A Closer Look - Inside

To access the interior, simply remove the thumb screws and pull the panels off. The interior is quite spacious, and Thermaltake kept the area around the motherboard clear. You can clearly see where the front-mounted HDD cages on the opposite side are meant to go, alongside a large opening behind the CPU area. Well-placed rubber-grommet-covered holes around the motherboard should allow for a nice and clean build.


In fact, you may also pull off the top and front of the case, which essentially leaves you with the steel frame. This is important for those who want to install elaborate liquid cooling, as the S500 TG allows for up to 360 mm radiators in the ceiling as well as the front of the chassis. In fact, you may even opt for a 420 mm unit in the front, which is a pretty nice touch. There are loads of mounting holes in the ceiling, so you could also opt for any fans between 120-200 mm instead.


The Thermaltake S500 TG is actually quite wide, which results in over 30 mm of space to route cables behind the motherboard tray. Here, you will also find a plate to hold two 2.5" drives. There are also three Velcro strips to allow for easy cable management.


In the bottom of the front is a single 3.5" cage with two trays. The entire front is meant for cooling, with a single 140 mm intake fan pre-installed out of the box. However, there is a third possibility to place a radiator of up to 360 mm on the motherboard tray towards the front of the case, but you would have to remove the HDD cage. Naturally, you could opt for a 240 mm unit and keep the HDD cage as well.


In the rear, on the bottom, is a small shroud covering the PSU bay. Here, you will find the metal mounting elements for vertical GPU placement, as well as a single 2.5" tray. This brings the total storage capability of the S500 TG to five, which is perfectly fine for most users, but some may demand more considering the overall size of the chassis. The eight expansion slots can be accessed from outside, and the exhaust fan in the top is identical to the intake fan in the front.


Looking at the ceiling, you can see the vast number of mounting holes. As there is plenty of space even above the frame, you can go as far as to install a push/pull configuration of six fans on a 360 mm radiator, for example. Taking off the shroud and the HDD cage on the bottom reveals another little surprise in the form of fan-mounting holes towards the front. Looks like you may add cooling here as well even though Thermaltake doesn't mention it on their product page.


All the cables within the Thermaltake S500 TG are of the default variety, so you should run into no surprises when assembling the system. Naturally, they are all sleeved black, but a small cosmetic annoyance is the fact that there is about 1.5 inches of wiring that isn't sleeved at the end of the USB 2.0 and audio plugs—these are also the parts you will see in a finished system.