Core V21 Cube Case

I bought this Thermaltake Core V21 about 8 years ago for my gaming setup, and it’s hands-down one of the best compact Micro ATX cases I’ve ever owned. Its small, cube-shaped design tucks neatly into the corner of my room, saving space without sacrificing performance. Despite its size, it fits my full-size GPU and CPU cooler with ease, and the 200mm front fan keeps everything cool during intense gaming sessions (think long hours of FPS and RPG games). The modular design is a dream—swappable panels let me tweak airflow for my setup, and it’s sturdy enough to handle a few bumps over the years. The only minor downside is that cable management can be tricky due to the compact interior, requiring some patience to keep things tidy. Also, it comes with just one fan, so I added an extra 120mm fan for better exhaust. For a compact case, though, it’s a beast, supporting liquid cooling if I ever upgrade. It’s perfect for gamers who want a powerful, space-saving build that doesn’t dominate the room. Highly recommend for small apartments or minimalist setups!

Pros: +Not unyieldingly big. Still big since the board can lay flat horizontally. +Panels can be repositioned, so you can build the pc to be presented like a standard case with the motherboard set vertically, or set horizontally. The front logo is also magnetically attached so you can turn it to match the orientation. +Good amount of space for cable management. +Good amount of HDD trays and spaces for SSDs +I like the fan mounting system, where you can adjust the placement of either 120mm, 140mm, or even a 200mm fan (if the fan mounting is set to the top). +Front panel can be reoriented so the power, reset, and USB ports are either in the top placement or the side. +DUST FILTERS EVERYWHERE (intake). All side panels have magnetic dust filters, and the front has fine mesh. Power supply also has a removable dust filter. I love this, since the pc is going to be near the floor majority of the time. +Good amount of room for a large cpu tower heatsink. +Case is very sturdy Cons: -Not really a con, but I wish there was a fan controller or hub, as most low end to mid range mATX boards have low number of fan ports. Mine specifically only has 3 (1 for the cpu), when the case can support up to 7 at once. No biggie, as a fan hub can cost as little as $15, but I would of gladly paid that extra for Thermaltake to build one in. Other thoughts: I've always wanted to build a small form mATX pc, and I'm glad I went with this case. The amount of options it has, features, and personal customization is amazing! The case keeps cool also since all of the mesh panels are practically open. The included 200mm fan at the front is enough to keep the inside well vented as long as you have a good cpu cooler to help expel the air. Great case!

This case is pretty great. Easy to work in, customize-able and has more than enough room to put a ton of stuff in it. Pros: -Inexpensive, I paid like $60 for it. Perfect case for my sub $700 No-frills build. -I LOVE the 200mm fan. The fan itself is nearly silent and moves SO much air. I ran it without an exhaust for a few weeks and it did pretty well keeping my system reasonable temps. One problem is the blades are pretty fragile, I managed to break two of them when putting the front panel back on (Yes, it was running. Yes, I'm an idiot). But they don't feel any more fragile than the Noctua 200mm Fan that I replaced it with. I would have just bought the TT replacement ($14! such a good deal!) but now I've gotta match my 140mm Noctua rear fan and NH-D15 that I'm saving up for. -So easy to build in. Once you take off all the panels, there's really nothing in your way! -Customizeable! All the side panels could be placed in any of the 4 positions, you could even have an inverted mobo if that would float your boat. I have the Mobo flat so there's no GPU sag and the window panel on the right side so I can see my internals while at my desk. You can also rotate the front panel so that the IO is facing up, down, right or left. -It's big! There's all sorts of room for storage or a big air cooler or several large AIOs if you wanted. You can also pack this thing with fans on every side if you really needed to. Cons: -It's big! Yeah, it's way bigger than any MATX case I've ever seen. It's basically a cube so it's a little shorter than most but way wider. Which as I mentioned earlier, is a plus in some senses. But I also wanted to put it in an Kallex unit but the feet are just a little too tall. Going to 3D print feet to drop it down a little. (check Thingiverse if you need the shorter feet too!) -Cable management isn't the best but I'm making it work with the included zip ties. -Plastic viewing window. Honestly, I would have been preferred a third mesh panel with magnetic filter instead. It looks OK but looks like plastic and showed scratches the day after I completed the build. -All the fans or none? In my system, I really don't need any more fans than the front 200mm and the rear 140. But because of the shape I feel like to make it look right it's all or nothing. I would need to leave it as is or put in 6-8 fans to make it look somewhat symmetrical. Also, there's holes for a 200 mm fan on the rails and plenty of room for one on the top but no slots for the rails to actually accommodate one. There's even a stamped 20(cm) on the rails, like they were about to add compatibility for it but then forgot (or decided against it) when they went to design the rest of the case. All in all I definitely recommend this case, it's just (of course) not everything I hoped and dreamed it to be.

SECOND PURCHASE UPDATE: The ASUS ROG Maximus XII Hero Z490 is too big by a couple inches. It wont fit... so disappointed, because I love these cases. The moment I saw the Thermaltake Core V21 SPCC Micro ATX Cube Computer Chassis I knew I liked it and I HOPED I would love it. I LOVE IT. I've built PCs since early DOS on 8088s, XTs, 286, 386, 486, Pentiums, etc... THIS Thermaltake Core V21 is my favorite case EVER. And my other current PC is an OriginPC (which I LOVE). I'm a die hard ASUS motherboard fanatic. They're incomparable. I bought an ASUS ROG Strix Z490-G Gaming (WiFi 6) Z490 LGA 1200 (Intel 10th Gen) SFF Micro ATX Gaming Motherboard and it fits in this Thermaltake Core V21like they were designed on the same machine and built next to each other in the same factory. EVERYTHING FITS PERFECTLY: Screws, I/O panel, everything. After decades of building PCs I fully expected to be disappointed with the fit of the MB on the risers/offsets (lining up with mounting holes for screws), and I really was expecting the I/O panel in the back would not line up and would be the wrong size by a mm here and an mm there. Wrong. They fit like they were made for each other. Bravo ASUS and bravo Thermaltake. In my situation, I have my PCs on open wire shelves in a ventilated closet. I set this Thermaltake Core V21 with the MB vertical for better heat release because I'm mounting so many HDDs in the small compartment. I didn't want all the HDDs and the PSU power supply to be under the MB (heat rises). I set up the adjustable fan holder racks to be one on top, above the large compartment, and one on the side facing out. I have several feet of clearance above so the top fans will work great and the side fans will pull heat away from the wall behind the case ventilating to the open space in front of the shelf it is on. It was easy to realign the MB vertical after I RTFM and found the tiny screw holding on the front power switch I/O unit. THREE Complaints: 1. The Thermaltake video states that the case panels are available for sale individually. As I write this I can't find them on Amazon or on their own website! I want to buy a ventilated panel because I won't be using the "glass" panel. 2. There needs to be more optional HDD mounts. I'm buying several different bolt on HDD mounts to see which will fit inside after I have the huge video card and other things in the case. There are three decent/good (cheapy plastic--should be aluminum) HDD slider trays and a three HDD cage. I wish there was one more of these. I have six huge HDDs which are set up in RAID to be three HDDs. 3. Oh those wonderful fan mounting bars that can be relocated as needed... they're VERY thoughtful and useful. But WATCH OUT I have cut my fingertips SO MANY TIMES on the little retainer thingies that hold them on (see pic). I highly recommend using small needle nose pliers to open and close the retainer fingertip slicers. After all the above, I wish I needed to build another PC because I would do it right now just to build it with this case. They're amazing.

This is the most complex computer case i have ever dealt with. It is also the easiest to setup I have ever found. i watched a unboxing/review video of this on youtube before I bought it. Looked like a dream come true. Found out I wasn't wrong when it got here. This thing is configurable to the extreme. The top, bottom, left, and right sides are all interchangeable. The front can easily be removed and turned in ninety degree increments. Until the ports are optimally placed, which is another detachable and movable piece (tossed the screw for it. it doesn't appear to need it. it attaches to firmly to ever come loose.). There is tons of space to work with. The case itself is the size of two micro atx towers. it is only built for one main board though. Which means tons of room for movement while assembling, and for parts once assembled. Highly recommend for someone new to computer building, clumsy people, or person's that need to customize as much as possible without modding or crafting a case themselves. Only issue I have with it is the brand button on the front is held on by a extremely weak magnet. Has yet to come loose, when not wanted to, though. (anyone wishing to install a DVD/Disc drive will want a different case. as this one has no external facing bays.) edit: found out with this build it is best to check the pin assignments in the manual. Also found that the front panel won't go on right if the sides and cords aren't positioned properly. I originally docked it for the power LED not working. Which my reading has made it me think it was much more likely I burnt out the LED when i failed to to hook it up correctly. Docked the rating as well for the front panel not attaching when the re-positional power switch was on a certain side. Found out that was from something else on the case not having been aligned right as I was working with it. The issue went away eventually. Not for sure what was misaligned. Probably would have been able to fix it quicker if i had checked the side panels alignments were correct. Altogether the best case I have ever worked with. Going to be hard for me to find a case I like more.

This is a great case, there is lots of room inside for multiple different uses and is semi modular with good quality steel. It can use an ATX power supply or can use an SFX with an adapter. There is a 3.5" hard drive cage that fits 3 drives or 2.5" with no adapter needed, there are also 4 2.5" hard drive mounts on the opposite of the case (could have up to either 4 2.5" drives with 3 3.5" or 7 2.5" or any combination) This case can ONLY use either M-ATX or ITX motherboards NOT ATX This case can also be stacked if you need the additional room (for a NAS+ Streaming PC or a couples PC sharing a case) The instructions are quite extensive for basically any install scenario PLEASE NOTE: If you want to stack the cases there are a few ways to do this, as the plastic front cover will rotate 90 degrees in either direction the front IO is also removable and rotates with the plastic front, if you desired it is also possible to turn on both computers with one switch with separate cables or both computers could be operated individually by rotating the front IO 90 degrees (180 degrees from each other) TLDR: High quality case and you are only limited by 2 things.. the motherboard (M-ATX,ITX) and your imagination

Wanted an mATX configuration to build my son a box capable of handling Fallout 4. After much research went with the Thermaltake V21, and haven't regretted it one bit. I concur with the other reviewers that the panels are a little flimsy, but seriously, how often are you going to mess with them once complete? Besides having the ability to remove EVERY panel, and place things where ever you want, makes set-up and build a snap (think - If I only had a little more room, I could...). The box is very quiet and cool and the removable magnetic filters only adds more to the value factor. The case was a little larger than I expected, but the cube format does cool and it literally swallows all but the longest of graphics cards. My son loves the window panel, so he can showcase his computer. There are a few minor things as others have mentioned, but overall this box is an excellent value! I have included the list of components below and using Open Hardware Monitor software I was blown away by the CPU/GPU temps! Fallout New Vega CPU cores run 31-35 degrees and the GPU runs @ 42 degrees while FO4 runs the CPU cores 41 -44 degrees and the GPU @ 75! For Xmas we got him 2 more 120 Riing fans and I can't wait to see how they will affect temps. - Thermaltake CORE V21 case - PNY GeForce GTX 960 DirectX 12 4GB;128-Bit - i5 4590 CPU - 2x8 Kingston HyperX FURY Blue 1866 DDR3 - Scythe SCSK-1100 Shuriken CPU cooler - Thermaltake SP550 PSU - WD 1 TB 7200 HD (I had to cut corners somewhere, since I just finished an Intel NUC w/a 500 GB SSD and a 256 GB m.2...but this will change after the holidays) - w/200mm case fan and 2x Thermaltake Riing 120mm fans runs 41-45 on the CPU and 75 on the GPU under high load - Win 10 64 Bit

Bought this case for a computer which needed to go on a bottom shelf which did not have enough height for a tower case. I was very impressed by the case quality, it's very sturdy and looks great. The window panels are a nice touch. It is deep enough to fit a full-size graphics card - I easily fit an ASUS ROG STRIX RX580. I love the horizontal motherboard installation! There is a tremendous amount of harddrive expansion space, and the separate level for the power supply allows the full top level to be used for other components. Lots of slots for fans as well, and the included front fan provides pretty good stock ventilation. Be sure to install the power supply first, and if you need to take off any included CPU fan mounts from your motherboard before installing your fan, be sure to do so before installing the horizontal motherboard or else the screws will fall underneath it, and it can be a pain to get them out if you've already installed other components. Overall thrilled with this case - excellent price, quality, and features. Would buy again (and might if I ever find another spot for it - you can stack these cases and remove the intervening panels to have a truly staggering amount of internal space. Or you could stack two separate computers on top of each other to have a side-by-side setup. Lots of possibilities with the modular design).