What started as an unusually oriented PC case designed to show off your components from several sides took on new angles in Thermaltake’s winning The Tower 300 case. But that 300 model was mere MicroATX, and a Mini-ITX model already existed, so big-as-possible versions of The Tower always seemed inevitable. Behold, then, The Tower 600: This pumped-up chassis combines the ATX compatibility of Thermaltake’s earlier 500 model with design refinements and Thermaltake’s recent quirky color palettes (Black, Snow, Hydrangea Blue, and the Matcha Green of our sample). The Tower 600 earns our 4-star rating along with its 300 and 500 kin, all of which are very much their own animals for this kind of high-visibility showcase PC chassis. There’s nothing quite like them out there.
Design: A Tower to Fit (Almost) All the Motherboards
Because Thermaltake’s The Tower Series points the motherboard’s typical “front edge” down and its rear ports (that is, its I/O panel) up, The Tower 600’s extra 3 inches of width give it enough space for the three extra slots of an ATX motherboard, versus the MicroATX-based 300 model.
Some of The Tower 300’s other design restrictions remain, but we see the benefit here of the extra vertical space in the main chamber: Motherboards up to 11.1 inches (282mm) deep will fit, including the typical around-10.6-inch-deep enthusiast models that sometimes get tagged with today’s semi-imprecise Extended ATX (EATX) label. The range of boards that the 600 will fit thus includes Mini-ITX, MicroATX, ATX, and boards larger than ATX by no more than 1.5 inches.
Front-panel ports are located above the front glass and include a USB Type-C as well as four USB 3.x Type-A. Separate microphone and headphone jacks are also in the mix, along with a rectangular reset button, a power button, and indicator lights for power-on and onboard drive-interface activity.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
The underside of The Tower 600 is covered by a dust filter that slides out from the case’s front edge for easy servicing. The inside surfaces of most other vents are similarly covered, though the frames of those other filters are retained by clips or magnets.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
The one other vent that’s covered from outside is on The Tower 600’s rear. This vent’s filter covers two 140mm/120mm dual-pattern fan mounts, with tabs at its bottom to prevent it from sliding downward and magnets on its sides prevent it from falling backward. A full-size ATX power-supply mount sits beneath that vent, and a passage for the system’s external I/O cables sits above the vent. (Remember, the ports point straight upward in this case.)
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
Push-latches at the top and tabs at the bottom hold the front glass in place, while the metal side panels replace the top latches with ball snaps. The narrow corner glass panels and the front vent’s panel use ball snaps at all four corners.
The side panels are secured with six slide tabs and two screws each to prevent sliding. There’s enough room behind each of the removable side-panel vents to hold a 420mm-format cooler that’s up to 470mm long. Unfortunately, the proximity of the expansion-slot panel to the left fan mount prevents anything thicker than 22mm from fitting next to it, and the still-narrower 20mm distance between this fan mount and the motherboard’s left edge shoves 140mm fans right up against the motherboard’s cable connectors (assuming that you’re using a board that still has the cable connectors pointing outward). For those reasons, Thermaltake’s specifications technically limit the left side to 120mm fans, though we’d love to see someone equip The Tower 600 with a trio of slimline 140mm fans…if they can find them in a lighting style that matches their other components. (After all, almost every component choice you make in this case will be on full display.)
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
Owners will quickly get familiar with the two knurled screws that secure the right edge of The Tower 600’s top fan mount, as they’ll be pulling this panel every time they want to access the motherboard’s I/O panel or the graphics card’s outputs. (Yes, they’re underneath there.) Factory-equipped with two 1,500rpm 140mm fans, the panel can alternatively hold up to three 120mm fans on the top side while providing 2.75 inches of space beneath for I/O cable management. If you need to access the I/O panel often, this case may not be for you.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
Builders also get a 140mm/120mm single fan mount on the left side of the bottom panel, and another on the right side of the power-chamber divider.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
A straight-on look at the motherboard tray gives us a better view of the cable-connector passage holes around the motherboard’s periphery, which have been added to support Asus BTF and MSI Project Zero cable-hiding motherboards, which have their connectors on the rear face. Keeping in mind that the front edge of the motherboard points toward the bottom of this case (notice the expansion-slot panel up top), any focus on ATX motherboards that have rear-facing connectors could distract us from the fact that this case also supports oversize motherboards such as the 10.5-inch-deep ASRock B650E Taichi Lite.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
Remove the large, hexagon-punched drive-mounting panel that covers most of the back of The Tower 600’s motherboard tray, and you get access to the area behind the CPU socket of most motherboards. Below the motherboard tray, the power-supply mount is also removable.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
Held in place with a knurled screw and two tabs, the larger drive tray supports the builder’s choice of two 2.5-inch or one 3.5-inch storage drive. Secured by two #2 Phillips screws on the left side and one on the bottom right edge, the power supply mount must be removed to slide the power unit into place. The knurled screw that holds the smaller 2.5-inch single drive tray isn’t captured (meaning that it comes out of the tray without being forced). Put it aside in a safe place while building.
We measured 260mm of clearance between the power supply mounting flange and the front-panel’s inner flange, but Thermaltake only rates this space for power units up to 220mm in length. Part of that might be a precaution regarding cable space, but Thermaltake also sells an optional digital front-panel-display kit that will consume a portion of that space if you choose to install it.
Building With Thermaltake’s The Tower 600
Thermaltake’s kit for the Tower 600 includes a pair of riser-cable brackets for mounting a graphics card parallel to the motherboard. (The riser cable’s not included, though.) A clamp-on brace is also provided for the bottom end of a graphics card that’s mounted directly into the motherboard. You also get a replacement front vent panel that supports Thermaltake’s accessory display panel mentioned above.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
And then there’s a host of smaller bits and pieces: a 1-meter roll of Velcro tape (for cable management) that’s perforated in places for easier tearing into small pieces, six replacement panel snaps, seven expansion-slot covers, the manual, a bag of loose hardware, including screws and spare standoffs, and a bundle of cable zip ties. The shown 19-pin USB 3.x internal header extension cable is not documented and likely not needed, since the case’s cables are long enough to reach all the way around the motherboard’s edge.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
To connect The Tower 600 to our motherboard, you get a cable set that includes HD Audio for the front jacks, a combined F_PANEL for the power/reset/activity buttons and LEDs, two 19-pin USB 3.x cables for the front Type-A ports, and a Type-E header cable for the front Type-C port.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
Removing the left power bay cover gave us the room we’d need to install our 12-inch-long standard test graphics card into the 11.1-inch-tall motherboard compartment. We left the right cover installed to help conceal our power supply’s cables.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
With modest effort and our standard test parts, our system looks great all lit up (even with the plain, unlit fans on our 240mm CPU cooler). But it probably could be a bit better. Thermaltake sent us a kit for that!
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
The Tower 600’s horizontal stand kit allows users to lay the case down, perched securely on its narrow left-rear corner, without component weight tipping it over. Included are a flat stand, two uprights, and replacement case end cap that allows for a cleaner overall appearance.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
The Tower 600’s original feet screw on and have flanges to hold the slide-out dust filter. The new cover snaps in, and its clip-in dust filter is on the inside.
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
Now that’s the look we were going for! In addition to showing more of our component loadout in proper orientation, the edge kit will help our system perform better by laying our graphics card heat pipes the way they were designed to work (horizontally).
(Credit: Thomas Soderstrom)
Testing Thermaltake’s The Tower 600
So, we already know from prior testing in another vertical-style case that our graphics card’s cooler doesn’t perform as well when the card is standing with its back end upward. We’ll be including the case that causes the same issue in today’s comparison. (Of course, we’ll also have the horizontal data for The Tower 600 for users to compare to other cases.) Here’s our usual parts list, for reference…
Adding only a pair of exhaust fans to the fans provided by our test components, The Tower 600 takes second place in both CPU and voltage-regulator cooling temperatures in our test set, behind Asus’ well-equipped, and giant, ProArt PA602. Unfortunately, it pegs the needle on our graphics card thermal testing when the card is mounted standing up, because our graphics cooler isn’t designed to function optimally with its ports pointed toward the ceiling. Its showing is night-and-day more competitive with The Tower 600 lying down.
While laying the case on its stand solves the GPU-cooling issue, the issue remains unresolved for anyone who really wants the case to stand up: We can’t think of any review sites that actually test their graphics cards in this unusual orientation.
The Tower 600’s second strike comes from its last-place noise isolation. It’s not a wide loss, by any means, but it’s still a loss.
Verdict: A Very Satisfactory Showcase
Because The Tower 600 is an otherwise fine design, we can recommend it to anyone who doesn’t need frequent access to their external I/O cables (dealing with the top cover and the fan panel in the way is a hassle) and who is certain that their graphics card’s cooler will function well when the card is mounted back-end-up. You can forestall that potential second issue if using the horizontal stand.
Otherwise, this is a visually stunning chassis that will satisfy patient-building component show-offs. Most of Thermaltake’s competition for this particular shape of case is inside its own house, so check out all of the sizes and designs of The Tower, in all their hues, before you settle.
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About Thomas Soderstrom
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