Thermaltake Element S (VK6000) Case Review

The Disk Drive Bays

This case has three external 5.25” bays, seven 3.5” hard disk drive and two 2.5” hard disk drive bays. This is the first time we’ve seen a case with 2.5” bays and this was a very smart move from Thermaltake. In theory 2.5” drives are targeted to laptops and they are slower than desktop drives. These bays, however, aren’t targeted to conventional hard disk drives but to SSD units, which usually come in 2.5” form factor, as they are primarily targeted to laptops. Thus with this case you can install 2.5” SSDs without the need of using any kind of adapter. Speaking of adapter, this case doesn’t come with any adapter for external 3.5”devices (floppy disk drives or memory card readers).

Figure 13: Main disk drive bays.

The hard disk drive cage can be removed from the case to make it easier for you to install several hard disk drives. It is fastened to the chassis using two black thumscrews.

Figure 14: Hard disk drive cage.

Even though the mechanism used to install hard disk drives isn’t screwless, it is a very good one. You need to screw for special screws to each hard disk drive, see Figure 15. Notice that on the left side of the hard disk drive you need to install a screw to the first and last holes, but on the right side of the drive you need to use the first and middle holes.

Figure 15: Hard disk drive installation.