Thermaltake View 32 Review

With the release of View 51, Thermaltake View 32 Review gave the users an all-out option to build their rigs inside a full tower chassis with RGB goodness and Tempered Glass aesthetics. They did not forget the users who would need compact chassis packed all around with Tempered Glass panels as per the industry’s trend and included RGB fans.

Thermaltake View 32 TG Edition Review

They came out with their new View series chassis named thermaltake view 32 review which is a mid-tower with 4 4mm thick tinted tempered glass panels and Thermaltake’s RGB fans (3 of them). Not only that but the overall look and feel of the chassis is premium particularly the front with rounded top and bottom design and splendid front I/O port installed on the top panel in the glass. This chassis has surprisingly support for a cooling solution in multiple of 120mm configuration only.

The user can mount up to 360mm rad on the front, 240mm rad on the top and 120mm rad at rear with similar no of 120mm fans but no 140mm. It does not have vertical mount support for the graphics card plus PSU shroud is not there as well. We have multiple storage drives locations with two 2.5”SSD caddies on the front side and one dedicated behind the motherboard tray with two 3.5”HDD caddies on the backside. There is no support for 5.25”drive. Without further a due, let’s dig in and see what this chassis has to offer to the builder.

• Product:              Thermaltake View 32 Review
• Manufacturer:     Thermaltake
• Price                    Check Price on Amazon

 View 32 TG Edition Specifications

Thermaltake View 32 Packaging and Unboxing

The chassis is shipped in a standard cardboard box in the brown color but with a difference. Majority of the chassis boxes are vertical in design. Recently with the Tempered Glass trend, we have seen quite a few chassis with horizontal packaging boxes. Same is the case with the Thermaltake View 32 TG Edition.

The top cover of the box has View 32 TG Edition printed on one half with large size Tempered Glass Inside boxed printing. The front side of the box has Thermaltake brand name and logo printed on the top left side. There is a symbolic picture of the chassis with the build on the left side.

View 32 TG Edition is printed on the right side of the picture followed by info boxes of 4x Tempered Glass and 3x Riing RGB fans. Company’s website address is printed on the bottom right side. The rear side of the box has Thermaltake brand name and logo printed in the top middle section.

View 32 TG Edition is printed in the center of the main section followed by tabular specifications print out. A serial no sticker is pasted on the bottom and EAN, UPC info labels are printed on the bottom as well. A fragile label is printed on the top left side. The left side of the box has Thermaltake brand name and logo printed on the top left side. Tear down picture of the chassis is printed on the main section. View 32 TG Edition is printed on the right side of the picture. The right side of the box has Thermaltake brand name and logo printed in the middle of the top section.

View 32 TG Edition is printed in the middle of the main section followed by the salient features of the chassis printing in 12 different languages. Opening the box will show another box placed right on the top. We have thick black color Styrofoam pads inside the main box. Their upper sides are extended to hold the top box. Taking the top box off will show the chassis itself wrapped inside a transparent sheet and tucked inside the Styrofoam.

Opening the top box will show a thick Styrofoam pad on the top. This box has two 4mm TG side panels of the chassis. These panels are sandwiched using the thick Styrofoam pads. Clearly, Thermaltake was right on the task when it comes to handling the TG for shipping.

 

Thermaltake View 32 TG RGB Accessories

Thermaltake View Closer Look

With View 32 TG Edition, Thermaltake is raising the bars of the mid-tower chassis category by offering the right mix of Tempered Glass and RGB fans in the attractive price point which is no brainer. Here is what the company is saying about it, “Thermaltake has merged beauty and performance into the design of View 32 Tempered Glass RGB Edition mid-tower chassis.

Constructed with four premium-quality 4mm thick tempered glass windows (top, front, left and right) for a direct view of the inner system and excellent chassis security. Three built-in 120mm Riing LED RGB fans (two at the front and one at the rear side) deliver RGB illumination and optimum ventilation.

Its unparalleled expandability for the latest PC hardware and liquid cooling solutions satisfies the market where users have opted for stylish PC chassis with advanced features and aesthetic appeal.”

It is time to dig into the design elements of this chassis. The dimension of the chassis is 480x227x524mm. It is made of SPCC material and weighs in 8.2kg. Exterior and interior are in black color. Let’s start with the exterior of the chassis. Chassis comes with two TG panels preinstalled, one on the top side and one on the front side. The left and the right panels are provided separately.

Overall look and feel of this chassis with all four TG panels installed are quite stunning, well coordinate and indeed very well designed. The tempered glass on the front side has a dimension of 443x213x4mm. It has Thermaltake brand name and logo printed on the bottom in the white color font which really stands out and looks nice in person. The panel’s glass has the dimension of 426x213x4mm. The top and bottom sides on the front panel are curved in plastic body with a matte black finish.

These curves give brilliant looks to the chassis. One thing to note is that the glass on the front and top panels are fixed onto them. One must be careful in their handling. As glass panels are not pre-installed on the left and the right sides, these are exposed. Let’s take a look inside the main chassis.

It has a spacious layout and this chassis supports motherboards of ATX, microATX and mini-ITX sizes. Only 6 standoffs are pre-installed which in my opinion should have been all 9 as not all of the users may have the necessary tool to correctly install the standoffs. We have a large size CPU cutout area in the motherboard tray. CPU height clearance is 160mm.

There are two small sized cutouts above the motherboard tray. One is located on the extreme left side and one above the right end of the CPU cutout. These don’t have rubber grommets on them. Right below the CPU cutout area is the backside of the screw which is holding a 2.5”drive caddy behind the motherboard tray.

The holes on the motherboard tray area are labeled with A, M and I with A being ATX, M being microATX and I being mini-ITX mounting positions. There are two cutouts on the bottom of the motherboard tray which don’t have rubber grommets on them. These cutouts will be fully covered when using the full ATX size motherboard which may have implication on cables routing that are to be connected on the bottom headers of the motherboard.

We have two columns of cutouts with rubber grommets with two cutouts in a row making total cutouts to be 6. In case of full-size ATX board, only the rightmost three cutouts will be available for cables routing. The rightmost end of the tray has two 2.5”drive caddies. N case you won’t be installing SSDs in these caddies the backside will be exposed though the tinted back panel will provide some cover in my opinion, these should have been covered.

The top section of the tray here has raised surface and this is where the included Controller HUb is installed on the backside of the tray. We can see 7 PCIe covers with mesh design. They don’t have thumb screws so you would need a screwdriver. We have a Riing RGB fan with 256 colors illumination pre-installed on the top rear side. Its cable is routed through the top left most cutout. With the main section, let’s take a look at the bottom section.

On the left side we, have PSU mount area with filtered bottom intake/exhaust. There are four raised tabs with rubber mounts on them. PSU is placed on top of these rubber mounts. This chassis has clearance for up to 220mm PSUs. This is mainly due to the only cutout located almost in the middle of this section. This cutout has a rubber grommet on it but be careful when handling it while passing cables through as it can come off easily with a slight pressure coming from the cables.

You can use any large side PSU but in case its length extends over the 220mm the cutout won’t be accessible and you will be left with almost no place on the bottom to pass the cable through. There is a solid surface on the left side of this section.

It is time to take a look at the front side from inside of the chassis. There is a large size magnetic dust filter covering the entire length of the front. It is actually a good quality one. Since its magnetic, its handling is by far the easiest. Taking that filter off we can see two Riing RGB fans preinstalled. They are located in front of the mesh with screws going from the backside. This tells us to take off the front panel to access the fans.

There are two covers on the top as if they are for the 5.25”drive bay but it ain’t the case. These covers are bit loose as well so handle them with care. Since we were at it when checking, we install Alphacool NexXxos ST45 which is a full copper 360mm radiator with the thickness of 45mm without fans. The SSD cadies were not obstructing this radiator which is a good design time consideration.

This chassis has a clearance of up to 400mm for the graphics card. This is without any radiator/fan on the inner side of the chassis on the front. In case you are installing a radiator or fans or even combo of both, make sure to check the clearance for the graphics card. With this 45mm radiator we were left with 350mm of space for the graphics card and in case you are also setting up the reservoir in front of the radiator, this consideration becomes even more important.

Looking closely on the rails, we can see what seems like a mount for 140mm but they are simply not possible due to obstruction from within the front panel design. We will show it when we will discuss the panel in the coming paragraphs. There is a large size cutout on the top right side of the tray. This is where the cables from the front I/O ports are going behind the motherboard tray.

Last but not least let’s take a look at the top side again from what is visible from inside the chassis. We have a radiator bracket up top with a total height of the bracket being 27mm. We can mount 120mm or 240mm radiator/AIO on this bracket. With a little bit of more depth, thermaltake view 32 review could have provided provision for the 280mm radiator.

But we can see that thermaltake view 32 review being a little brethren of large size View 71, such design time implications are obvious. For those who would want unprecedented clearance for up to 360mm on the top and on the front with E-ATX size motherboards, View 71 is the right choice. The radiator bracket is raised on the top side of the panel that would mean we will have better displacement from the top to the motherboard’s top side with better clearance for the high profile RAM. The total displacement from the top of the bracket to the top of the motherboard is roughly 55mm.

This is too good a clearance that we could have asked for. Though not full but thermaltake view 32 review has provided a provision to slide the radiator/fan for appropriate location to mount them. Please, note that you would need to access the top side of the bracket to install the fans or radiator for which top panel needs to be taken off as well. The way these panels are attached to the chassis frame are an oddly strange choice.

There are four raised latched hooks on each side of these panels. One would need to press the two bars on each and at the same time pull the panel. While doing this, one constantly remains under the impression that he/she might break the glass as glass is fixed to the panel.

I wish they would have handled the panels’ connection to the frame in a different manner. This is made further difficult for the top panel as these latches are hard to reach on the backside. Take your time and be careful while removing the panels.

Now, that we have discussed the inside of the chassis, it is time to take a look at the rear side and underside of it. On the top of the rear side, there are angular vents with a height of less than 20mm. Below them, we have a cutout for the motherboard’s I/O shield. On its right side, we have a mounting provision for a 120mm fan with up to 4 height adjustable fan mounts.

Below that we have 7 PCIe slot covers with mesh design and there is a large size meshed cutout design on their right side for air ventilation. At the bottom, there is a standard ATX size PSU’s mounting location. The underside area of the chassis has a non-magnetic dust filter beneath the PSU area. Rest is a solid surface.

The main frame is inset the border and there is a 46mm gap between the inset area to the surface where the chassis will be placed making it a good enough clearance for PSU to draw fresh air or exhaust the hot air. The four feet have rubber inserts to avoid scratching the surface on which the chassis will be placed. Also, there is a gap between the angular rounded bottom part of the chassis and bottom sheet. I am not sure if it is for intake or what.

Let’s take a look at the backside of the motherboard tray. One instant pick would be the lack of cable tie hooks on this side. This could be due to the fact that there are three caddies in addition to the Controller HUb that are taking a lot of space on this side. But good thing is that thermaltake view 32 review has provided 4 large size adjustable Velcro Cable ties on the top and bottom of the main cutouts with rubber grommets.

The small size caddy below the CPU cutout tray is for the 2.5” SSD. There are two 3.5” HDD caddies as well on the bottom side facing each other. There is a 38mm of spacing or clearance for the cable management without these caddies and with these caddies, this space is 25mm which is plentiful.

Clearly, thermaltake view 32 review was considerate to make up for the covered space. We will discuss the controller hub in the RGB LED lighting section ahead. In my opinion, the cable dots should have been included particularly above the CPU cutout tray and below it.

The good thing about the side panels is that they are hinged implemented which is a plus. No longer one is concern about holding the panel on to the chassis frame by aligning the mounting holes on the panels to the chassis frame and similarly no risk of accidentally breaking the panel when taking them off.

As they are hinged they will rotate freely and all the user would need to complete their installation is to secure them using the two thumb screws with a rubber insert. This is too good a detail to the attention. Mind you these panels are heavy and leaving one open at full swing could imbalance the chassis.

It is time we take a look at the front and top panels themselves. The top panel has tempered glass attached to it. There are vents on the left and right side of the middle section that covers the fans directly. These are for the air intake. Despite having 9mm of spacing between the glass and the frame of the panel, the air is restricted as the fans are closer to the frame. Putting them behind the sheet may improve the situation bit better.

The rounded angular portion is a permanent feature of the front panel’s frame. The front panel is designed such like a glass is attached to it on the top of the frame but the only visible section is the one facing the radiator bracket. We have a green color PCB under the front I/O panel. The length of the USB 3.0 connector cable is approximately 805mm. The length of USB 2.0 and HD Audio cables is approximately 940mm (Only the sleeved portion).

The length of system panel connector cable is approximately 677mm and the available length of the controller hub cable is approximately 542mm. PCB can be taken off removing the three screws. Let’s take a look at the front I/O panel. It is implemented on the tempered glass with that portion of the glass removed. I must say it is looking that damn good in person than in the pictures. It has a large size square power button with satisfying tapping experience on button press.

Next to it is a circular small size Reset button. Next is the circular controller button to control the RGB lighting of the fans. Next are the indicator LEDs. Next are headphone and microphone jacks. Then we have two USB 2.0 and two USB 3.0 ports. It is sad to see no USB 3.1 Gen1/2 port that would have made this a killer deal. Before moving further, let’s take a look at the front side with panel off.

We can see two Riing RGB fans pre-installed. There are two cutouts for cable routing. The top plate has mounting holes for the third 120mm fan. This side will better help you gauge the height of the chassis from the bottom with respect to the surface on which it is placed.

Though thermaltake view 32 review is calling it a tool-free installation of the storage drive(s), one would need to take the caddies off to install/un-install the drives for which screw driver is needed. Hence, while it may be tool-free mounting onto the caddies this is not tool-free for the caddies’ installation. This could have been tool-free if thumb screws were provided.

Here are the cooling hardware support pictures for ready reference.

Thermaltake View 32 RGB LED Lighting

With the chassis design discussed at length, it is time to take a look at the RGB lighting solution and the controller hub. We have three Riing RGB fans with 256 basic colors of illumination. In order to control their lighting effects, we have a control button located on the top I/O panel. The controller hub is located on the backside of the chassis. It can host two LED strips and up to 8 compatible RGB fans.

Lighting can be turned off all-together. Long press the RGB button to turn off the lights. To turn these on, a single press of the RGB button would bring the lights back on. These fans have 1400 RPM and are rated at 28dB(A). We have total six modes on these fans:

• Mode 1 RGB Lighting that would cycle through the colors.
• Mode 2-5 are for static colors (Red, Blue, White, Green)
• Mode 6 Turns off the lighting.

Please, note that thermaltake view 32 review is using the 5-pin proprietary connector on these fans. Hence, the user has no control over the speed of these fans. In my observation, loading the mode 1 will reduce the speed of these fans while Mode 2-5 would make them to spin faster. The included hub is compatible with Thermaltake Riing 12 LED RGB Fan Series only. Here are some pics for your eye pleasure.

View 32 Building/Installation

Following is the configuration of the test build:

• Intel i7 8700k
• Deepcool Castle 240 RGB Liquid cooler
• Corsair Vengeance Red 4x8GB @ 2666MHz
• Gigabyte GTX 1060 6GB Gaming G1
• Samsung 256GB PM961 SSD
• Samsung 840 1TB SSD
• WD 6TB Black
• Thermaltake ToughPower iRGB Plus 1250 PSU

I could not use the Nvidia GTX 1080 FE as it is water cooled using the Alphacool Eiswolf GPX Pro cooler and is being used on the test bench. Building inside this chassis was fun and I enjoyed working on it. It has a spacious layout that helps in planning and executing the build. Cable routing was easy. I started with the motherboard.

If you are using high profile RAM, better keep them to be installed after the installation of the cooler. Next, PSU was installed and passed all of the needed cables through the large size cutout at the bottom of the chassis. This gave me trouble as passing cables when a certain portion of the cutout is not available pulled the rubber grommet off. So, here is the tip, pass the cables through the cutout before installing the PSU.

In case you are using non-modular PSU, do the same. Non-Modular PSUs will give tough time in cable management. As there are no visible cutouts under the full ATX size motherboard once installed, the user will be restricted to the pass the cables from the third cutout on the right side of the motherboard at the bottom.

This would make the cables visible to some extent else pass the required cables through the bottom cutouts on the motherboard tray before installing the motherboard and then press on the motherboard on them. Only flat cables will be helpful for this route. Do it at your own risk as it could damage the motherboard in case of short circuiting etc.

Take your time for the cable management on the back. As the side panels are dark tinted, cables won’t be visible unless you put some LED strip on the backside.

Testing

It is summer time here and there are certain noises that are beyond our control hence we did not measure the acoustics of the completely assembled PC. But based on our testing, the overall noise level was adequate and not teasing. Our i7 8700k is a damn hot chip that has left us with no choice except not going for the thermal testing.

We will soon be deliding this chip for the proper thermal testing purpose. On stock clocks with tubo boost, the chip did a maximum of 72°C while gaming Battlefield 1 at 4k with Ultra settings whereas the Graphics card did a maximum of 73°C max.

Conclusion

The thermaltake view 32 review is a mid-tower chassis that has beautiful design merged with four 4mm tempered glass panels (Top, Front, Left, and Right) and 3 LED Riing RGB fans. This is a little brethren of the full tower View 71. The dimension of the chassis is 480 x 227 x 524 mm. This chassis is Tt LCS certified.

Tt LCS Certified is a thermaltake view 32 review exclusive certification applied to only products that pass the design and hardcore enthusiasts standards that a true LCS chassis should be held to. The Tt LCS certification was created so that we at thermaltake view 32 review can designate to all power users which chassis have been tested to be best compatible with extreme liquid cooling configurations to ensure you get the best performance from the best features and fitment.

In terms of cooling provision, we have support for three 120mm up on the front (two 120mm fans are included). We have a 120mm provision on the rear one fan included). Up to two 120mm fans can be installed on the top. Similarly, we can have 120/240/360mm radiator on the front side, 120/240mm radiator on the top side, and a 120mm radiator on the rear. Surprisingly there is no 140mm provision in this chassis. This chassis has a support for full ATX, microATX, and mini-ITX size motherboards.

If you are looking for a similar design with extensive cooling support and E-ATX size motherboard support, then look into View 71. In terms of storage capacity, we have three 2.5”SSD brackets and two 3.5” HDD brackets. You can’t install 2.5” SSD in the 3.5” HDD bracket. There is no 5.25” drive bay. It has a support for up to 220mm standard ATX PSU. CPU Height clearance is 160mm and graphics card of length < 400mm can be installed though it has other considerations in respect to the radiator mounting on the front.

There are two 2.5” SSD brackets on the motherboard tray near the front intake. These don’t hinder the radiator placement. We checked with the Alphacool NexXxos 45ST radiator which is a 360mm copper radiator having 45mm thickness. With 45mm thick radiator on the front, the available length for the graphics card is 350mm.

We are leaving a cushion of 5mm of spacing for optimal clearance. There is a 55mm displacement from the top radiator bracket to the top of the motherboard with an effective clearance of 28mm as the thickness of the bracket is 27mm. This is good enough clearance even for the high profile RAMs. There are no cutouts on the bottom of the motherboard tray which is a consideration when installing a full ATX size motherboard. There is a single large size cutout on the bottom section for PSU cables routing.

We have used PSU of length 200mm. We can see with 220mm we are covering above 50% of this cutout and are getting ourselves restricted to the cable routing. The rear fan has four fan mount positions available for height adjustment. We have a removable dust filter under the PSU location. It can be taken out from the rear side. There is a single 360mm magnetic dust filter on the front that would restrict the . There is no dust filter on the top.

Glasses on the top and front panels are fixed. Side panels come in a separate box with layers of Styrofoam pads for maximum protection during shipping and handling. Side panels have a dimension of 456x507mm. They have hinged installation mechanism which makes their handling easier and safer.  To complete their installation, use the thumb screws with the rubber inserts.

That simple! The backside of the chassis has a 2.5” SSD bracket and a 3.5” HDD tray behind the motherboard tray. Second 3.5” HDD bracket is on the left bottom side. We have four adjustable Velcro strips for the cable management.

On the top left side, there is a controller hub with up to 8 LED Riing RGB fans connectivity option and two support LED RGB strips. There is a two pin cable coming from the top I/O panel to control the lighting effect. These fans have thermaltake view 32 review proprietary 5-pin connectors that only be connected to this controller hub.

Unfortunately, there is no speed regulation at the user disposal. These fans are rated at 1400 RPM at 28 dB(A). Front I/O panel is located on the top side and has an stunning finish to it with power button giving a satisfying feeling on pressing it. We have two USB 2.0 and two USB 3.0 ports. Unfortunately, there is no USB 3.1 port. Installation was easy and breeze in this chassis.

The internal layout is spacious. If you are not going to fill the front SSD brackets then the backside area will be visible which in my opinion should have been covered regardless of the SSD presence. Removing the top panel is quite challenging and tedious. There are four latch styled tabs on both sides. We have to press the heads of a latch and at a time pull the panel off a bit.

During this whole time, the user would remain under the impression that he/she might break the glass. One would have to take the front and the top panel off to access the front mounted fans and to install the fans/radiator on the top. There is no other way around. It is strongly suggested to take out the panels and keep them somewhere safe. Once you are finished building and testing the PC to your satisfaction, and then install all the panels.

The RGB fans have 6 modes in total. With Mode 1, they reduce the speed of the fans with colors cycling. Mode 2-5 will change the static colors of the fans from Red, Blue, white, and Green. Mode 6 will turn off the lighting.

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