Case Deconstructed – Inner Components
If you remove the top fan mounting brackets from the case, you get a much better view into the cases internal design and parts like the motherboard tray, device bays, and hard disk bays. Keep in mind that Thermaltake designed the Core x9 to be stripped all the way down to its frame, so we still have a few more layers to strip out. From the top-down view, you can see that the motherboard tray takes up the back half of the case, leaving quite a bit of room for components and liquid cooling equipment in the front half of the case.
With the top fan mounts removed, we also get a much better view of the interior width of the case (in between the middle supports running the depth of the case). From one side to the other, the middle support beams are 14" apart, meaning that there is a bit more than 1/2" of space between the side panel and the plane of the cases middle support beams. This give you some interesting cable routing options between the lower and upper portions of the case even with the side panels installed..
The removable motherboard tray is held in place with two thumbscrews in the front sides and two flat head screws to the rear. The rear screws fit into a channel in the tray allow the tray to slide and be removed without fully removing the rear screws. You simply remove the front thumbscrews and loosen the rear screws and the motherboard try slides forward and up to remove. Both sets of screws fix directly into the side mid-support beams. The grommeted pass-through holes in the motherboard tray are positioned perfectly for power, drive, and control cables no matter how large of a board you choose to install. They remain fully unblocked even with an E-ATX style board installed. The recessed portion of the tray (underneath the CPU socket area of the board) acts as a hard drive mount point with drives mounted underneath the plate. The plate is recessed so it does not impede any bottom mount plates used for cooler mounting to the CPU.
From the inside rear view of the case, you can see that the case supports mounting of up to eight PCIe style cards with thumbscrews holding the cards in place. Grommeted pass-through holes are provided directly above the PCIe hold downs for power or liquid coolant tubing routing. Further, the fan mount directly above the rear panel support up to a 140mm fan or radiator with a 120mm fan provided with the case by default. The provided fan mount holes allows for height adjustment as needed.
Removing the motherboard tray reveals the bottom mounts points of the case, including the drive bays, the covered section to the rear left of the case, and the default PSU mount location to the rear right of the case. The case is designed to allow PSU mounting on either side of the case, but the cover can only be mounted in the rear left section of the case. If you choose to mount the PSU on the left side of the case, the cover does not impede the PSU or its power cabled in any way. Further, the provided PSU support bracket can be mounted on either side of the case.
From the inside and with the front panel removed (as well as the motherboard tray), you get a good view of just how much space is available along the inside front of the case even with the device bays in place. Further, Thermaltake gave a lot of options for fan mounting and wire / tubing pass-through.
The removable pass-through plate, located in the floor of the case just behind the front panel fan, is held fast by to flush-mounted screws to the rear of the panel. The panel has tabs on its bottom that slid into matching slot in the floor of the case. Once removed, a large pass-through hole is revealed for use when stacking multiple Core X9 cases on top of each other.
With all parts stripped from the case, you get much better view of the configurability of the case in terms PSU, fan/radiator, and drive bay mounting. The bottom left and right portions of the case are identically designed, allowing for bottom mounting of the support brackets in four different locations (front left, front right, rear left, rear right). The brackets can also be side mounted in up to four locations (front left, front right, rear left, rear right). In the bottom mount configuration, the brackets can be used for either fan/radiator mounting or for drive bay mounting. The side-mount configuration only supports fan/radiator mounting to the bracket. When used in the bottom rear left configuration, the mount bracket is hidden underneath the cover. The cover itself does not impede use of the bracket for either purpose, that being drive bay or fan/radiator mounting.
When used in the bottom mount configuration, the support brackets have hooks that fit in to mount holes towards the center section of the bottom plate and are held fast with two thumbscrews along the outside edges. The thumbscrews fasten directly into the case bottom plate.
In the side-mount configuration, the support brackets are held in place with four thumbscrews. Two fix it to the outside of the middle support beam and two fix it to a curved section of the case side, allowing the bracket to float slightly above the bottom deck of the case. The support brackets from indented mount points for the upper set of screws so that the bracket sits vertically along the inside of the case.
This is similar in concept to
This is similar in concept to my Caselabs M8…. only a whole lot cheaper. It’s nice to have coaster wheels though, especially when you watercool and have several liters of water in the loop. After all, a case that’s difficult to move, won’t get flushed.
Great overview Morry.I just
Great overview Morry.I just got the white version of this case. Love it so far. With just the stock fans my 5960X is running 10c cooler. Can’t wait for the follow up.
Got this case for my father’s
Got this case for my father’s PC. Didn’t quite realize just how large the case really was. Not complaining. It was a joy to work with. After dealing with an Antec 300 it was nice to have all the extra room for activities and a PC.
It is a very large case.
It is a very large case. Really got my feel of how large it was when I hauled it to a LAN party earlier in the year. That being said, it is a joy to work with and has more space than most of us could fill (though I've done my part in trying :))…
Huh. I’ve been going in the
Huh. I’ve been going in the opposite direction lately, towards smaller more space efficient cases. I can’t imagine lugging this case around!
think i might have found a
think i might have found a replacement for my fractal design r5. running an e-atx mobo in that and it is cramped. MSI X99A Xpower AC
I love the way this case
I love the way this case looks. I wouldn’t mind doing a build in it in the future.
Bought this case last summer.
Bought this case last summer. It’s been good, other than the flimsy side panels. I’ve filled it up.
I own this case and honestly
I own this case and honestly I moved to it from a Corsair 900D and I couldn’t be happier with it. My Corsair had so many quality control issues with things not lining up right after spending $350 for a case and this one only being $140 with tax and its quality was amazing. I wish I could get a Caselabs case but honestly I can’t justify spending a large amount on a case after my burn with Corsair’s. One complaint I do have with the case is the motherboard tray. I wish it doubled as a midplate so I could not see the rads and stuff below but I solved that with a piece of black acrylic I just cut a whole new motherboard tray and had it extended all the way to the front panel.
I was thinking about doing
I was thinking about doing something similar, not necessarily replacing the entir try, but more extending it forward with 1/4 acrylic and adding a side piece in front of the window, with some type of backlit design…
I’ve been looking for
I’ve been looking for something like this that was cheaper than Caselabs and not fugly like Mountainmods. Looks good.
OH DEAR… This is just an
OH DEAR… This is just an fugly, made in china and bad copy of the Caselabs S8 or the smaller S8S. If you don’t believe it look for some images.
They also took the very little details, incredible, pedestal concept included.Even every grill is in the same exact position. I wouldn’t be surprised if it also had the same exact dimensions. If I was between the designers that worked on this thing I would feel embarassed.
But this is not even the first.. They also copied other designs from the Caselabs lineup.
SHAME !
* Actually after looking at
* Actually after looking at it even better I noticed has tyhe same height of a S8 but it’s longer, as it supports 480 rads instead of the 360s.
I also noticed the grills have the same exact mesh design.. At least they could’ve change that.
What in the What is a 540mm
What in the What is a 540mm radiator. 140*4=560.
What in the What is a 540mm
What in the What is a 540mm radiator. 140*4=560.
A 540mm radiator is 3x180mm,
A 540mm radiator is 3x180mm, not a very well known or wide-spread size, but supported according to the Thermaltake documentation…
Morry, did you try to fit a
Morry, did you try to fit a drive in the five and a quarter inch bays?
i have the X1 and the drive does not fit flush with the front of the case, just wondering if all the Core X cases are like this
http://imgur.com/wQ7vkpi
http://imgur.com/ewTVICb
http://imgur.com/OlyaKh7
The Core X9 is similar, where
The Core X9 is similar, where a device mounted in the 5.25" bay is not flush with the front…
Thanks a lot for featuring
Thanks a lot for featuring this! I got my eye on it back when it was mentioned on “pick of the week”. Got it based on this review to replace Cooler Master Sniper case, which had issues with drive cages, cable management and cleaning. Loving horizontal motherboard mount and the ways that I can route multiple SATA cables. Was thoroughly confused, however, on how best to install case fans and direction of push/pull that would be effective for something this large. Looking forward to advanced version to get more ideas on how to play with it.