Date: August 25th, 2005
Article by: Joe Anderson (Hardware Reviewer)
Edited by: Nathan Glentworth (Owner / Head Editor)
Product was submitted by: Thermaltake
<--SHOP FOR A THERMALTAKE TENOR DESIGNER HOME THEATER ATX COMPUTER CASE IN NORTH AMERICA
<--SHOP FOR A THERMALTAKE TENOR DESIGNER HOME THEATER ATX COMPUTER CASE IN EUROPE
PRODUCT SPECIFICATIONS & COMPOSITION (cont'd)
After removing the packing materials you’ll see a piece of masking tape holding the doors in place during shipping. Despite the less than pristine condition of the carton, the Tenor arrived unscathed and in excellent condition.
Taking a styling cue from its big brother, the Thermaltake Tsunami, the Tenor chassis has a very appealing shape and is available in black as well as silver.
While the Tenor is not a small form factor chassis, Thermaltake has packed a lot of features into a relatively small package. Three front accessible 5.25-inch bays and two 3.5-inch “floppy” bays along with three 3.5-inch internal bays give the consumer a lot of freedom when choosing hardware. There is room in the Tenor for two optical drives, four hard drives and a floppy! There is also room for a standard ATX power supply and a full sized ATX motherboard. Constructed of 1mm steel, the chassis with its plastic and aluminum bezel weighs in at a hefty 18.7 pounds. As we’ll see, this is a good thing.
After a gentle push, the right portion of the aluminum panel glides open via two geared dampening mechanisms at the hinge area. Two small, black plastic latches at the top secure and release the door. While both of these features work well, I fear for their longevity. Three 5.25-inch, and two vertical 3.5-inch bays are hidden behind the door. The manual clearly states that installing an optical drive in the lowest bay is not recommended, as it will probably interfere with the motherboard.
A smaller door with a similar latch gives access to the bay that you can’t install a drive into. I was puzzled by this, but after using the Tenor for a while, I thought up several uses for this feature, which we’ll discuss later on.
The highly polished divider between the door and the rest of the front panel provided my associate, Mr. Bones, with an opportunity to gaze at his own reflection. Mr. B is very vain. As we’ll see a little later, he’s not the sharpest tool in the shed either.
