Thermaltake Element V Case Review

Performance Analysis

Despite what we’d hoped would be a well-rounded cooling setup thanks to the Element V’s five separate cooling fans, performance varied enormously depending on the situation, delivering what proved to be excellent CPU cooling alongside fairly mediocre GPU airflow, even with the large 230mm side panel fan.

At idle the Element V performs pretty well, helping to keep our 135W CPU at just 10°C above room temperature, while the GPU sat at a very respectable 16°C Delta T. Things were equally good under CPU load thanks to the combined efforts of the 200mm and 120mm exhaust fans, keeping our CPU at a delta T of 23°C while the GPU temperature rose slightly to a delta T of 17°C.

Put the GPU under heavy load though and the Element V isn’t so adept. Despite a huge 230mm side panel fan - the one feature we have previously seen so closely associated with lower GPU temperatures - the Element V produces a GPU Delta T of 45°C, a good ten degrees higher than other similar high airflow chassis like the Antec 902 and 300.

Things got even worse when we dialled the fans down to their lowest setting, with the GPU load temperature rising to a delta T of 49°C, although CPU cooling performance was notably unaffected. This feature is made mostly redundant however as there’s almost no appreciable difference in noise from the fans running at their highest or lowest speed. As only three of the five fans benefit from adjustable speeds the remaining two run at full whack constantly, making them always the loudest things in the case, unless you’ve wired them into other fan controllers at your own cost and time.

Even then, at the quietest setting the Element V isn’t what we’d call a low noise case, however as a “high airflow gaming case” the two factors are somewhat mutually exclusive. While Thermaltake claims the loudest fan produces only 17dBa at full speed, we found the Element V’s cooling fans to be clearly audible over the usual hum of our labs – we don’t know where Thermaltake are pulling this magic number from. Let’s be clear though, the noise is not what we’d call intrusive as it’s a windy rush, not a bearing whine, but you’d certainly know that your PC was switched on without needing to check the LED lighting. The lack of any hard disk vibration dampening is very evident too, with our test rig's hard disk drive chattering away like a tin of angry bees; let alone what a full complement of six would sound like.

Value and Final Thoughts

It should be clear then that the Element V is much better than what we’ve previously seen from Thermaltake; however it’s a case that’s also far from perfect. Despite some impressive steel build quality, an enormously spacious interior and neat cable tidying touches, the extra features Thermaltake has included are both badly thought out and poorly implemented.

The ability to change the colour of your case’s LEDs is cool, but the fans are a mishmash of size, colour and quality and the integrated fan controller only handles a few of them – not all. The lack of any kind of vibration deadening hard disk drive mounts is also a fundamental oversight, as is the lack of removable dust filter for both the floor mounted PSU and roof mounted ventilation grills meaning you’ll be forever with the vacuum cleaner given the many intake fans. Even the cooling seems to have been misplaced with the side panel mounted 230mm cooling fan blowing onto your memory rather than sitting atop of your graphics card.

Perhaps most galling part though is the £145 price tag for the Element V. It’s easily the most expensive case in its class. For example, £120 can pick you up the excellent Cooler Master Sniper, which offers far superior fan and lighting control features, or the Antec 1200 that boasts a similar modular drive bay system to the Element V, but is finished to a much higher overall standard inside and out. Drop the cost again and there are a slew of solid £100 cases: the Antec 902 and the Cooler Master HAF 922 or 932 are both worthy mentions and already exceptionally popular. Those are half the price. We can even pick up an all-aluminium, equally capacious and exceeding gorgeous Cooler Master ATCS 840 for £147. There is simply no contest.

It feels like Thermaltake has approached the Element V with some solid ideas but the result really isn’t as good as it could have been. There was so much promise but it’s half there. If it was literally half the price we could forgive a few things, but even then it would have stiff Cooler Master and Antec competition still.

What’s frustrating about all this is that underneath the flaws we know there’s a good case here. The features might be poorly implemented but on paper they all sound great, and it would only have required a little extra effort to make the Element V the quality chassis it could so easily have been. As it stands though we’re not able to look beyond the Element V’s clear short comings, especially considering its extremely hefty price tag.

• Features
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• -
• -
• -
• -
• 6/10

• Build Quality
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• -
• -
• -
• 7/10

• Ease of Use
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• -
• -
• -
• 7/10

• Performance
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• -
• -
• -
• 7/10

• Value
• x
• x
• x
• x
• -
• -
• -
• -
• -
• -
• 4/10

• Overall
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• -
• -
• -
• -
• 6/10

Score Guide