The Thermaltake Element S VK60001W2Z Case (Internals)

To remove the side panel from the Thermaltake Element S you need to unscrew two thumbscrews which are found at the rear. The side panel can then be slid off.

Looking closely at the rear of the side panel you can see that the 230mm fan has more than enough space to breathe. To power the fan, there’s a metal contact point on the side of the panel which cleverly creates a connection when the side panel is closed. The connection then leads to a Molex connector which powers the fan.

Below you can clearly see the innards of the Thermaltake, all of which is painted black, a nice change from the usual boring grey. The PSU and Motherboard area of the case is sectioned off, this improves cable management. Also, you should notice there are many different holes in the case, allowing for easy routing of cabling.

A 140mm fan comes pre-installed to the Thermaltake which provides an exhaust system for a CPU Cooler. As I said earlier, this can be replaced with a 120mm fan of your choice if you wanted something more silent.

One very useful feature which I like is the large square shape cut-out in the motherboard tray. The idea of this is that it enables you to install a motherboard back plate for an aftermarket CPU Cooler without needing to remove the motherboard – very handy in deed. The large slots in the mobo tray are also good as they can be used to route front panel cabling and SATA leads to the desired connectors.

The bottom of the case features a dedicated chamber for the PSU which is divided by a panel. On this panel are mounts for two 2.5” SSD or Laptop Hard Drives for extra storage. A great idea in my opinion due to the ever-increasing popularity of SSD drives. The chamber also allows all the cable clutter from the PSU to be contained instead of it blocking airflow in the main section of the Element S.

As some of the newer PSUs on the market can get a little toasty without much cooling, Thermaltake has provided a grill on the bottom the case. If your PSU has a 120mm fan, it would then suck air through this grill into the Power Supply.

In total there are three drive bays. Unfortunately, Thermaltake seem to have reverted back to the classic installation method for 5.25” bays (screws). With many of the newer cases on the market now having tool-less installation procedures for optical drives, it would’ve been nice to see something similar here.

The hard drive rack can up to support seven hard drives. By unscrewing it, it can be rotated for personal preference. When mounting a hard drive, you simply need to screw one of the included large-headed screws into each of the four holes on the sides of the drive. The drive then slides right into the rail and then can be secured into place by locking the clip.

You can remove the front panel from the case relatively easily by unclipping it from the bottom. Once removed, you can see that there are two 120mm fan cages. Only one of the fan cages actually has a 120mm fan installed.

To install a fan, you simply pop it into the fan cage and then clip the fan cage to the front of the case. This is an easy tool-less solution many cases should harness.