Final Thoughts
It was only a matter of time before Thermaltake came out with a Tower case that would sit between the Tower 900 and the Tower 100. The Tower 900 was such a massive case and complete overkill for most people and the Tower 100 was only mini-ITX so if you didn’t want to go that route there really was no in-between. Well now we have that in The Tower 500. Even though this case sits between those two cases it still can support motherboards all the way up to E-ATX so you really aren’t necessarily limited.
Like the other cases in the Tower series the Tower 500 really allows you to show off your system. Even with the extremely modest system we installed in the Tower 500 it looks awesome sitting on our desk. As I’ve said before these cases are Thermaltake’s “fishtank” cases and they really are! If you are looking to show off your hardware and have a really unique case sitting on your desk this case is definitely for you.
As I said this case can support motherboards up to E-ATX but you have room for long graphics cards, full-size ATX power supplies and a ton of hard drives! If you were looking to do a very storage-heavy system with their 2.5-inch SSDs or 3.5-inch hard drives this case can definitely handle it. Since the case pretty large it is very easy to work in and we did not run into any issues when it came to installation. The size could be an issue for some though, you are going to want to make sure you have room on your desk for this case.
While the rotated motherboard orientation allows you to really show off your hardware and graphics cards, it takes make for higher than normal thermals. We experienced this on both our CPU and GPU in load situations. White the case does come with two fans, for proper airflow around these components you will likely need to pickup a couple more fans. It is nice that Thermaltake did include a set of rails for your to install a 360mm that basically floats inside the case.
Right now you can pick this case up at our favorite online retailer for $159.99, which is a good price for what you are getting here. Overall ThinkComputers gives the Thermaltake The Tower 500 Case an 8 out of 10 score.
Pros:
– Really shows off your hardware
– Easy installation
– Lots of room inside for storage (12 drives)
– Fits motherboards up to E-ATX
– Good overall cable management
Cons:
– CPU and GPU thermals are a bit high
– Takes up a lot of space on your desk
