I just ordered this exclusive PC case for my Trainzing machine

JonMyrlennBailey

Well-known member
It is a nifty cube shape with a bunch of room for various cooling provisions. It will fit in and fill out that cube-shaped cubby hole in my entertainment cabinet much better that the present standard tall micro-ATX CPU tower does. Part of the trouble with my current tower case is that the double GPU fans are about one inch from the bottom with a side panel nearby with no holes near the bottom. The GPU can hardly breathe. My GPU has been running quite hot like a toaster while playing TANE SP4 lately. This cube tower is especially formulated for gaming hardware. This case can take my micro ATX mobo or a mini ITX form factor motherboard. There is a 200 mm turbo fan installed up front and I ordered an additional 120 mm fan for the rear. This case will even support water cooler gear. I don't want to monkey with liquid cooled gear at this time as it is messy, complicated and expensive. One of those damned GPU cooling blocks with custom fit is about 200 bucks. I just bought a cavernous case with beaucoup fan blowing going on inside. The venerable air-cooled Volkswagen engine did quite well without a radiator.

The mobo can be mounted vertically or horizontally in this rig. I will mount it so the GPU will get maximum cooling air flow. The 4x1 inch custom metal trademark plate shown photoshopped in front is to be my own addition. I must make sure the front and rear case fans spin so air moves in the same direction through the box, in the front panel and out the rear panel. I don't want fans to be pulling against each other. I hope that 4" x 1" BARROW plate to be mounted on the front panel doesn't slow air flow too much.

The case dimensions are:
LxWxH ‎16.7 x 12.6 x 13.25 inches

It is not even quite as tall as my micro-ATX tower case.


Thermaltake Core V21 SPCC Micro ATX, Mini ITX Cube Gaming Computer Case Chassis​

 
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I surely will. I am hoping this cube-shaped wind tunnel will drop GPU temps by at least 10 degrees C as my diesel locomotive lumbers through a heavy forest of 300,000 3D Auran hemlocks. Looking at the case internals online, the 200 mm front fan seems to be positioned toward the bottom of the case so the silver rectangular BARROW badge up on top should not block much wind chill factor inside the computer. Oh, by the way, Barrow is my legal last name, so I gave my home-built PC a factory-look trademark.

Except for one clear plastic panel on the side, the cube case has a bunch of perforations on all the other 5 panels. A cube full of holes.

Few people so badge their home-built computers with a custom brand name.

Body and internal guts by Thermaltake, Crucial, Samsung, MSI, AMD, Zotac and EVGA. Mind by N3V Games, MSI, NVIDIA and Microsoft Corporation and soul by Barrow. ;)
 
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You may still inhibit its cooling by keeping it the entertainment center....it needs fresh air....not recycled hot air.
 
You may still inhibit its cooling by keeping it the entertainment center....it needs fresh air....not recycled hot air.
Well, I will have the front doors of the entertainment center open during game play and the back of the cabinet will also be open (no back panel) to let the hot air blow out of the case. Air will move from front to rear. As a matter of fact when I built my gamer in the standard micro ATX tower, I did not think to check the direction of air current at both front and rear case fans to ensure they were moving air the same way. 200 mm intake fan up front taking fresh cool air in from the living room and a 120 mm exhaust fan at the back expelling warm air from the case.

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Nice one and good to see a mATX case with 5 card slots instead of the more usual 4 giving the GPU a little more breathing space even when the PCIe slot arrangement results in the GPU being close to the edge of the motherboard and case side panel. Enjoy. Peter
 
I like the design as well. Something different for a change. Looking forward to seeing a picture of the internals once set up.
 
Well, I will have the front doors of the entertainment center open during game play and the back of the cabinet will also be open (no back panel) to let the hot air blow out of the case. Air will move from front to rear. As a meter of fact when I built my gamer in the standard micro ATX tower, I did not think to check the direction of air current at both front and rear case fans to ensure they were moving air the same way. 200 mm intake fan up front taking fresh cool air in from the living room and a 120 mm exhaust fan at the back expelling warm air from the case.

<iframe width="946" height="532" src="
" title="How to optimize your case airflow!" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
On the subject of cooling, a good rule of thumb is to always have one more intake fan than exhaust fans. If you have a little positive air pressure inside the case it helps prevent dust collecting. So if you have two intake fans, say mounted on a radiator, only have one exhaust fan in the back. It’ll pay off in the long run for cleaning.

Cheers

EDIT: You could probably achieve a similar effect even with equal amounts of intake and exhaust by having the intake fans run faster than the exhaust fans. 🤔
 
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Nice one and good to see a mATX case with 5 card slots instead of the more usual 4 giving the GPU a little more breathing space even when the PCIe slot arrangement results in the GPU being close to the edge of the motherboard and case side panel. Enjoy. Peter
I can put the side panel with holes in it on the side closest to the fans of the GPU so it can breathe even more easily. The plastic glass panel will then by switcher-roo'ed to the opposite side where there is no hot hot component. This Thermaltake cube case is huge, cavernous inside and has side panels that can be easily flip-flopped. The top and bottom panels easily come off to and they are both full of vent holes. The motherboard lies flat inside this case. The front vented panel has a foam filter inside to keep dust out of the chassis. There is a huge 200 mm intake fan behind this foam filter panel. The PSU is on the bottom along with the 3 hard drive trays.
 
On the subject of cooling, a good rule of thumb is to always have one more intake fan than exhaust fans. If you have a little positive air pressure inside the case it helps prevent dust collecting. So if you have two intake fans, say mounted on a radiator, only have one exhaust fan in the back. It’ll pay off in the long run for cleaning.

Cheers

EDIT: You could probably achieve a similar effect even with equal amounts of intake and exhaust by having the intake fans run faster than the exhaust fans. 🤔
This case only make provisions for one large 200 mm fan up front and one 120 or 240 mm fan at the rear. There are provisions for mounting radiator coolers on top of the case but my rig will be strictly air cooled. I'm not yet ready to brave the expensive and messy task of water cooling a damned personal computer. Changing out the radiator on my 1995 Toyota Corolla was daunting enough.

I just received this new case yesterday and I am testing it right now with top and side panels off. It is very promising so far. Using NVIDIA GeForce Experience Performance window as a monitor, the GPU is not going above 65 degrees C while Trainzing for two or more hours in 3D-tree-intensive routes and wattage seems to stay below 100 W. Twin GPU fans staying below 2,000 RPM. Frame rates are high mostly, at or near 60 FPS. Frame shudder is minimal. When the GPU ran hotter, like 85 degrees C, in that old cramped tower of mine, it consumed much more power, the fans ran damn near 3,000 RPM, there was more shudder and frame rates suffered.

I have to flip the rear 120 fan around still so it blows air out the back of the case. I test fan current direction by using a lit incense stick and observing the smoke direction. I don't smoke, so I can't use a lit cigarette as an air flow direction indicator.

Running a desert route like Mojave Sub Division with not much tree content, the GPU is ice cold at 45 degrees C. The card itself is cool to the touch.
 
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