Thermaltake Core X5 Chassis Review

Final Thoughts

Price

For a chassis of this scale and with this level of features, you would be expecting it to cost a lot of money and while it’s not “cheap”, it’s cost to size ratio is beyond impressive. The Thermaltake Core X5 will cost you just £109.99 and I think that is amazing value for money for what you get. Of course, don’t forget that you can stack them; why have one, when you can have two for twice the price.

Overview

I’m really torn with my opinions of this chassis, as I absolutely love what Thermaltake has done here and I’m simply blown away by the competitive price, but on the other hand, I don’t like it simply because I’ve nowhere in my home or office I could put it! Make no mistake this is an impressive chassis, and while it does have a few minor flaws, it brute forces its way to success with its relentless capabilities.

Build quality is certainly not an issue here, the whole chassis is big, bold and plentifully robust, meaning it’ll handle your heavy-duty water cooling hardware with ease. Of course, that extra strength is also going to come in handy when you choose to stack to of these monsters together, as you’ll have a lot of extra weight bearing down on the lower chassis, and that really isn’t going to be a problem for the X5. The quick release side panels are great to work with and even more so, the fact that almost all major components are held in with thumb screws, allowing you to remove the 5.25″ drive bays, hard drive bays, motherboard tray and more within seconds. If there’s one small improvement to make to the build quality, it’s the dust filters. The clip-in mesh will do a good job, but give me slide out filters any day, even if it meant a higher price.

Water cooling enthusiasts are going to love what this chassis has to offer, as radiator support is certainly into the realm of extreme. However, that’s not all the X5 is about, and with a huge amount of passive airflow, it’s going to offer strong cooling performance for those who like larger low-RPM fans. With room for an E-ATX motherboard, lots of cooling and a robust amount of storage, those looking to build a powerful rendering system, workstation, file station, and other high-end system builds will find a lot to love about it, so long as they can find the required room next to or on top of their desktop top situate it.

It’s not perfect, the cable routing is a little clunky and the dust filters are a little flimsy, but as I’ve said throughout this review, it’s not about what’s lacking here, but about just how much you do get for your modest investment. I find it slightly ironic that a chassis that’s built to handle systems that could easily cost thousands is affordable, but every penny saved could make your component upgrades a reality and that’s no bad thing.

Pros

• Durable build quality
• Huge side panel window
• Exceptional airflow
• Insane support for large radiators and lots of fans
• Modular design
• Removable bays and motherboard tray
• Affordable price
• Movable front panel I/O
• Dust filters

Cons

• Clip-in dust filters are a little flimsy
• Cable routing isn’t particularly easy
• Large size makes it difficult to place around most desks

“When only extreme systems will do, the Thermaltake Core X5 ticks all the right boxes, offering up a huge amount of space for high-end hardware, extreme water cooling and much more, and it does it without costing the Earth.”