Thermaltake Core V51 Mid-Tower PC Case Review

On the top of the case is a flexible magnetic dust filter. Underneath it has some very accommodating mounting holes for fans and radiators. Of which, it has room for up to a 360mm or 420mm radiator in the top and in the front, a 120mm or 240mm radiator in the bottom and a 120mm radiator in the rear. As for air cooling, it can handle up to three 120mm fans, two 140mm fans, or one 200mm fan in the front. The top can handle the same, along with another 200mm fan.

The bottom can hold up to two 120mm fans and the rear can hold a 120mm or 140mm fan.

The bottom has little more than an inch and a quarter of room for air flow. Perfect for those who want to place their cases on high carpets. It features two mesh dust filters underneath as well. The backside one slides in and out easily while the one on the front cannot be removed without the removal of the front face plate first.

On the back there are three water cooling tube pass through holes that are 1″ in diameter. There is also a peripheral cable lock for when you are at LAN parties and want to keep your keyboard and mouse locked down.

Now, let’s dive inside…

The case’s side panel thumbscrews are held in place by the side panels so they aren’t easily misplaced. This is a great practice we would love to see it more often.

Inside, it is painted black as the outside and has a decent amount of working room. Motherboard standoffs are pre-installed for ATX boards. There is also support Mini-ITX, Micro ATX, ATX, and Extended ATX motherboards. There are five cable pass through holes with grommets and another pass through slit at the top back edge for the 4/8 pin CPU power connector and/or fan connectors.

There is a huge amount of space cut out from the motherboard tray to allow for CPU cooler swaps without the removal of the motherboard.

The front panel connectors are all black or sleeved in black, a nice touch that we always like to see. There are five tool-less HDD bays that support both 3.5″ and 2.5″ drives. When using 2.5″ drives you will have to use screws to hold them in place. One holds two drives and the other can hold three. They can be moved up or down in the case to make more room for a bottom mounted radiator.

They can even be completely removed when you need to place a radiator in the front or when using extra-large graphics cards. In which case, the case can support cards up to 310mm in length with the HDD bays installed and up to 400mm when they are removed. When all the drive bays are taken out, there are latching mechanisms on the back side where you can snap in up to two drive caddies.

At the top you can see the 5.25″ bays are both tool-less designs and can easily latch on to whatever you insert into them. They can be removed as well.

Mounting a radiator in the top of the case does not require the removal of the 5.25″ bays, however, when wanting to mount a radiator in the front you will have to remove the HDD bays and 5.25″ trays. There are also offset slots for mounting when there are clearance issues with your motherboard.

The front panel connectors are also pre-managed. At the bottom there is room for ATX PSUs up to 220mm in length and up to two 120mm fans. A bottom mounted fan has always proved to lower GPU temps dramatically for me in the past and it is nice to see in this case.