Page 3 - Physical Look - Inside
With the left side panel removed, we can see that the Thermaltake Element G definitely has enough room for components to be installed easily. This is considering that it is a relatively small mid-tower case as aforementioned in comparison to various others on the market today.
Starting from the bottom, we can see that as mentioned before, the Element G features a bottom mounted power supply bay. Thermaltake has added risers such that your power supply is not just touching the bottom of the case; there is room for air to enter from the bottom should your power supply have a fan on the bottom (such as my Corsair HX520). The power supply compartment is also divided by a removable metal piece held in place by two thumb screws. We will talk more about this in just a moment.
The motherboard tray itself is not removable, but it does have numerous holes for cables to be routed behind the tray. This feature improves the overall look of the case itself as well as improving internal airflow to a certain extent.
As you can see, Thermaltake has included a cutout for motherboard backplates. For those using CPU heatsinks with specific backplates, take solace in the fact that with the Element G: There won't be a problem with having to remove your motherboard every time you have to swap backplates. Definitely a very nice touch for a gaming oriented case.
Here, we have the 3.5" internal drive cage. This case does not feature tool-less drive installation mechanism, nor does it include any vibration dampening features available on many other cases. What you have to do to install a hard drive is to put specially designed screws on the side of the drive (Two screws into the first and third holes on the right side; and two screws into the first and second holes on the left side). In a sense, since all the screws related to the installation of hard drives are of the thumbscrew variety, you could say that this is indeed a tool-free installation to an extent, albeit a different variation of it.
The power supply compartment is divided from the main component compartment via a large piece of metal held in place by two thumb screws. This piece serves two purposes: Firstly, it acts as a thermal barrier between the top (component) compartment, and the bottom (PSU) compartment. In theory, this works by keeping the hot air around the PSU at the bottom of the case, and the colder air used to cool your CPU, video card, RAM, and the such. Secondly, on the right side of this divider, there are actually two 2.5" drive bays. Particularly useful if you have SSDs -- this is useful as if you are using 2.5" drives, you won't have to use an adapter to install the SSD into the case. As an aside, the Element G does not have adapters for external 3.5" devices such as floppy disk drives or card readers, which would be a problem for some users.
As mentioned several times earlier already, the Element G features a bottom mounted power supply. Here we can see in more details that the risers for PSUs with a 120 or 140mm bottom mounted fan. Furthermore, there is a mesh filter at the bottom of the case, so your PSU won't be inhaling all the dust from below the case.
Along the back of the motherboard tray, there are numerous holes for cables to be routed to the back of the case. What I found to be a major drawback though would be the lack of clips along the back of the motherboard tray, where cable ties could be used to fasten the cables routed along the back of the case.
Most of the fan cables have already been routed around the outside edge of the case for aesthetic purposes. I must give Thermaltake credit for this as I've seen many cases where the case fan cables are just left hanging on the inside of the case. As you can also see, the fan cables come sleeved, further adding to the visual appeal.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging
2. Physical Look - Outside
3. Physical Look - Inside
4. Installation and Conclusion
