Review System

Assembly

Installing a motherboard inside the Ceres 500 TG ARGB is done by the usual means of spacers and screws. There is lots of room around all three edges of the board. Thermaltake does mention the ability to install E-ATX boards as well, but while technically true, you will loose the majority of your cable management possibilities in the process. This makes that mention in their marketing not really very useful to the end-user in reality. Also, thanks to its size, you should have no issues installing your fat and long GPUs into the chassis


To install an SSD you may either use the trays as shown above or mount them unto one of the two plastic trays instead. Either way is done by the same method using screws to pin the drive into place. Once filled you can screw the plate back into position using the captive thumb screw.


3.5" drive installation offers the same flexibility as 2.5" drives. Using the plastic trays is unfortunately not a screw-less experience as you still need to use them to secure the drive to the tray. Once filled, the whole contraption will snap into place securely when pushed back into the cage.


Alternatively, you may mount the drive unto one of the three plate using the same screws. There is enough clearance on the backside of the motherboard for such a drive as well, which gives you complete flexibility on where to place it.


Adding a power supply means installing the mounting frame first and then sliding it into the Ceres 500 TG ARGB from the rear. There is lots of room for this to fit, so you should have no problems with potent, longer PSUs either.


Thanks to the deep enough chassis, installing a 360 mm AIO is possible in the ceiling and due to the height above the board, it won't collide with any heatsinks or tall memory DIMMs of your setup either. You also retain access to the top row of the motherboard connectors, which is very helpful as well.


With everything assembled, you may add the GPU support, which does put a bit of a visual disturbance to the otherwise clean build but works very well thanks to the use of metal in its construction instead of plastic.


Finishing assembly, the interior of the Thermaltake Ceres 500 TG ARGB looks very clean. In the rear, there is a blank spot towards the top left corner, which would be a pretty good spot for an ARGB controller for example. While the wiring down the center of the chassis is bundled up, the big Velcro strips don't tighten things up too well due to the plastic bits to which the Velcro strips are attached to. As such, you may end up using a few Zip ties to achieve proper bundling. As you can see, we also used some zip ties for the wiring towards the right in this view. Thermaltake actually pre-routes and pre-connects the front fans, so you just have one PWM and ARGB header to deal for that area of the chassis.

LCD Panel Kit for Ceres 500 TG ARGB

The final build image above already includes the LCD Panel Upgrade Kit for this specific chassis. But, since Thermaltake has provided this optional accessory for the purpose of this case review, let's take the opportunity to dive into this a bit. We did extensively cover the software used for the display in the Thermaltake Divider 550 TG Ultra review. The display for the Ceres 500 TG ARGB is the same device, but framed in an appropriate metal mounting plate. It ships in a brown cardboard box with details on its specifications on the back.


As expected, Thermaltake ships the unit with a USB header cable that allows for up to two displays to be connected using the Micro-USB interface. On top of that, you will receive some warranty documentation as well as a manual to get you started on the use of the software.


As the display is physically the same we have seen in previous cases, the only difference is really the metal frame which makes this fit the Ceres 500 TG ARGB seamlessly.


To install the unit, simply remove two small screws holding the panel of the chassis in place and then use those parts to screw on the LCD Panel Kit. Once in place, all you have to do is attach the USB cable to your motherboard header, after which point you can simply turn your system on and install the application to display images or data.

Finished Looks

The four ARGB fans light up nicely around the hub of each unit with plenty of diffusion and the power LED on the side of the front panel additionally let's you know that the whole system is up and running.


Thanks to the fact that the fans are installed on the exterior of the chassis frame, you can see all the RGB glow completely, which is very nice. However, since the Ceres 500 TG ARGB does not come with a controller, you will have to utilize motherboard software instead, which depending on the board brand used may be for better or worse. Thanks to the clean, clear window, you can see see all your hardware within as well, and everything is where you would expect to see in in the back of the enclosure as well. Naturally, under normal circumstances, you could use the hooks to the left of the motherboard IO panel to secure your wiring to the chassis in a nice fashion.