Thermaltake CTE T500 Air Black Case Review

Complete System

Well, I wasn’t kidding when I said this case was extremely capable when it comes to handling high-end hardware. Frankly, my case testing hardware is pretty pathetic, long overdue an upgrade as I’ve had it since pre-lockdown! So… I dropped in my own hardware as I was in the middle of stripping and cleaning my own PC case anyway. With an RTX 4090 Gainward SE in there, space clearly isn’t an issue, and given this is about the largest GPU on the market today, it still fits with room to spare.

There are now three 140mm fans that I’ve added to the back, giving an absolutely massive wall of air that feeds right into the graphics card from the rear of the case.

There’s an additional 140m fan I’ve added in the bottom, this will help move warm air within the case and move it up to the top more quickly.

Meanwhile, there’s a 420mm AIO installed in the front, with 3 x 140mm fans pulling in cool air directly for the CPU radiator, again giving that optimal cooling performance.

Then a final 140mm fan in the top of the case, ensuring heat is pulled away from the front radiator before it reaches the graphics card backplate.

what I love most of all, however, is how clean it all looks. Cable management is top-tier here, with the only real cable run being the 12VHPWR cable for the GPU, but even that is neatly done.

With everything tucked away at the top, the last job is to route all my cables under the top cover of the case.

Overall, this is as clean and tidy a build as I could ever hope for. Easily one of the best cases I’ve had the pleasure of working with. That is, of course, assuming you have room to put it anywhere, as it is quite large.