Date: October 14th, 2008
Article by: Joe Anderson (Hardware Reviewer)
Edited by: Nathan Glentworth (Owner / Head Editor)
Product was submitted by: Thermaltake USA
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PRODUCT PICTORIAL AND WALKTHROUGH
Inside, the front of the V9 is totally given over to drive cages. From top to bottom, there's room for four 5.25” devices, two external access 3.5” devices and five internal hard drive bays. As you can see, Thermaltake has provided a tool-free installation feature for all but the external 3.5” bays. There is a fan just forward of the hard drive cage, but not much open area for the air to move through.
The rear of the V9 features a 120mm exhaust fan rated at 1300 RPM and a quiet 17dBA. There is also a fan placement for a 70 or 80mm fan (not included) to cool the backside of the motherboard. The (non-removable) motherboard tray has some stamped dimples that serve as standoffs, although there are threaded holes for the included conventional standoffs in the hardware pack. The expansion card area gets…
…a tool-free system for each individual card. We'll see how these work during installation. Something I can talk about now, however, are the bay covers. They are of the “breakout” variety and, once removed, are not replaceable. This may not be an issue for some users, but I dislike this part of the design intensely. The I/O shield furnished with the V9 is a breakout as well, but the chances of someone wanting to put it back in the chassis are virtually nil. Not so with the expansion bay covers. Besides, it just looks cheap and cheesy. Let's move on.
Here's a shot of the top fan again, this time from the inside. Lots of blades with an aggressive pitch will move a lot of air at relatively low RPM. Note that the front panel wiring enters through a slot very neat the center of the chassis. We'll see how this affects cable management a bit later.
Thermaltake has provided a screened intake area for the power supply in the floor of the chassis. Unfortunately, this review sample showed up with a torn screen. Even with an intact screen, there are a couple of problems with this design.
