Thermaltake Level 20 XT, 20 ARGB, 20 MT ARGB and Commander C35 TG ARGB!

Thermaltake has been celebrating their 20th Anniversary with a prodigious range of Level 20 products including their mighty BattleStation Gaming Desk. Today we have a round-up of four Thermaltake cases with three models from the Level 20 range and one from the Commander series where we take a good look at thermals, RGB and the ease of building a PC using an AMD Ryzen with custom loop cooling on the CPU.

Thermaltake Level 20 MT ARGB

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The first case in our round-up is the Level 20 MT ARGB which is the baby Level 20 case. It has three fixed-speed RGB fans at the front, 4mm tempered glass panels and the sleek Level 20 styling. We like the looks of the MT and our first reaction is that you get plenty of features for less than £85. The downside is that the Level 20 MT has minimal airflow so once you pack in your PC hardware you can expect things to get hot.

Specification:

• Motherboard support: ATX, Micro-ATX, Mini-ITX.
• Expansion slots: 7.
• Included fans: 3x 120mm front intake RGB, 1x 120mm rear exhaust.
• Fan mounts: 3x 120mm/2x 140mm front, 2x 120mm/1x 140mm roof, 1x 120mm rear, 2x 120mm right side, 2x 120mm power supply cover.
• 120mm radiator mounts: 360mm front, 240mm right side, 120mm rear.
• 140mm radiator mounts: None.
• 5.25-inch optical drive bays: None.
• Internal drive bays: 2x 3.5-inch/2.5-inch, 4x 2.5-inch.
• Dimensions: 455mm H x 471mm D x 204mm W.

Buy from Overclockers UK for £84.95 HERE.

Pros:

• Stylish glass panels.
• Triple RGB fans are included.
• Low price.

Cons:

• Poor cooling
• Front fans are fixed speed with proprietary connectors.
• No support for 140mm fans.

Thermaltake Commander C35 TG ARGB

Commander C35 squeaks in just under £100 and is the non-Level 20 case in this round-up. Apart from the obvious difference in appearance the Commander C35 has a full mesh front panel that allows the pair of 200mm fans at the front to breathe properly. The case is relatively wide thanks to those 200mm fans, and the result is you have plenty of space inside to build your PC.

Against all expectations, Commander C35 is the case in this round-up that impressed us the most and that is DESPITE the fact the stickers on the hubs of the 200mm fans are off-centre and appear to wobble in an annoying fashion.

Specification:

• Motherboard support: ATX, Micro-ATX, Mini-ITX.
• Expansion slots: 7+2.
• Included fans: 2x 200mm front intake ARGB, 1x 120mm rear exhaust.
• Fan mounts: 3x 120mm/2x 140mm front/2x 200mm, 2x 120/140mm roof, 1x 120mm rear.
• 120mm radiator mounts: 360mm front, 240mm roof, 120mm rear.
• 140mm radiator mounts: 280mm front, 280mm roof.
• 5.25-inch optical drive bays: None.
• Internal drive bays: 3x 3.5-inch/2.5-inch, 2x 2.5-inch.
• Dimensions: 462mm H x 507mm D x 233mm W.

Buy from CCL Computers for £93.20 HERE.

Pros:

• Mesh front panel gives good cooling.
• Those 200mm RGB fans look good.
• Sensible price.

Cons:

• Front fans are fixed speed with proprietary connectors.
• Top filter does not sit flat when you install cooling in the roof.
• Construction is fairly basic.

Thermaltake Level 20 XT

Spend to £200 and you might land the mighty Level 20 XT that supports an E-ATX motherboard and a huge amount of cooling hardware. It’s big, bulky and not especially subtle although it is clever in the way you can add in hardware.

You will have to work incredibly hard to make the finished PC look neat and tidy and as you don’t get any RGB with the Level 20 XT you may want to add some lighting to your shopping list. Despite the sealed nature of the Level 20 XT we found the huge size of the case helped thermals to remain within tolerable limits.

Specification:

• Motherboard support: E-ATX, ATX, Micro-ATX, Mini-ITX.
• Expansion slots: 8.
• Included fans: 1x 140mm rear exhaust.
• Fan mounts: 3x 120mm/2x 140mm/2x 200mm front, 8x 120/6x 140mm/2x 200mm roof, 2x 120mm/140mm rear, 4x 120mm/3x 140mm side, 3x 120mm floor.
• 120mm radiator mounts: 360mm front, 2x 480mm roof, 120mm rear, 480mm side, 480mm floor.
• 140mm radiator mounts: 280mm front, 2x 420mm roof, 140mm rear, 420mm side, 420mm floor.
• 5.25-inch optical drive bays: None.
• Internal drive bays: 6x 3.5-inch/2.5-inch, 1x 3.5-inch, 2x 2.5-inch.
• Dimensions: 515mm H x 394mm D x 623mm W.

Buy from Overclockers UK for £199.99 HERE.

Pros:

• Large number of options for installing cooling.
• Glass on all sides will show the details of a stylish build.
• Supports an E-ATX motherboard.

Cons:

• The XT is very large and also very heavy.
• The glass panels expose everything inside the case so you have to work extra hard.
• No fans are included.

Thermaltake Level 20 GT ARGB

The most expensive case in this round-up is the Level 20 GT which serves up a long list of features including tempered glass panels and a pair of 200mm RGB fans at the front. One of the most unusual features of the Level 20 GT is the way the PCIe slots can be rotated such that you can install two vertical graphics cards side-by-side. It is worth noting that Thermaltake does not include two PCIe extension cables in the package.

This is a large and impressive case however we were disappointed to note the split front I/O panel includes USB Type C however it is Gen 1 rather than the faster Gen 2.

Specification:

• Motherboard support: E-ATX, ATX, Micro-ATX, Mini-ITX.
• Expansion slots: 8.
• Included fans: 2x 200mm front intake ARGB, 1x 140mm rear exhaust.
• Fan mounts: 3x 120mm/140mm, 2x 200mm front, 3x 120mm/140mm, 2x 200mm roof, 1x 120mm/140mm rear, 2x 120mm floor.
• 120mm radiator mounts: 360mm front, 360mm roof, 120mm rear, 360mm side, 240mm floor.
• 140mm radiator mounts: 420mm front, 280mm roof, 140mm rear, 420mm side.
• 5.25-inch optical drive bays: None.
• Internal drive bays: 4x 3.5-inch/2.5-inch, 6x 2.5-inch or 3x 3.5-inch.
• Dimensions: 580mm H x 592mm D x 294mm W.

Buy from Scan for £229.99 HERE.

Pros:

• The front panel and tempered glass are quirky but stylish.
• You can easily install two large radiators in the GT.
• Supports an E-ATX motherboard.

Cons:

• Poor cooling, especially for such a large case.
• Front fans are fixed speed with proprietary connectors.
• This is a big, tall case.

Cooling Performance

To put these cases through their cooling paces we will be using a test system consisting of an AMD Ryzen 5 3600X, Asus ROG Strix RX Vega 64 and an SSD. This system allows us to produce a substantial amount of heat and effectively test the cooling capabilities of these cases. For stress testing we use AIDA64 to create the maximum amount of load our CPU and GPU are ever likely to see.

Test System:

• Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 3600X (6 cores/12 threads, 4.1GHz all cores)
• Motherboard: Gigabyte X570 Aorus Pro
• CPU cooler: 240mm custom loop using hardware from the Thermaltake Pacific C240 DDC kit. For the two Level 20 cases we swapped out the DDC pump for a Thermaltake Pacific PR15-D5 pump/reservoir.
• Memory: 16GB Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4-3200MHz
• Graphics card: Asus ROG Strix RX Vega 64 8GB
• Power supply: Seasonic Focus+ Gold 1000W
• SSD: Toshiba RC100
• OS: Windows 10

Cooling Performance Overview

The best performance in this round-up comes from the Commander C35 which was exactly what we expected thanks to the combination of two 200mm fans and a mesh front panel. By contrast the Level 20 MT and GT models both suffered as the extensive glass panels and sealed front panel choked the fans. The Level 20 XT performed better than we expected as the huge volume of the case allowed enough air to move around and keep our hardware under control.

KitGuru says: Thermaltake is offering you a pretty good deal with all four of these cases however Commander C35 is our personal winner.

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