Thermaltake Element Q

[japala]

In English
Suomeksi

Questions, comments?

Kysymyksiä, kommentteja?

[Jyrchi]

It's a tough choice between this and the Sugo. I don't like the plastic look of the Element Q, but I also don't like the color and meshy structure of the Sugo. To be brutally honest, I wouldn't take either of these two. I'd take the Antec Mini P180 if I was looking for a LAN-case and the GD04 if I needed a HTPC. Overall the Element Q gives me quite cheap impression, which is not a good thing

[MoFoQ]

strange, the Element Q bares a striking resemblance to the Rosewill ITX case I got on newegg, aside from the thermaltake branding and red inlay on the front.
It has the same plastic mount for sliding in and holding a 3.5" hard drive vertically on its side.

[Mad-Malc]

I bought this case and the PSU fan was noisy so I opened up the PSU and discovered that the source of the noise is a cable protector. The cable protector itself looks like the flip lid of a cigarette box and is made of very thin clear plastic. It fits over one end of the fan and because the material is so thin it vibrates as the fan rotates.

Having taken a look at the cables mine were fairly thick and basically going no where so I removed for want of a better word the cowling from the fan and was rewarded with silence. If your cables look like they may drop and foul the fan I would suggest gluing a match stick or cocktail stick to the plastic cowling in order to stop it vibrating.

Of course this does invalidate your warranty, but my view was that the case wouldn't survive its warranty period in any kind of working order unless I silenced it.

I now have an almost silent case.

[mmanville]

Very detailed review, with excellent quality pictures! Thanks!

Mad-malc - very useful info about the PSU fan, I will keep it in mind, thanks to you too!

Jyrchi , I don't know how you can compare this case to the GD04. It's comparing Apples and Oranges. The GD04 is almost exactly twice the size of this case (a little more than twice by volume, I think). Any HTPC application for which you are considering both is a pretty open-ended evaluation.

FYI, I have read elsewhere that people have been successful in installing a 120mm fan, I think where the HD is supposed to go, in this class of cases (this case, the Apex MI-008, Apex MI-100, and a newegg Rosewill case, I think it's called the RX-01 or someting, are all essentially the same case, with the same PSU, the only differences are the faceplates). silentpcreview I think has some discussions about it.