A computer's case is the object that you see the most of in your computer. It may not directly effect performance, although it definitely regulates temperature, and anyone who's built a PC knows a troublesome case is not something fun to work within. Today we'll be looking at a new take on cases from Thermaltake, the Element S.

Here are the specifications.

Case Type Mid Tower
Material SECC
Front Bezel Material Plastic
Color Black
Side Panel Solid
Motherboard Support Micro ATX, Standard ATX
Motherboard Tray No
5.25" Drive Bay 3
Ext. 3.5" Drive Bay 0
Int. 3.5" Drive Bay 7
Expansion Slots 7
Front I/O Ports USB 2.0 x 2, eSATA & HD Audio ports
Cooling System - Front (intake) :
120 x 120 x 25 mm TurboFan, 1300 rpm, 17 dBA : 120 x 120 x 25 mm (optional)
- Rear (exhaust) :
140 x 140 x 25 mm TurboFan, 1000 rpm, 16 dBA
- Top(exhaust) :
230 x 230 x 20 mm red LED fan, 800 rpm, 15 dBA
- VGA (exhaust) :
Two 60 x 60 mm fan(optional)
Liquid Cooling Capable
No
Liquid Cooling Embedded
No
Power Supply Supported Standard ATX PSII(optional)
Power Supply Included No
Dimension (H*W*D) 21.3 x 9.1 x 19.9 in
505 x 230 x 540 mm
Net Weight 19.49 lbs
8.84 kg
Security Lock
Application
Warranty 3 Year

The Element S seems to be targeting a different market for Thermaltake, more professional crowd whether those simply building a high-end PC for work and play or the enthusiast who may not like all the fleshing lights and distraction of many cases these days.

The first thing that pops out from the case is the SECC (Sheet steel, Electrolytically coated, Cold-rolled, Commercial quality) material it is made of. There isn't the piano shine of pure aluminum but instead it is a bit more subdued look of rubber from the cold rolled steel. This also means that the outside of the case doesn't scratch as typical aluminum does. Outside of the case is as plain and standard as it gets, a grey-black color with one red stripe on the front is as far as it goes on the outside.

On top of the case feature all of the buttons for functionality including USB, Firewire, E-SATA, mic, headphone output. There's only one USB input unfortunately, two would be nice given how many USB devices are in use these days, and probably will be used more than Firewire.

Opening up the side panel is quite easy, there are three thumb screws for both panels and it slides off. Inside you can see that there's a lot of breathing room inside to work within. A massive hard drive bay cage, lots of room for the power supply, and for the motherboard. The steel also is quite durable and luckily no sharp edges as well to cut your self on while working on.

Installing a motherboard we used a standard ATX design with Foxconn's 790GX motherboard. The board fit quite easily but as is usually the case with CPU power at the top next to the case it was quite tricky to get it connected with the larger heatsink we were using. Normal heatsinks would have no problem but odds are if you're using this case you'll be using some high-end cooling. I'd say this more so lays at the fault of the motherboard design but it'd be nice if case makers gave you a little more breathing room around the edges to work within. Standard screws are used to lock in any expansion cards for your motherboard. A heads up on the length, it can support graphics cards up to 10.5" in length which should be good for most graphics cards and just fit the Radeon 4870X2 and GTX 280.

The power supply is at the bottom of the case as is the standard for very high-end cases these days. Getting to it is quite easy, the enclosure is fit in with a few screws, you simply remove them and then you have all the space you need to fit in the power supply. Cords for the motherboard come out from the top and cords for storage bay come out from the side.

Removing the drive cage is quite easy, simply take out two screws and push in a few tabs and it slides out easily. This is one massive drive bay, holding 7 3.5" hard drives which should be more than enough even for RAID. Putting in hard drives is easy, just attach four screws to the hard drive and slide it into the cage until it locks. Additionally, there is room for two 2.5" hard drives on top of the power supply for mounting if necessary. This is good to see as SSD hard drives become more popular.

Also all the drives can be installed facing the rear of the case to put cables behind the back and the cage is completely open to allow for better cable management in access. This is something we haven't seen before and is very neat feature of the Element S. Speaking of which there's plenty of options here to ziptie any loose cables and ends in the case to allow for better airflow and better aesthetics.

Moving onto the 5.25" drive bays we were a little surprised to find they're not tool-less but instead require regular screws and a screwdriver. This is a little disappointing but isn't a deal breaker but odd to see on a higher-end case. Surely rails can't be that much more. In the rear is a large 140mm fan with room for another expansion, and finally another 230mm fan on top! Plenty of cooling to go around with this case.