Thermaltake Tower 900 Case Review
Why you can trust Tom's Hardware Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test.
Benchmark Results & Final Analysis
A casual observer would think that The Tower 900’s closest match for a performance comparison would be the PC-O11 from Lian Li, but we’ve already established that your observations are far more acute. While the Lian Li model shares the stretched cube style and dual-chamber construction, it doesn’t include any fans, and its large radiator bracket doesn’t even have direct access to outside air.
Comparison Cases
Aesthetic similarities place the PC-O11 second on the comparison list behind Rosewill’s Cullinan, a case that has a similar quantity of glass and similar stock fan capability. The Rosewill model is also EATX, like The Tower 900. Meanwhile the PC-O11WX is EATX in name only. It lacks the fourth column of standoffs required to support a full-EATX motherboard. And the Corsiar Crystal 570X? Full glass and enough room to mount a 10.6” deep motherboard, which corresponds to the dimensions of most oversized-ATX enthusiast motherboards that carry the EATX label. All four cases have been tested using our standardized hardware configuration.
The Tower 900 has only exhaust fans, but these appear to be strategically placed to draw maximum heat away from our CPU cooler. Having noticed that in the temperatures, we also noticed that the CPU temperature dropped around 10°C over a 30-minute period when the GPU was unloaded.
After all the trouble I had photographing a case this large, I was thrilled when I cranked the GPU fans to full throttle and didn’t have to hear them whine. The Tower 900’s glass did an excellent job of blocking noise from the side, and its double-layer top panel did a good job of muffling the exhaust.
Being both cooler and quieter than competitors, The Tower 900 take top honors in our overall performance calculation, labeled Acoustic Efficiency.
The Tower 900 is significantly more expensive than second-place Rosewill Cullinan. Even the somewhat expensive Crystal 570X, which ran too hot to be tested at low fans, came up with a slight price-to-performance margin over the high-priced Thermaltake model.
Buyers in The Tower 900’s market are surely not considering the Rosewill Cullinan. Even though these are fairly matched in a performance comparison, the Cullinan supports only a 3x 140mm radiator up front and a 2x 140mm radiator on top. The Tower 900 can do two 4x 140mm radiators, and crafty installers might even fit three 2x 120mm radiators while keeping the extra drive cages in back.
Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox.
The Tower 900 is also insanely impractical for normal users, or even for normal enthusiasts. It’s huge, and the empty case weighs as much as many high-end gaming PCs. Yet if you really aren’t put off by the enormity or the borderline pretentious design, you’ll be able to pack a bunch of high-end gear inside. If you own a custom computer shop and want to showcase your rigid-tube bending skills, The Tower 900 is for you. On the other hand, if your 4x4 has perfectly Armor-All’d 44” Super Swampers and never leaves the city, or if your million-dollar sports car spends its days cruising gently down the strip, The Tower 900 might also be for you.
MORE: Best Cases
MORE: All Case Content
-
GaryD9 Wait... Thermaltake actually sells that case? I thought it was just a marketing gimmick.Reply -
derekullo I don't quite get the Temperatures over Ambient chart.Reply
Neither Celsius nor Fahrenheit makes much sense.
Either cpus were averaging 90 - 106 Celsius or the ambient temperature in the room was like 50 °F.
Am I missing something? -
Crashman Reply
Nope. I increased the thermal threshold to 115 °C. You can do that with this CPU and motherboard.19651403 said:I don't quite get the Temperatures over Ambient chart.
Neither Celsius nor Fahrenheit makes much sense.
Either cpus were averaging 90 - 106 Celsius or the ambient temperature in the room was like 50 °F.
Am I missing something?
-
10tacle Excellent and thorough review as always. As an air cooler builder, I am always interested in seeing the difference a case design makes in CPU and GPU thermals. What I found intriguing here was that the 900 had the best CPU temp but only third best GPU temp with two other cases tying. Rosewill's classic pull-push case design continues to prove that a simple in-out air solution is the best over a ton of fans blowing everywhere.Reply
With that said, as one who only likes to keep his gaming PCs on top of a desk instead of on the floor where dust gets kicked up, these cube designs would be impracticable. They would look good in the slot of a media center however as a media PC.