Thermaltake Goes Small: Core V1 mini-ITX Chassis Launched
by Ian Cutress on August 4, 2014 11:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- Mini ITX
- Thermaltake
- Core V1
When meeting with one of Thermaltake’s main press relations people at Computex, he was keen to show off what he described as ‘his baby’. We reported on the Core V1 at the time – a mini-ITX chassis to incorporate better cooling, quieter cooling, easy maintenance and a good-looking, fast system. Aside from the size, the interchangeable top, bottom and sides of the chassis could be replaced with Perspex side windows to increase the view of the internals, but also the front was fitted with a 200mm fan with space for another 120mm in the rear. The front of the chassis is designed with the fan offset such that longer GPUs can fit inside, up to 250mm.
Much like the full size ATX cases being designed with a warm side/cold side, the V1 uses the same concept but for top and bottom. The top half houses the motherboard, processor and CPU, with space for 140mm of CPU cooler. The bottom half is for storage and the power supply, with space for PSUs up to 180mm in length with another 80mm of cable management space. Thermaltake quote the Core V1 as supporting mounding points for 120mm and 140mm fans on the sides with an additional two 80mm points at the back. Thermaltake point to its Water 3.0 Performer and Pro CLCs as being supported.
The front panel is located on the left hand side, with power/reset buttons, two USB 3.0 ports and audio jacks.
One of the key elements of the Core V1, apart from the design and the visuals, was the price. During Computex I was told that Thermaltake was aiming at a US$50 MSRP, which caught the eye of a number of our readers. The Core V1 is currently listed at Newegg for $49.99, hitting that price right on the nose.
Source: Thermaltake
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coburn_c - Monday, August 4, 2014 - link
No optical drive option. At $50 it is a value proposition, but the EVGA Hadron is a much better case, with an optical option, and includes a 500W Gold power supply for $150.owan - Monday, August 4, 2014 - link
That gold PSU is a noisy 1U form factor that has a well documented history of failure. Because of this the Hadron is a complete non-starter in my eyescoburn_c - Monday, August 4, 2014 - link
While Anandtech has not done a review on that model, the reviews that have been done said the power supply was not that noisy. I don't know where you are getting this failure documentation, but that model does come with a three year warranty so your comments are suspect.owan - Tuesday, August 5, 2014 - link
Go read the EVGA forums for plenty of people complaining about it. I would take a more serviceable and widely available PSU form factor any day of the week even if it wasn't an issueDanNeely - Monday, August 4, 2014 - link
I'm not surprised the 1U PSU is failing a lot. The only way a 40mm fan can generate enough air flow to keep a large PSU cool is to run louder than a jet turbine. This is only acceptable inside a server room where humans rarely enter. For something sitting on your desk the fan needs to be throttled to the point where under any sort of sustained load the PSU is probably cooking itself.I don't see a major problem with the lack of an optical drive any more. Aside from installing old software they're rarely needed anymore; just get a USB model for the rare occasions you need it. Also, SFF slot drives tend to be hard to find an expensive anyway. Unless you need one regularly paying that much extra to keep it in the case doesn't seem to be a good idea.
coburn_c - Monday, August 4, 2014 - link
There has been no evidence provided that it has ever failed, nor is it too loud."Sure, things are not as quiet as with a normally sized 500W power supply, but our fear of the Hadron Air being too loud were definitely debunked." -- TechPowerUp
This case should have an optical drive. With its low price and quiet 200mm fan its best use case is as an HTPC, and an HTPC should have a bluray drive.
DanNeely - Monday, August 4, 2014 - link
With support for full size ATX power supplies and 2 slot full length cards, it's a small gamer box. If you're putting a bug GPU inside, it's going to be too loud to put next to the TV. If you don't, it's way bulkier than necessary.Bob Todd - Monday, August 4, 2014 - link
I obviously can't speak for this particular case, but in general I'd say the noise being a problem is debatable. I have Elite 120s with full size SeaSonic PSUs and Radeon 7850s. They aren't even audible with the TV on, even at low volumes. Running FurMark and Prime95 full tilt would obviously change that, but even the basic Steam gaming the machines do isn't enough to make them noisy enough to notice. YMMV and there's obviously a ton of variables, but I think this size case with a moderate build and a quiet card (e.g. GTX 750) is a reasonable TV companion.barleyguy - Tuesday, August 5, 2014 - link
I agree that's there is personal preference involved, but that would definitely be too much noise for me to use as an HTPC. My HTPC is completely silent, as in zero dB. I'm using a passively cooled motherboard (NVidia Jetson), an external DC power supply, and an SSD.On the topic of whether HTPCs need an optical drive, it's my feeling that they generally don't. Mine has an external USB Bluray drive, but it's rarely plugged in. Granted, the same TV has a Playstation 3 hooked to it, so that's where the discs normally go.
Bob Todd - Monday, August 4, 2014 - link
http://forums.evga.com/EVGA-Hadron-Air-Really-loud...Lots of posts from actual buyers about the PSU being too loud. And apparently it isn't just the volume that's the issue, the pitch seems to drive people bonkers too.