Thermaltake CTE C700 TG Mid Tower Case Review

It’s Almost Great

Thermaltake and I have a long history, and I’ve been a bit rough on many of the review samples I’ve received. Hopefully they keep sending me cases, or at least take some of my feedback, because all the enclosures they have sent to me have had some really great things about them. Unfortunately, many of my review samples have also suffered from some poor QC which led to issues during reviews. As an example, the Ceres 500 was an air cooling beast, and while a little on the large side for what it offered, I would have given it an editor’s choice award if not for a few construction issues, and materials that were a bit cheap for a case in its price range.

Thermaltake’s new(ish) CTE series of cases all feature a 90 degree rotated motherboard layout which turns the rear I/O into top I/O. Despite Thermaltake’s literature, this is neither revolutionary, nor even a new concept, as plenty of other manufacturers have ventured down this path previously. That shouldn’t take away from Thermaltake embracing this design, as orienting the hardware this way does possess some theoretical advantages. While there should be a thermal benefit to allowing the heat to flow naturally upwards, system fans provide far more benefit and there is generally no measurable difference between a standard front-to-back airflow system, and a bottom-to-top airflow system. Regardless of any thermal benefit, this configuration also relieves any of the stress placed on the PCB of a GPU that occurs when mounted in a traditional system.

The CTE C700 TG

From an appearance perspective, Thermaltake did a really excellent job with the CTE C700 TG (and I’m guessing the other CTE models are no different). I’ve had to complain on a number of white cases that I’ve previously reviewed regarding their mismatched whites. That was not a problem on this case as all the materials matched closely enough to not be a distraction, and the enclosure maintained that clean look we love about white cases. The tempered glass front and side panels are also probably the most neutral colored clear glass I’ve yet seen on a PC case. On more than one occasion during photos I wasn’t certain if the side panel was actually on the case.

Speaking of the front TG panel, it’s just as clear, but honestly, I’d recommend removing it, never putting it back on, and just storing it in the box. It really only functions as an impedance to the front intake, and the airflow panel beneath it is gloriously open and almost free of restriction. I can’t imagine that the “Air” model of this case could flow air any better.

Having said all of that, I really do like some of the innovations Thermaltake is bringing to this design. I am going to come right out and state that if you’re looking for temp results in this case, as you find in my normal reviews, you will not find them in this review. I had a very specific reason for not performing my standard battery of tests in this enclosure. Primarily, if you are in the market for a new PC enclosure and you want to air cool, this is not a case you need to even look at.

This chassis could be interesting if you’re planning to use a large AIO for CPU cooling, and then direct airflow from the rear onto the GPU, but even then, there is a lot of wasted space. For reference, I did build a fully air-cooled system in the chassis, just to show how ridiculous it is. An E-ATX motherboard, with a large, twin tower cooler and a FTW3 RTX 3090 looks like a hotdog in a hallway. Thermaltake may call the CTE C700 TG a “mid tower” – but only if it’s being compared to a server rack.

Building a custom loop in the CTE C700 TG

The perception of this enclosure changes if you start looking at for building a custom loop cooling system. I love some of the ideas that this design allows. It’s designed for using both the front and back of the for full length radiators, both drawing in cool air from outside the chassis and exhausting out the top. These locations are capable of accepting 420mm AIO coolers, or 360mm custom loop radiators.

After building a custom loop in my sample for the review, I do believe that it could be possible to use 420mm radiators in a custom loop, but one would need to take careful measurements and I do not believe any 420mm radiators thicker than around 30-35mm would fit due to clearance issues with the upper chassis internals.

My loop utilized two 360mm EK Coolstream radiators. The rear radiator was 45mm thick and the front was an extra thick 60mm. With these two I was basically pushing the capacity of the CTE 700 TG to its limit, and had to get a little creative with the mounting positions to insure fitment without modification.

With the front glass panel removed, the case instantly becomes a “high-airflow” model

Building in this chassis was a joy. Not only do the front and rear covers pop off easily, but so does the top panel. Both the front, rear, and bottom fan/ radiator brackets can be completely removed. At that point, building in the CTE C700 TG becomes like working in a vertical workbench. Everything is easy to reach and there is plenty of room. Of course, anytime you build a custom, hard line loop, there will always be come plug or wire that needs to be relocated, or plugged back in, and that’s never any easier, no matter what enclosure you’re working in.

Conclusion

Up until this point, I’ve been very complimentary of the CTE C700 TG, and not without reason. Unfortunately, not everything is wonderful. Once again Thermaltake has presented us with a fairly large enclosure. That in itself isn’t the problem. The problem is that they’ve given us a large enclosure with poor optimization of space. The CTE C700 TG is as tall, and quite a bit wider than my personal favorite watercooling enclosure. With the CTE C700, if you’re very careful and specific about the parts you choose, you might be able to get two 420 mm radiators, and a 240mm at the bottom. In the case I’m using as my personal rig, it’s possible to fit two 480mm radiators, as well as two 360mm radiators. Both cases retail at $179.99.

Also, an examination of the CTE C700 front panel with a 360mm radiator installed, it becomes very obvious that if Thermaltake had just taken a little extra time on designing the outer trim, and the interior spine of the chassis, there is easily enough physical space that it would have been possible to place two 360mm radiators side by side at the front. There is almost enough space to do that as the case is, so it could have been a couple of minor design adjustments that would have allowed this, and really increased the cooling potential of this enclosure.

Also, the space at the top of the case, above the I/O, is just too deep. It’s a long reach down from the top to plug in USB devices (especially stubby wireless dongles). It’s obvious that Thermaltake’s idea was to conceal any cable’s coming out of the top of the chassis.  Unfortunately, it also means that the cables they decided to hide from the outside are actually visible inside the chassis. Any USBs or display cables plugged into the I/O can be seen through the side panel.

So, here I am again. I’ve got a really good Thermaltake enclosure that I’ve reviewed, and liked. It’s good. It’s not great, and the sad part is that it could have been great with just some minor tweaks during the design. I mentioned earlier that it is not an enclosure I’d recommend for air cooling, and I think that there are better options for custom liquid cooling at the same price.

The CTE C700 TG does have a very unique appearance, and performs very well within the parameters of liquid cooling. It can flow a lot of clean, unimpeded air, through any radiators mounted to it. If you like the look, you won’t find anything else like it, and Thermaltake have really taken care of the QC issues I had been experiencing on some of their chassis lately. While it’s not the case I would personally get, I certainly would have no qualms recommending it to someone that wanted something a little different.