Excellent budget case! Very sleek too! Great stock cooling!
Pros: Cooling, sleek design/look, functionality, large graphics card support (long cards)
Cons: 23CM Fans, large CPU heatsink support
The Thermaltake V9 Black edition is quite a case for the price. The features do outweigh the cons of this case but the pros really make it shine.
This case is easy to work in, has excellent port placement on the front panel, easily removable dust covers (including one for the power supply), and fantastic stock cooling. For most ATX boards the slot between the 5.25" and 3.5" allows this case to support the longest video cards available, a really nice feature. The toolless design is good as are the locking mechanisms, for large drive bays, the HDD bays, and the PCI slots.
There are some bummers here though - the case has problems with tall CPU heatsinks which will mean your 23cm side fan will not be functional as it hits the top of most cooler (for reference I'm using a Xigmatek S1284 cooler). You can move it to the outside of the case but the back will be open causing you to be very careful about putting anything on that side of the case because of the exposed fan. Another note is the fans themselves - they are hard to replace unless you RMA and are prone to failing unfortunately. There have been reports of finding normal fans that do fit for replacement, though I personally never have. The 120mm fans are fine and the job quite well otherwise. This case does lack proper cable management as there is no where to hide them (like behind the motherboard or behind the bays) but is easily manageable with a little work.
The features are nice however. There are holes for water cooling if you can manage to fit that into a mid tower case like this one. The dust covers can be removed easily for cleaning. The front panel comes off easily which is always a nice feature. The right side panel has a port for attaching a 70x70x10mm fan to cool the back of the CPU socket (fan not included, must be purchased separately).
This really is a great case for the price. There have been released some newer cases which may outperform it and offer better features, like the HAF 912, but for the look and features this case is hard to beat.
This case is easy to work in, has excellent port placement on the front panel, easily removable dust covers (including one for the power supply), and fantastic stock cooling. For most ATX boards the slot between the 5.25" and 3.5" allows this case to support the longest video cards available, a really nice feature. The toolless design is good as are the locking mechanisms, for large drive bays, the HDD bays, and the PCI slots.
There are some bummers here though - the case has problems with tall CPU heatsinks which will mean your 23cm side fan will not be functional as it hits the top of most cooler (for reference I'm using a Xigmatek S1284 cooler). You can move it to the outside of the case but the back will be open causing you to be very careful about putting anything on that side of the case because of the exposed fan. Another note is the fans themselves - they are hard to replace unless you RMA and are prone to failing unfortunately. There have been reports of finding normal fans that do fit for replacement, though I personally never have. The 120mm fans are fine and the job quite well otherwise. This case does lack proper cable management as there is no where to hide them (like behind the motherboard or behind the bays) but is easily manageable with a little work.
The features are nice however. There are holes for water cooling if you can manage to fit that into a mid tower case like this one. The dust covers can be removed easily for cleaning. The front panel comes off easily which is always a nice feature. The right side panel has a port for attaching a 70x70x10mm fan to cool the back of the CPU socket (fan not included, must be purchased separately).
This really is a great case for the price. There have been released some newer cases which may outperform it and offer better features, like the HAF 912, but for the look and features this case is hard to beat.
