Thermaltake launched their Level 20 series chassis in 2018 upon completion of 20 years of manufacturing and innovation. The Level 20 GT was the showcase in full tower layout. The chassis retains many of the View 71 TG features but with different designs from the outside and a few key differentiation from the inside.
Thermaltake Level 20 GT Review
The Thermaltake LEVEL 20 GT ARGB Black Edition is here for review and I can’t be thrilled enough to see about it as I have been using View 71 TG chassis for a couple of years now and it is my favorite design all around (what is available locally!) The salient features of the LEVEL 20 GT ARGB Black Edition are:
- All Black color layout
- 2x 200mm ARGB fans on the front
- 4x 5mm Tempered Glass Panels
- PSU Cover
- Rotational PCIe 8 Slots Design
- Magnetic panels with lock and key
- USB Type-C Port on IO
- Dismantlable Modular Design
- TT LCS Certified
- Motherboard Up to E-ATX size possible
- Plenty of Storage mounting options
- Product: LEVEL 20 GT ARGB Black Edition
- Manufacturer: Thermaltake
- Price: Check Price on Amazon
LEVEL 20 GT ARGB Black Specifications
Related: Best DDR5 Ram: Budget, RGB, And Gaming Memory Kits
Level 20 GT Packaging and Unboxing
The chassis is shipped inside a large size cardboard box finished in black color. This is a premium chassis from the Thermaltake hence the packing box has that touch as well. This is a heavy box weighing like 22 KG. Keep that in mind when handling.
The front of the packing box has a focus on ARGB lighting as we have 200mm ARGB fans mentioning here and the lighting compatibility with the motherboards.
The Thermaltake LEVEL 20 GT ARGB Black edition comes with 4x 5mm tempered glass panels which are black-tinted.
The specifications are printed here.
The built-in lighting control box offers 27 lighting modes. Thermaltake has used the Reset button as an RGB button.
The top of the packing box cautions the user about handling the box as it weighs 22KG.
There are two thick white color Styrofoam pads sandwiching the chassis.
Level 20 GT Contents
There is a black color box provided in the main packing box. It has all the accessories inside.
Accessories include:
- 200mm fans brackets
- Various Screws
- Long M3 screws for 200mm Fans
- Key and Keychain
- The user manual
- Cable ties
- MB Signal Bridge Cable for GIGABYTE [Labeled E]
- MB Signal Bridge Cable for ASUS, MSI, and ASRock [Labeled F]
- Feet for PSU
- PSU Cover Strip Stand
- PSU Strip Stand
- Speaker
Closer Look
Let’s start with the Thermaltake statement for this chassis, “The Level 20 GT ARGB Black Edition is the premium full tower synchronized with the motherboard in the level 20 range. Level 20 GT ARGB Black Edition features four tempered glass panels with locking hinged doors, E-ATX motherboard support, patented PCI-E slot design, and a removable power cover.
The Level 20 GT ARGB Black Edition comes with two preinstalled 200mm 5V ARGB LED front fans and one 140mm rear fan. The front fans are addressable to deliver 16.8 million-color RGB illumination and unparalleled ventilation. This thermaltake level 20 gt review model comes ready to sync with RGB capable motherboards from Asus, Gigabyte, MSI, and ASRock.
The Level 20 GT ARGB Black Edition takes our latest case innovations and wraps them in an ultra-modern style that’s utterly unique in the case market today. Stand out from the crowd with the Level 20.”
The Thermaltake LEVEL 20 GT ARGB Black edition measures 580Hx294Wx592Dmm. It weighs 20.1KG and is made of SPCC, glass, and plastic materials. The color of the chassis from all around is black. The chassis is a full ATX style with a large space to work around. Let’s explore the chassis starting from the exterior.
Thermaltake Level 20 GT Exterior
The front side of the Thermaltake Level 20 GT ARGB Black Edition features a 4mm tempered glass panel with Thermaltake branding on its bottom. We have rounded edges on the panel from the left and right sides. The 2x 200mm ARGB fans can be seen behind the glass panel. There is not enough space on the sides of the glass for air intake.
This gives me the impression that the air intake is restricted by design hence I was keen on testing the thermal performance using different configurations. This is the key difference between View 71 and this chassis. The View 71 has front glass installed with holding screws on the outside making it easy accessing the inner dust filter.
The top side of the chassis has a different outlook altogether and Thermaltake has made good use of it. The IO panel has been split into both sides. We have round edges all around to make it symmetrical. There is no front mounted IO panel.
The above picture shows the top side of the chassis. Look at the glass panel’s implementation. It is the same as is on the front side. Also, we have the same narrow bezels on both sides of the glass panel making the airflow restriction. Thermaltake is not running the sides on the entire length of the chassis which really adds to the pleasant looks of the chassis particularly when looking at it from the side.
Here is another angle from the top.
The Thermaltake Level 20 GT ARGB Black Edition has a wider layout with a 294mm width. There is quite a gap from the top of the chassis to the motherboard’s top. We have a cutout for the motherboard’s IO shield. On its right, we have a mesh mounting area for a 120mm or 140mm fan. We can’t adjust the height of the rear fan.
We have an 8x PCIe slot design in the center. These can be rotated to make provision for vertical installation of the graphics cards. There is a PCIe slot cover on the right side. We have a standard ATX PSU mounting at the bottom.
As I have mentioned above that Thermaltake has implemented a patent rotational design for the PCIe 8x slots. The complete PCIe 8x slots bracket is removable. It is secured using 5x small size screws. Before taking it out, you would need to remove the PCIe slot cover bracket.
The above picture shows the PCIe bracket rotated and installed in the vertical layout. I can’t admire enough this smart move from the Thermaltake making it convenient to install multiple graphics cards in a vertical layout using native support from the chassis.
The side panels are using hinge design. Each hinge is installed using 3 screws and is removable should it be required.
We have a large size dust filter that runs to the entire length of the meshed portion on the bottom. It is not magnetic. There is a vented portion above the PSU area. This is where the user can install the fans/radiator on the inside of the chassis. There is a rail design area on the top of this area. It has 8x holes and we can spot a screw tip on the third hole. These are provided for the pump/reservoir bracket. The bracket is pre-installed. This bracket was not provided with View 71.
There is a solid over towards the front side. It is removable. This cutout portion is for the drain port of your custom loop setup.
Another difference between this chassis and View 71 is the implementation of the feet. This thermaltake level 20 gt review chassis has rounded 4x feet giving enough height to the chassis from the bottom for ventilation. I prefer this design over View 71.
We have:
- White color illuminated Power button
- LED Indicator
- RGB Button [aka Reset Button]
- Mike Jack
- Heaphone Jack
We have:
- USB Type-C port
- 2x USB 3.0 Ports
- 2x USB 2.0 ports
The beautiful design! There is a 5mm thick tempered glass panel on the side. It has a magnetic closing mechanism and the magnets are quite powerful. Besides, there is a lock as well to secure the side panel which may come in handy when transporting this behemoth chassis.
Looking closely, you will notice that there is a gap between the glass panel and the front panel. The same goes for the top side as well. I am not sure if this is by design or something else but the glass panel flushes fully with the frame. The cutout design on the top frame is speaking for itself.
I love the Thermaltake branding on the keychain.
We have the same layout as is on the other side.
Even this side’s glass panel has the same lock.
This is a locking mechanism for the lock. Rotating the key would turn the locking hand in a horizontal layout locking the panel.
Here they are the two powerful magnets on the frame of the chassis.
The locking hands on the panel itself are connected and attached to the magnets. The magnets are quite powerful as you will need to use some force to pull the panel.
The panels are attached to the hinge structure using 2x screws.
Thermaltake GT Interior
It is time to take a look at the interior of the chassis.
Welp our sample comes with one of the locking tabs of the panel broken. Nothing much to say!
You need to pull the front panel out by placing your hand at the bottom side. You will need to exert more force than you think is needed. This is something I did not like much as it always gives the fear of not breaking something. The inner side of the front panel has a dust filter secured using a narrow bracket on 4 sides with small screws. There are 4x large thumb screws with two on the top and two on the bottom. These are holding the glass with the panel.
Here is the front panel with the top glass removed.
Here is the front glass itself. Each corner of the glass has black color standoff mountings.
Here is a closer look at the standoff.
Now that we have removed the front panel, behold the two 200mm ARGB fans pre-installed in Thermaltake Level 20 GT ARGB Black Edition. There are 2 cutouts on each side for cables routing.
After removing the 2x 200mm ARGB fans, we can now take a look at what cooling gear we can install on the front side.
There are screw holes labeled M3. These are to be used for the 200mm fans mounting.
The top panel is also not easy to take off. You will need to use more force to pull it off. It has the same inner side layout as is on the front panel. You will need to remove the 4x large thumb screws to take off the glass from the panel.
There is a single large size bracket secured on the frame using 4x thumbscrews. They have revamped the design as the bracket on the View 71 is narrow and it can be offset in two preset positions on the chassis frame. This is not the case with the Level 20 GT ARGB Black Edition as the bracket now is wider and does not have any offsetting adjustment rather the offset adjustment is now on the bracket itself.
The bracket has a rail design meaning we can adjust the position of the fans/radiator. Each rail is labeled 12, 14, 20 indicating the corresponding compatible fans/radiator like 12 means 120mm and so on.
The machining and tooling on the chassis frame are on the money and the overall finishing is quite good.
Time for some peeking inside the chassis! The overall layout resembles the View 71 inners but there are a few changes. We have two HDD cages stacked on top of each other on the right side. The Thermaltake Level 20 GT ARGB Black Edition supports motherboard up to E-ATX size but keep in mind that the E-ATX motherboard will cover the cutouts for the cables and the user will have to improvise on routing the cables for the right side connectivity of the motherboard including the 24-pin ATX cable.
We have roughly 60mm of space from the top bracket to the top of the motherboard. The inner space without any constraint is 505x515mm (HxL). The permissible height of the CPU cooler is 200mm. The maximum length of the graphics card is 410mm whereas it is 310mm with the drive cages.
We have removed the HDD cages. Each cage is secured using 4x screws on the backside of the chassis. You will need to access the backside to take these screws out. There is another rail mounting area on the side of the chassis. The user can install:
- 120mm, 140mm, 240mm, 280mm, 360mm, or 420mm radiator
- 3x 120mm or 140mm fans
This will have an impact on the length of the graphics card, particularly when using thicker rads. There are labels on the rail side like A2 A4 indicating the mounting positions of 120mm size AIO and 140mm size AIO. Similarly, R2 and R4 would mean 120mm size radiators and 140mm size radiators. H1 and H2 show the HDD Cage locations.
There is a bracket for the vertical installation of the graphics cards. It allows the installation of 2x graphics cards. There is no riser cable provided with the chassis so you will need to buy one if going that route. There is a 2.5” drive bracket as well provided on the top of the PSU cover.
There is a pump/reservoir bracket provided on the bottom of the chassis. It has L shaped mounting provisions.
We can look at the 8x PCIe slot covers with the cover bracket removed. The slots are reusable and are vented.
There is a black color 140mm fan on the rear. I wish it was an ARGB version as well for the symmetrical looks. It has 9 blades and is rated for 1000 RPM. It is using a 3-pin power cable that comes pre-installed on the hub.
We have ample room on the front side for or cooling gear provided we ditch the HDD cages and sacrifices the storage capacity.
Now we are left with the PSU cover only. The standoffs are pre-installed and are labeled. We have a large size cutout for the CPU cooler installation. There are two large size cutouts on the right side of the motherboard for cables routing. They have rubber grommets. In order to know about the cutouts on the bottom side, we will need to remove the PSU cover.
The PSU cover has a vented portion on the top for ventilation meaning the PSU can be installed on either side up. We have two cutouts on the cover towards the motherboard tray. There is an acrylic panel on the right side of the cover to show off the PSU. The PSU cover runs to 285mm length. The supported PSU length is 220mm.
Here is the skeleton of the chassis with all panels and inner provisions removed. We have a total of 3 cutouts on the motherboard tray on the bottom, which are hidden in the PSU cover. There is a large size cutout with a rubber grommet. You have to route the PSU cables through this cutout. You will need to play a bit with the cables passing through the right most two cutouts with respect to the PSU cover so that they don’t hinder the PSU cover.
Room, room, room! We have plenty of room in whatever we want to do with our build. There are three cutouts on the top for cable routing.
Here is the HDD cage removed from the chassis. It is made of steel and has 2x HDD caddies. Combined we have a total of 4x caddies. Storage options include:
- 4x 2.5” or 4x 3.5” drives using HDD Cages
- 4x 2.5” or 2x 3.5” drives using HDD brackets
- 2x 2.5” or 1x 3.5” drive without HDD Cage
Here is the close up of the caddies. They are tool less. Place a finger on each side and press both sides and at the same time pull these out.
The above picture shows the inner side of the PSU cover.
Let’s take a look at the backside of the chassis. There are only 7x cable tie points here. This is a bit surprising. We have 3x drive brackets here. One on the backside of the motherboard tray has a hub pasted on it. The user can relocate the hub if so required. The front mounted 200mm ARGB fans are using Thermaltake proprietary connectors which will work with this hub only. These fans are rated for 600 RPM at 24 dBA.
The hub has a black color PCB. Up to 3x ARGB, compatible devices can be attached to this hub. There is a white color header with a LED_Out label. Use this to connect the hub to the compatible motherboard digital lighting header. Thermaltake has provided two cables (labeled E and F) for this purpose.
This is where either of two bundled ARGB sync cables is to be connected while the cable’s other end will be connected to the motherboard’s 5V lighting header like the AURA Sync header on the Asus motherboard. Since the Gigabyte motherboards use a 4-pin style interface, Thermaltake has bundled a 4-pin lightning sync cable as well.
The lighting solution is compatible with Asus AURA Sync, ASRock Polychrome, Gigabyte RGB Fusion, and MSI Mystic Light Sync. To convert the control to the motherboard, press and hold the RGB switch on the top I/O panel for a few seconds after connecting the lighting sync cable. There is a 3-pin fan header as well on to which the rear fan is already connected. The Reset cable is already connected to the 2-pin header.
The hub is SATA powered.
The HDD cages are secured using a total of 8x screws. Remove these screws to take out the cages.
Each bracket can support either 2x 2.5” drives or a 3.5” drive.
There is ample space for cable management and we have roughly 35mm on the bottom.
The IO panel cables include:
- USB connector cable for Type-C port
- USB 3.0 connector cable
- USB 2.0 connector cable
- System Panel connector cables
- HD Audio connector cable
Test Build and Experience
The following configuration has been used for the test build:
- Intel i9 9900k
- Asus Strix Z390E Gaming
- GSkill Aegis 8GB DDR4 @ 2800MHz
- Noctua NH-D15 chromax.black
- GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 1060 6G
- Cooler Master MWE 650W
- Lexar 250GB NVMe M.2 SSD
I started with the motherboard installation followed by the RAM and the cooler installation. The chassis is so spacious that you would not face any issue.
Then the PSU was installed. Since the PSU is fully modular, only the required cables were used. Cables routing was walking in a walk. The graphics card was installed in standard orientation.
The EPS cable can easily be installed after the motherboard’s installation.
The close up look on the installed components.
Decide upon the system panel’s cables and front IO cables routing and connect them.
I know the motherboard is dusty. The above picture shows the space available for top side connectivity.
I did not do any cable management at all as I just wanted to see if the cables can be tucked easily and the panel closes without any restriction. It does!
The last step was installing the side panel and the test build was ready. As can be seen, the glass is tinted so you would want to install LED lighting inside the chassis to show the build if so required.
RGB Lighting
In order to control the lighting effects of the 2x 200mm ARGB fans on the front, we have a controller button located on the top I/O panel. It is pertinent to mention that the lighting can be turned off altogether, which is actually one of the modes now. We have total of 24 illumination modes on these fans:
- Mode 1: Wave Mode
- Mode 2: Flow Mode
- Mode 3: RGB Lighting Single Color
- Mode 4~10: Radar Mode with Red, Yellow, Green, Cyan, Blue, White, Purple colors
- Mode 11~18: Breathe Mode with Red, Yellow, Green, Cyan, Blue, White, Purple colors
- Mode 19: Full lighted Mode
- Mode 20~26: Single Color with Red, Yellow, Green, Cyan, Blue, White, Purple colors
- Mode 27: Light Off
Please, note that Thermaltake is using a 6-pin proprietary connector on these fans. Hence, the user has no control over the speed of these fans. Long pressing the RGB button for 3 seconds will transfer the lighting control to the motherboard. The fans will blink twice indicating the transfer of the control. This is vice versa.
Thermaltake Level 20 Testing
Next comes the thermal performance testing of the Thermaltake Level 20 GT Review. Following configurations have been tested:
- Stock configuration with front panel installed
- Stock configuration without the front panel
- The 200mm ARGB fans installed on the backside of the front rail with the front panel installed.
The first two configurations test results will confirm if the restricted air intake on the front panel is impacting the performance and the comparison of the first and the third configuration will tell us if putting the fans on the backside of the rail would help with the thermals given the restrictive design on the front.
Here is the result:
The above is the result for the Intel i9 9900k using Far Cry 5 at Ultra settings. There is not much of a difference in the gaming performance for the CPU.
In the second run, I used the AIDA64 stress test on the CPU and GPU combined. Again we are not seeing much of a difference in the CPU in any configuration.
Let’s see what the thermal performance on the graphics card was. There was a difference of 5°C on the stock configuration with and without the front panel. This tells us that the front panel’s restricted air intake is impacting the graphics card’s thermal performance. There was a difference of 1.5°C with the fans on the front and backside of the rail. This result was from the actual gameplay.
Let’s take a look at the result of the stress test. Again we are seeing a thermal difference of above 6°C with and without the front panel. There was a difference of 2.6°C with the front fans on the backside and on the front side of the rail.
This is showing that installing the fans on the backside of the front rail would help in lowering the graphics card’s temperatures a bit but not of the CPU that much. The chassis large size is coping with the restrictive air intake on the front and exhaust on the top.
Conclusion
The Thermaltake celebrated their 20th year of continuous innovation and manufacturing by releasing Level 20 series chassis back in 2018 followed by a few iterations in the original release. We got the chance to look at their Level 20 GT ARGB Black Edition. This is a full tower chassis with E-ATX size motherboard support.
The chassis has a dimension of 580x294x592mm (HxWxD). It has a net weight of 20.1 KG. It is quite a heavy chassis to work with but equally spacious. The Thermaltake Level 20 GT ARGB Black Edition features 4x 5mm thick tempered glass panels much like what we have on View 71. These glass panels are tinted.
The chassis has black color all around and is made of SPCC, glass, and plastic materials. Overall, we have a beautiful design that is quite symmetrical and looks elegant in person.
The Thermaltake Level 20 GT Review features a patented rotatable PCIe 8 slots design which enables the user to install the complete PCIe 8x slot assembly in a horizontal or vertical layout. For vertical layout, a support bracket is pre-installed on top of the PSU cover. The only thing missing is the riser cable. This is one heck of a smart design and very well execution.
The side panels now have a magnetic closing mechanism and magnets are quite powerful to hold the panels. We have a hinge design. There is a lock and key system as well on the panels. The IO panels are now on both sides of the top panel.
The chassis has the support of a plethora of cooling gear all around. We can install up to 420mm rad on the front, up to 360mm rad on the top, and 420mm rad on the side. Up to 2x 200mm fans can be installed on the front and on the top. 120mm or 140mm fan can be installed on the rear. Up to 2x 120mm fans on the bottom and a 240mm radiator on the bottom can be installed. For all this thermaltake level 20 gt review cooling we have dust filtration as well.
The way it has been designed the cleaning of the front and top dust filter is tedious. First, we would need to take the panels out which require a good amount of force. Then the glass panels would need to be taken off by removing the 4x screws on the inner side of the panels. The bottom has a single large size removable dust filter. You would need to have space on the rear to take it out.
We have ample storage options in the chassis. The user can install up to 4x 2.5” or 4x 3.5” drives in the HDD cages. There is a 2.5” drive bracket on the top of the PSU cover. There are three brackets on the backside. Each bracket can house 2x 2.5” drives or a single 3.5” drive. The PSU cover has a vented potion on top with two cutouts and it is removable.
We have 2x 200mm ARGB fans on the front. Thermaltake has pre-installed a controller hub on the backside of the chassis and is using a dedicated RGB button on the top IO panel to control the lighting. The user can switch the lighting control to the motherboard’s lighting header (5V) using the bundled MB RGB Sync cables. The lighting is compatible with ASUS AURA, GIGABYTE RGB FUSION 2.0, MSI MYSTIC LIGHT SYNC.
These 200mm fans have a 600 RPM rating. There is no control over the speed of these fans as Thermaltake is using proprietary connectors which can only be used with the provided control hub.
It is easier to build a PC inside the Thermaltake Level 20 GT ARGB Black Edition thanks to its spacious layout. Although it supports an E-ATX size motherboard, the E-ATX board will cover the cutouts with rubber grommets making the cable routing quite a challenge. Other than that, I did not make any observation.
The Thermaltake Level 20 GT ARGB Black Edition is retailing at PKR 33,500/- at the time of the review. It is available through the Thermaltake’s authorized distributor here; Shing. Despite having restricted air intake on the front and exhaust on the top, the large size of the chassis with ventilation all around makes up for it and the thermal performance is within an acceptable range.
The price of the chassis is quite given that many mid-tower and full tower chassis from the competition are priced above this pricing. Overall, the Thermaltake Level 20 GT ARGB Black Edition is a good value proposition given the plethora of features it comes with.
We are thankful to the Thermaltake for giving us the opportunity to review their Level 20 GT ARGB Black Edition Chassis.
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