There is a wide assortment of PC cases that get released into the market quite often and we see some of the same trends being used time after time. Thermaltake is one company that seems to march to the beat of their own drum with new designs and risks. One of their latest releases had us quickly itching to try it out once the case was unveiled.
We’re looking into the View 37, a mid-tower case that aims to be more aesthetically pleasing with its wide window panel design. The View series from Thermaltake is nothing new, we’ve seen a number of cases released in the past such as the View 91, View 31 and View 27. These cases seem to fall in the line of being more of a centerpiece for your PC battlestation with abundant viewing angles to the components tucked inside.
Out of all the cases mentioned above, the View 37 seems to replicate the View 27, but now with a wider window panel stretching over the top of the chassis. Depending on where you stand on tempered glass, you may be a bit disappointed to learn that while it looks like it may be featured within the case, Thermaltake opted to use acrylic. With that said, the wide angled window piece is relatively light, but will be more susceptible to getting scratched.
Another point of interest about the curved window panel piece is that consumers will be losing support for radiators, but luckily there is other support available within the case, which we’ll get into a little latter within this article.
Moving to the front of the panel, you’ll get a tinted acrylic piece which will highlight the RGB fans mounted on the front. Depending on the model you opt for, you’ll have 140mm RGB fans or a single blue highlighted fan located on the bottom. While on the subject, the Riing Edition which we received also comes with one additional 140mm blue highlight fan located with the rear as an outtake.
On the top portion of the case is where you’ll find the I/O panel with two USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 ports. Likewise, there are audio ports along with the power and reset buttons. It’s worth noting that the reset button is recessed a bit into the case so you won’t have to worry about accidentally bumping into it.
Flipping the case around and you’ll find a nice ventilation cutout, this is where you’ll want to mount additional fans or even a radiator. While on the subject of ventilation this is really where the case has a bit of a downfall as the front panel is closed off with thin ventilation cutouts going down the either side of the front panel for your traditionally placed intake fans.
Going into this case, airflow should probably be something to make note of right away. While the Riing Edition comes with two stock fans and they do work well, you’ll want to toss in another fan or two for intakes.
I opted to put in two 120mm fans in the front but instead of putting them right behind the acrylic panel, they were mounted on the opposite side. This was done to help bring more airflow while also being small enough to not be easily seen. As a result, I didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary with the temperatures but again, depending on your build and if you opt to do air cooling rather than water cooling, you may find yourself tinkering just a bit.
While on the rear side of the case, you won’t find anything out of the ordinary other than the additional bracket style piece that is required to be disassembled in order to take the window panel off. This is one step that is a bit inconvenient as instead of taking off two standard thumbscrews in order to pull off the window panel, you have to unscrew four additional screws.
I imagine the piece is there to help keep the panel secure and sturdy, but it definitely can get in the way unless you don’t find yourself taking your panels off very often.
When you get inside the case, you’ll come across a preinstalled GPU vertical bracket and a HDD bay. I immediately took the HDD bay out after locating the screws. For starters, the bay drive looked a bit out of place and I wanted to assure that the case could receive as much airflow as possible. Additionally, there are mounting locations for drives located behind the motherboard so unless you need this bay for additional drives, you’ll likely find it worth removing.
Outside of the HDD bay and vertical GPU mount, there are several grommet cutouts for cords to pass through along with non-grommet cutouts located directly above and below the motherboard. You’ll also find that there is no PSU shroud but instead, this case is completely open. Furthermore, it’s worth noting that the bottom of the case has options to place fans as well.
Flipping the case around and you’ll find that there are brackets which can mount a single 3.5” HDD or two 2.5” SSDs. However, you’ll want to be mindful of where you’re mounting the drives because there are mounting options in front of the ventilation cutout. As a result, if you’re looking to use the inside side mount for a radiator or additional fans, you may find the drives blocking some of the airflow.
You won’t have any trouble with cable management. Not only does the View 37 offer a big gap to avoid cables being pushed against the rear panel, but there are several tie down points to use while routing your cords.
When building inside the case, there was no issue with space. In fact, you may find that this case works best if you watercool. I first installed my GPU within the vertical GPU mount that came pre-installed. While Thermaltake sent out a riser cable for us to use you won’t find these cables packaged with the cases but instead must be purchased separately.
When running some benchmarks with the GPU mounted vertically, I found that the graphics card was nearing about 80C. Once I had mounted the card to the motherboard and took the vertical mount out, the card typically dropped about eight degrees. Of course, there are several variables that could come into play such as the specific GPU cards used and ambient room temperature, so we advise checking out results of your own components if you purchase not only this case but really any case that supports GPU vertical mounts.
All-in-all, the View 37 is a nice case. You’ll have ample room to build within and cord management is a breeze to handle. The design is a massive focal point as well, so if you’re looking to showcase your build then this is a perfect case. You will want to be mindful of airflow and have cans of compressed air ready to clear out the ventilation areas with your regular PC maintenance. Currently, the View 37 Riing Edition is available for $99.99 on Newegg. However, you can also purchase the RGB version that comes with three RGB fans with a PCI controller for $169.99.
Note: Images used are stock photos
Full Disclosure: A unit was supplied for purposes of this article.
