Date: July 22nd, 2008
Article by: Jackie Mueller (Hardware Reviewer)
Edited by: Nathan Glentworth (Owner / Head Editor)
Product was submitted by: Thermaltake USA
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PRODUCT PICTORIAL AND WALKTHROUGH
The back half of the top is well ventilated to help allow warm air to escape out. The outer edges have a raised “scoop” like plastic piece that is tempting to use as a carrying handle, but it's not quite sturdy enough to be used as one.
The entire side panel is windowed with the majority of it taken up by a 230mm blue LED intake fan. It is about an inch thick so plan accordingly if you will be using a really tall CPU cooler with this case. Its massive size and positioning means it should provide airflow directly to video cards and motherboard chipsets, which is always a good thing.
Thermaltake opted for an interesting vent pattern for the side fan. Instead of using a typical mesh ventilation system there are wide horizontal intake slots instead. Seems to me like this would be an invitation to let lots of dust inside, but long term use will tell for sure.
A PSU cutout, I/O shield, 120mm exhaust fan, and 7 expansion slots are found on the back. One thing I was surprised to find absent were holes for liquid cooling systems. A lot of modern cases are including pre-drilled holes on cases to allow an external LCS, but Thermaltake chose not to include them on this particular model.
Four rubber feet on the bottom provide adequate stability and won't leave scratches on a desk. The feet are attached to thick plastic pieces that provide additional support so the case doesn't have to rely on just the small rubber pieces.
The interior is spacious for a mid-tower with room for plenty of optical and hard drives. There's even a slot for a 3.5” drive which I was pleased to see, because you never know when you might need one. Motherboard connectors are neatly tied together and long enough to reach outside of the case for connections to be made before the board is installed.
There are more features to go over, but I'll save that for the next part of the review. Let's install some hardware and continue to check out the interior.
