Thermaltake Core V21 MATX Case Review
Hardware Installation
Seeing as the Thermaltake Core V21 case comes with a Tt LCS certification. I decided to put it to the test with a full blown liquid cooling system including 2 x 240 and 200mm radiators, and a liquid cooled graphics card with rigid tubing.
First thing I noticed if you decide to locate the radiator mounts to the sides you will not have enough space to do an SLI setup. This will only be possible if you have them both in the top. Something to take into consideration when selecting parts for your build. In addition to that there are not many places to put your pump/reservoir. The best place I found was to uses the slots in the front panel for the fans. The other location is on the bottom panel where mesh for the fans is located.
The ability to not only adjust the location of the radiator/fan mounts but also being able to adjust along the mount rails them selves makes this the most liquid cooling friendly MATX case I have ever built in. In addition to that when the mounts are relocated to the side positions there is still ample space to plug in your Front Panel I/O, CPU Power and Fan cables.
One of my major pet peeves is seeing cables from drives. The connections should always be at either the bottom or the rear of the caddy.
On the back side of the motherboard plate, where the PSU is located sadly there is not much in the line of adequate cable management. A modular or semi-modular PSU is highly recommended if not required. A few tie downs in key locations along the bottom of the motherboard plate would come in very handy. The only true way to get a real clean install would be to get or make custom shortened cables. This is the one downfall to most SFF builds. On a lighter note I was able to install a 200mm radiator to the inside of the front panel without any drilling or cutting.
