Thermaltake CTE T500 Air Snow Full Tower Case Review

Peter Donnell / 1 year ago

Interior

With the side panel removed, there’s a huge amount of space on the interior of the CTE T500, which is great news for those wanting to install the latest and greatest PC gaming hardware. As I said, the case is quite tall, and this allows for up to a 420mm radiator in the front, and a 360mm radiator in the rear. However, since the motherboard is installed rotated 90 degrees, that means you have all that height for long graphics cards too, so the case will handle a 385mm long GPU with ease.

There are three fans pre-installed, and they’re the CT140 fans which I reviewed not so long ago, and they are rather excellent. I normally dislike high-end cases like this coming with fans, as most enthusiast builders will just take them out and replace them. However, just adding more CT140 fans is a good option here, they’re great fans and available in black, white and RGB to suit which version of the T500 you’ve purchased.

Of course, when this case can support 11 x 140mm fans, with three in the front, two in the top, three in the rear, one in the bottom, one on the right side and another on the PSU shroud, you’ve certainly got plenty of room to expand!

Cable management should be excellent too, as there are three large routing holes on the side here for motherboard cables such as USB and ARGB.

There are two large grommets here for PSU cables for the motherboard and GPUs.

And even more on the right for the motherboard and fan cables.

There are additional routing holes at the back of the PSU shroud too, should you need them, as well as an additional fan mount to help further direct airflow throughout the case.

At the top, you’ll find the traditional ATX rear panel, with all the expansion slots and an exhaust fan. However, they’re all hidden neatly under a top mesh panel.

Looking back around the outside of the case, you can see there’s a routing hole for you to neatly pass cables through and keep things looking smart.

Of course, remove that top cover, and you’ll find a chunky Velcro strap to further help keep things in order.

There’s a single fan already installed here, however, the bracket that overhangs the expansion slots can also support a fan, which can be moved from the right-side panel to hear, or vice/versa, to suit your requirements.

There’s a lot going on behind the motherboard, with what has to be one of the most organised rear sections I’ve ever seen. It’s very clean back here, with large cable tie Velcro straps dotted all the way around the edges. There’s a hilariously large amount of cable routing space overall, so building should be super easy.

There’s room for some storage to be mounted here.

Plus, you can install more SSDs on this fan bracket too, if you desire!

And if that’s not enough, there are two HDD trays which also support SSDs allocated below the PSU shroud. This drive cage is fully removable though, if you needed the space for cooling hardware, pumps, and other modifications.