is a popular design theme among cases as it allows for greater airflow and filtering. There are three 5.25′ bays and one external 3.5′ bay. Along the top front edge are the mic/headphone jacks, 2 USB ports and reset/power buttons. Situated at the back is the 200mm exhaust fan.

The front bezel pops off by pulling out and unlike the Element G, you have to remove the front bezel to get the bay covers off. With the bezel removed you can see the bottom is open and while no fans are included, there are screws to mount two 120mm fans in the lower portion if you wanted to.

The left side panel has an opening to mount a fan, both 120mm or 230mm fan sizes are compatible.

On the back there is the pretty standard 120mm exhaust fan, 7 PCI slots and lower mounted power supply opening. There are also two punch outs towards the bottom for liquid cooling hoses though they are rather narrow. In the middle just above the PCI slots is the little device Thermaltake calls TtXGameShield, to secure your keyboard and mouse.

Turning the Element T on its head we see four rubber feet and an opening in the back for the power supply fan. You'll also notice two lines of holes towards the back with two screws, this is a power supply retention bracket that we will look at a little closer later on.

Page 5 : Interior

The side panels are both identical aside from the fact that the left side has the opening for a fan. While there isn't a fan included, I was at first excited to see that the side panel has the mounting plates along the bottom to use Thermaltakes contact panels for powering the fans. While this is definitely a cool move, the bad news is that these fans will not be available for purchase by the user.

First glance reveals a cutout in the back of the motherboard tray for heatsink installations. Space looks about typical of most mid tower enclosures.

As I noted earlier there are three 5.25′ bays with the top bay having a tool free installation mechanism. Internally there are six 3.5′ bays that also have a tool free device in the top bay. For the bays that do not have the device there are included thumbscrews for each one. If you look towards the bottom of the 3.5′ bays, you will see there are mounting holes located down there for a 2.5′ HDD or SSD.

In the top back are the two included fans a 120mm in the back and a 200mm LED fan in the top. I found it quite interesting that the Element T actually comes with reusable PCI slot covers, very much a difference (and appreciated) than what we have seen in even their higher end cases. In the bottom is the PSU retention bracket that helps to secure the power supply and is adjustable and should accommodate the larger units out there.

On the backside there really isn't a whole lot of room behind the motherboard tray for routing wires (and no cutouts for it either) though there is a good bit of space towards the front behind the 3.5′ bays.

Front panel connections include HD Audio/AC'97, USB, power/HD LEDs and power/reset switches. The connections for the LED's are separated out to make it easier for different motherboard header setups.

Page 6 : Installation

So now it was time to throw some goods at the Element T. While there was only one tool free device each for 3.5′ and 5.25′ bays, thumb screws were included so installation is still a simple feat.

The support bracket for the power supply has plenty of room for adjustment to hold even the largest PSUs and once it is adjusted it holds it in firmly.

Unlike the Element G, the CNPS9900 has plenty of clearance to the top fan.

There really isn't a whole lot of room to route cables, though I was able to route the fan cords and hide most of the other cables towards the front of the case.

With everything installed, there really is a decent amount of room. Once powered up the red LED of the top fan lights up and the power/reset buttons light up in read as well for the power and HD activity lights.

Page 7 : Testing

The following system was installed and used to gather temperatures.

CPU: Intel E8400 w/Zalman CNPS9900 LED
MB: Biostar TPower I45
RAM: G.Skill PI Black PC6400
Video: Biostar Geforce 9600GT
PSU: Ultra X3 1000W
HD: WD 250GB SATA
DVD-Rom: Lite-On 18x DVD Burner – SATA
OS: Microsoft Windows XP w SP3
Ambient Temperature: 25-26C

Cases:

Thermaltake Element T

Cooler Master HAF932
Lian Li ARMORSUIT PC-P50
Thermaltake Element G

First up we'll do some testing to see how well the Element T keeps things cool. To get idle temperatures I started the PC up and allowed it to sit at idle for 3 hours with no processes running and recorded temperatures using Everest Ultimate.

Nothing really too surprising here since the hard drive doesn't have a fan actively blowing over it the higher temps are expected. Considering all of the other cases have more fans included temps are pretty good.

Next was to load the PC and get some temperatures with a little more heat involved. To get load temps, I ran Orthos blend along with 3DMark06 in a continuous loop for 3 hours.

Here is where things got interesting. The hard drive and even the chipset temperatures really weren't a surprise, but the GPU results did surprise me. With just two fans the Element T handled itself well.

Thermaltake rates both fans at 17dBA and 14dBA so it is understandably quiet and the only noise you really will hear is any from the hardware you put inside it.

Page 8 : Conclusion

The Element T certainly brings a different package and look than the Element G. The Element T brings a lot of to the table when it comes to storage with six 3.5′ bays and one space to mount a SSD drive. There is enough room that worries should be minimal for full size power supplies or larger heatsinks.

The Element T is an entry level case and as such is somewhat light on what's included. You only get two fans that are both removing air from the case. While I liked the reusable PCI slot covers, it was odd to not see any screws included to secure PCI devices.

While the Element T is somewhat barebones, it offers a lot of room and options to tweak it to your liking. It is a decent value if you are looking for a good mid tower case but you don't want all of the expensive features.

Advantages

• Light weight

• Plenty of space for hard drives
• 2.5′ HD space

Disadvantages

• Only two fans included

• No screws for PCI slots

Overclockers Online would like to thank Thermaltake for supplying the Element T case for review.