Thermaltake Element V PC Case First Fermi GPU Certified

[Apoptosis]

At CES 2010 we got a chance to swing by and talk with Thermaltake. They had a bunch of cool things on display that we will be showing you over the next day or two, but the one product that stood out the most to us was this Thermaltake Element V PC Gaming Chassis that meets the requirements to run multiple NVIDIA GF100 Fermi based video cards. This is basically a standard Element V case, but Thermaltake has transformed it into an 'NVIDIA Edition' as it includes the NVIDIA logo on the front, green accent pieces and additional cooling in the form of a duct plus side-mounted fan over the expansion slots for multi-Fermi GPU systems. It appears that NVIDIA has announced a thermal specification for their upcoming GF100 gaming graphics cards and this is one of the cases that meet those requirements. We asked Thermaltake about the requirements and it appears that they are not finalized since the GF100 clock speeds and settings are not ratified and in stone yet. Here are a couple pictures of the Thermaltake Element V NVIDIA Edition PC case that are worth a look. Notice how the case has green trimmings on it now and not red like traditional Element V cases.

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[mx6er2587]

wow fermi must be one hot card for nvidia to require special cases. Hope we get the performance to match such drastic measures.

[stopthekilling77]

wow fermi must be one hot card for nvidia to require special cases. Hope we get the performance to match such drastic measures.

This is another example of Nvidia's marketing efforts. If they designed a card too hot for the ATX standards, the first thing they could do to avoid bad publicity is to start certifying components that will put their product in a positive spotlight, such as working with Thermaltake to certify a case for their product.

Bottom line from my perspective, if Nvidia produced a card that is way too hot for existing cases, they boned themselves! BUT come on, a good case should be able to handle Fermi's heat, but Nvidia just won't stop hyping their products above and beyond reasonable expectations.

[shamrok3]

I think it's pretty stupid to need a special case for your graphics card. Although I think they might need too, I'm sweating with my graphics sometimes hitting 80 Degrees C!

[DJ Tucker]

yeah my graphics cards hit between 70-77 on full load and i don't think there is much point in getting a special case as one with a nice well placed side fan blowing cool air on to the cards would do the trick.