Thermaltake Overseer RX-I Computer Case Review

Manufacturer: Thermaltake Inc.
Product Name: Overseer RX-I
Model Number: VN700M1W2N
Price As Tested:$128 (Amazon.com)

Full Disclosure: The product sample used in this article has been provided by Thermaltake.

In a recent article here at Benchmark Reviews we took a look at a value-for-money offering from Thermaltake; the Spacecraft VF-I. Today we have its bigger brother; the Thermaltake Overseer RX-I, it demands a higher premium but at the same time packs in more goodies and features. In my previous article I asked what you want from a case and how much are you willing to spend, well today we have a case for those willing to splash a bit more cash in return for some great features.

The Overseer has front panel USB 3.0, e-Sata, and a 2.5"/3.5" HDD/SSD dock all conveniently located whether your case is on the floor or on your desk. Inside the case you have room for tall CPU coolers (up to 177mm) and long video cards (up to 344mm), cable routing is catered for and HDD installation will look neat too. When you have all of your gear installed there will still be room to spare, Thermaltake has once again made provisions for a 120.2 (240mm) watercooling radiator and you won't be short of space to mount a pump and reservoir either.

Thermaltake may not be on the top of the list when you come to buy a case, but it is worth your while to take the time out and find out what the Overseer may have to offer you. Ignore the haters, buy what suits you and be happy with it. If Thermaltake floats your boat then so be it, if not then pass by quietly.

Thermaltake Overseer RX-I Specifications

Closer Look: Exterior

As with all Thermaltake cases I've seen you get an nice full color box, this is good marketing as this will stand out on the shelf next to the brown boxes.

The front of the box gives you a nice advanced preview and all of the important features and details are printed on the reverse.

The front of the Overseer has a nice look to it, the embossed mesh part is an extra nice touch. While overly plastic, the front is well made and there isn't too much variation in color shades. I'm sure a lot of you might think this is too much but I like it.

Moving round to the side we see an abstract shape window and a massive 200mm fan mount, the fan area is filtered by a very fine mesh on the inside to stop too much dust from entering (something a lot of other manufacturers leave out). Four absolutely enormous over-sized feet give the Overseer nearly 35mm of clearance, good news for those of you that like to have your case on the floor.

Round the back we see all the usual features we have started to take as standard on today's line up of cases; a bottom mounted PSU, vented PCI brackets, watercooling pass-thru holes with rubber grommets, and lastly at the top, a Thermaltake extra - a peripheral cable clamp that will prove invaluable at a LAN event. Eight PCI slots mean this case qualifies for Tri/Quad SLI/CrossFire depending on the slot layout of your motherboard.

Moving round again to the usually hidden side of the case, the embossed side panel will prove to be useful for cable routing, giving that extra ~5mm right where it's needed.

The top of the case carries on from the front design nicely, all this mesh will allow for lots of airflow all around the case.

At the bottom we see the four large feet all have a nice rubber pad to aid in grip and also prevent scratching. The PSU and fan mount are protected by a nice big slide out dust filter.

Detailed Exterior Features

In this section we will be looking at the detailed exterior features of the Thermaltake Overseer RX-I Chassis.

The peripheral cable clamp is a nice addition for those who like to go to LAN parties. Let's face it all this e-Sports gear is not exactly cheap and there are people out there who won't feel two ways about taking your unsecured goodies. It might not be the most secure looking clamp but it will certainly put off any opportunist thieves who may take a fancy to your ~$100 headset/mouse/keyboard etc.

Here is a closer look so that you may better appreciate the level of detail on this case. I will leave it to you to come up with your own thoughts on this.

Here we have a fully fledged front panel worthy of your attention, we have 2 x USB 3.0, 2 x USB 2.0, e-Sata, a 2.5"/3.5" built in HDD dock. The HDD activity and power LED's are integrated into the edges of the top facia as are the power and reset buttons towards the front of the case. The big badge in the middle lights up when the power is on, and fades in and out in a "breath lighting effect" according to Thermaltake.

The front intake is filtered by a fine mesh and the 5.25" bay covers are filtered by a sponge insert.

Removing the front and top covers is easy as pie and the top panel can be freed completely by decoupling the wire connectors shown above. This is another feature that makes working with a case that bit simpler.

The PSU and fan filter is rather large so it won't be a case of simply pulling it out the back. It will have to become a part of your routine maintenance where you give your system a thorough clean out.

Closer Look: Interior

In this section we will have a good look at the interior features of the Thermaltake Overseer RX-I Chassis.

The Thermaltake Overseer RX-I has a very large interior measuring 365mm from the back panel to the drive bays x 455mm top to bottom x 190mm deep. Before you get to this stage though you will need to remove the side panel and boy what a job this is. I had to endure actual pain in order to remove the side panels of the Overseer RX-I. This is an area where Thermaltake may want to invest some $$$ into R&D as this isn't acceptable on a case of this level. I have a nine year old Lian-Li case (PC-6087) that doesn't have this sort of problem so why has Thermaltake yet to catch on.

Aside from the problems removing the side panels we have a very nice interior and lots of cable routing goodness. The Overseer has everything that you need for a nice clean unrestricted install.

Removing the front facia gives access to the internal 5.25" drive bay covers and also to the massive 200mm blue LED fan.

Removing the top panel gives you access to a second 200mm fan and another place to install another 200mm fan. The fan is 30mm thick but under the top panel cover there is 40mm of space.

Normal thumbscrews are used to install your PCI devices, this is a good idea as most tool free options are sub par when it comes to heavy video cards etc. There is a 120mm TT-1225 Black fan (1000rpm,16dBA) installed in the rear of the Overseer for exhaust.

Detailed Interior Features

In this section we will be looking at the detailed interior features of the Thermaltake Overseer RX-I Chassis.

The 5.25" are simple to use but complicated in design. All you must do is slide your 5.25" device into an empty slot and the tool free clip will automatically engage and hold it. To release you need to push the blue tab to unlock the clip. If you need a 100% secure install of, say, a bay reservoir etc. then you would be better off just using screws. I managed to break one of these clips without much effort.

Mounting your HDD's/SSD's is taken care of with a well tried and tested design (one of my favorite actually) although you trade capacity with convenience here. Where it would be quite possible to cram in seven or eight hard drives into a rack this size, because of the design used, you only have a place for five. To remove a tray simply pinch the sides of the tray and slide out...

Install your 3.5 / 2.5 inch HDD or SSD in any combination you like, all the trays have mounting holes for both so you are free to choose.

A closer look at the front fan here. Thermaltake doesn't provide much info on these other than 200mm TT-2030 Thermaltake blue LED fan (800rpm, 15dBA).

Removing this fan gives you more options, now you have the choice between 200mm Thermaltake fan, 140mm standard fan, and 120mm standard fan.

Same as the front fan, installed in the roof as exhaust is a second 200mm Thermaltake blue LED fan rated 15dBA at 800rpm 0.42AMP.

Removing this top fan reveals the same mounts we saw on the front (200mm Tt fan, 140mm fan, 120mm fan). Indicated by the red box are mounts for a standard 120.2 (240mm) watercooling radiator, because it is offset from the back of the case it means that you will have clearance over the rear I/O area and also clearance of motherboard heatsinks and low profile RAM.

Overseer RX-I System Build

In this section we will build a system inside the Thermaltake Overseer RX-I Chassis and see if all of the features discussed are worth it in the end.

You will get a couple of extras in the accessory package with the Overseer. Along with the bag of various screws and re-use cable ties you get an 8-pin/4-pin CPU power cable adapter, 2 x molex to 3-pin fan power cable adapters and a motherboard diagnostic speaker.

You can mount up to five SSD's using the HDD trays provided. While five is plenty any keen enthusiast will already know that you can install an SSD practically anywhere it will fit since they don't suffer from the heat/noise issues of mechanical drives.

Behind the motherboard tray there is a mere 14mm of space to route cables. Add to this the 5mm embossed part of the side panel and you have nearly 20mm clearance, more than enough if you ask me.

I was a bit pushed for time when I installed my gear into this case so the back area is a little messier than I would have liked. Anyone with eyes (all of you reading) will see that there are lots of tie down points available to give you a pro level install. The re-use cable ties provided with the case are great but a PITA to work with, sometimes it's just better to use standard single use cable ties.

Like I said in my intro, once you have all of your gear installed there is room for more still. The install looks very neat and I am very pleased with the case overall. I guess my only gripe is that the side panels are so difficult the remove and re-install.

Thermaltake Overseer RX-I Final Thoughts

Overall I am very, very happy with the Thermaltake Overseer RX-I PC Case. The main problem besides its name is how difficult the side panels are to remove and re-install. In this day and age with the advancement of technologies it should not cause actual pain to remove the side panels from your case. I go in and out of my case quite a lot so this is a big issue for me. For those of you that build and forget then you will only encounter this problem once or twice. The paintwork on the Overseer looks very nice but is easily damaged. After photographing and installing hardware inside I have quite a few scratches on the back panel, if this was a $50 case then I wouldn't mind but it isn't so extra care needs to be taken if you want to preserve the good looks of this case.

Thermaltake Overseer RX-I Conclusion

In this section I am going to write a brief five point summary on the following categories; Performance, Appearance, Construction, Functionality and Value. These views are my own and help me to give the Thermaltake Overseer RX-I PC case a rating out of 10. A high or low score does not necessarily mean that it is better or worse than a similar PC case that has been reviewed by another writer here at Benchmark Reviews, which may have been given a higher or lower score. It is however a good indicator of whether the PC case is good or not. I would strongly urge you to read the entire review, if you have not already, so that you can make an educated decision for yourself.

Performance of the Overseer RX-I is great. Temperatures of my overclocked system stay well within limits and the noise level is very, very low indeed.

Appearance is marmite when it comes to Thermaltake cases, you either like them or you don't. The Overseer I'm sure will be no exception. Is it bad to like in-your-face overly complicated designs like this?

Construction is second to none, apart from the issues discussed about removing and re-installing the side panels that really let this case down.

Functionality is top notch. There isn't a lot that this case is missing and there is ample free space to fill with extra hardware.

As of mid-October 2011, the Thermaltake Overseer RX-I (model VN700M1W2N) costs $128 from Amazon.com. In this price range are cases such as Antec Nine Hundred Two v3, NZXT Phantom and the Rosewill Thor V2. Where the Overseer RX-I may not win in looks it definitely wins in features, I could not ask for much more. This case is well worth that asking price.

Pros:

+ Good construction
+ USB 3.0 support
+ External 2.5/3.5" HDD/SSD dock
+ 1 x 120mm fan + 2 x 200mm fans provide excellent airflow
+ 240mm watercooling radiator support in roof
+ Lots of room for big hardware + more
+ Quiet operation
+ Bottom mounted PSU
+ Vented and filtered air intakes all round
+ Eight PCI slots
+ Room for extra 2 x 200mm fans
+ Excellent cable routing potential
+ Enormous feet give near 35mm floor clearance

Cons:

- Tool free 5.25" clips are a little weak
- Side panel fitting is very poor
- Paintwork is easily damaged
- Looks are not to everyone's taste

Ratings:

• Performance: 9.50
• Appearance: 9.00
• Construction: 8.00
• Functionality: 9.00
• Value: 8.50

Final Score: 8.80 out of 10.

Quality Recognition: Benchmark Reviews Silver Tachometer Award.

Benchmark Reviews invites you to leave constructive feedback below, or ask questions in our Discussion Forum.

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