Interior Impressions


A word of warning before you open the side door of this case: it is on a hair-thin trigger and it will belt you one in the face, knee or groin if you are not careful. This is because the door opens via a hydraulic piston that is only held in check by the thumb screws and when they are removed, make sure you hold it in place or the door will say hello in a nasty way.

When the door first opens with a release of air your think to yourself “cool” but when you have to brace the door over and over again for fear of it flinging itself open, it gets a bit annoying. However, this is one of the more unique features you will likely see on a case so it is unfortunate that it is kept on the inside where no one will ever see it.


Here is a little better look at the interior of the Sword M. One thing that I can say about this case is that it has acres of interior space and will easily fit even the longest graphics card on the market without a problem. Thermaltake also breaks with tradition here by powder coating the entire interior a matte black finish with a few touches of silver on the drive cages. Overall, the interior is extremely well designed and just oozes class.

However, the wires for the fans provided a bit of an issue for me. Since there are seven (yes, seven) included fans, it would have been nice for Thermaltake to provide us with something a little different other than the generic red and black wiring hooked up to a Molex connector. If you remember our Gigabyte Aurora 570 review, there was a special connector included where you could daisy-chain three fans together so they plugged into one motherboard header. It was an elegant and simple solution which could have been included here as well.



The next picture illustrates two major issues I have with the Sword M and both of them should have been addressed before the release of this case. First of all there is the ungodly number of generic beige cables used for the front connector panel I/O ports. Being beige, they completely clash with the classy black interior of the case and coupled with the rainbow of colors presented by the power, reset and LED wires for the front panel they stand out like a sore thumb.

Then there is the issue of the number of hard drives which can be installed into the Sword M. While the hard drive cage and its accompanying 120mm fan can be conveniently removed via a quartet of thumb screws, having a mere three areas to install drives is a definite no-no on a high end case.


Inside of the two front doors there are helpful instructions regarding the opening of the other doors on the Sword M in addition to a little message from the lead designer in charge its design. Looks like Thermaltake’s design tam have some pretty lofty expectations for their flagship enclosure.


One of the features I love about this enclosure is the numerous holes which were placed in strategic locations for zip-ties and other fasteners. These really come in handy since as you will see later, the Sword M provides next to no wire routing routes.


All of your expansion cards (GPUs, sound cards, etc.) are held in place by an easy to use plastic clamp system. While they blend right into the overall design, the clamps themselves are a bit flimsy and since they are made out of plastic, problems with cracking may arise after repeated and high impact usage.

With the back door open we can see the two 120mm exhaust fans as well as the water cooling pump and reservoir. Closer to the top there is also a bracket for the power supply. What struck me as being the oddest feature of this case is that there is no need for a motherboard backplate since there really is not “back” to the Sword M per se.


You may have noticed in some of our last pictures that there is a pair of small aluminum pull tabs at the back of the Sword M. Well, once both are pulled the case lets out a mighty hiss of air and…


The entire top portion of the case is lifted by a pair of hydraulic pistons.


Once the top is lifted, you have access to the two pre-installed 120mm exhaust fans as well as mounting locations for a third fan. Even though the space is pretty tight, it is possible to easily uninstall the two top fans and replace them with something more to your liking. According to Thermaltake, it is also possible to mount some triple fan radiators up here as well.


Yes the Sword M does come with a motherboard tray but installing and uninstalling it is a bit of a pain since it is held on by eight tiny screws. Nonetheless, having a motherboard tray is definitely a welcome addition to any enclosure no matter which way you cut it. Here we can also see that since the tray is mounted so close to the side panel there really isn’t any room for cable routing other than behind the drive bays.