Thermaltake Core X1 Review

Performance Analysis

Being such an enormous case, cooling was never going to be terrible although we did have our concerns with the two included fans, which only span at 1,000rpm and had a rated noise of 16dBA. Thankfully, while they were inaudible above the din of our test GPU and CPU cooler, a CPU delta T of 50°C is quite good, bettering the Corsair Obsidian 250D, Lian Li PC-V358 and Corsair Carbide Series Air 240, for example.


However, with the BitFenix Prodigy and SilverStone Raven RVZ01 offering significantly better cooling, it's clear that the huge volume of air isn't really being dealt with by the two lowly 120mm fans and the temperatures would likely be much lower with more powerful models. The GPU delta T was also well above average and only 5°C adrift of the best results we've seen. It just about matches the Prodigy here and jumps into the fight with the Corsair Carbide Air 240, Corsair Graphite 380T and Antec ISK600 too.

Conclusion

We were both shocked and excited when we saw the Core X1. It is enormous and Thermaltake would only have to make a few minor adjustments to turn it into a micro-ATX case too. It has its ups and downs as far as features and build quality go but there's nothing seriously adrift to warrant concern. In fact, with a reasonable price tag, the only thing that would likely put anyone off is the size. It could only just pass as compact and that's if it's standing next to full size ATX towers.

However, while it likely has niche appeal, it's to this group of would-be owners that we must base our conclusion and ultimately the scores too. The size is certainly not wasted and there's enough cooling potential here to deal with anything you could ever throw inside. In fact, that's almost another issue as the most heat you'd be able to generate would be from water-cooling an overclocked CPU - typically a Core i7-4790K - and a Radeon R9 295 X2. Even if you added memory, motherboard and hard disk waterblocks on top of this you still wouldn't get close to the cooling capacity offered in terms of radiator mounts.

This brings us to one conclusion and it's the same that we started this review discussing. The Core X1 is designed for a high-end water-cooled system with all the bells and whistles but has such monstrous cooling capacity that you can trim all the fan speeds down to silent levels and still beat the pants off an all-in-one liquid cooler at a fraction of the noise. In addition, the large size and expansive side window mean that building a PC you'd want to show off, perhaps with hard line acrylic tubing, is worth it too; something that very few mini-ITX cases offer. If that's the kind of system that you're hoping to build, with oodles of excess and overkill and you're also set on mini-ITX, then the Core X1 is quite possibly the best case for you and by a long way.