Thermaltake keeps pounding out new cases for the enthusiast crowd, this time around the Overseer RX-I is in the house for a close up look. The Overseer RX-I is aimed at the budget gamer, but at the same time promises to offer many of the features of Thermaltake’s more expensive chassis offerings. We’ll find out how much it has to offer, and whether it should be considered for your next build or upgrade.

About Thermaltake

“Founded in 1999, IPO in Taiwan Stock Exchange since December 2007. Thermaltake Inc., a multinational company pioneering in PC thermal solution, award-winning PC power supplies and versatile PC chassis. The company is revolutionizing the PC market by creating, innovating and implementing the most efficient solution in its technology. Thermaltake also participates in various environmental conservation programs to help preserve our planet.”

The case arrived in perfect condition as usual, mostly due to the excellent way Thermaltake packages all their chassis.

The front of the box is graced with a “transformer” type character standing next to a large picture of the Overseer RX-I. The external USB 3.0 feature is mentioned on the box front as well.

The two sides of the box have some additional branding, and a multilingual list of the basic features.

The back of the box is very informative, and places and emphasis on pictures of the air and water cooling opportunities. There is also a list of features, pictures of the “Unique Design”, and pictures highlighting the internal/external structure designs.

Once the box top is opened and the Overseer RX-I is removed, you can see the sturdy Styrofoam blocks used to protect the case while in transit. There is a plastic bag with the users manual and warranty information sitting on top, once the case is removed from the box. The case is completely wrapped in the customary plastic bag, and the side panel window has a protective film applied to the inside and outside.

The exterior tour begins with a look at the left side panel, and it’s clear window with a 200 mm fan grill (fan is optional). The panel is stamped in a manner that allows for additional room inside the case. This is a good feature and should allow you to still install a tall CPU cooler, even if you install a fan on the inside of the panel.

The right side panel is void of any features except for the stamping design, which also allows for additional room behind the motherboard tray. The more room that can be provided behind the motherboard tray the better, thus allowing for easy cable management.

Moving around to the back of the Overseer RX-I, we can see a bottom mount power supply design has been implemented here. There is a slide out filter located beneath the power supply mounting area which is long enough to provide dust protection for the entire PSU and optional fan areas.

Moving upwards along the back of the case, we come to the eight ventilated expansion slot covers. Just to the right of that is two rubber grommets that protect the holes used for water cooling tubes, if used.

The upper portion of the rear area is home to a 120 mm exhaust fan, and the location to install a motherboard’s I/O shield.

The front panel area is where you will find the bulk of the exterior features located. The bottom is completely made up of a mesh design with a Thermaltake logo affixed to it. There are multiple ribs formed into the bottom area to accent the rugged look of the case.

There are four external 5.25″ drive bay covers, but don’t be fooled, the bottom one is actually a 3.5″ bay. The 3.5″ drive bay cover is made to look identical to the others, but the center portion is removable to accommodate a 3.5″ drive. All of the drive bay covers can only be removed from the inside of the front panel, so it will have to be removed to accomplish this. Each side of the upper portion has blue accents, which look rather nice against the black backdrop the rest of the case provides.

As we move to the top of the case, we find the power on LED in the middle. The logo applied to this LED will light up when the system is turned on; Thermaltake calls this a “Pulsating Lighting Effect”, because it fades in and out. Flanked on each side of the pulsating light is the power and reset buttons.

Moving back a little, we come to the I/O area where you will find an eSATA port, two USB 3.0 ports, two USB 2.0 ports, and the headphone and MIC jacks. Just behind the I/O area is the hot swap drive bay, which supports both 3.5″ and 2.5″ SATA HDD’s.

On the left and right edges of the top panel is where the HDD activity LED and the second power on LED is located, this one does not pulsate though and is more traditional in design.

The next two pictures show off the large mesh area that makes up the top panel. There isn’t a whole lot to show you yet, until we remove the top panel during our interior tour. Ok, I let the cat out of the bag, the top panel comes off similar to the method used to remove the front panel.

At the bottom of the case are four non adjustable round feet; simple in design but well thought out. I love the addition of rubber inserts to each of the feet; they will provide protection to the surface the case resides on. Additionally the rubber inserts will keep things from vibrating.

We removed the left side panel to have our first look at the inside of the Overseer RX-I. The left side panel itself has a place to mount a 200 mm fan (optional), and there is also a filter applied to the opening.

As you can see the entire inside area is painted black with a matte finish.

As we look at the motherboard tray area, the items of note are the five rubber grommet holes, and three non grommet holes for cable management. There is also a large sized hole cut out of the motherboard tray to allow easy access to the CPU coolers retention mechanism.  Also worth noting is the ability to mount not only mATX and ATX sized boards, but also EATX.

The bottom power supply mounting area is protected by the slide out filter we previously mentioned, and has an option to mount an additional 120 mm fan. This would also make a great spot to mount a pump/reservoir combination unit, if you decide to install a water cooling setup.

Moving up the back we find the eight ventilated PCI expansion slot covers, all of which are held in place by thumb screws. Above the expansion slots is an included 120 mm Turbo Fan (1000 RPM).

Turning our attention to the top panel area, there is an included 200 mm blue LED fan with an option to add another. The top panel can be easily removed to expose the 200 mm fan, and the inner workings of the front I/O area. If you remove the 200 mm fan, there is room to mount a thin 240 mm radiator up top, and then have the two 120 mm fans below.

As we make our way to the drive bay area of the interior, you can see the three 5.25″ drive bays and the 3.5″ bay below them. Installing a 5.25″ drives only entails sliding it into place and allowing the rocker style drive lock to do its thing. When you slide a drive in, it slides past a lever which raised the lock. Once the drive has slid in to its final location the rocker will engage the drive and secure it. You can also add additional mounting screws if so desired. The external 3.5″ bay is complete with a 5.25″ to 3.5″ adapter built in to the opening.

There are five 3.5″ drive bays at your disposal, and all of the slide out trays will also accept a 2.5″ SSD. To install a HDD to the trays, simply set it in the tray and line up the holes. There are rubber insulators applied to each of the mounting holes, and shouldered screws to use with them are in the accessory pack.

With the front panel removed we get a good look at the included 200 mm blue LED intake fan, and the knockout plates covering the 5.25″ bays. Additionally, a large mesh type filter has been installed to the back of the front panel for the 200 mm fan. Each of the drive bay covers also have filters built into them.

In my opinion, all the cable management holes designed in a case are worthless unless there is ample room between the motherboard tray and the right side panel. Thermaltake has made vast improvement in this area over the last year or so, and it shows on the Overseer RX-I. With the outward stamping design of the right panel, coupled with the extended area behind the motherboard tray, you will find more than enough room to hide cables, even the main 24-Pin ATX cable.

Tucked away on the right side are all the I/O wires; all the usual suspects are present and accounted for. There are two SATA cables for the ESATA and Hot Swap bay, and a USB 3.0 for the motherboard header. The USB 2.0 motherboard connector and the HD Audio/AC97 connectors are common place for any case. The power/reset switch and LED motherboard connections are all present, but this time there is a 4-Pin molex connector attached to them. This is to feed power to the pulsating logo at the top of the case.

As far as the included accessories go, there are two 3-Pin to 4-Pin Molex adapters, a system speaker, and a 8 or 4-Pin CPU power extension cable.

Other than a couple less features than the more expensive Thermaltake offerings, the Overseer RX-1 has everything a budget minded enthusiast could ask for. For roughly $130 USD, good luck finding another case that has the looks, features, and build quality of the Overseer RX-1. The ability to install EATX sized motherboards, and the included Hot Swap bay feature add a lot of value to this case. A case that can adapt to a water cooling setup “out of the box”, at this price point is almost impossible to find. The cable management design is superb, to sum it up in a word.

If you want to build a unique looking enthusiast system with a ton of features, but at the same time keep the price affordable, you simply must take a good hard look at the Overseer RX-I by Thermaltake.

Overclockers Tech is easily able to award the Thermaltake Overseer RX-I a 9.5/10 and yet another Gold Award!

Dino DeCesari (Lvcoyote)

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