Page 4 - Installation and Conclusion
As with every computer build, I started by installing the power supply and routing the cables into the right place. As the power supply sits in the basement and is a bit hidden away once installed, I made sure I plugged in all the necessary modular cables first before mounting it inside the Thermaltake The Tower 500. The power supply in question is the FSP Hydro PTM Pro 1200W, which measures in at a pretty big depth of 19.0cm. Obviously, I was able to get it to fit here, but Thermaltake recommends a maximum length of 20.0cm, especially if you want to have room to route the cables. I am glad to see so much room provided here, and I continued by leading the cables to the correct routing holes.
Moving on, I mounted the motherboard, which is an ASUS ProArt Z690-Creator WiFi with an Intel Core i5-12600K inside and a set of XPG Lancer RGB DDR5-6000 2x16GB memory. As I mentioned previously, the motherboard mounts sideways with the I/O coming out the top of the tower. On top of the CPU, I have a Noctua NH-U12A chromax.black to fit in with this black theme. Thermaltake mentions a maximum height of 275mm on the CPU cooler, which is much more room than our installed cooler. I did also test out two AIO coolers, the Thermaltake TOUGHLIQUID Ultra 360 and be quiet! Pure Loop 2 FX 240mm, and both were very easy to mount and install into the Tower 500 with the removable bracket.
Next, I mounted the EVGA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti XC3 ULTRA GAMING in a vertical position. The nice thing about this orientation is the fact the GPU will not sag in a way to affect the PCI Express slot. From here, you can see there is more than enough space for a longer graphics card and Thermaltake specifies a maximum 325mm with the cover installed or 355mm without one. The Tower 500 should be able to fit most graphics cards without even needing to remove the power supply divider. I continued on by plugging in all of the cables from the power supply and for the front I/O.
Flipping to the back, you can see I have already removed the pre-installed fans here. I ended up installing them at the front of the case in the power supply basement to pull in some air from the bottom. As I only have an M.2 SSD in this system, I did not end up using any of the drive mounting solutions here. However, there was more than enough space for cables to be organized at the back. Once again, there were many tiedown points down the edges and at the back of the motherboard, which really made it easy to organize these cables. Overall, I am quite happy with the ease of installation, which is partly aided by how large the Thermaltake The Tower 500 is.
With everything installed, I closed up all of the panels, plugged in the power supply, and hit the power button. The power button glowed blue as my computer powered on. Taking a step back, you can really see how much taller this case is than other things in this picture. It dwarfs other things like the Kanto YU6, which is not necessarily a small set of speakers either. I really do like how this case makes the computer a bit of a showcase item. With the system turned on and all of the fans spinning, The Tower 500 is still very quiet. According to the standard APH Networks sound scale, where 0 is silence and 10 is loud, the Thermaltake The Tower 500 is 3.0/10 under full load. There is no form of noise dampening, but the included fans do not spin too fast and therefore stay silent. The rest of my components are also pretty quiet to begin with.
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While its size was an initial shocker to me when testing this chassis, it grew on me over time to the point where I really like the Thermaltake The Tower 500 for its unique looks compared to everything else. As I mentioned with The Tower 100, the Tower lineup really showcases your builds. From a physical standpoint, Thermaltake takes the chimney-effect design and turns it up to eleven with its daunting size and excellent build materials. The panels slide snugly into place and the whole case is both heavy and solid. Internally, there is barely any compromise with compatibility, allowing users to fit the extended ATX motherboard form factor, a long power supply, oversized GPUs, tall CPU coolers, and many storage options. If water cooling is your desire, Thermaltake has also included internal brackets to let you fit more radiators and fans to move air through this whole tower. Building in The Tower 500 is quite straightforward, especially with how much room you have in the front and the back. It may expose everything to the user's eyes with its glass front and sides, but it also provides more than sufficient routing holes that are grommeted to hide cables, while securing these with even more anchor points around the back. The final build is really a sight to behold. If you are contemplating this case, you have to keep in mind the size for how much space it will take up. The one thing I really wish Thermaltake did improve on was to make the case fans PWM-controlled, but otherwise I enjoyed building and looking at The Tower 500. On the other hand, one sight you may not appreciate is the price tag, as the Thermaltake The Tower 500 retails for $180. This is quite a bit to pay for just the computer case, but in a sea of options, Thermaltake's The Tower 500 stands out on its own with its dominating size and compatibility.
Thermaltake provided this product to APH Networks for the purpose of evaluation.
APH:Renewal Award | APH Networks Review Focus Summary:
8/10 means Definitely a very good product with drawbacks that are not likely going to matter to the end user.
7/10 means Great product with many advantages and certain insignificant drawbacks, but should be considered before purchasing.
-- Final APH Networks Numeric Rating is 7.9/10
Please note that the APH Networks Numeric Rating system is based off our proprietary guidelines in the Review Focus, and should not be compared to other publications.
The Thermaltake The Tower 500 may be the pedestal for your computer, but it too will steal some attention with its gargantuan size and impressive usability.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Outside
3. Physical Look - Inside
4. Installation and Conclusion
