INTRODUCTION

   In our last tower review we pointed out that roughly only 10 out of 100 PC cases introduced in the market are full towers but if you sit down and think about how many of those are actually designed with water cooling enthusiasts in mind that number gets even lower than that. Now i used to agree with manufacturers when they came to me and told me that water cooling is still considered a niche market and so their full towers didn't have to feature several radiator mounts but that was in the past since nowadays there's a serious increase in sales of such water cooling loops/kits (perhaps also due to the increase in modders). Thermaltake is well aware of this and so lately all of their cases are LCS Certified which means they have multiple radiator mounts inside to cover the needs of even the most demanding users out there. The Core X71 is the latest and largest addition to the LCS line and today we'll be checking it out.

   The beginning of every myth and legend is about dreams and desire: the challenging, creative and combative features of Thermaltake Group create an exciting and fascinating user experience to share with everyone, while allowing users to enter a selfless state in terms of function and potential. Thermaltake Group's 3 main brands: Thermaltake, Tt eSPORTS and LUXA2 have been merchandising throughout the world, and have successfully established 6 business footholds in areas such as Europe, America, Oceania, Japan and China, with 95 regional distributors and over 4000 premium retailers. All product planning is orientated by observation of global PC peripheral market and understanding of consumer demands. Thermaltake creates direct contact opportunities with resellers and consumers by participating major global ICT exhibitions and trade shows every year, and develop innovative marketing strategies for the promotions of new products. Meanwhile, Thermaltake incorporates the composite marketing system by making branch offices and regional distributors both the distribution channel and technical support or service center to provide instant support; by maintaining close contact with end users, we manage to strengthen corporate competitiveness and create the momentum for the growth of accomplishments. With its outstanding wisdom and strength Thermaltake Group is recruiting creative talents to build a cultural brand for the enjoyment of entertainment, e-Sports, technology and lifestyle!

   Full towers are always considered special by us so the very moment we took the Core X71 out of its box we knew that if there was a single PC case larger that would be the Obsidian 900D by Corsair which we reviewed roughly 3 years ago. However due to some design "flaws" the Obsidian 900D never reached the popularity levels of its predecessor the award winning 800D and that in a way left room for other manufacturers to win consumers over. Now although we can't say for certain that the Core X71 will achieve higher popularity among consumers especially because of its somewhat limited support for mainboards (it only has room inside for mini-ITX, micro-ATX and ATX ones) at first glance it has very little to be jealous of the 900D. For example in terms of features the Core X71 has a dual-chamber tool-less design, removable drive cage (can be placed in either chamber), vertical drive mounts, two PSU areas (vertical / horizontal) and magnetic air-filters. Things are even better however when it comes to interior space since the Core X71 can be fitted with up to five 2.5/3.5" drives, CPU coolers up to 180mm in height, graphics cards up to 278mm long (420mm without the drive cage), 180mm long power supply units (220mm without any bottom fans) and up to fifteen 120/140/200mm fans and/or four 280/360/420/480mm radiators. So is the Core X71 the ultimate full tower for ATX sized mainboards? Let's find out.