Thermaltake Retro 360 TG review – retro PC case that won't break the bank

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They say fashion has a habit of repeating itself. What was once deemed gauche and detestable by one generation becomes the next's "big thing". Yep, like your grandad's long socks to Gen Z, and skinny jeans to Millennials, the big beige retro rig has landed square and center on our desks again, at the forefront of a manufacturing boom across the PC gaming sector, desperate to take its spot at the top of the best PC cases list across the world (yeah, I'm subtle).

Thermaltake's Retro 360 TG case is exactly that. Like the Silverstone FLP02 I reviewed earlier in the year, it looks to encapsulate that late 80s early 90s PC build nostalgia, complete with beige panels, and a touch of modernity to make your pc building endeavors at least somewhat more comfortable than it'd have been in a battered and bruised second-hand eBay purchase.

The good news is the Retro 360 TG is markedly cheaper than that Silverstone offering, coming in at a far lower price of around $92 or £90, depending on where you shop. For that, you get a super lightweight plastic chassis, with a steel frame, complete with easy access panels, and a full tempered glass side panel as well.

Hardware compatibility across the board is generally pretty good. You've got support for 360mm rads in both the top and the side of the case, and you can add an additional six 120mm fans total, along the floor of the PSU shroud, up the front intake, and on the rear as well.

Thermaltake Retro 360 TG specs

(Image credit: Future) Form factor: Mid-tower

Dimensions: 23.5 × 49.3 × 46.7 cm

Motherboard support: ATX, M-ATX, ITX

Expansion slots: 7

Front IO: 1x USB-C (3.2 Gen 2), 1x USB-A (3.0), 1x HD Audio, Power, Reset

Total fan support: 12

Fan count: 2x 120mm/140mm FRONT 3x120mm or 2x140mm TOP, 3x 120mm SIDE, 1x120mm REAR, 3x 120mm BOTTOM

Radiator support: Up to 360mm TOP & SIDE

Graphics card support: 400 mm length

Storage: 2x 2.5-inch; 1x 3.5-inch

PSU support: ATX

Weight: 7.48 kg

Price: $90 /£92

It does come with two fairly mediocre 120mm DC fans as standard. One in the front and one in the rear, but they're not that exciting. Certainly not quite at the same caliber as those found in the FLP02.

Speed round, though. What's worse than two poorly calibrated DC fans? Not having access to good intake, that's what. Because, yep. Although the side, the roof, and the rear are fairly well ventilated (the roof even touting a magnetic, removable dust cover), the front is frankly a nightmare. The slatted white ventilation built into that plastic fascia restricts airflow quite heavily as it is, but there's also a healthy dose of mesh inside of it glued in place, and non-removable by design, limiting access further for whatever fans you do decide to install here. Not good.

Future Future Speaking of the front panel, it's entirely fake too. Something that, for some reason, I find particularly frustrating. In the case of the FLP02, it had full compatibility for 5.25-inch drive bays, with the housing and support internally there as well. The 360 TG mimics that mildly with a removable "disk drive" cutout, which you can replace with a 6-inch LCD screen (that Thermaltake sells separately), and then an entirely fake floppy drive that sits in situ just below. That, however, is fully molded into the panel itself, and non-removable. Complete with fake non-pressy button. That obviously, I tried to press.

Inside, it's a fairly basic affair too. You've got a motherboard tray with BTF support and plenty of cutouts for cables, and a PSU shroud, well ventilated too, and, well yeah, not much else. There's no cable grommets or clever engineering to hide your wires, it's all just bare metal and gaping holes until you get your motherboard into position.

Future Future Future Future Future Not a lot of thought has been given to those front fans either, as there's no logical way of routing the cables anywhere where you can hide them without them being on display. During my testing with the build process, I had to literally strap the single front fan's cable to the chassis with the included clear cable ties to keep it at least somewhat neat. Given the 360 TG has a window, this should've been managed far better than that. We're not going that retro that we're just trailing cables across the interior of the space after all, certainly not with that pristine window showing off everything inside.

Cable management around the back is limited too. There's no channeling or plastic covers, or anything outside a plethora of cable tie-down points. That's wild, given all of the front I/O cables are flat white variants as well. Like, someone somewhere purposely decided that pretty front I/O cables were more important than actual cable management solutions, and I just can't get my head around that.

(Image credit: Future) Buy if...

✅ You want to be able to see your hardware in your retro dream machine: It absolutely nails that beige-throwback feel, while sidling on into your wallet at just under $100. Plus the tempered glass panel gives you a lot to look at.

Don't buy if...

❌ You're after a retro feel with a modern vibe: Although it might look the part, there's little in the way of modern tech outside of the internal layout. No fan controller, no anti-sag bracket, and minimal modern cable management solutions.

So yeah, no anti-sag bracket, no hard drive cages, no fan controllers, no clever cable management solutions, just a few ties and some velcro strapping, along with some plain silver screws, and that's all she wrote. There ain't a whole lot to talk about that's for sure.

I get it, I sound like I'm wailing on it for the sake of it, but when you have such fierce competition in this industry right now, particularly in the budget segment with the likes of Phanteks and its XT V3 line, and Corsair, and everyone else under the sun delivering banger after banger at even more affordable price points, it's hard to let these design decisions just sail on by without critique.

The good news is, once you've built in it, it does look bloody slick. The mid-range ATX machine I slapped together in this really pops, particularly with the pink RGB, and I can almost forgo the fake front fascia elements to an extent when I forget about them. Combine that with that comfortable sub $100 price point, and it's well worth considering if you don't want to spend the big bucks on something like the FLP02. But, in many ways, the 360 TG feels like this Frankenstein's monster, blurring the lines between modern design and retro styling, yet without enough finesse to make either department really pop.