X-bit labs

Roundup: Six System Cases from Thermaltake (page 8)

Category: Other

by Vasily Melnik

[ 09/12/2005 | 03:35 PM ]

To make the whole assembly process a little easier the manufacturer put braces on the cables and provided screw-less fastening of the expansion cards (you can see it well in the snapshots above, near the connectors of the fan-speed controllers).

The fastening clip for the expansion cards isn’t quite perfect, however. It is removed for all the cards at once, so if you have brackets with peripheral ports, they are likely to fall out of their sockets as you do so. If you don’t like that, try removing this clip altogether and fasten your expansion cards in the traditional way, i.e. with screws.

A funny thing about this system case is that it seems to be specially designed for a bit paranoid people. Besides two locks on the side and front panels, the manufacturer also put a loop for a padlock on the rear panel to completely prevent unauthorized access to the computer’s internals! So, there are three locks in total and the process of installing or replacing a component becomes quite complicated, involving opening and closing all these locks.

The assembled system fitted well into the internal space of the case. I had no problems putting the excess cables somewhere:

But this is only true when you have no more than two 5.25” bays occupied. If there are three or more devices there, you won’t have anywhere to put the excess cables to.

After all the connectors are correctly attached, the user of an SViking can keep track of the temperatures and control the fans as well as set up temperature thresholds on reaching which a warning signal is emitted.

The overall impression from the assembled system case is somewhat better than it was empty. I’ll give you a detailed list of pros and cons of this product shortly. Right now, let’s test it.