Key Features Regular 5.25" Bays 7 Regular External 3.5" Bays 1 Motherboard I/O Expansion Slots Up to 10 Regular 3.5" Bays 7 Warranty 3 Years Enclosure Color Silver Motherboard Supported up to Form Factor 12" x 9.6" (ATX), 9.6" x 9.6" (Micro ATX) , 12" x 13" (Extend ATX) Chassis Type Super Tower Front Ports E-SATA connector, USB 2.0 x 4, IEEE 1394 Firewire, HD-Audio Weight 37 lbs Dimensions WxDxH 245 x 625 x 600 mm Detail Specifications Features -- Optimized design for both liquid cooling and air cooling system -- Sliding hood with toolbox on top. (Upgradable to LCS.) -- 10 PCI slots design for quad-graphic card configuration -- Tool free design for 5.25" device and PCI slot. -- Sliding motherboard tray -- Independent thermal management for CPU, VGA & HDD. -- Cable management system for better cable routing and internal air flow -- Evolutionary adjustable PSU supporting bridge -- MicroATX, ATX, Extend-ATX supported Specifications Case Type -- Super Tower Side Panel -- Transparent window Sliding Motherboard Tray -- Yes Cable Management -- Yes Sliding hood -- Yes Adjustable PSU bridge -- Yes Material -- Front door Aluminum/ Chassis 1.0mm SECCCustomer Review: Case for the ages with a couple of issues
I searched high and low for a case (chassis) to house my monster pc build and fell in love with this one at first sight. After doing a little research and price comparing, I decided that Amazon would be the best place to buy the case.. or so I thought. The case arrived via Amazon Prime's 2-day shipping and I discovered that due to it's size, Amazon doesnt actually pack the case in a shipping box and instead, just attaches shipping labels on the product's actual box, which automatically puts the manufacturer's packaging procedure to the test against all of those postmen and UPS folks that care more about doing something fast than taking care of the package. Needless to say, the box took a bit of a beating and the clear plastic side panel had a small crack. Although I considered sending the case back, I felt that it would be a crapshoot with Amazon to receive another in similar or better condition and with that small crack being the only apparent shipping damage, I elected to suck it up and keep it. Had I been able to find it physically anywhere in the greater Los Angeles area at a similar price or if it wouldnt have cost $100 more to buy it direct from the manufacturer, I would have undoubtedly sent it back. But, regardless, the shipping issue is more of an Amazon issue and not the case itself and I am not going to ding the case's rating for how it's shipped since it doesnt get to choose how it arrives. People just need to be informed as to how it will ship if purchased from here. So anyway, lets get to the nitty gritty and talk about the case. Again, the case is big.. insanely big.. like over two feet tall big. And it's not light, so dont think that lifting it with one hand or walking with it under your arm is going to happen. Forget it. Any significant movement of it will require two hands, a strong back and some delicate care - and thats BEFORE you start putting components inside of it. The good thing is the case's box has two built-in handle holes, so it can be carried that way, although I think that will only work when you first get it before it's unpacked and ready to be used. Once you get the case to where you want it to be for your component install, you will find that the case is VERY EASY to navigate. Both side panels are easily removed with two large screws each holding them into place that can be done/undone by hand. Additionally, the side panels have a release latch mechanism that can be locked via an attached security key that will prevent any tampering, spare burglary when someone attempts takes the whole thing (if they think its worth lifting). But even with that extreme circumstance, the mechanism lock will force anyone to pretty much break the case to open it. Back to the navigation, once the side panels are open, the case is your oyster. The power supply has its own section that has two steel rails and a sliding piece to firmly mount it into place. The sliding piece allows any sized power supply to be used, fits snuggly behind it and is then locked into place via screws. I have a 1000W power supply that is maybe the gerenal size of a large brick and it fits perfectly. Any sized motherboard will mount to the case, which the manual outlines fairly well. It also includes a large abdunance of screws and accessories to do the job with no issues, so you wont have to worry about impromptu trips to a computer or electronics store to purchase extra. The small back panel that houses the fixture associated with the motherboard's input/output can be pushed out easily and replaced with the one that comes with your motherboard, although I didnt think it was easy at first. But that could be becuz intially, I was more interested in not breaking anything than getting the panel out. Along those same lines, there are about 10 pci slot covers in the back of the case. However, they do not pop out as easy as the manual would have you believe and the edges are a tad sharper than you would think. My brother found that out the hard way when he cut himself while popping out of one the covers during the graphics card installation. That sucked, although it wasnt a bad cut and nothing got bloody. Needless to say, you should never draw blood when putting together a computer. The hard drive cage is probably the easiest one I've ever dealt with. It comes out very simple with the removal of a few screws and can house up to five HDs. Each one simply slides in and locks into place - no screws needed at all. Best of all, the cage makes the hard drives position sideways into the case, so there isnt any awkward hand positioning when trying to add/remove drives or connect cables while trying to avoid hitting the board. There are also two additional hard drive cages located at the bottom of the case, although they can also be used for other items since they dont have the slide/lock system the primary cage does (more on what else could go there in a second). There are eleven drive bays, although realistically, you can only use six or seven, depending on the size of your components (Im not using the first one due to the wires that connect the usb/firewire/power button panel at the case's top being present). Each of the usable bays has the same locking system as the hard drive cage, although cd-roms felt a little less sturdy once in place, in which I used one small screw on each side to fully secure them to my liking. The case also comes with a spare parts drawer than can be slid into one of the bays. It also felt a little unsecure (and I mean only a little), but since I'd be putting very small items and not cds, dvds or bds into it, fully securing it wasnt that big of a deal. The drive bay covers come off very easily with a simple open and pull motion and are replaced just as easy with the same motion in reverse. However, if youre not careful and dont pay attention to what youre doing, you WILL break them since theyre plastic for the most part. The drive bays are protected/somewhat covered by two long pieces of steel that extend down the entire front of the case (one on each side) and open and shut like doors. You cannot open any of your cd rom drives without first opening these fixtures, which are held in place by small magnets. While some would think that their existance is in excess, I actually like them, as it gives the case a snazzy look and feel. The case has three fans built inside. One is mounted at the bottom of the front of the case, directly in front of the hard drive cage. Another is mounted in the back of the case, next to the motherboard output panel. The third, which is kind of large is mounted to the clear plastic side panel. All work fine and keep the case very cool. While theyre not included, the case allows for four more fans that can be mounted in the two additional hard drive cages that were just mentioned. Last, the outside top front of the case features the power button, four usb connections, a firewire connection and an esata connection, all of which have built-in wires that allow connection to the motherboard. They work fine, although Im not one to really use them full time. The very top of the case also has an additional storage area that is built into the case and does not have to be installed. While I absolutely love the case, when installing my components, I felt like the case had been used previously. This was due to seeing very slight scratch marks from screws and the power supply sliding panel. It just felt like I wasnt the first person to use it and it had been used before. Not like someone bought it, built their pc, didnt like the outcome and then returned it, but like Thermaltake used it for a specific purpose (maybe testing, maybe for a showcase) and then made sure there wasnt any major wear and tear or damage and packaged it for retail sale. Due to the case's box stating that this line of chassis was used in a 2007 gaming competition, I was feeling like my particular case might have been used in similar fashion when it was first built. Due to its versatility with components and even cooling options (liquid cooling can be utlized, although nothing outside of some plastic mounting parts are included), its a case that is well worth its price and weight. If youre looking for a bigger case for gaming purposes, you cant go wrong with this one. Just hope it ships ok, wasnt used for anything before you got it and you dont hurt yourself when putting your pc together.
Customer Review: well designed case
I purchased this case due to previous experience with Thermaltake cases and was not disappointed as this case surpassed my expectation on build quality and design. The cable management, removable panels on both sides, slide-out mobo tray and snap-in drive slots are simply the thing when assembling a build-your-own workstation. This is also one of the few cases (at this time) that supports the new SSI EEB motherboards. This case was used to build a dual Xeon Intel 5500 series workstation (2 quad core CPUs). Two of the PCI-E slots were used for a Radeon HD 4850 and Soundblaster X-Fi Titanium; two drive bays were installed with a 150GB Velociraptor hard drive (for the OS and applications) and a 1TB Seagate hard drive (for data). One of the optical drive bays was used for an HP DVD-RW drive. I do have a negative comment on the motherboard mounting holes; for the Tyan mobo I used in this project, some mounting pillar skrew holes were absent. I needed to mark and drill three additional holes to mount the mobo properly (very easily done due to aluminum construction of the tray). Again, this build used an SSI EEB mobo that just hit the market to support the new Intel dual quad-core Xeon 5500 series processors. I am very pleased with the design and build quality of this aluminum case and would recommend it to anyone building a high end workstation or server. I would also recommend purchasing the silver aluninum version, rather than the black steel version of this case.
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