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Benchmark Results and Conclusion
We tested the Thermaltake A500TG with our Intel i9-7900X test platform. For comparison, we brought in the Cougar Panzer EVO RGB, the NZXT H700i, the be quiet! Dark Base 700 and the Cooler Master MasterCase H500M to give you a solid idea of where this case stacks up against competitors with similar sizes and feature sets.
The two 120mm intake fans provided enough airflow to keep the cores of our i9-7900X running at 4GHz nice and cool at 60 degrees Celsius over ambient. These results put the Thermaltake A500TG directly in the middle of the comparison pack, besting the be quiet! Dark Base 700. It's slightly behind the Cooler Master Master Case H500M and Cougar Panzo EVO RGB.
GPU temperatures maxed out at 51 degrees Celsius over the ambient room temperature, higher than all the other cases, except the be quiet!.
We took sound pressure level readings with two off-the-shelf dB meters from two different angles. With the fan speed at default speed (1,400 rpm), our test system registered just 29.5dBA at idle, results that bested the rest of the cases we used for comparison. With the test system under load, sound output increased to 32.4dBA, right in the middle of the pack.
Cooling efficiency and noise levels are both ways to measure performance. Determining acoustic efficiency, also referred to as cooling-to-noise ratio, is a matter of averaging all five of our tests to determine a base value.
Bottom Line
The Thermaltake A500TG's sleek, minimalist styling will appeal to many, but at $250 (£189.40), most people expect features such as RGB lighting, a fan hub, an included PCIe riser cable and a better fan filtration system.
Similar cases, such as the Cooler Master MasterCase SL600M, have almost identical features, performance and styling and cost $45 less. Thermaltake's own Level 20 GT RGB has more features, more tempered glass and RGB functionality but carries a $40 price premium.
In the end, we think this is a very nice case, but at this price, its shortcomings may make you think twice about opening up your wallet.
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