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Thermaltake M9 Case Review
Author: Dennis Garcia
Published: Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Introduction
When it comes to computer cases you can find just about anything. Some will be plain industrial style cases and meet the minimum recommended specs while others will be lavish modified cases in strange shapes like pyramids, girls, or made from 30 some high quality case fans and held together with zip ties.
So how do you know if a certain case is right for you? Well in a way you don’t, you see everyone picks cases for different reasons. Some people choose a case on price alone while others have a laundry list of must haves like color, special cooling, or exotic materials like aluminum and carbon fiber. However on thing is certain whatever case you decide on is not what you are limited to since you can always mod your case and turn it into anything you want.
Want a metallic black finish? Sand down the panels and repaint them. Want to improve cooling. Grab your Dremel tool and cut out a few openings. The possibilities are endless which brings us to our review item.
So how do you know if a certain case is right for you? Well in a way you don’t, you see everyone picks cases for different reasons. Some people choose a case on price alone while others have a laundry list of must haves like color, special cooling, or exotic materials like aluminum and carbon fiber. However on thing is certain whatever case you decide on is not what you are limited to since you can always mod your case and turn it into anything you want.
Want a metallic black finish? Sand down the panels and repaint them. Want to improve cooling. Grab your Dremel tool and cut out a few openings. The possibilities are endless which brings us to our review item.
In this review we will be looking at the Thermaltake M9 case. This is a mid tower chassis constructed from SECC steel and designed in the popular “stacker” configuration. “Stacker” basically means the entire front panel is open to accept 5.25” drives and this case supports up to 9x of them, 3 are swappable to 3.5” using the included HDD drive cage. The case also comes with a 5.25” to 3.5” drive rack used for a 3.5” external drive devices (ie floppy drive).
Overall dimensions are 17.3” x 7.9” x 19.5” which is about a half an inch smaller than the CM Centurion 590 we recently reviewed.
Overall dimensions are 17.3” x 7.9” x 19.5” which is about a half an inch smaller than the CM Centurion 590 we recently reviewed.
The front panel is actually quite nice with a good balance of style and utility. The front controls are located at the top of the case for easy access. The plastic itself feature a high gloss and a couple of "tuner" style cooling vents. Sadly the vents do not function and the high gloss plastic is impossible to keep clean.
