Thermaltake CTE T500 Air Black Case Review

How Much Does it Cost?

The ThermalTake CTE T500 Air Black Full Tower PC Case is available now from Scan for a very reasonable £129.99. A full-tower premium PC case that’s capable of housing the latest and greatest hardware, and it’s practically the same price as the mid-tower Corsair 5000D! However, depending on your cooling configuration of choice, remember you’ll likely want to order a lot more fans to take full advantage of what this case has to offer.

Overview

Thermaltake has been impressing me a lot with their CTE form factor cases. They’re not an original idea, with Silverstone having similar rotated motherboard designs over 10 years ago, and no doubt a few more in that time. However, it’s been a while since someone really modernised the idea and gave it the higher airflow capabilities that have become a requirement with modern gaming hardware. Furthermore, modern high-end AIO coolers, GPU coolers, and other components are bigger than ever so having the space that the CTE series of cases provides is just another big tick in the enthusiast requirements list.

The build quality is superb, with thick steel making up the bulk of the case, and the fact that it is quite large, it is of course quite heavy. There are some plastics on the exterior panels, such as the front panel surround, but they’re finished to a high standard and very well colour-matched to the metal that makes up the rest of the panel. The plastics are also incredibly thick, so honestly, the whole case is more robust than the cases we usually see come through the office.

Airflow is king here, and I won’t repeat myself on its capabilities for the third or fourth time in that regard. However, it doesn’t matter if you’re going for large fans at low RPM for a silent build, or high-pressure fans and thick radiators for extreme cooling performance, the CTE T500 Air really runs the whole spectrum of options, and you can really build it however you like.

The only thing I will stress is the size, with a standard desk typically being 600mm deep, this case is 500mm deep and also needs room from the wall at the back so the rear intake fans aren’t getting choked. It’s also 615mm tall and 275mm wide which is really freaking big, and you’ll certainly notice the size difference if you’re coming from an ATX Mid-Tower. If you want this on display on top of your desk, make sure your desk is strong hardwood or at least 18mm composite with a strong frame under it.

Should I Buy One?

It’s big, it’s extremely capable, and it delivered one of the coolest, quietest and cleanest-looking builds I’ve ever done. At £129.99, I honestly feel like Thermaltake is giving it away. It’s an exceptional case.