Thermaltake A500 Aluminum Tempered Glass Edition Review

Manufacturer: Thermaltake

UK price (as reviewed): £239.99 (inc. VAT)

US price (as reviewed): $249.72 (exc. tax)

The value that Thermaltake cases have offered in recent years has often been remarkable in pretty much every guise and form factor. From its wall-mountable Core cases to mini-ITX cubes and behemoth towers the size of kitchen appliances, they often cost a lot less than you initially think they do. However, build quality and materials are often fairly low key as a result, but Thermaltake is shifting up a gear with the A500 Aluminum Tempered Glass Edition (you mean I have to leave the 'i' out of 'aluminium' every time you write this thing's name?! - ed.), which not only uses copious amounts of, erm, ALUMINIUM (victory is mine! - ed.) and tempered glass but retails for even more than the massive Thermaltake Tower 900.

At £240, we're in super-premium case territory, and it's already the wrong side of the excellent Phanteks Evolv X in terms of price - and by no small margin. However, Thermaltake has nailed it in terms of looks and build quality, at least on the outside, as the A500 Aluminum Tempered Glass Edition looks fantastic with a multi-piece run of aluminium stretching around three sides of case and sandwiched between two large tempered glass panels.

The front panel is located on the roof and sports four Type-A USB ports in 3.0 and 2.0 flavours as well as a Type-C port, although sadly this is USB 3.0-powered too (AKA USB 3.1 Gen 1) rather than true USB 3.1 (Gen 2), requiring a second USB 3.0 header rather than one of the newer 3.1 ones. Each feature here is neatly recessed into the aluminium, though, making it one of the most attractive, no-fuss front panels we've seen.

Thermaltake has opted for the common side vents to allow air into and out of the case at the front and roof areas of the case, and they're fairly substantial without looking hideous. The vents are backed with perforated mesh to act as a dust filter, although these are non-removable, requiring you to pop off the front and roof sections to get at them for cleaning.

There is a removable dust filter in the base of the case, though, which caters for the PSU as well as a row of vents that sits under the full-length PSU cover. At 560mm tall, it's a sizeable chassis too, but only ATX motherboards are supported - nothing larger.

Specifications

• Dimensions (mm) 236 x 510 x 560 (W x D x H)
• Material Steel, aluminium, plastic, tempered glass
• Available colours Space grey
• Weight 14.82kg
• Front panel Power, 1 x USB 3.0 Type-C, 2 x USB 3.0, 2 x USB 2.0, headphone, microphone
• Drive bays 6 x 3.5"/2.5", 1 x 2.5"
• Form factor(s) ATX, micro-ATX
• Cooling 3 x 140mm/120mm front fan mounts (2 x 120mm fans included), 1 x 120mm rear fan mount (1 x 120mm fan included), 2 x 140mm or 3 x 120mm roof fan mounts (fans not included)
• CPU cooler clearance 160mm
• Maximum graphics card length 295mm (420mm without HDD cage)
• Extras Removable dust filters, vertical GPU mount