Thermaltake Level 20 NT ARGB

The latest Level 20 case merges RGB excess with subtle styling.

The most striking thing about the case on first blush is its impressive cooling.

Whenyou see Thermaltake’s new case in action, full of slick PC hardware and lit up like some frame-rate spewing Xmas tree, you’d think you’re looking at a very high-end case that only the most dedicated enthusiast could afford to build into. It’s got a lot higher-end bells and whistles, but is paired back where it counts, meaning this striking ATX chassis brings the looks, while still only costing $119.

The most striking thing about the case on first blush is its impressive cooling. Out of the box the Level 20 MT ARGB boasts three 120mm intake fans and a 120mm exhaust. The front fans are about as blinged as you can get, featuring addressable RGB lighting that’s designed to work with lighting software from Asus, Gigabyte, and MSI – they all plug into a small PCB on the back of the motherboard plate, which in turn plugs into the motherboard. The rear fan also plugs into this, but is detached out of the box to make mobo installation a bit easier. All this lighting is controlled by a single button on the top panel IO – you can cycle through the case’s own lighting patterns, or with a longer click hand it over to software control.

Tempered glass panels are all the rage these days, and Thermaltake’s plonked two on the MT. Not only do you get a tempered glass sidepanel, which is a basically one big, black-lined slab with a metal from on each side, but the front panel features a tempered glass plate as well. There are subtle intake vents on either side of this panel, but overall it really lets the RGB fans shine. There’s cool stuff everywhere – the top panel features magnetically attached mesh filter, while on the non-windowed panel there’s a fine series of cutouts protecting another magnetic mesh panel.

The MT offers excellent stock airflow, enough to keep the case at a positive air pressure while powered up, and help keep dust out of the system, and you can put more fans on the top and sidepanels if you really need them. If you don’t like relying on air-cooling, there’s room for radiators on the front and side panels, up to 360mm and 240mm respectively.

To help with cable management there’s a shroud cover the bottom of the case, with a cut out just large enough to show a portion of the PSU. This is also where a hidden drive caddy sits, with room for two 3.5in or 2.5in drives, and there’s a bracket for another SSD bracket behind the motherboard plate. There’s also an SSD bracket sitting on top the shroud, and both SSD brackets are removable for easy installation.

There’s also series of hexagonal cutouts in the right-hand side of the motherboard tray, which boosts either case airflow or supports the aforementioned 240mm radiator. And it’s quite attractive, to boot!

About the only criticism – and I had to reach for it – I could make is that there’s not a huge amount amount of space behind the motherboard tray. That’s small beer, really; for the price you’re paying the Level 20 MT ARGB has more than enough going to for it.