Date: April 13th, 2006
Article by: Joe Anderson (Hardware Reviewer)
Edited by: Nathan Glentworth (Owner / Head Editor)
Product was submitted by: Thermaltake
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PRODUCT PICTORIAL AND WALKTHROUGH
Removal of the bay covers, while not difficult, is not very intuitive. A novice would probably have difficulty getting these out without breaking something and I would have liked to see this mentioned in the manual. Like the front panel, the bay covers are made of black plastic with foam filter inserts and covered with black aluminum mesh. The front of the chassis itself has several interesting features that we'll go over in detail during installation.
With the side panel removed, you can see that there are several nice features here, as well. The interior is very well laid out and features two included 120mm fans, a side facing hard drive cage and mostly tool-free installation. There is no removable motherboard tray, but the Matrix's interior is fairly roomy. Removal of the three screws indicated by red arrows in the above photo allows the cross brace to be taken out of the case, easing installation immensely.
The rails for installing up to four 5.25 and three 3.5 inch drives in the Matrix VX are housed in these two plastic trays that fit into the hard drive cage. While storing the accessories in the case is always a good idea, it also takes up two of the three available spots for HDDs in the cage. Another hard drive mount is visible on top of the cage and a fifth mount is located near the top of the case. The included 120mm LED case fan blows air across the cage-mounted drives and, like the rear exhaust fan, receives power via a 4-pin molex pass-through connector.
One of Thermaltake's trademark black and orange 120mm fans exhausts warm air from the case. Like the front intake fan, this one lives in a plastic bracket which facilitates fan removal/replacement without breaking out the screwdriver. The yellow and black bundle of wire just above the fan is for the case intrusion alarm, should your motherboard support this feature. If not, the switch can easily be removed from the case.
The PCI cards are secured with an updated system from Thermaltake. Flipping the lever up and pulling it out allows the replaceable slot cover to be removed and an expansion card to be inserted. To lock it into place, push the lever in and down. This system works very well, but some cards that use more than one slot may not be compatible with this system. In this case, taking out three screws allows the tool free mechanism to be removed and the expansion cards can be secured in the conventional manner.
The left side panel has a large acrylic window and, being aluminum, is a bit delicate and should be handled with care.
A cutout for ventilation is integrated into the handle design, but no fan attachment features are provided. Plastic rivets secure the window to the panel and two thumbscrews attach the panel to the chassis from the rear.
The rear of the Matrix VX is pretty standard fare, with the exception of the fan grille and its large open area for airflow. No power supply is included as most users prefer to choose a PSU that suits their particular needs and a quality PSU could easily double the cost of the case. The right side panel is quite plain and, as we'll see in the next section, it's not necessary to remove this panel to do an install in the Matrix VX. The case is painted in a matte silver finish that actually has a subtle texture when you run your hand over it. While not shiny in the least, the finish is quite durable and doesn't show fingerprints.
Front panel connectors are clearly labeled and the speaker is pre-installed.
The audio and USB connectors are clearly marked as well, but the FireWire connector has no markings and the manual is quite vague about the wiring. Most motherboards nowadays are standard with respect to 1394 pinheader arrangement, but it would be nice to have more complete information, especially for the novice builder.
