Micro-ATX Comeback: Thermaltake Tower 200, Rotated CTE C700, & Ceres 300

Sponsor: Deepcool AK620 Zero Dark on Amazon geni.us/apRI9Q
Thermaltake has been working on redefining its case lineup over the last few years and has incorporated several of our critiques to overhaul its cases. We feel like Thermaltake is moving in the right direction between the Tower 200 micro-ATX case (it does fit micro-ATX, despite being advertised as mini-ITX), the CTE C700 case, and the Ceres 300 cases. Hopefully they keep this direction.
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TIMESTAMPS
00:00 - Thermaltake's Past
01:28 - Thermaltake Ceres 300 $100 Case
06:12 - Tower 200 Micro-ATX
10:36 - CTE C700 Tower
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Host, Reporting: Steve Burke
Video: Vitalii Makhnovets, Mike Gaglione

[@GamersNexus]

Check out our Silverstone video on some function-first cases! kzbin.info/www/bejne/bYOym3tqZbaamLM

[@voice5sur5]

Your mic is on point but could you think about recording in Qhd~4k ? 1080p is a bit overdue.

[@ryankeeling93]

Are the Thermaltake staff misinforming again? Pretty sure tower 200 is Mini ITX?

[@typerightseesight]

Awesome, xbox on steroids. lol

[@cc0767]

​@@voice5sur5 1080p IS 2k

[@voice5sur5]

@@cc0767 meant Qhd*

[@FanboyKisser]

Thermaltake and Steve reconnecting is like seeing my parents getting back together.

[@lilblackduc7312]

Steve isn't the parent who is bound to cheat again.

[@kvltovfreki6020]

Same can't be said about Thermaltake though.

[@lt3880]

id say thermaltake is the deadbeat dad who finally showed up for the graduation ceremony.

[@DelticEngine]

I'd hardly say they've got back together. Making positive comments in their booth is Steve's professionalism. Like Steve said, they'll have to look at these cases in the lab. More and more things these days are made up to look pretty but turn out to be pretty bad under scrutiny in the cold light of day.

[@metallurgico]

I hope my parents would not.

[@NickGuelker]

I feel like Thermaltake and ASRock deserve an "most improved" award. Both have really stepped up their game.

[@TogonzoMedia]

For sure. The Peerless Assassin and ASRock's AM5 boards are turning heads.

[@KellyWu04]

@@TogonzoMedia Peerless Assassin is a Thermal*right* cooler. And they definitely got it right.

[@ghallora]

@Mathew Long lol. It was a good try.

[@Decenium]

Thermaltake ran Caselabs out of business but stealing their designs and Asrock was invested in NFT's, BOTH those companies do not deserve to exist.....

[@MikeHoltackers]

​@@KellyWu04 I bet they're happy to thermal*take* the credit 😂

[@SplitScreamOFFICIAL]

Hi Steve from Hardware Unboxed

[@mayonotes9849]

Thanks Steve from Gamers Nexus.

[@AMKP]

Back to you Steve

[@AlpineBishop]

Thanks Steve. You can literally see him!

[@jacoblandfield2526]

*two Steve’s turn in unison*

[@finnthehuman5260]

Never thought I'd be interested in a case like this but I'm really digging the tower 200

[@vedinthorn]

It looks good from multiple angles. That's hard to do.

[@tswan137]

I have the Tower 100 and I freaking love it. Running a 3080Ti and a Ryzen 9 5900X in it with a DH15 Tower Cooler. Super dense little thing, Looking forward to the Tower 200 for my next upgrade down the road.

[@finnthehuman5260]

Damn I might actually get one lol!

[@joseverdejo9010]

@@finnthehuman5260yeah don’t, $40+ for shipping I paid a week again and they didn’t even create a label until recently , hard to get in contact with their customer support…. Great loooking case if it actually ever shows up

[@Hardwareunboxed]

Back to you Steve...

[@aerosw1ft]

Thanks Steve!

[@thrillium8623]

Thanks Steve!

[@Khalifa_K]

Thanks Steve!

[@ChicagoShottYPL]

Thanks Steve!

[@inzombniacc]

Thanks Steve!

[@ssjaken]

Thermal take was my first case I used for my first full build in 2005. Has a place in my heart

[@Cybersawz]

Same here. In 2003, bought a huge ATX case from Thermaltake. Loved it; it lasted over 10 years!

[@kanguin23]

I'm glad Thermaltake is listening to feedback and actually making these type of changes.

[@Decenium]

Now if only they would listen to the advice to not steal designs from smaller companies....

[@Bayofthe91st]

@@Decenium and starting to copy from bigger company instead like O11 case layout :)

[@Mack7830]

really like the green, we need more options than just white or black

[@thelegendaryklobb2879]

I especially like the "moss" green

[@Justin-vq9co]

So great to see so many companies taking feedback. That takes effort. Thank you thermaltake

[@danieloberhofer9035]

Which is crazy, the "takes effort" part that is, if you think about it. Well founded feedback that comes from testing the products should be considered a godsend by the manufacturers, because it's engineering work that's practically for free.

[@Justin-vq9co]

@@danieloberhofer9035 Yeah I agree. Unfortunately people can get very defensive internally , especially when they think other people will be offended if you "don't like the product your company is making." "Oh don't listen to the troll content creators." 😆

[@junko4166]

I'm glad M-ATX is getting more love lately. ITX/SFX parts are obscenely expensive in my country.

[@svn5994]

Your country? They're horribly overpriced as a whole. Cheapest AM5 ITX B650/X670 board is 250 USD minimum.

[@Pato-sp2pr]

pay more for less features with itx.

[@Andy-jz1zw]

If you think about it, you aswell just buy a laptop...

[@bobbygetsbanned6049]

@@Pato-sp2pr Exactly, it makes no sense. We cut off every PCIe except for 1 so now it cost you $100 extra, what??

[@junko4166]

@@svn5994 That's surprising. I assumed they were cheap on the civilized world because I see a lot of Americans building tiny ITX living room computers that just stay unused 90% of the time.

[@selfhelp69]

Good to see them working on decent airflow 'useable' MATX cases. I dont like building giant sized systems anymore. That being said the amount of bad MATX cases on the market is pretty staggering. This is def going in the right direction.

[@thenewjupiter]

I wish more proper sff attention was given to matx.

[@RolandsSh]

Asus AP201 is great, there are some decent Fractal, Sama and Silverstone cases. That's about it, unfortunately.

[@selfhelp69]

@@RolandsSh I have a Fractal its not awful but there are definitely things I would change.

[@RolandsSh]

@@selfhelp69 I have an AP201 myself, but that was a purchase driven primarily by availability. I wanted to get a smaller case initially (Silverstone PS15/Fara H1M or Sama IM01). I have some very minor gripes with the case, but for the most part it is pretty damn good. And most of those problems can be solved with some minor modding/jankier approaches. Sama IM01 sized case with Asus AP201 build quality and mesh front would be my perfect case.

[@erikhendrickson59]

Really liking this trend of just giving the GPU fans direct access to fresh, outside air. The next step should be an isolated compartment for the GPU, to be connected via riser cable, inside of which would be a pair of exhaust fans dedicated to doing nothing but removing the 400w+ of heat these insane GPUs are pulling these days.

[@frankwankerl7021]

The Tower 100 is my absolute favourite looking case of all time. I’m really happy to see that they’re adding the 200 to the Tower series.

[@brutusthecat6044]

You guys are machines in making content! Really great coverage and rundowns.

[@toufusoup]

I’m happy about the attention towards MicroATX. It’s been a while where recent cases were made for them specifically, it’s usually mATX boards in ATX chassis. I love the form factor, so this oughta be fun.

[@c99kfm]

Hot take: Micro-ATX should be what most people use in the home computers. Most people don't need all the extra PCIe slots that are the primary advantage of full-ATX, and most people would likely appreciate a smaller case.

[@ruikazane5123]

But mobos these days...instead of extra PCI-e slots they are all M.2 slots. If they can make double decker slots it could help

[@Erelyes]

Steve I recall many years ago now on some old forums (HardOCP?) that there were quite a few people critical of TT. "Friends don't let friends buy Thermaltake" and "Thermaltake could even make a fridge that runs hot". It's good to see their attitude is changing though. I also really like the green color and the front grille aesthetic on those cases, they are putting some thought into those products. They just need to take it easy on the LCD displays, LED fans, and other tat - and make sure that's all optional!

[@itsprod.472]

Really liking the new Thermaltake cases and products as a whole tbh. I remember having one of their snow edition cases way back as my second build

[@M4TTYN]

Can see me getting one of these nothing too crazy and glad to see Thermaltake has improved and took you're feedback and mad improvements!!

[@Hagop64]

"I would say this is going in a direction I like." High praise from Steve

[@natedavis4964]

I’ve watched every computex video y’all have done and LOVED each and every one of them. So much content and depth in each and every video like always! I wish computex would never end!! 😂

[@insearchofadventure8161]

The tower 200 looks cool ! They also had matching liquid cooler colors !

[@Spodlude]

Good stuff Steve, thanks for quality well informed journalism driving forward the quality of products in the enthusiast sector.

[@stonelaughter]

I would REALLY love to see a series on air cooling build and good practice; how much you need for the different tiers of gaming build (e.g. a 13600K+4070; a 13600K+4090; a 13700K+4090; and a 13900K+4090); and how best to construct your airflow for efficient and useful cooling... pitfalls and so on. You could really make some great, useful content! Then you could do it all again but for water cooling... Everyone knows you're the guys to trust in this space.

[@BeeWhere]

So happy to see some quality mATX options. Long live mATX

[@BryantCaudill]

GN your coverage for the show has been amazing!

[@n0nvi0l3t]

Bring on the case reviews! So excited!

[@ScottGrammer]

0:53 PC case, meet 1972 and the color of every refrigerator sold that year, Avocado Green.

[@VectorGaming4080]

I just purchased a Thermaltake prebuilt from Best Buy because it seemed to good to be true price-wise, and it honestly is assembled extremely well. It was $2100 for an overclocked MSI 4070 Ti, i7-13700K, 2 TB M.2, 32 GB of DDR5, and a 750W Gold efficiency power supply. The CPU has a 360 mm AIO that’s installed correctly and stays extremely cool for a 13th gen Intel. The cable management is fantastic. How I think they were able to sell it so cheap was because the fans, the case, the AIO, and the PSU are all Thermaltake branded, which I’m totally fine with as it all seems quality. I know you’ve given them justified criticism in the past, but I’m happy to see how competently this was assembled and am going to keep this as my new PC instead of building.

[@BS_Mods]

Great coverage of Tt. Nice to see some of those improvements.

[@Bryan-T]

micro ATX should be a lot more popular. I haven't needed more than 4 slots in over a decade.

[@RickTrajan]

Soon...

[@Demopans5990]

Soon, old ATX cases will be the new mATX. GPUs be expanding

[@unite9504]

Eager to get a review on the Tower 200! I like the changes from the Tower 100, and would be interested to see thermals/what it's like to build in.

[@50shadesofbeige88]

I love the flipped and mirrored designs. I have the Seasonic Synchro in one of my main rigs, and my GPU Temps are great because the card faces up instead of down.

[@depression_daily]

They need to go full arcade cabinet paint/graphics scheme with the Tower series.

[@Dexx1s]

Bro Cooling, the Asian channel, did one. It was one of those toy grab ones that was actually functional.

[@heyspookyboogie644]

I’m glad to see Thermaltake is taking constructive criticism to heart and making improvements. I’ve really liked my thermaltake stuff for the most part.

[@arthuralford]

Steve starts serious discussion of the Tower 200, gets distracted by cat video. Well played, Thermantake, well played

[@JayFlowie]

I'm really excited for the tower 200. I just sold one in the tower 100 and it looked stunning. I really like that I won't need to pay a premium for an itx board this time. Good job on at least that front cooler master!

[@SymplyOP]

I had bought a Thermaltake a long while ago and returned it because it was dented out of the box. Also I just bought the Tower 200 for my new build... "new" build which is almost all entirely new aside from the video card and I would have never gotten it if I didnt watch this video or another saying that it is a mATX case or that it can fit an mATX motherboard since they market it as a mITX case. So lets hope that Thermaltake not only impressed GN, but impresses me. Here is giving them another chance.

[@JonoSSD]

The green color on that case reminds me of Windows XP. It's nice to have more color options for pc parts, I'm tired of everything being B&W.

[@Biggarou]

I have their Commander case for quite a while now and so far the thing has been 100% flawless in how it sits and works.

[@eragon190]

Love to see companies taking feedback to heart and improving their products. I'll definitely be checking their products now. Edit: Love that the Tower 200 is micro-atx.

[@Nunkuruji]

I like that Thermaltake tries new designs. They do fall short on thinking out some things. I use a Core G3 slim ATX right now, in a horizontal orientation on top of my desk hutch. I modified it to support a 360 AIO, and replaced the suffocation window with mesh. Efficient use of space while remaining ATX/SFX, easier to maintain than trying ITX again, minimal wiring, no sata etc. In terms of Micro-ATX, I would enjoy a non-chipset board, give me back the 4 pcie lanes from the chipset link and the board real estate, and just give me PCIe/M.2, nearly akin to Aorus Master layout. Could throw LAN on one lane. Looking forward to what TT have out there when I do my next build.

[@3dchick]

Also love the motherboard configurations toward the middle! My inner ocd hates the unbalanced config of most cases

[@magnusnilsson9792]

These are really neat cases, best I've seen in a while.

[@imnotusingmyrealname4566]

It's so awesome that affordable cases include so many fans now!

[@spyker_aileron]

i'd love to see more of the rotated motherboard design. it's an easy way of getting the vertical gpu marketing checkbox, and it just looks cool as well as opening up a ton of watercooling options

[@JohnV117]

Now im looking forward to a Termaltake comme back nice to see they are having what looks to be good products.

[@HappyCupsInc]

Cool cases, especially the mATX one. I like the green colours too

[@codelinx]

I had thermal take case 3 computers so and man it brings back memories🥲

[@Durbanite2010]

Those are a really nice set of cases at a reasonable price point - that Tower 200 is quite cool in particular, good use of space as well as good potential thermals with those fans. I think it looks really good in black and I hope they keep that more matt finish and don't go gloss with it. I myself am rocking a Thermaltake Core V21 at the moment, with a Ryzen7 3700X and a MSI Evoke RX5700XT and it works great with the huge stock front fan (240mm if I'm not mistaken) and 4 Arctic P12 PWM 120mm in the top of the case, with no rear fan - no floor fan because the Seasonic Focus GM 850W PSU has a downward-facing fan in the build.

[@themechanic-warzone7123]

Absolutely LOVE Thermaltake products. I am especially a huge fan of the tower cases, love those. Very much looking forward to seeing reviews of the new CTE C700 tho as my next build is going full WC. 😍👌👌

[@Machinationstudio]

Love the colours!

[@whirledpeaz5758]

I bought a Core v21 at the beginning of CoVID and built an Inverted R5 2600 system. I like the modularity of the case panels and the huge basement for cable management.

[@egoranonymous3223]

I like these type videos for a change. I can't wait for the reviews now.

[@wherearemytesticles]

The Tower 200 looks really nice in Racing Green! Excited for the review!

[@-INFERNUS-]

I have Thermaltake Riing fans, 120/140mm in my case been using them for years, been great so far.

[@rolandohiebert2144]

This much postive commentary from Steve must be giving the people at Thermaltake who designed these cases a big bonus and maybe even a party.

[@Dubsys]

Man, that matcha green colour is so cool

[@arunavachatterjee2433]

Well done Thermaltake and thank you Steve! I'll be buying the Tower 200 soon :)

[@chuanteadave]

All that airflow 😮😮 awesome

[@jlp5137]

I am going to pick up a Thermaltake for my next build because they listened. Thanks, Steve.

[@stonedoubt]

I just got a cte700 and it’s so dope!!!

[@zig131]

Thank you for the thorough look at the CTE 700! I was worried that, with the CTE 750 having minimal drive space behind the MOBO, the CTE 700 would be short on drive space but it looks really good!

[@monoman567]

Really liking the macha color and the looks of the TT cases.

[@YuasBirds]

I do really like that matcha green color

[@Xfade81]

I like that 90 degree pci-e riser, i've seen kits where it puts a bit too much stress on the slot because it's straight.

[@rysterstech]

I do have a Versa H22 for my diy build. It is so stifled for front intake thanks to a lack of vents thanks to the 3 5.25 bays and many more internal drive cages. It does have 2x120mm fans and a mesh front panel but the hdd/ssd cages block all the airflow. It also doesn't fit a nhu-12s redux or other 120mm coolers... Its just an out-dated design. Their newer more forward thinking products do look alot more appealing to me, even though i do use 5.25 inch drive for hdd hot swap bays.

[@Blafard666]

I love the colors, never seen before for cases ...

[@p4radigm989]

very good looking cases. grats TT

[@Arkstellar]

The first PC I ever built was in a Thermaltake case. Good to see that they've maintained the same sense of perforated aesthetic over the years. My next PC build may very well be in one of these cases.

[@OmegaBlack999]

TT is stepping up. I like what I see. Thanks, Steve!!

[@GD_MoonBlister]

Tower 200 looks good. Great video GN!!!

[@ShroudedWolf51]

All of that space for cables in the back of that case...I love that. It's been frustrating building in cases ever since the side panel bulge has been phased out. I'm surprised I'm saying this, but good work, Thermaltake.

[@IngwiePhoenix]

I have Core X2! Its one biiiiig boi. For my next build I would love to use a white Tower, would look great on a desk in a slight angle, and actually allow me to see my stuff. :) Thanks for the coverage!

[@markphilpot8734]

As usual, you are on their ass with no slack. Giving credit only when do and that is just. Got your solder mat and love it! This mat is worth it people, snag it!

[@jozsefizsak]

Thermaltake seems to be putting great effort into functionality, versatility and attractive appearance. I'm very impressed and looking forward to your testing.

[@BrendanGeormer]

Steve and the team are really pumping out these videos from Computex stuff ontop of the normal suite of releases

[@rustynail6363]

Seems from I'm seeing, there's a ton of really good cases coming out, very much liked the look of the Tower case.

[@drewdane40]

That green Ceres is really good looking. I was already thinking about buying that case, but I 100% would buy it in that color.

[@Brunnen_Gee]

I've used various Thermaltake products over the years (decades), so I'm familiar with their quality, but I like the direction their style is headed. I have a Ceres 300 in the mail right now, in the matcha green color.

[@feralkitty33]

Tower 100 looks sick. Hope that screen can be a 5.25 bay. Glad to see so much vertical mobo layout, thats my fav

[@dnakatomiuk]

My last Thermaltake hardware was a Cooper cooler for my AMD Athlon Barton 2500+ ins 2003/4 I've never bought anything else since. Yet they are now everywhere especially the online shops I go to, cheap PSUs fans etc

[@animalyze7120]

Thermaltake has really stepped up their game, these newer cases along with their Ex12 or EX14 Swafans are just stellar! Now their prices are ridonkulous for sure and the only reason why I haven't grabbed a new case and fans from them.

[@DownwithEA1]

Very interested in the tower 200. Looking forward to the review.

[@ShroudedWolf51]

Not sure how many components it'll be possible to color match with that macha green, but I really like the color of it. Edit: The turquoise on that Tower 200 is also quite lovely. Reminds me a bit of the cyan on the Fractal Pop Air. Good stuff.

[@ApexLodestar]

The Thermaltake Versa H18 tempered glass was my first PC case. I'd love to see them do well in thermals. Rooting for them.

[@Total_Egal]

Its like Steve and GN single handled brought the case industrie to a point where they take their job of not only making a box housing hardware and do something something for looks only but seriously taking on the task of building cases again. Good job Steve! and also good job Thermaltake.

[@p_mouse8676]

The air doesn't go at 90 degrees, it just comes from the sides (and there is plenty of air there in a room) The issue with small feet is the surface area in combination with the boundary layer effect because of the restricted height. The only thing that tight corners create is a bit of turbulence, but that problem is not nearly as bad as the boundary layer effect.

[@Dracossaint]

The exhaust goes straight back

[@ruikazane5123]

It's not like those fans are powerful enough for that to be a real problem. Fans don't have a completely directional intake as well so it may suck in air at 45 or 30 or 25 degrees off-axis. If used as exhaust (which I see no good reason blowing warm air downwards, it will naturally go up) then it can be an issue

[@p_mouse8676]

@@ruikazane5123 I recommend looking up the boundary layer effect.

[@ruikazane5123]

@@p_mouse8676 I know what it is. At lower air velocities the effect is less, that's why usual PC fans should not suffer as compared to high static pressure industrial and server fans. There's another factor in that situation though - vaccuum.

[@knghtbrd]

With the crazy sizes of video cards nowadays, I would not be surprised to start seeing more mATX boards. A little more real estate is maybe not desired for PCIe gen 5 nor DDR5 signaling, but a gen 4 port or two might still be useful for adding a faster NIC or a storage controller for homelab builds which might use a more modest (or no) dGPU, and even if you're not thinking about those customers there's a lot of components that do not need PCIe gen 5 speeds like the various USB 3.x controllers without thunderbolt/USB4 support, system audio, SMBus/I2C, RGB controllers, and relatively lower-current higher-voltage power circuitry (if ATX12V0 ever happens? Or for USB-PD? Or just for powering fans and blinkenlights?) I still have a Thermaltake mATX case in service. It's a mesh-fronted case, the Versa H18. Got it because it was cheap and while the thermal needs of the system were fairly LOL, the case is MORE than up to the task. It's an offline only retro Windows XP gaming box … with cheap Windows 7 hardware that has to be artificially hobbled in several places to even lazily run XP Pro and its games. Because they don't even run right/at all on newer systems.

[@TopNotchPanch]

just bought The Tower 200 for my new 7800x3D build im pretty excited for it

[@asterfield02]

I might actually get the Tower 200. I had the 100 and the temps were really bad. At this size, I think it will be okay. not as fancy looking as the side glass one but the thermals should be good with all these vents now.

[@Anvilshock]

Reason why I like a "filter" on the top? It prevents small things like screws I happen to drop on it from falling inside. And it looks nicer than just plain old perforation.

[@KSPRAYDAD]

Really liking the Matcha colour. Looking forward to your review...I'd rather spend my money on components than a case so hopefully they've nailed this one.

[@phlogistanjones2722]

THANKS STEVE! Cheers!

[@sadlerbw9]

My current PC is actually in a Thermaltake Core V21. I am one of those people who loves horizontal motherboards, and TT is one of the few places that makes a decent non-ITX cube case these days. MATX may not be the ideal motherboard form factor, but this case has all the CPU air cooler clearance I could possibly want, enough space for a massive GPU that won't have any issues with sag thanks to the motherboard being horizontal, and since all the side panels are the same size, I can pick which side to put the window on so it doesn't cause airflow problems. I just wish they made a slightly larger one that fit full ATX motherboards. I wish they would revise the Core X5 to get rid of the 5.25" drive cage so they could shorten the case a bit. I would have preferred the ATX motherboard compatibility, but they didn't just make the case a little bit bigger than the V21 to fit ATX boards and 360mm rads, they made it a LOT bigger. I need a Core X5 Compact with those big ventilation holes on the top panel of the Tower 200!

[@Zejjnt]

" - is that a cat?" is the question every case manufacturer should be able to raise

[@aaronj.edelman916]

These cases are pretty cool. I’ve never been a fan of vertical you mounting but I just may change my mind.

[@jrherita]

The Thermaltake Tower 100 is a great case - thanks TT and GNex!

[@HermSezPlayToWin]

Thanks Steve!