Hardware Bistro

Product: V5
Manufacturer: Thermaltake
Supplied by: Thermaltake
Price: 80USD/RM257
Launch Date: March 2010

 

We have gone through quite number of Thermaltake chassis reviews and today we are going to reveal another latest yet affordable model for you; Thermaltake V5. One of the unique selling points of Thermaltake V5 is the mobility where it comes with a handle on top of the chassis for user to carry it around easily like attending Lan Party, gaming competition which are pretty hot activities among gamers nowadays.

 

Company Profile

Started from the passion for the DIY (Do It Yourself) concepts and the desires to realize the goal of "Ideas are originated from humanity; Realizing ideas is our belief." Thermaltake Technology was established in January, 1999 and has been market to the world with "Thermaltake" brand name ever since.

Thermaltake became the number one choice for PC DIY enthusiast worldwide with its innovatively breakthrough product designs. The concept of "Quality", "Performance", and "Reliability" have been incorporated into the design of Thermaltake PC Chassis, Cooler and Power Supply to assure the components meet the highest standard.

 

Features

- All black coating for stylish inward appearance
- eSATA & Bottom Based PSU
- Flexible Drive Bay
- Air Cooling System
- Top 200mm dramatically huge blue LED fan
- An extra large and reinforced

 

Specifications

Package & Contents

 

As usual Thermaltake products are well packed and this is same for Thermaltake V5. Thermaltake V5 comes with a black sturdy packaging box; neither too big nor too small. The chassis is protected by two quality foams and a plastic bag for making it to be scratch-proof and water-proof. 

 

The overall net weight of Thermaltake V5 is pretty similar with other branded entry mid ATX chassis; 7.1KG. Thermaltake V5 doesn't come with PSU at default and its accessories are pretty standard which includes couple of PCI fillers, 5.25" to 3.5" front filler converters, cable ties, user's manual and a bag of black screw. 

 

A Closer Exterior Look on Thermaltake V5

 

In term of size, Thermaltake V5 is a mid tower chassis where it comes with standard dimension of 508 x 223 x 490 mm (H x W x D) and having net weight of 7.1KG. Thermaltake V5 is fully painted in black just like other Thermaltake chassis; maybe gamers like it. 3 years warranty is given for Thermaltake V5 but we wonder is this necessary since there is no electronic device on Thermaltake V5.

 

Here is the major unique selling point of Thermaltake V5; a handle to enhance its mobility. The handle should be made by plastic material but it is pretty solid and sturdy else there is no way for this chassis to support a gaming machine; normally high power PSU, giant graphic card, couple of HDDs, giant cooler and massive of cooling devices which will at least another additional 5-7 KG. There is a top 120mm cooling underneath the handle but the airflow should not be affected with its large air vent. 

 

The front I/O panel of Thermaltake V5 is located on top portion of the front panel where it consists of two USB ports, audio & mic jacks and buttons for power and reset. Surprisingly to see Thermaltake places the E-Sata port on top panel instead of sticking together with other front I/O ports. Thermaltake V5 has total nine 5.25" exposed mesh front panels which provides greater airflow but also earlier to get dusty.

 

Thermaltake V5 has something pretty similar with its brother; Element V where its left panel comes with small acrylic window on top of the side panel while bottom side panel is equipped with the honey comb type of ventilation holes. Such design is not only good for air ventilation but also looks great with some UV CCFL or some simple LED fans. Right panel of Thermaltake V5 is pretty standard and simple but a handle is available for easier opening & closing.

 

Here are the rear and bottom panels of Thermaltake V5. Although Thermaltake V5 is an entry mid tower chassis but it still comes with enthusiast design where the PSU is located at the bottom of the chassis to provide better ventilation. Thermaltake V5 comes with four rubber feet to get it hold firmly on the floor; maybe additional wheel is much preferable for carrying to Lan Party besides the handle.

 

A Closer Interior Look on Thermaltake V5

 

Thermaltake V5 is fully painted in black for both of the exterior and interior panels which is pretty suitable for most of the gamers since it looks cool and anti-corrosion is not along an issue. Although Thermaltake V5 is an entry chassis but it still comes with a pre-cut opening on the motherboard plate for easier CPU cooler installation with back plate.

 

Thermaltake V5 comes with tool-less installation kit as well for the HDD & ODD installation but the tool-less kit is pretty simple and straightforward (maybe cost saving purpose). Only left panel comes with these kits and it is used to lock the screw holes of the ODD/HDD by fastening the lock. Standard screw installation is still applicable for those unique control panels in case it is not compatible with the Thermaltake tool-less kit.

 

Besides the tool-less ODD/HDD kit, Thermaltake V5 is also equipped by tool-less kit for PCI card but this PCI locking method is very rare and we found that it is not encourage for heavy card. Push the tool-less holder toward the PCI slot which will automatically fasten the PCI card. At the bottom of the Thermaltake V5, there is an air vent which dust filter at PSU area for better PSU ventilation without dusty environment.

 

For inner exhaust cooling structure, Thermaltake V5 is equipped by a rear 120mm black turbo cooling fan and a top 200mm blue LED cooling fan; such combination is perfect for ventilation. Both of these fans are silent fans where the black turbo fan only comes with 1300RPM with 17dBA while 800RPM and 14dBA for top blue LED fan.

 

HDD cage is provided for Thermaltake V5 where it can install up to three 3.5" HDD. To further cool down these HDDs, a 80mm cooling fan can be mounted in front of this cage but we prefer Thermaltake pre-install on it since a fan doesn't cost much. Besides that Thermaltake also provides a 3.5" holder for any exposed 3.5" drive such as floppy drive or any kind of control panel.

 

The front panel of Thermaltake V5 can be removed pretty easily without any tool as this front panel has to be removed out for any exposed drive installation. As we mentioned previously Thermaltake V5 front panel comes with dust filter which can be removed out from the 5.25" filler so that it can be cleaned up easily.

 

Installation, Testing & Performance

Before we discuss the installation part of Thermaltake V5, here is the airflow movement with blue arrows. Arrow 1st and 2nd are fresh air while arrow 3rd and 4th are heated air; 2 in & 2 out to balance up the ventilation without generate unwanted noise due to unbalance of airflow. However 1st and 2nd fans are not included at default by Thermaltake.

Here is the one of the major selling point of Thermaltake V5 where we have discussed above. The giant handle of Thermaltake V5 allows user to carry it conveniently. For a normal gaming rig with a tower cooler, high end video card, quality PSU and couple of HDDs will at least sum up to 10KG hence it is still not that comfortable to carry such rig attending any event without a proper transportation; adding wheel is still much preferable. 

We have tested Thermaltake V5 with below rig and overall we didn't encounter any installation issue but the PSU cabling must be long enough especially for the 4-ATX and 24-ATX cables to reach the top portion of the case since the PSU is being placed upside down. Thermaltake V5 is spacious enough to handling most of the pc components even with dual PCI slots graphic card, tower CPU cooler and etc.

 

Test Bed

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E8300 @ 2.83GHz
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3 (Gigabyte G31M-ES2L)
Heatsink: Thermaltake FRIO
Memory: Kingston HyperX 4GB DDR2 8500
Hard Drive: 250GB 7200RPM 8MB Seagate
Graphic Card: Galaxy GeForce GTX260+
Casing: Thermaltake V5
PSU: Aerocool V12XT-800
Router: TRENDnet TEW-639GR
Optical Drive: HLDS DVD RW +/-
Monitor: Dell 22" Wide Screen LCD
Speaker: Edifier R501
Mouse: SteelSeries Ikari Laser
Mouse Pad: SteelSeries QcK+
HeadSet: SteelSeries 3H
Operating System: Microsoft XP Pro SP2/Vista Home Premium
Ambient Temperature: 27 Degree Celsius

Here are the cooling performances of Thermaltake V5 and it is clearly shown that Thermaltake V5 does achieve certain level of cooling performance for such entry and value chassis although there is still room to grow further. An additional side cooling fan on left panel should able to boost up its performance gradually and same for HDD as no additional fan is added during our test in order for us to provide pure result as much as possible. Anyway Thermaltake V5 performs pretty well with its simple and low noise design.

 

Verdicts

Looking for a mobility entry but branded chassis? If yes then Thermaltake V5 is one of your choices as it is equipped with greats features of high end chassis such as handle, fully painted in black, tool-less installation methods, motherboard back plate opening for giant CPU cooler, top 200mm blue LED fan, small acrylic window, upside down PSU placement and etc. The cost of Thermaltake V5 is pretty afforable with only 80USD. 

 

Pros: 

+ Perfect for Lan Party with its handle
+ Well design with fully painted in black
+ Tool-less lockers
+ Motherboard back plate opening for CPU cooler
+ Pretty value of money
+ Top 200mm blue LED fan

Cons:

- Side panel & HDD cooling fans are not provided

 

Thanks to Thermaltake for providing this sample for us to review.

 

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