Thermaltake Divider 500 TG Air Snow Case Review

Thermaltake is no stranger to the Play3r.net website, so it won’t shock you to see that another one of their cases is on deck for review. Today’s review of the Divider 500 TG Air Snow (also available in black) brings one of their more unique case ideas to the table. Let’s take a closer look…

Thermaltake Divider 500 TG Air Snow Case: Specifications

Thermaltake Divider 500 TG Air Snow Case: Unboxing & Closer Look

The case and accessories arrived safe and sound in a cardboard box with black print, which is common with many other cases in the Thermaltake range. The case itself is surrounded by polystyrene to ensure it was kept safe from knocks and bumps.

The front panel has airflow-optimised cut-outs down the whole panel in the shape of the Thermaltake T which is a nice touch, this indicates that airflow is one of the priorities here. Removing the panel reveals a large white dust filter which runs the entire length of the panel. It is held in with clips in the base and magnets at the top making it easily removable. One of the two included 120mm fans are found here too, you can spot the other in the rear of the case.

The right side panel immediately shows us the highlight of the Divider range with a side panel that is, well, divided. With half a tempered glass panel and a solid panel on the other. Albeit with an air-filtered indentation to allow air to be drawn in through it.

The left side panel is again divided out of the box, with another half of tempered glass and a solid side panel mirroring the right side. The glass on this side is intended to show off optional extras such as the pump-res combo block Thermaltake offers if whole loop water cooling in this case tickles your fancy.

The rear is a standard affair, but along with many other Thermaltake cases, the PCI slots can be rotated 90 degrees should you wish to horizontally mount the GPU. Another nice touch.

Thermaltake also includes a couple of additional side panel halves inside the packaging.

So if you were hoping to have more traditional-looking side panels, Thermaltake also have you covered here with the Divider 500 TG Air.

The case floor has 4 big feet which keep it well elevated off the floor. It also has a large removable air filter which runs almost the entire length.

The roof of the case also has a removable panel which is, like the front panel, completely covered with the Thermaltake T logo cut-outs which again highlight a clear path for airflow. The top panel also has a large white dust filter which covers the length but is removable by sliding it in and out of the panel as shown.
The IO on the top of the case features a reset button, and separate 3.5mm headphone and microphone jacks. The power button is covered by a LED ring. The LED ring is white in colour with an additional red LED which shows hard drive activity, two USB 3.0 ports and a Type-C connector round up the IO.

The relevant manuals as well as the screws, cable ties, sticky reusable cable ties, BIOS speaker, and horizontal GPU mount are included inside the case.

Taking a look internally: the floor has a full cover PSU shroud. This goes the length of the floor but has a cut-out at the front to fit fans and radiators all the way down to the floor.
The rear has included a 120mm fan alongside the IO cut-out and 7 PCI slots. The motherboard tray can mount ATX, M-ATX and ITX motherboards and has a large cut-out for easy CPU cooler black plate installation. At the top there are 3 big cut-outs for easy cable management, and on the right side, there is a small cut-out on the top with 2 much larger cut-outs which have rubber grommets on them.
To the right of that, there is a plate where you can mount two 2.5″ SSD. This plate can be removed to mount optional extras, or another two 120mm fans if you wanted to make the most of the included ventilated spare panel.

Taking a look at the rear, we see the hard drive mount at the bottom of the case. Here both 3.5″ and 2.5″ can be mounted onto the plastic trays, two in total. Behind the motherboard tray, there is a good amount of space (about an inch or 2.54cm) which is plenty for cable management. The motherboard rear panel also includes an additional two 2.5″ SSD trays.
IO cables included with the Divider 500 TG Air Snow are power, reset and LED (power and HDD indicator) connectors, HD Audio, USB 3.0 connector and a USB 3.2 (Gen2) Type-C connector.

Thermaltake Divider 500 TG Air Snow Case: The Build

Building in the Divider 500 TG Air Snow was a breeze. Annoyingly though the Thermaltake TOUGHLIQUID Ultra 360 which I decided to use in this case couldn’t be mounted with the fans in a push configuration due to the length of the screws, which is a massive oversight on the part of Thermaltake as far as I’m concerned. Luckily, the pull configuration worked out fine though and a perk of having it like this is that the radiator will be much easier to clean.

Cable management cut-outs are positioned on the bottom and top in the ideal locations making cable management a breeze.

The roof supports two 120mm or 140mm fans and matching radiators. So if you have a 240mm or 280mm AIO you can mount it on the roof of the case.

Taking a look at the front and we can see the TOUGHLIQUID Ultra 360 fills up the entire front panel once mounted. It’s also possible to mount three 120mm fans or two 140mm fans in this location.
The rear of the case is in the traditional layout with the motherboard IO and GPU in place. The PSU is also mounted to the plate at the bottom. Odd then that there is a small gap between said plate and the case itself, it looks like the plate is too small here.

Taking a look at the rear panel and we can see the cable management options. I opted to use as many of the sticky cable ties here to minimise the use of single-use plastic. Like many, we are trying to do our part for the environment as well as encourage all of you to do yours.

It’s great that there is a fair amount of space in the rear to easily route and store the cables with no panel bulge at all.

A final look with the panels in place. The lower half on the left attaches “traditionally” by sliding onto the bottom rail and screwing into the rear. The top half on the right side attaches using push pins. This is mirrored on the rear panel, making them all very easy and toolless to install.

Thermaltake Divider 500 TG Air Snow Case: The Verdict

Building in the case was very simple and easy. It follows a traditional case layout internally and there was plenty of space which made installing components inside it a good, simple experience. You get cut-outs in expected locations making cable management a breeze even with the extra cabling that comes with using an AIO as we did in this review. With everything tucked away tidily the overall aesthetic of the build is very nice. The other thing we like is the choice to rotate the rear PCI-e IO should you wish to vertically mount the GPU, especially as Thermaltake has included the GPU riser support bracket in the box. This will make showing off your nice expensive GPU easy to do too! [Though you will still need a riser cable.]

The rear panel also had plenty of space to route cables behind the tray, which is something Thermaltake are on the ball with, having plenty of experience. There’s also a lot of room in the bottom section of the case under the PSU cover, which makes mounting 2.5″ and 3.5″ hard drives as well as the power supply easy.

Touching on aesthetics, the Divider 500 TG Air Snow is a fine-looking case overall, and with black and white (or in this case “snow”) there are yet more options for colour choices both internally, with parts choices, and externally.

It’s clear that the case has been designed for airflow through the front and top panels, with the panels being covered in Thermaltake’s T logo design used as the cut-outs themselves. A nice aesthetic and one that will and did help with thermals as it allows plenty of airflow in and out of the case, via the roof.

That being said, the rear of the case is missing the same treatment with large parts being solid instead of cut-out which is impeding airflow. Though, it’s clear that Thermaltake has reused the internal case they use for many other case models and added external panels on top, which is common and might explain the gap at the top of the PSU plate, for example. Still, we’d like to see the rear panel get some airflow treatment in a future revision to complete the look and aid in cooling.

Top panel IO is a typical affair here too, which ticks all the boxes. With two USB3.0 Type-A ports and a single USB3.2×2 Type-C, separate headphone and microphone jacks, and a power and reset button.

Another unique design choice for the Divider series is the use of symmetrical swappable panels, and we like that Thermaltake gives you 2 additional panels so you can choose how the case looks. This is a feature you’ll like or not and is also probably what makes you decide to purchase it. We opted for a more traditional glass on the front solid panel on the rear aesthetic in the end as this case is becoming our new CPU cooler test bench!

Though that being said, the glass panel on the rear would look really good should whole loop water-cooling tickle your fancy along with their Pacific DP100-D5 Plus distro plate, as an example. It opens a range of possibilities, something we won’t be exploring in this review, however.

The asking price of around £150, at the time of the review, puts this case on the more expensive side. But once you factor in the unique design and overall aesthetic as well as the extra panels, the price is justified.

Overall, the Thermaltake Divider 500 TG Air Snow case is an attractive, fairly priced offering with unique external design offerings which certainly make it worthy of your consideration.

A big thank you to Thermaltake for sending the Divider 500 TG Air Snow for today’s review.

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