Thermaltake V3 Black Edition SECC/Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case VL80001W2Z (Black)

I went to upgrade my PC. Ah... to upgrade, what an experience..... my new motherboard was too big for my old case...it is always something.....So... off I go to get a replacement.This caught my eye because the price was nice $30, and with Prime, free delivery.I noticed some reviews on this about poor construction...flimsy, cheap materials. NO WAY... this is perfect! If I were to engineer a case, this is the case I would design. I have had cheap cases before... they wobble because the steel or aluminum is too thin. Not this... it is 'just right'.... makes me think of the 3 bears....it is 'just right'. The case I was replacing was 10 or so years old, and it weighed a ton.... We are only going to put it under a desk, not stand on it! It looks good too.You need to be careful when you are setting it up. If something does not open, then there is probably a screw holding it together. I can see how you could break the front bezel tabs... you just have to be careful.... look at what you are doing, and do not rush. This holds true for any case.... not just this one. I ended up unscrewing the 4 screws that were attached to what was metal push snaps.... then there were 2 top plastic tabs that needed to be carefully pressed to open the bezel. Upon assembly, I put the screws and the metal snaps back on.. then I was able to push the bezel back and it snapped in place easily.When opening up a bay for the DVD, again... look at what you are doing and carefully pop out the bay. This was different than I was used to. Normally it is plastic, and there are 2 tabs that you pop out. For this, you need to pry the metal from the inside and then pop out the bay cover. Again, just look at what you need to do before you jump in and break something.It comes with 3 'quick connect' drive holders. Some comments were made that there are like 8 bays, so there should be more of these holders included in the case. I disagree. A shop that is putting out a lot of systems will like to save assemble time with these thingies..... they work. But, for the casual user.. like me.... your basic screws work absolutely fine. And, yes they include a lot of various size screws with the case.There is PLENTY of room for whatever you need to put in.Airflow.... well, the big blue LED fan sits in the back. It is silent. There are air holes all over - and under - this case. The feet on the case are big, so you have about a half inch of space if it is sitting on a hard surface. If you have it on a rug, I would suggest you set it on a hard surface.... then put that on the rug. It does comes with the 1 fan, and you can set up a couple more larger fans if you choose to do that.The case wires from the front worked well. They appeared to be long enough for any board. For me the attachment area was toward the front of the case, so I had no issues. The wires are clearly marked.This case does not have a power supply.... so.... be sure to pick a power supply that will provide you with connectors that you will need. Some power supplies have only IDE..Molex connectors, some only have SATA connectors. If you plan to put 1 old drive with a Molex connection and 2 drives with SATA connetions, be sure your power supply will have the proper connectors. Cheap power supplies may not have long cables, or all the connector selections.Enjoy!

For those reading the small handful of negative reviews on this case I'd say you should safely be able to ignore them. The short end is that this case is a great value for how little it costs. Dont expect a $300 case when ordering a $30 case and you'll be very rewarded with the quality.System built using this case:AMD 6300 6-core Overclocked to 4.3ghzMSi 970 chipset 970a-g4310GB ddr3 1600 mhz ramBFG 550W Modular power supplyKingston 120gb SSD Sata 31TB Seagate HD2x 750GB Seagate HD in RaidHD 7750 Radeon video cardFirst of all, I built this system to use strictly as a workstation, with the ability to lightly game if the urge struck me.This case provides key features that I can't believe I see others complaining about.Small size overall with the ability to handle 5 120mm fans not including the 120mm fan your power supply uses.Hold all my hard drives securely.No sharp edges or weird bends or tweaks that you find in similarly priced budget cases.Basically you're reading this review because you're wondering if the price is worth the value of this case, it absolutely is.If you want tool less for every drive in your system (I remove the tool less design and use screws-I wont be swapping out drives too often so who cares really?), then look elsewhere and spend more money.Its a great budget minded case with great build quality even though its using thinner metal.In auto CAD I run a very nice 52 degrees under load using 4 120mm fans (front back bottom and one on the top)I did not have an issue with the fan hitting my ram, and I am running ram that DOES have a pretty burly heat sync.The power and reset buttons feel solid, and the front panel was removed about 10 times the first day installing everything without even the slightest issue.Would I build some crazy high end gaming system in this case? No, I'd spend more money on a nice full size case. But for my needs, this thing is perfect.P.S. corsair 100i water-cooling now installed as well using the top mounts for the fans, and it finally did hit the ram, albeit I solved the issue by mounting the fan outside the case. This case is obviously way under par for a system running a big watercooler, but I decided that having the 100i sitting around was better put to use.

Hmmm. Where to start.Let's just say that the reviews I read before buying this case were hit and miss. So here's my take on it.The case shipped very fast. I was happy. I got the case before the rest of my build so I took it out to inspect it. Now, the metal is a little flimsy. I sort of expected that from the price. The problems I had were that it was missing some screws. It was missing a couple of the mb stands. I have tons of spares around so I wasn't about to send this back and wait.The biggest issue I have is that the power LED wire was broken when I unboxed the thing. Now, once again, I wasn't about to send it back and wait to start my build. I wasn't planning on having it set up to look cool so the light wasn't a problem anyway. I keep the front facing the wall so I can access the rear ports faster. It's just a bad sign when you see a loose wire and you just took it out of the boxI purchased this case mostly because of the extra cooling. The top vents are great and allow for future fan installs. I also like the power supply being on the bottom.All in all, I'm fine with the case. The blue light is nice in the back fan. For someone who didn't have spare parts and planned on displaying this case for show, then yes, I would give it less stars.My main reason for 3/5 is the price. If the wire hadn't been broke and parts been missing I would give it a 4 max.