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Thanks guys! The bends turned out better than I thought. The Monsoon mandrel kit makes it easy to get consistent bends that would be harder to achieve by just bending by hand. The R9 290X cards are factory OC'd at 1030mhz GPU/5500 Mhz Memory and in this setup they are staying in the 45-48 celsius range in Unigine Heaven/Valley with the fans at around 1100-1200 RPM so I'm very happy with the cooling versus noise level. Since the top fans are exhausting up, I get even lower temps if I remove the top plastic perforated mesh dust filter. Now to start re-sleeving the stock Corsair cables in the aqua/graphite grey 4mm sleeving I have lying around. Now I just wish TT made a "snow" edition of this case! C'mon guys!

Just finished a build in a Thermaltake Core V31 case. I love this case. Best case TT have made in a long time IMHO, though the other Cores are very good too for various reasons. Quick list of hardware components: 1) Intel Core I7 5820K CPU 2) Asrock X99 Extreme3 motherboard 3) Corsair Vengeance Blue DDR4-2666mhz 16GB (4x4GB DIMMS) low profile RAM 4) Dual Sapphire Tri-X R9 290X 8GB Graphics Adapters with original backplates 5) Crucial MX1000 500GB SSD 6) WD Green WD20NPVX 2TB 2.5" mechanical HD 7) Corsair RM 1000 power supply 8) Corsair sleeved blue modular cables (to be swapped later for custom sleeved) Water cooling components: 1) Swiftech Apogee XL-C clear acrylic water block with 10(!!!!) 5mm white LEDS 2) Dual EK WB R9 290X Vapor-X plexi/nickel water blocks 3) Alphacool UT60 360mm radiator (top) 4) Swiftech MCR320-XP 360mm radiator (front) 5) Darkside 160mm tube res with bundled DDC PWM pump 6) Triple Corsair SP120 High performance PWM fans for the Alphacool in push exhausting out the top 7) Triple Scythe Gentle Typhoon AP-14 fans in front 8) EK HD 10/12mm acrylic tubing bent with Monsoon 3/8-1/2" Mandrel set 9) 10 Bitspower BP-BSEML black spakle 10/12mm fittings 1 Darkside 8" lighting strip installed in the back I named the system Penumbra-V for the lighting gradation that happens from back-to-front, and the "V" for Thermaltake V31 case. Here's a crappy cell phone pic. I'll get better ones soon, but the potlight that was above it burned out and made it darker than it should have been. Feedback/criticisms are welcome, but I thought I'd post here as I used the V31 as the basis for this build. Temperatures are great, and I don't think I could find another compact mid-tower case that could hold all this raddage!

Yiasou Steve, Just making an assumption there hehe. Here are some answers I can give, though I haven't owned this case 1) I don't think so, but you can buy extra fan filters, both from Thermaltake (I think they're called Matrix) and Silverstone, or DemciFlex/Demcifilter that sells different configurations and sizes 2) Yes 3) Silverstone Power supplies can be outfitted with their PP05-E "short cable set" that would eliminate some of the extra slack cable to help ease cable management. 4) Noctua NH-U12S or maybe NH-U14S are two from the top of my head. It also depends what type of CPU you are putting in and desired overclocks 5) Agreed This is a great case, and if I was looking to do a water or air cooled MATX rig this would be a top-three case in my mind, and top two of cube style cases. It is one of the few (as well as the V1) that does horizontal motherboard configuration right. Most others like the popular Bitfenix Prodigy are a lot more difficult to integrate into due to their lack of removable top panels. Good luck!

You have to take both side panels off and there are (I think) six pressure clips (3 on each side) that you have to bend either outward or inward to snap off the top. Bitfenix Spectre Pro 25mm thick fans work here, as do Enermax 18cm UCTA18A fans, as they have mounting holes that match 200mm or 180mm fans. These two are also better fans than the original. Apparently Thermaltake 200mm fans are too thick for this application, but I can say from experience that they are good fans too.

There's about 35mm of space between the top and the motherboard's edge. In terms of height restrictions the fan holes are lined up with the I/O shield's edge, so anything taller won't fit, but you also need to take into account the width of the radiator. For example a 124mm wide radiator like the top mounted Alphacool will hang 2mm lower than the I/O shield's edge, so any low profile RAM will fit without issue. Something like a Hardware labs Black ice or Nemesis is 133mm so it is going to hang down another 6.5mm below the top of the I/O shield. Something like Dominator Platinum or Vengeance Pro RAM with their higher heat sinks would impact whether or not you could fit any radiator up there because they might clash with the radiator or fans above them. This is generally the compromise with "off-set" fan positioning in the top of the case similar to what Fractal Design does or NZXT does with their H440, though the H440 has the most clearance from edge of motherboard to top at about 55mm, while Fractal Design's R5 is a wider case at 235mm so their fan holes are offset even more, giving another 6-10mm of space above motherboard components. But neither is as graceful at handling dual 360mm radiators as the V31 or Versa H35 which seems to be the same chassis. The Fractal can't easily fit a front mounted 360mm radiator at all. If this is a big problem for you the Silverstone Kublai KL05 has a taller profile which allows you to fit the radiator above the chassis and below the top plastic panel, but A) It's ugly (in my opinion) and it only fits up to 280mm radiators as opposed to the triple 120mm (360mm) radiators the Thermaltake offerings fit. For me it's easy to use a top-mounted 360mm in the V31/H35 because I always use low profile RAM. DDR3 and DDR4 don't need RAM heatsinks in my opinion, so I avoid any RAM that has tall heat sinks as much as possible. Hope that helps in your selection! Cheers!

Here's an example shot with my junky cell phone camera with an Alphacool ST30 up top and a Swiftech MCR320-XP in front. If I take the Alphacool and flip it with the fans, I can actually fit an Alphacool UT60, possibly with push-pull fans. And even then I still have room for a large reservoir mounted to the front radiator and space for 10.5" or 11" video cards. THis orientation was a test-fit to explore options.

FYI for those water cooling afficionados out there, You are able to fit two 360mm radiators into the fairly compact Core V31. I was able to fit a top mounted XSPC EX360 multi-port radiator with the fans below it in push (ie. blowing upwards and outwards) with a Swiftech MCR320-XP in the front with push too. I had to remove the optical trays and the top fan only has two screws mounted into the case on the front-mounted 360mm radiator, but it is do-able. Water ports on the front mounted radiator were on the bottom, and the top mounted radiator has them in the back. I was also able to fit a Darkside LP360 27mm thick radiator in the front with an Alphacool UT60 (60mm thick) radiator in th top, same configuration as above. This is pretty heavy duty for almost any dual, and possibly triple GPU builds out there. Just an FYi as I noticed this case isn't receiving the well-deserved love here. For a case that is nearly an inch less in depth to the best, similar competitor (FD Define R5) and a fair bit shorter than another (NZXT H440 which can also do 2x360mm radiators) this is pretty immense.

It all depends on your components. In general if you want to run Multi-GPU water cooling is preferred, as more often than not, the top GPU will suck heat from the bottom one, and with water cooling this isn't an issue. In some configurations air cooling can be fine too, but it's always best to have custom cooled video cards with a spare/empty PCI-E slot in between them to avoid this scenario. Since TT now makes some epic water cooling cases now, and if they are your preferred case vendor, then it's a no-brainer. I have a Core V1 and V31 and the V1 with a small mod (cutting the mobo tray) can hold a massive, front-mounted 200mm radiator, and the V31 can actually hold two 360mm radiators, which is amazing for this size of case.

Enermax UCTA18a fans should work here. They are 180mmx180mmx20mm with 200mm screw holes as well. I have the TT Pure 200mm fan and the screw holes between these two different form-factor fans line up as the Enermax have dual screw holes for 200/180mm form factors. You will have to remove the standoffs, get some 20-25mm long screws and screw those in from the top of the fans. You should be able to find .75" or 1" 6-32 screws from Home Depot. I beleive these are 6-32. I had an Element S and I had a similar problem with the top fan. These fans sell at Newegg and are excellent fans.