Thermaltake V9 Mid-Tower Gaming Case

Conclusion

When I think of a “Gaming Case”, I personally feel the strength has to be there, followed up with some great cooling. I know a lot of LANers are more concerned with weight than anything else, seeing that they have to tote the rig around. I would have liked to seen them use 1.0mm steel at the least. I also noted that the top panel came with two of its tabs broken off, and two of the remaining four were cracked. Handling a case on a normal basis, would leave me thinking this was going to be the weakest point.

The cooling performance of the V9 is satisfactory, but with only one intake fan (120mm or 140mm), and two exhaust (120mm & 230mm) or three if you add a fan on the mobo. The case is going to have negative pressure, which means it’s going to suck air in via every opening it can. This is automatically going to defeat the purpose of running any filters at all. They are simply going to filter the air for that area, while dust is being sucked in all the areas that don’t have a filter.

Although the tool-less PCI Locks did hold the card in the slot, it didn’t keep it from moving which is something that I feel is a must if you’re going to toss this in the car and head to a local LAN event. I also installed a set of IDE drives just to see if it was possible to utilize them (Yes, I know IDE is outdated, but they are still very common). To make the system work I had to install the HDD in the external 3.5″ slots where I could not secure it without modifying the cage.

Overall, I like the base look of the Thermaltake V9. I’m not personally fond of the X designs on theside panels, but then again, I do prefer to cut my own windows. I do feel the Thermaltake V9 is suitable for a budget gamer system. The Thermaltake V9 Gaming Chassis is currently going for around the $110 US mark, which to me is a little pricey. In this price range though, there are a ton of cases out there that offer equal or slightly better features. It’s all going to boil down to what each individual likes.