Raijintek Thetis Window ATX Case Review

Introduction

Hot on the heels of my review of the Raijintek Paean Bench Table last week, today we have a case with a form factor at the other end of the scale…the diminutive in comparison, Raijintek Thetis Window.

Despite its small stature, it still claims to be able to house a full-size ATX motherboard & PSU! Can a case that sports just 36cm as its longest dimension, still house a full ATX build, without any compromises? Let’s find out.

Specifications

Closer Look – Exterior

Let’s cut right to the chase with regards the looks of the Raijintek Thetis…it is absolutely gorgeous! The aluminium chassis comes with an anodised hair silk appearance, and it is just to die for. On test here we have the black version, but it also comes in silver. Add to this the dual tempered glass side panels, and the whole package is one of the best looking cases I have seen for a very long time.

The front of the Thetis is extremely clean looking, with one whole sheet of aluminium that features a power button centred at the top, and a Raijintek logo centred at the bottom. The quality here is just insane, and the sleek looks are enhanced by the chrome effect beveled edges that run along the whole perimeter of the front face, as well as around the power button.

Running along the roof of the case, we have the I/O positioned at the front, consisting of microphone and headphone jacks sandwiched between two USB 3.0 ports. Behind this, the remainder of the roof is dominating by a large mesh grill, which dominates a good three-quarters of the surface. From the outside, this doesn’t move, so we’ll look at this further once we delve into the interior later.

If the aesthetics of the Thetis didn’t ooze quality enough already, each of the side panels consist of beautifully smooth, tempered glass. Peering through the smoked finish, we see that the Thetis is an inverted case. This means that the motherboard tray is on the opposite side of the case, and therefore the main window into the system is on the right hand side, as opposed to the left. Given that both side panels are glass, the left hand side panel looks onto the back of the motherboard tray…interested to see how this looks when the system is built, as there may be no hiding place for poor cable management!

Flipping the Thetis over to peer at the underside of the case, and further evidence of the high quality is apparent. The hair silk anodised aluminium runs all the way underneath too, and curves smoothly around the edge to meet the glass side panels. It would have been very easy indeed for Raijintek to use a lower standard of material here, given that it will almost never be seen…but they have resisted that and continued with the same material as the front & roof panels…good job Raijintek!

A further element of interest under here, is that we can see the PSU mounting is at the very front of the case, with the power outlet and exhaust will face down…this will be a different build to say the least! The remainder of the underside features the middle third dominated by machined ventilation holes, interspersed with mounting points for what looks like an optional fan. Completing the underside features are four, discreet, rubber feet.

Closer Look – Interior

So the exterior of the Thetis is seriously impressive, what does the interior have to offer?

Popping off the right hand side panel via four thumb screws, reveals the main chamber, and a couple of our earlier questions are answered. We are presented with one wide open space, but then given the dimensions of the Thetis, I didn’t expect any separate compartments, or a PSU shroud. Given that this will be an inverted build, everything is a mirror image of your conventional case layout. To the left we have a HDD mounting bracket, affixed to the back of the front face of the case. To the right, the usual mix of PCIe expansion slots, I/O and exhaust fan…but flipped on it’s head. The usual array of front input cables are apparent, but also joined by a power extension lead, which links the PSU power from it’s usual location around the back of the case, down to the underside where we saw the mount for the power supply.

Taking a glance at the rear of the motherboard tray, it’s littered with various features to ensure that you have a number of cable management options, dependent upon which motherboard size the Thetis is going to house. A total of five cable access points are available, each of them a pretty decent size, and fitted with rubber grommets. Above the rear CPU cooler access opening, are mounting points for two SSD drives, finished off with numerous anchor points for tying down loose cables. All in all, a very sleek, uncluttered interior.

Closer Look – The Build

• CPU – Intel Core i7 6700k
• Motherboard – Asus ROG Maximus VIII Hero Alpha
• Cooler – Cooler Master TX3 EVO
• GPU – Asus ROG Radeon RX460 Strix
• RAM – Crucial Ballistix Elite 16GB DDR4 3000MHz
• SSD – Crucial MX300 525GB
• PSU – BeQuiet Dark Power Pro 11 1000w

I have to be honest here, given the small dimensions of the case, I was a little apprehensive of how easy it would be to transfer my test system into the Thetis…mostly because of the fairly substantial size of the BeQuiet Dark Power Pro PSU I use!

I won’t lie, the PSU was a little tricky to install. With the orientation of the PSU being free standing, pointing upwards within the main chamber, it wasn’t as straight forward as usual. It’s also an extremely tight fit if using a full ATX motherboard…but, it all did fit and wasn’t a huge problem at all.

With the cable management, there really isn’t anywhere to hide the power cables from the PSU, so routing them through to the back of the motherboard tray is the best you can hope for. To be fair though, the final result doesn’t look too bad at all. With the Thetis all black interior, and black power cables, the end result is perfectly acceptable to me.

The roof vent I mentioned earlier, is removed very easily by depressing two small clips from within the main chamber. This makes the connection of the I/O & USB cables very easy. The brackets here to affix additional fans work really well. I could have fitted a 240mm radiator here also if I wanted, although I would have to re-locate the USB 3.0 cable to the port on the side of the motherboard, as it would have interfered with the installation.

Given that the rear of the motherboard also has a glass side panel, you might want to spend some time ensuring the excess cables are nicely tied down. I didn’t bother personally, and the side panel still went back on with any trouble at all…even with the pretty chunky power cables that I was using on the BeQuiet PSU.

Finally, before I move onto my conclusions of the Raijintek Thetis, a quick word for the exhaust fan that comes included. It has an O-type LED feature, which looks great. In fact, it mirrors the look of the power button when illuminated! Is this a coincidence??? I’m going to say no…given the attention to detail that Raijintek have lavished on every inch of this case, I’m going to give them the credit of actually designing it to look this way.

Conclusion

If you have read through the whole review, it will come as no surprise whatsoever that I absolutely love the Raijintek Thetis. The quality of the materials used with its aluminium body & tempered glass panels, coupled with the stunning design, makes it an absolute winner.

Even given it compact size, building a full ATX system into it caused no major headaches at all…and I was using one of the biggest PSU’s on the market! There will be restrictions on the GPU size you use, but anything no bigger than 280mm and you will be fine.

The crowning glory is that the Raijintek Thetis costs less than £75 here in the UK. For this level of design & quality, in my eyes, that is superb value for money.

So now we come to the awards…the Raijintek Thetis it gets Gold, no surprise there I’m sure…but I’m also giving it my Editors Choice. I absolutely love the little Thetis, and as soon as this review is finished, I’m going to transplant my daughter’s gaming rig into it, just so that I can enjoy building in it again.

Buy from Overclockers UK: £74.99

Massive thanks to OcUK for sending the Raijintek Thetis in for review.