Thermaltake Element V
Aug 2nd, 2010 | By StevenOnce inside the Element V, a few cool features come to light. The colorshift fan located in the case door receives power via pin connectors located on the base of the chassis; effectively eliminating the headache of having to route, connect and disconnect the side door fan every time you need to access the inside of the chassis. Other key features that stand out are the screw less drive mounts and two three drive cages. Cable management shouldn’t be too difficult of a task with the open areas around the motherboard tray and drive bays.
Taking a closer look at the front panel connectors, we see a wide assortment of connectors including USB, SATA, AC ’97 and HD Audio, two and three pin power LED connectors, HDD LED connector and power and reset button connectors. Around back we also see the bottom mount PSU opening and two punch out holes for water cooling.
Installing the testing hardware inside the Element V was a breeze. After attempting to use the screw less mounts to secure the hard drive and optical drive, I decided that they were too loose for my tastes, and used screws to secure the hardware. When wiggled, the optical drive would move a good quarter of an inch in all directions. Not good. Spending just a few moments on cable management, I was able to get the chassis mostly clear of wires that would impede airflow.
Hardware installed… Check. Time for testing!