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Thermaltake Tsunami Dream VA3000SWA
by codiak
I bought this case a few weeks ago and have just got round to fitting my kit inside so I will share my experience with you in the hope that you are well informed for your purchase.
Upon delivery I found the case to be well packed into its box, wrapped in a sort of material back so not to scratch the gorgeous aluminum and its ... mirror finish paint job. Held in place by two large pieces of polystyrene.
Once out the box and unwrapped, you will find nothing is rattling or being tossed about, this is because all moving parts have been taped shut with a sort of masking tape, so its peels off just fine not leaving any marks.
The very bottom of the case beneath the hard disk bay is where I found a box containing all the screws and rails I was going to need for the task ahead.
Ok now with all the tape off and the screw box out what am I left with?
1 Case
1 Cleaning Cloth (a nice touch)
2 Thermal Take Stickers
Along with the stickers you find an instruction book and some warranty information.
The case itself has a large removable side panel with a window, you will find feet located on the bottom should you wish to extend these out for improved stability. The case also has a 2 phase front door controlled by a key, Key position 1 locks the whole door, key position 2 allows access to the power / rest buttons and drives, key position 3 allows for the front door and the fascia covering the drives to be opened, this option is used when installing drives.
While experimenting with the door I located a dust filter used to prevent foreign bodies getting into your system, this filter is removable for cleaning a very nice thought.
On the top of the case you are provided with a hatch to access 2x USB ports 1x fire wire ports and connectivity for any front panel audio your motherboard may support. The hatch is of metal construction and very sturdy, locked in place with an internal lack, you push down to lock push down again to open.
Opening the case for installation you set the key to position 3 and then remove the key, at the back you locate 2 thumb screws to remove the window panel, the window panel also has a lock of its own check this and if necessary unlock with the key. The panel was very easy to remove and seat back.
OK onto working with this case, as mentioned before there is a fan located in the removable door, it is 90mm in size and the direction on this fan is to extract hot air. In the case there is a 120mm intake fan at the front, protected by a dust filter, at the back of the case is another 120mm fan again used to extract hot air. The reason I mention the fan direction is that a common misconception is that all fans require a dust filter, but this is not the case as only the intake requires protection.
A let down on the Fan side is that they do not power direct from the motherboard, they have the required connector but have only opted to use a cable for allowing motherboards to measure the fan speed, power to all fans is provided by standard size Molex power connector. This causes complications for routing and hiding cables, I will consider replacing these in the future with fans I can power direct from my motherboard, and obviously Thermaltake have opted for a retro fit to cover users with boards that can't power this many fans.
On to fitting, after following the instructions removed the hard disk bay, easy to do tool free with a thumb screw, once out there is ample room to work in this case. Next stop remove the floppy disk bay, again following instruction it was very easy and tool free, a simple locking switch needed moved, creating yet more space to work.
With the whole case open I get to work, at the front removed the blanking plates on the inner door for my drives, then on the case itself I removed the metal case blanking plates, these require a screwdriver and are simple to take out.
I then proceeded to fit my power supply as this case doesn’t ship with one, very easy access with no other hardware in the way, there was lots of room to slot it into place and secure with screws provided.
Motherboard installation is fairly simple, there is a guide etched into the metal work informing you where to install thumb nuts to seat your board on and screw down into to secure.
Next I moved onto my DVD Drive, the 5-1/4" bays only require tool free rails to install into the case, very simple and almost effortless.
Next I picked up the floppy drive cage, this required a screwdriver as there was no tool free option to secure the drive, again a simple task and placing the cage back into the case was very easy and tool free.
Moving on finally to the hard disk cage, there is room to install 5 HHD drives, with simple thumb screws, an nice touch to note here are rubber washers installed on the inside and outside of the cage to dampen any vibrations, installing was easy and putting the cage back into the case was effortless secured at the bottom with a thumbscrew.
You can if desired install 1 more hard disk into the bottom on the floppy disk holder giving room for a maximum 6 hard drives
Card installation in this case is supposed to be tool free and effortless but this was not the case for me with a large 3D Graphics card.
Thermaltakes design suggests you remove a rear blanking plate then pop open a card retaining clip install the card then snap the clip shut to lock it in place, this works for any normal card. I had to work round this for my graphics card, by keeping the clip open then screwing my card in place like I would with any other case so no big deal but something to watch out for.
With my hardware in place I set about plugging and routing cables, the cables inside the case provide for connectivity to an intruder detection point, to let you know if your case has been opened, if you motherboard supports this, cables for the usual power switch, reset switch, power LED and HD LED. No internal support for a PC speaker, some motherboards have their own, but if yours doesn’t, this could be an issue if you require one. From the top I linked up only the USB as I had no fire wire support, the front panel audio also plugged in file, I secured the fire wire cable out the way at the top of the case to keep it tidy
After some time tidying my work concealing the power cables for the fans I mentioned earlier I put the panel back on stood it up and it all fired up clean first time. The fans were definitely quieter than my previous case but are not silent.
After a few days of testing under load, my PC runs much cooler so the combination of aluminum construction and large fans does the job.
In conclusion for a Mid-Tower case this ticks a lot of boxes and I would recommend this as a good investment, as it’s easy to work with and can aid in extending the life of your components by reducing the heat.
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Antec Performance One P160W-EU
by johnnycarrotheid
On buying my last PC i had the little thought of
"why have a super-duper PC, if no one can tell the difference?".
After all, it seems a bit like having a Ferrari engine in a Ford Escort. It may be fast, but no-ones going to care since it looks like just all the rest.
On this thought i went shopping for a ... snazzy new PC case, and after sifting through all the other pre-modified cases i came to this one. There is a lot of choice in cases, go in any PC shop and they will have many to choose from (even PC World), but you really need to balance what it is used for and how it will look, wherever it may be that you situate it.
Being a bit of a PC gamer and bordering a full on geek, i needed something for both performance and bragging rights.
This fits both well, and not too hard on your wallet at the same time.
Since dooyoo have provided a nice photo of the case, and with it having a clear panel, i may point you to some of the features using it.
Down to the basics.
The case has in total 10 Drive Bays.
These are for Floppy or CD/DVD drives and of course Hard Drives.
It consists of -
4 x 5.25" External Drive bays
2 x 3.5" External Drive Bays
4 x 3.5" Internal Drive Bays
5.25" External Bays are for your CD/DVD Drives so this gives you the option of 4 of these drives installed. Most people usually have 2 of these drives, but you have 4 to play with in this case. This allows the fitting of other components such as Sound Card Control Panels or built in Memory Card readers.
3.5" External Bays are for your floppy drives, with most people now using only one or perhaps none at all. Similarly, you can get Memory Card or USB Panels which fit in to these smaller bays.
With so many people having digital cameras and such nowadays, adding a memory card reader allows easy transfer of files, and with a panel on the front of your PC it is easy as pie to just slot in.
3.5" Internal Bays are for your Hard Drives. With 4 of these bays, it allows for great expandability, with the ever increasing need for more computer memory. I myself being a gamer, with new games coming in at close to 5 Gigabytes of required space, if i install my entire game collection, the space is rapidly used up. A lot of people wont use that much i know, but this is a case aimed for geeks and gamers, so this amount of drive bays is a necessity. Especially with the current market, smaller drives are cheaper, so a few smaller drives will work out cheaper than a single massive drive.
The case dimensions are, 20.3"(H) x 19.7"(D) x 8.1"(W).
This is quite big compared to most peoples computers, but it is well used, and often needed.
It is made from 1.2mm Anodized Aluminium, whereas the front panel is mostly plastic, but matches well.
On the case there is a swivelling front panel at the top, which has the Power and Reset buttons. Added to this, the panel has quite 2 nifty temperature sensors (which it switches between), 2 USB's, 1 Firewire, and 2 Audio Connectors (Headphone and a Mic socket).
The connections at the top give easy access to the ports, so no more fiddling about at the back of your PC trying to plug your Digicam's USB cable in.
The case is well built, and extremely sturdy, mostly due to its design which is quite different to most others and ingenious in many ways, all of which centred around keeping cool air flow around the components giving the best performance and long life by ensuring they dont get too hot.
For a start, the motherboard tray is removable, so allowing to you attach the motherboard then simply slot it in. Anyone whos had to screw in a motherboard to a PC knows it can be a pain squeezing in.
Above the Motherboard sits the Power Supply area, which is very spacious and will allow for airflow around the unit, ensuring it is kept cool. My power supply (Antec Truepower 2) has about 1-2" space above it, so any heat shouldnt build up since no areas are enclosed.
Below the Power Supply is a fan slot, for a 120mm fan. This is generally the biggest fan you get in PC cases, and as they can spin slower than smaller fans and still push as much air, they are ideal for a quiet system.
Included with the case is a single 120mm fan, but it seems very plain in the case, so buying a seperate fan with a couple LED lights can really show off. Keep the included fan for later though ;)
Below the fan are the expansion slots for connecting to the motherboard. There are 7 of these, which may seem a lot, but they make this case virtually future proof.
Most PC's will have their monitor plugged in at the bottom of the back of their PC to a graphics card. Now, with ever demand for great graphics, the graphics cards become hotter and therefore larger to dissipate the heat, and often need large fans. Old Graphics cards which needed one slot, are often being replaced by cards which need 2 slots to accomodate the larger size. Also take into account the new technology to utilize TWO graphics cards to give even better performance, means that could be 4 expansion slots used up already.
Four being used without the sound card or extra USB cards etc being added make you glad you have the extra space.
The Floppy and CD/DVD drives are in their usual arrangement, to see how it looks check the front of the PC you are using right now.
The one difference is that they arent screwed into the case, but rather a mount is attached, and they slide in from the front. The front panel is easily removed, but this is not the only reason.
The main difference is with the Hard Drive arrangement.
If you look at the dooyoo supplied photo, they sit behind the 3 vertical slots at the front of the case. Behind this, you can place another optional 120mm fan allowing great airflow in from the front mesh. This is also another reason for removing the front panel, as behind the vertical slots is a dust filter, to stop dust and gunk being blown into the case and clogging or seizing up the fans.
The hard drives are attached to little trays, which if sitting facing into the pc from the side window, are removed by pulling straight out towards you. The trays have rubber gommets to dampen vibration.
The effect of a large fan blowing cool air straight in and over the hard drive, cools it down tremendously and will certainly add life to it.
The 3 slots have small LED lights in them, so it is pointless to buy a new fan with LED's, so using the supplied fan is easily the best option.
Due to its design, and improvements over other cases this stands out far against the rest which is why i purchased it. It is slightly more expensive, coming in at £54.00 from ebuyer, but it is well worth the added expense. Also, there are far more cases out heir a lot more expensive than this, and i believe this competes and perhaps betters quite a few of them. For the improvements gained by keeping the components cool, and possible overclocking (taking components above their recommended settings for better performance, but often higher temperatures) this case is well worth the money. It may also save you money in the long run, by saving money on repairs and replacements. I know this well, as my sisters PC all but blew up, as dust had got into her Power Supply fan and stopped it working. This caused it to overheat and short, taking the Motherboard and CPU with it. With this case, regular filter cleaning would sove it, and any fan malfunctions wouldnt be too bad as the case fans would compensate by ensuring the constant supply of cool air from outside the case.
The added temperature sensors would also alert you too possible overheating issues. Even if you werent a PC genius, if you saw it usually at the same temperature, then it suddenly jumped one day, you would know something was wrong.
If you are a geek, you really should buy it.
If you arent a geek, get the version with the aluminium side instead of the window, and you should avoid the geek comments while gaining the benefits we do.
Thoroughly recommended.
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Chieftec Scorpio TX-10BL-D
by seblime
One of the most annoying things i've come across when purchasing a new tower for my obsessive hobbie (messing around with computers)is a distinctive lack of space...
so it came as a pleasing change to find i had room to spare in this case even after installing my two dvd drives, 2 hard drives, 580watt power supply and a huge 7800gtx ... graphics card (one of the bigger ones).
With the airy dimentions of :-470mm x 205mm x 522mm its not hard to see why i was so overjoyed with this case, that is until i found out the dimentions of the fans that can be fitted to this case.
Now, anybody who knows anything about mixing cooling with noise level will know that the bigger the fan you use in a system the quieter the system while cooling to the same effect.
its a shame then that this case has no fixtures for such a fan, two front face fixtures and two rear face fixtures both for 80mm fans each means you should be able to get the desired temperature, but will mean a making sacrifice to the noise level gods.....
then theres the power supply, now in my opinion 360watts seems a little on the low side in an age booming with the power hungry pci-E graphics cards, especially if you were thinking of running an SLI or X-fire setup. i would have prefered to see at least a 450watt power supply with this case as a minimum.
Thats not to say turn away from this case now, there are many other points to stress in favor of this suave loking case,
*Handy door handle for opening the case (how many times have i struggled to slide the case side off when upgrading my pc.
*HDD loose box, one of the best ideas, as it means no more struggleing to get the hard drive past all the other wires and devices already in there, the fitting actually detatches altogether!
*optional fan fixing for the hard drive/s means u never have to worry about an overheating drive.
*many striking colours to suit.
all in all i'd give this case a healthy 7/10
the reason being that i would have prefered some fittings for larger fans to cut noise level, plus with pci-E graphics cards dominating the market now, i would have liked to see a higher wattage from the power supply. It seems a little low, especially if you want to use X-fire or SLI setups
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