Review: Thermaltake Element G mid-tower case
Tue, 10/13/2009 - 9:49am | 
Daniel VanBeek Computer cases have evolved over time from unassuming beige productivity boxes to large, flashy, over the top recreational rigs that begged to be looked at. But does everyone want over the top? What if I want to be flashy sometimes and unassuming others? Thermaltake is giving us the choice with the Element G! It yearns to be a gaming rig and a number cruncher, but does it live up to all of Thermaltake's promises? Check out the TBCS review here!
My first computer was a gray Dell that hummed quietly in the corner. Eventually I got wise and constructed my first BYOPC out of an unnamed black and silver case that has a side window and a pattern changing LED fan. Soon I graduated to a very loud and very green Raidmax Smilodon. Today, life comes full circle as I use the Thermaltake Element G. I now have the choice of letting my computer hum quietly in corner without an LED in sight, or have it roar to life with gaming fire and dazzle my enemies in a blaze of LED luminescence.
The choice is mine, and I exercise that choice often. Thanks to the design of the case, I also have the choice of modding just about every aspect of the case. These beneficial design aspects coupled with other internal design efficiencies show that Thermaltake has listened to both the modding and BYOPC communities in relation to case design. Follow the rest of this review to see just how well Thermaltake's Element G will fit in your computer lifestyle:
Thermaltake associates the Element G with five words, and for the most part they do a great job of describing the case:
| Gaming - Colorshift Fan with 6 color changing pattern for optimal gaming experience Glittering Gradational Gigantic Glaciated |
And no, Thermaltake did not create a new word as 'Gradational' is defined as a series of gradual, successive stages by thefreedictionary.com.
Out of the five terms 'Glaciated' is probably the most appropriate from face value. The Element G ships with a grand total of four enormous fans: a 230mm side intake, a 200mm top exhaust, a 140mm rear exahust, and a 200mm front intake. The case also has a pre-fitted area for two 60mm rear exhaust fans to facilitate more VGA air cooling. If you check out the Thermaltake Air Cooling graphic for the Element G here you can understand the amount of air cooling that goes into this case.
The formal specifications, taken directly from Thermaltake, are as follows:
Of these, my favorite features are:
- Mid tower
- Supports ATX motherboards and smaller
- All black interior
- Lots of quiet, included fans
- Supports seven HDD's and two SSD's
- Supports watercooling
But these are only the formal features; it is time to open up the box and find out what else the Thermaltake Element G has in store for us.
The Element G is shipped in a large, glossy, Thermaltake product specific box. The exterior of the box extols the virtues of the Element G, and includes much of the same marketing material located on Thermaltake's website. The shipping material is a thick cardboard that we at TBCS have come to expect for the safe arrival of cases. Upon inspection of the box I noticed a puncture zone that was about an inch in diameter. Thankfully the thick cardboard prevented a complete puncture, and the case inside was unscathed.
The computer case was wrapped in a tear and scratch resistant blue cloth sack to protect the finish of the case during transportation. This cloth sack is an improvement over other manufacturers' tendencies to ship cases sheathed in plastic, as lateral pressure will tear or scratch through plastic much faster than the cloth. The sides of the case were protected with strong molded Styrofoam to prevent any blunt force during transport.
The packaging of the case served its purpose as my Element G didn't have a single scratch on it.
Out of the box, my first impression was, "This is one of the coolest low profile cases I have ever seen."
I consider this a low key case because the majority of the case is black, there is no side window, there is no front bezel door, and the front bezel is all mesh with no stylistic designs. As you will see later this case can be a high profile darling if you so choose, but it doesn't have to be an attention grabber if you don't want it to be.
When the case is powered off, the only major stylistic attributes of the case are the mesh fan covers that act as a faux-window, and the bold red line that flows around both case sides. This red line consists of three pieces of plastic that are screwed into the case sides, and can easily be removed or changed for modding purposes.
The rear of the case reveals a fairly standard layout that we all know and love. The bottom mount PSU design accounts for the opening at the bottom, and two circular watercooling punch-outs are evident next to the PSU area. Since the Element G supports ATX motherboards the case has 7 PCI slots below a normal I/O Panel punch-out. The rear exhaust fan is also evident on the back of the case, and closer inspection of the fan grill reveals that this case can support either a 140mm or a 120mm fan. Beside the PCI slots and below the exhaust fan there are two fan grills that will clearly support the two optional 60mm exhaust fans. Both sides are held in place by three thumbscrews each, which are accessible from the rear of the case.
Case rear
The front control panel on the Element G is where the real magic starts to happen. From left to right the control panel includes the fan speed and color knob, the power button, the reset button and HDD LED, two USB 2.0 ports, an HD audio port, a microphone port, and two more USB 2.0 ports. Even though I would have loved an eSATA port here to go with my
, this is a common control panel layout and the four USB ports have already proven very useful with my other storage peripherals. While I have heard initial concerns over the size of the fan speed and color knob on the front control panel, the knob is actually the core of the Element G's cosmetic features. To adjust the fan speed, one simply needs to rotate the knob clockwise for a faster fan speed, and counterclockwise for a lower fan speed. The dBA ranges for each fan listed above will give you an approximation of the noise generated by these changes. To adjust the fan color, one simply needs to press the knob and you will immediately notice the change. As you will see in the testing below, the Element G has six different color settings that apply to each fan: blue, green, red, entire fan color changes every three seconds, individual LEDs change every half second, and all colors off.
Front control panel
When you open the case up you are greeted by a lovely all black interior, an accessories box, two fan grills, and the control panel cables tucked neatly away in the PSU area. Before I reviewed the Element G my previous case had been one that utilized two 80mm fans on the the removable side. Every time I wanted to work on my internals I would have to carefully open the side a small bit, reach in and unplug the molex connectors powering the fans, and then move the case side completely away. To be honest, the thought to check for a connector with the big 230mm side fan didn't even cross my mind when I removed the case side. It wasn't until I noticed a small piece of silicon on the case side did I realize that Thermaltake has already tackled, and solved, the common problem of side fans. I'm not entirely sure how many other case manufacturers have thought of this with their included side fans, but I can assure you that the system Thermaltake uses is a perfect solution.
The genius of the side fan power connectors comes in the simplicity. Thermaltake simply wired the normal molex fan connectors and wiring up to a small piece of silicon with two copper contact strips. The female connector is attached to the case, and the male connector is attached to the case side and runs back to the fan. Whenever the case side is attached, the connectors make contact and the side fan is powered. Whenever you remove the case side there is no unlocking or detaching mechanism for the connectors, they simply lose surface contact and therefore the fan loses power. Simple, effective, and provides a bit of peace of mind whenever you go to work on your case.
Small fan connector
The case comes with both a manual and a separate warranty policy. The manual is thorough and covers everything from tool-less information to mobo installation to the details of the fan controller. Inside the case were two 120mm fan covers. The manual explains that you can remove the 200mm front intake fan, and replace it with two 120mm fans facilitated by snap ins on the fan covers. The reasoning behind this system is that the 200mm fan does not provide direct air flow across all seven drive bay slots. If you are a power user that uses five or more hard drives constantly, switching to the two 120mm fan system will provide better air flow across all of the drives. Included in the accessories box is a veritable goodie bag of hardware. The Element G comes with two 4" zip ties, a keyboard and mouse locking system, 5.25" drive bay screws, tool-less mounting screws, motherboard grounding screws, motherboard standoffs, fan anchor screws, and one extra thumbscrew.
Accessories kit
The Thermaltake Element G touts itself as another tool-less system, and for the most part it is. The 3.5" hard drive bay, which faces the side of the case for easy access to the drives, uses a tool-less screw mounting system. The system consists of rails that accept the tool-less screw, and the rails have two different locking mechanisms for the drives. The first locking mechanism is simply a resistance clip on the left side of the rail. To use this lock you place a tool-less screw in the last screw hole on your hard drive, and when you slide the drive into the rail it will click into place in a plastic lock. To deactivate the lock you simply apply pressure to the plastic piece and the drive releases. The second locking method is a separate screw hole near the front of the case. To use this more permanent method you have to remove the front bezel, slide the drive in the rails, then place a screw through the separate screw hole into the drive.
Separated locking mechanism
The three 5.25" drive bays are not tool-less however, and use the common support rail and screw hole system. Removing the default cover over these drive bays is a must for any optical or usable drive as the covers are not on hinges and will not fit over most drives. The covers are removed easily, and feature both a metal mesh and foam air filter to allow clean air flow. The covers also have a little imprinted arrow to tell you the appropriate direction for reinstallation.
Foam filter, mesh grill, and molded plastic clips for drive bay covers
The Element G also touts itself as a great case for wire management due to the integrated areas for hiding wires. The wires for the front panel are sleeved in black tubing just like the wires for the four fans, and they run from the control panel, across the top of the case, through a wire manager in the center of the case, and exit the wire manager near the bottom center of the case near where most motherboards have their front panel connectors. The fan wires run throughout other parts of the case that aren't readily visible, and the removable separator that protects the PSU also has wire management holes. This PSU separator also acts as a PSU anchor as well as the drive bays for SSD's. The separator has a removable buffer that can be moved to fit your PSU, and SSD's can be secured by screws to the bent tabs next to the buffer.
PSU handler and SSD bay
The rest of the case is a fairly standard case, with features like labeled motherboard standoff holes, a well ventilated bottom mount PSU area, well placed fans, and foam air filters.
Thermaltake logo on front bezel
Equipment used in testing:
- ASUS P5Q Pro mobo
- Artic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro HSF
- EVGA nVIDIA GTS 250
- 2x HDD
- 1x Optical drive
- Antec Earthwatts 650W PSU
My DVD drive slid in without a hitch and stayed flush. Notice that there are only four holes in each bay for the optical drives, meaning that any non-standard bay accessory may not fit securely.
Optical drive bays require tools
Both of my hard drives slid into the rail system with ease, and both drives felt very secure with just the plastic pressure lock holding them in place.
Tool-less HDD mounting
I followed the mobo mounting instructions to the letter, and the standoffs provided the perfect support for my ASUS.
Motherboard standoffs
All recent ASUS motherboards have shipped with a control panel hookup helper (white box), and the properly labeled control panel wires (black boxes) hooked right up. Thermaltake was smart enough to realize that some mobo manufacturers use differing configurations for these hookups, and they provided two different Power LED hookups for the Element G - one three pin and one two pin.
HD Audio and AC'97 controllers
As I mentioned before, the wire manager deposits the control panel wiring right next to their common hookup position on the motherboard. With the PSU separator removed you can quickly hook all the cables up, place the PSU in the case, re-slot the separator, and immediately have all the cables managed.
Initial wire managing
Viola, the case is done! The Element G install was the quickest case swap I have ever done, and I attribute it directly to the design of the case. I simply put the case side back on, bolted it up, and pressed the power button and I was in business! The first time I powered the case up I had no prior indication of the color intensity or the brightness of the case lights, so I was pleasantly surprised when I saw the cool reds, greens, and blues emanating from the case as I pressed the fan color knob.
Red LED fan
To note, I did encounter a slight problem with the fans. As I sit here, with my computer in Element G, the 230mm side fan is not on the same color setting as the other two. If I press the color changing knob, the side fan is one setting ahead of the other two. I.E. if the other two are off, the side fan is blue. If the other two are blue, the side fan is green, so on and so forth. I believe this is due to the side fan contacts either not charging immediately after a restart, the contacts or the LEDs simply not communicating the color change once, or me bumping the side as I changed it. Whichever culprit caused the problem, it isn't something that Thermaltake could have easily sought to prevent, and it is something that a user can easily fix. Simply take the side of the case off, change the other two fans to whatever color the side fan was last, and put the side back on. I have pressed the color knob at least 100 times in succession to test how easily I can get the fans to be different, and so far the only time they were out of sync was the initial instance mentioned.
What can you say about a case that has virtually every feature a BYOPC guy wants?
Pro's:
- Side mount HDD bays and support for SSDs
- Ships with four fans
- Fan controller knob
- Wire management concious
Con's:
- No integrated eSATA
- Not entirely tool-less
Granted, those con's are a stretch, as the case never advertised eSATA and the tools you have to use are no different than any other case. The Thermaltake Element G has an MSRP of $149.99, and is listed at Newegg and TigerDirect for $119.99.
Normally I would list this MSRP as a con, but since the case ships with four fans, three of which are large color changers, the MSRP is mostly justified. The other almost-con is the case's support for watercooling. Since the case design is clearly a proponent of air cooling you cannot count the Element G off for not having enough allowances for watercooling.
Overall, I have to give the Thermaltake Element G a TBCS 5/5. The case is quiet and unassuming when you wants to be, and powerful and dazzling when you want it to be. The multitude of choices that this case offers to the user are what makes the Element G deserving of our highest rating.
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