The V9 BlackX Edition -
The Thermal Take V9 BlackX is an interesting looking case. It is a semi glossy black case with a diagonal window in the left side of the case. In the opposite corners from the window there are two vents. These vents are mirrored on the right hand side of the case but on the opposite corners. These allow for a crossflow of air through the case from each corner (at least on opposite corners).
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The front of the BlackX follows the now common style of looking like it is all a large grill for air flow. Ro a certain degree this is true but there are no fans anywhere but that one front fan down by the HDD cage. You do get four external 5.25-inch bays and two external 3.5-inch bays they are visible in this shot by their outlines. The nice thing about this style of front panel is that it does help to present a smooth front even with nothing installed.
The back of the case falls back in to more typical design; you get a large rear vent fan next to where the board I/O will sit. This is supposed to help vent out some of the hot air from the CPU. However one of the down sides to this is that it usually vents out right into a wall or the back of a cabinet. When you combine this with the hot air from any decent GPU can create a large amount of dead air behind your new BlackX case.
Looking at the top of the case we find that large 230mm fan that helps to vent hot air out of the top. Right in front of this fan we find the two HDD docking bays. These can fit both 3.5 and 2.5 inch drives and are hot swappable (at least according to the documentation). The front header area contains a USB 2.0 and 3.0 port along with the usual headphone and microphone jacks. Along the very extreme front edge are the power and reset buttons along with the usual function lights (HDD and Power).
Looking at the inside of the case we see a fairly typical layout. There are four perpendicular HDD bays (these allow for better air flow over the drives and also help to keep the case clean) with a tool-less mounting system. Just above this are two more bays that can be used for HDDs or for front mounted card readers etc. above that are the four front facing 5.25 Inch bays for your optical drives. If you look at the peripheral mounting slots we find that these are tool-less as well. However the design is a little clunky and sometimes sticks.
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The PSU is mounted on the bottom of the case for the best airflow and cooling and also to provide you with a cleaner install. However, one of the down sides of this is that the cables from the PSU for things like the 8-pin aux power conector(s) usually have a hard time reaching across the case. Thermal Take has also put a cutout in the motherboard mounting back plane. This is useful for mounting those heavier coolers that require a larger bracket on the back of the board.
Not a bad design even if it is a little on the typical side. What counts now is to see how things go into the case and how well they operate once they are in there.
