Thermaltake’s Overseer RX-I – a big case for big cooling

Unlike the Thermaltake full tower Chaser MK-I‘s more aggressive look which was obviously created for gamers, the Overseer RX-I is very similar in size, function, and design but with a much more conservative look that will fit anywhere.  We have been living with this handsome full-tower case for the past few months through three complete builds including high-end air-cooling and watercooling that allowed our Ivy Bridge Core i7-3770K to reach our 5.0GHz goal.

The Overseer RX-I has all of the features of high-end watercooling-friendly cases, including dust filters everywhere as seen in this professional photo imaged by Thermaltake.   As befits a well thought-out tower case, the interior is spacious and it is also nicely-painted black and accented with blue trim and blue fan LEDs. But it goes far above and beyond the basics, featuring an easily accessible external HDD/SSD dock right on the top of the case for the ultimate in convenience for daily use.

The Overseer RX-I is also priced thirty dollars less than the Chaser MK-I as it has single-color blue fan LEDs instead of variable tri-colors, and its side panels slide on in the traditional manner instead of using a swing-out panel.  The Overseer RX-I’s suggested price is $139.99 compared with the Chaser MK-I’s suggested selling price of $169.99.

You can find the RX-I at Newegg at time of writing shipped for $114.99 after $15 mail-in-rebate compared to the Chaser MK-I for $139.99 after a $15 mail-in-rebate.  In comparison, the smaller Thermaltake Element G oversized mid-tower, which we loved and reviewed here, is $140 plus $15 shipping at Newegg.

To its credit, the Overseer RX-I has taller feet than the Chaser MK-I and they are rubber-covered so they do not scratch surfaces.  Also, the Overseer’s bezels do not come off quite as easily when you try to move it.

Although the Overseer is very slightly smaller than the Chaser, the fans are the same size and the airflow is the same; a slight variation being that the Chaser’s front fan is inside the chassis itself, while the Overseer’s is outside the chassis, hidden by the front panel.    Although the Overseer has a less complex control panel than the Chaser, each set up is nearly identically between the two cases and a system builder can use the same cooling and expect similar results.

The Overseer RX-I has superb airflow partly thanks to 3 large fans, with options to install more for extreme hardware. In an optional watercooled configuration as tested and as pictured by Thermaltake’s own professionally rendered image above, there are 200mm each front intake and top exhaust fans, and a 140mm rear exhaust fan.  There is no side case fan included although an optional 200mm Thermaltake fan is available for purchase.

We received an Overseer RX-I from Thermaltake a few months ago and we have been using it extensively with our flagship Ivy Bridge system.  We have evaluated Noctua’s flagship CPU air cooler as well as watercooling with three Z77 motherboards – from a mATX Gigabyte board to a full-sized ECS board and finally to an oversize z77 EVGA FTW ATX plus motherboard that easily accomodates Quad-SLI. 

Since we are extreme, we originally tested the Chaser MK-I tower with our overclocked FX-8150 at 4.6GHz and HD 6970-X3 Tri-Fire (HD 6970+HD 6990 with all three GPUs at 880/1375MHz) with only its stock 3 case fans running to keep an extreme system cool, and it passed!  We also tested further by adding another HD 6970 for QuadFire-X4 and suggested that the optional 200mm side case fan would be a good idea for 24/7 use.

The Overseer RX-I most recently kept our GTX 680 and GTX 690 running cool as we pushed the overclock on our Core i7-3770K to 5.0GHz with Thermaltake’s Water2.0 Pro!  The Thermaltake Overseer RX-I will easily accommodate the largest graphics cards including the reference version of the HD 6990, to over 12 inches.

The aim of Thermaltake is to give their consumers value and functionality with a spacious “everything included” full tower.  It features a large scratch-resistant plastic window as well as a mesh side panel that shows off its all-black interior and your hardware. The Overseer RX-I boasts much larger dimensions than any mid tower case and we found it really easy to fit our hands around the hardware that we installed inside.

Why Thermaltake?

Thermaltake considers themselves to be a relatively “new” company that formed in 1999 although that is more than twenty two years ago. They have been at the forefront of creating new and exciting products since the time where most computer users were provided with little to no choices for components that may seem irrelevant, but in reality are crucial to the performance of a PC. Their Chaser MK-I case is part of the Thermaltake philosophy of what they call, Key 3 Spirit Initiative of Case, Cooler and Power Supply which is based on quality, performance and reliability.

Key 3 Spirit initiative is based on the strength and know-how that Thermaltake has mastered through innovation and continuous research & development that encompasses crucial components of a personal computer responsible for thermal management.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then the following image conveys Thermaltake’s dedication to their customers.

Now that we know about Thermaltake’s philosophy, let’s see how it is expressed in their Overseer RX-I case.  Besides aesthetics, we are concerned with the functionality of the case and the ease with with we can build a system.  The price is very good for a case of this size and features.