Review: Thermaltake V5

[slaveofconvention]

A new story entry has been added:

[drupal=537]Review: Thermaltake V5[/drupal]

By Colin M. Ormsby (Slaveofconvention)

Once again, we are pleased to bring you a review on a Thermaltake product. This time, it's the V5 Black Edition mid-tower case sitting as the unwitting victim on my test bench. With a nice low unit cost, and a well balanced spec-sheet, the case is already looking making some impressive noises. All that remains is to throw a system in her and see if she delivers where it counts... Read on...

[SXRguyinMA]

nice review!

[slaveofconvention]

Thanks. As always, if anyone has any questions, feel free to ask and I'll do my best to answer them...

[x88x]

Good review.

It sounds like they have made some welcome improvements to the V series since the V9 I have. The thing that surprised me most was the painted interior. That's usually unheard of at this price point, and is a welcome addition. The also learned their lesson on the front panel..after working mostly with newer Cooler Master cases, it's always a shock to me when i go and pull the front off of a case and there are wires attached.

It sounds like the structural weakness is still present though, which is a shame..though more acceptable at this price point.

I think you hit the nail on the head when you said "there isn't anything WRONG with the case". It looks like there are still several things they could have done better, but nothing that stands out as something they did wrong.

I have to say though, there are (imo) better options at this price point, particularly the CM590, which this seems to be this case's most direct competitor (minus the handle). I suppose I'm rather biased on that one though.

[slaveofconvention]

I know what you mean. The handle is kind of a selling point though. It really marks the case as a LAN party unit as opposed to a general use "hide it under the desk" item. Having said that, as strong as the handle is, if I threw a thousand bucks worth of hardware in there, I'm pretty sure I'd be carrying it (or ANY case at all) by the usual two handed method lol

As to the front panel. I agree totally. There really is no need for there to be wires on the panel. It was one of the things I liked about the Element T I reviewed a few months back and it is nice to see TT continuing the trend

[x88x]

Yeah, I know what you mean about the handle. A few years back, I got a cheapo case for my main system, solely because it was the only one I could find with a handle built in (this was before I got into modding). It was from one of those no-name manufacturers that pops up from time to time, but it was odd.. All the components seemed to be good quality, but it was assembled in what seemed to be the cheapest way possible. Back to the handle, it was actually a decent design, with 3 large plastic clips and I think around 15 screws holding it on. ...unfortunately, the numskull who assembled it decided that they only needed to put in 3. The first time I carried it by the handle it ripped out all three screws and one of the clips, and I almost dropped it down a flight of concrete steps. Later I tore it apart and actually put in all the screws and it held the weight just fine.