Verdict and Conclusion
Some of you may remember my post on the Funkykit frontpage some months ago when Thermaltake first announced this case, I requested one to review at that time and have been waiting for it to be available in the USA since then. When it showed up at my door I was quite excited, as the press release photos and description made the case look very good.
Now that I have had a chance to work with it, I’m not sure the press release really did it justice!
The fans are extremely quiet, yet move enough air to keep my hardware cool. The LEDs on the fans and on the case look great, in fact the case looks great all the way around.
Hardware installation was a snap, all the standoffs came pre-installed in the correct places for an ATX board, I didn’t have any issues at all during installation.
It would be nice if tools weren’t required to mount the hard drives in their trays. That said the tray mounting screws are a brilliant idea if you accept that screws are required. The 5.25″ bay mounting system is fantastic.
I’d love to see the case come with all four 200mm fan mounts populated with fans from the factory, only two being installed is a bit of a letdown.
There is plenty of room behind the rear panel for cable management, the side of the panel bulges out to allow more room for thick cables like the main ATX24P cable.
All the intake areas have filters, including the drive bay covers. The “Breathing” LED looks nice, it’s rate of breathing is slow enough that it doesn’t distract me from what I am doing.
The lack of a way to turn the LEDs in the fans off may be an issue for some, as the LEDs are quiet bright. The HDD dock works beautifully and allows full SATA6 speeds.
Currently the Thermaltake Overseer RX-I goes for $130 on Newegg, it seems like a decent price, though not fantastic.
All told there are a lot of pros:
- Great looks.
- Very quiet fans.
- Built-in HDD dock.
- Lots of cable management options.
- Plenty of room to work with inside.
Like all things, there are cons too:
- Screwdriver still required for mounting HDDs.
- I’d love to see the case come with four 200mm fans and no empty holes.
- Price could be marginally better.
Final words. All told, the Thermaltake Overseer RX-I is a case very worthy of consideration (it has replaced my previous case in my home computer!), I give it a 9.6/10, and heartily recommend it to anybody looking for this sort of case!
SCORE
9.6/10
