Conclusion
The M9 is a simple case with big possiblities. Possibilities ranging for a good air cooling system or with some imagination an even better water-cooling setup. Thermaltake was looking out for everyone when putting together the M9.
Ventilation is probably the M9’s best asset. The entire height of the front is one big air intake. An area that can easily house two 120mm cooling fans. These same fans could be mounted to a water-cool radiator and be relatively stealthy in this location as well. Dust will be your worst enemy because of this approach to cooling. Be prepare to go though some cans of air in this case’s lifetime.
The unit uses some pretty decent 120mm blue LED cooling fans. For some these fans may be a little bright. Honestly, I have seen brighter so the ones in the M9 did not bother me at all. They were almost silent as well. Depending on what other components you have chosen, your system could be very quiet when installed in the M9. It is a pity they do not come with three pin motherboard connectors as this would have allowed some kind of software driven control over their speed.
The ease of mounting hard drives and installing (single slot) PCI cards in the M9 puts it above a lot of cases in its price range which is about $70. Unfortunately dual-slot video cards remain the bane of tool-less retention mechanisms, but this fault is relatively easily dodged by unscrewing the retention mechanism itself and then re-applying it.
In summary, the Thermaltake M9 is a pretty decent case, which covers the bases very well. Pre-modded with a large perspex window on the right side it will show off your hard-earned components. It breaths well, which is both good, because it keeps things cool, and bad, because it will collect some dust. It can take only four hard disks, and the fourth will take the place of any floppy drive you had installed, and all the the hard disk drives require screws for retention. The M9 focuses on several key features and if you can get by without what it brushes over then it will be a great case.
If you have not heard of Antec before you must be living in a cave or somewhere remote. Antec is one of the major players in the case and power supply market. At one time or another many of us have used ...
