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I have featured two fantastic Thermaltake cases recently both offering fashionable tempered glass features but at two very different price points one being the View 32 TG and the other being the View 22 TG.

Today’s review is for something a little different, the Thermaltake Core P5 Tempered Glass Ti Edition ATX Wall-Mount Chassis. The original model came with a plexiglass panel, and this model has now been upgraded to use the ever-popular tempered glass.

This is not really a case, as nothing is enclosed, it is an open mounting system for your hardware which has a front facing 5mm tempered glass panel which provides the most basic protection for your precious hardware, and mainly just looks pretty.

This is absolutely not a case for your average build, it is geared towards liquid builds, either using an all in one, or preferably a custom loop. Having excellent cable management as well as impeccable attention to detail is a must. So, this makes it an extremely niche case, that being said, the Core P range is extremely popular on Reddit and is frequently used for some of the most popular builds on subs such as Watercooling and Pcmasterrace.

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Features

The Core P5 is an open frame chassis that anyone can access to do his or her own mods. This open frame chassis lets users map out and design their own build featuring whatever components they would like to use. For the very adventurous, if you have a 3D printer you can print custom parts for the case making your build truly unique, Thermaltake has even gone to the effort of providing 28 different 3D models specific to the Core P series that you can download and produce yourself. This includes things like 5” bays, fan brackets and radiator holders. There are also another 20+ designs that are universal.

With this being a modular system, it basically comes as a flat pack and nearly everything is removable and optional in the build. When I opened it up, it was quite intermediating at the prospect of having to build the case as there are just so many bits.

The modular design of the Core P5 allows flexibility for 3-way placement layouts (Wall mount, Horizontal and Vertical), dual GPU layout locations: Horizontal and Vertical and placement locations for liquid cooling components.

Radiator support is extensive going from 120mm through to 480mm on the left side, it is compatible with 120 and 140mm fans giving you the best selection of cooling possible.

For wall mounting you need to buy an optional bracket, you should be able to use a TV bracket if you can find one small enough that the case covers it. Don’t hold me to this though; it is just what other users have done.

If you love the looks of the P5 but don’t fancy all your components being so exposed, you can also upgrade the glass with additional front and top tempered glass panels.

Build

I don’t have any water-cooling systems to try this out on, so my build was sadly nowhere near nice enough to do this justice. However, I went through the process just to see what the build quality is like and how difficult it is to work with.

At first, I struggled with building the case, there are so many bits, and each piece isn’t labelled like you would find with flatpack furniture. The instructions are not the clearest either, and the fact I had to look at the instructions goes some way to showing this is harder to build with than usual.

With a little perseverance it turned out not to be that difficult, and for a basic build, you don’t really have to do much. You have the option to use an included motherboard tray or to build directly onto the chassis; this is an excellent feature for anyone that continually likes to tinker with their system.

Cable routing holes are extensive and the rear of the case provides heaps of room for you to hide your mess. The rear mounted drive cages are removable so you can free up more room for cables if required. The front panel cables also have plenty of length allowing for easy routing to your motherboard.

I wasn’t able to make use of the radiator space, but it is massive, and there is plenty of room for the thickest of radiators, or push/pull configurations.

The overall build quality is exceptional. Clearly lots of thought has done into providing the most customisable case as possible. Even the supports for the tempered glass are solid thick and heavy metal, so there is no woobley bits or areas that feel cheap.

To do the case justice I have included photos of other complete builds rather than my own.

A great example of the extreme levels of customisation that users go to with this case is Project p5yche by Darwin PC below (using the old P5)

Or a more traditional but still complex hardline build via u/unhoughton

Overall

While this is clearly an amazing case, it is not something I am going to recommend for the masses, it is harder than average to build in, requires exceptional cable management, and needs specific hardware choices to make it look good.

Most people will be better off with the Thermaltake View 32 TG which offers great looks, an easy to build frame and gives a bit of wiggle room for your hardware choices and build capabilities.

If you are not the average person and you are looking at building the ultimate PC with and want to show off your components to the best of your ability then this makes a great choice. Looking around there are not really any other companies developing open air cases designed explicitly for beautiful water-cooled builds, most open cases are for test benches. So if an open case tickles your fancy Thermaltake is the way to go, the P5 is the largest model, and it is enormous, but they also do the impressive looking P90, and the petite Mini ITX Core P1.

The case costs £165.90 on Amazon, it is reasonably expensive in comparison to the entire market, but a long way off the most expensive premium cases. I would suspect, if you are planning to build with this case, it will be one of the cheaper aspects of the entire build.

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Thermaltake Core P5 Tempered Glass Ti Edition Review
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