A Trio of Thermaltake Towers
by Joshua Buss on August 16, 2006 2:30 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
Thermaltake Eclipse DV - External
The original Eclipse was a great case. It offered much of what's needed in a desktop tower enclosure and had few faults. Let's get right to it - the only significant change in this DV variation is the change from a mere CD holder primarily for decoration in the front to a full-fledged, fully functional, DVD/CD-R/W slim-line combo drive.
Because of this change, the front bezel can no longer really 'unfold' into two doors like the Eclipse did; instead the entire front bezel swings open to reveal the external bays and power / reset buttons. On the side is also where you'll find the button for opening the drive, just like laptop drives. In this shot you can also see the nicely folded cables for the drive and lights, ensuring one will never have to worry about the cables getting stuck or kinked when opening the door.
Taking a step back, here's a more direct shot of the front bezel. The clear plastic strips in the middle of the front light up blue when the computer is powered on, and HDD activity is signaled by a red LED adding to the light show on the left side of the bottom strip. A disc in the drive is quite visible through the sharp looking window, not unlike many popular table-top CD players available.
The ornament at the bottom is supposed to indicate volume based on a soundcard's output levels, but in our experience it seemed to respond directly to access of the disc in the included drive, as it was glowing even with our on-board sound card disabled in our test bed.
Now we'll examine that right side in a little more detail. The lock and front ports are here, closer to the bottom, so along with the drive opening in this direction here are two more reasons to make sure there is plenty of clearance on the right side of the case towards the front.
The Eclipse DV suffers from a problem found in many other cases unfortunately, and that is the problem of requiring a certain amount of clearance on both sides of the case for optimum usability / appearance. On the one hand, the ports, the optical drive, and the main front door are all accessed from this side, but enjoying the view the case window provides and doing anything internal requires relatively unrestricted access from the left side. The good news though is that there is no need for completely unrestricted access to the right side - only the front area needs to be open.
Here is one of the nicest features of the Eclipse DV: unlike cases which require the front bezel to be forcefully pried off, this Thermaltake case has been designed to make this process a cinch.
Unlocking the latch with the provided key allows this entire portion of the case to hinge out, providing easy access to the external drive bays and their respective covers, as well as the removable filter for the front 120mm fan. Again, cable management has been thought through carefully, and the latching fit itself is snug and secure.
The original Eclipse was a great case. It offered much of what's needed in a desktop tower enclosure and had few faults. Let's get right to it - the only significant change in this DV variation is the change from a mere CD holder primarily for decoration in the front to a full-fledged, fully functional, DVD/CD-R/W slim-line combo drive.
 |
| Click to enlarge |
Because of this change, the front bezel can no longer really 'unfold' into two doors like the Eclipse did; instead the entire front bezel swings open to reveal the external bays and power / reset buttons. On the side is also where you'll find the button for opening the drive, just like laptop drives. In this shot you can also see the nicely folded cables for the drive and lights, ensuring one will never have to worry about the cables getting stuck or kinked when opening the door.
 |
| Click to enlarge |
Taking a step back, here's a more direct shot of the front bezel. The clear plastic strips in the middle of the front light up blue when the computer is powered on, and HDD activity is signaled by a red LED adding to the light show on the left side of the bottom strip. A disc in the drive is quite visible through the sharp looking window, not unlike many popular table-top CD players available.
 |
| Click to enlarge |
The ornament at the bottom is supposed to indicate volume based on a soundcard's output levels, but in our experience it seemed to respond directly to access of the disc in the included drive, as it was glowing even with our on-board sound card disabled in our test bed.
Now we'll examine that right side in a little more detail. The lock and front ports are here, closer to the bottom, so along with the drive opening in this direction here are two more reasons to make sure there is plenty of clearance on the right side of the case towards the front.
 |
| Click to enlarge |
The Eclipse DV suffers from a problem found in many other cases unfortunately, and that is the problem of requiring a certain amount of clearance on both sides of the case for optimum usability / appearance. On the one hand, the ports, the optical drive, and the main front door are all accessed from this side, but enjoying the view the case window provides and doing anything internal requires relatively unrestricted access from the left side. The good news though is that there is no need for completely unrestricted access to the right side - only the front area needs to be open.
Here is one of the nicest features of the Eclipse DV: unlike cases which require the front bezel to be forcefully pried off, this Thermaltake case has been designed to make this process a cinch.
 |
| Click to enlarge |
Unlocking the latch with the provided key allows this entire portion of the case to hinge out, providing easy access to the external drive bays and their respective covers, as well as the removable filter for the front 120mm fan. Again, cable management has been thought through carefully, and the latching fit itself is snug and secure.
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oopyseohs - Wednesday, August 16, 2006 - link
I am curious as to what meter you used to measure sound below 40dB, or 30dB for that matter. I am looking for such a device myself.crydee - Wednesday, August 16, 2006 - link
Any idea if when we can see some reviews for the huge Kandalf LCS and the one with the 24 cm fan on the side? That is what I'm looking forward to. The TT website is useless with dates or anything of the like though.akugami - Wednesday, August 16, 2006 - link
I'm not a big fan of case doors and with the case door off the Aquila still looks good. However, no integrated optical drive bezels kills it for me. I like a clean uniform look and the aesthetics of a case is killed when you install a black/silver/beige optical drive in it that doesn't match the rest of the case.The other two cases are not my cup of tea.
JoshuaBuss - Wednesday, August 16, 2006 - link
Just a suggestion.. have you thought about a black aguila with black optical drives? I think that would look really sharp.. door or notShapeGSX - Wednesday, August 16, 2006 - link
I have a Thermaltake Tsunami, which is indentical inside to the Eclipse.http://www.turbocarz.com/shapegsx/tsunami/">Pictures here
I have been very impressed with the case. Since I was building a home theater PC with large hard drive space requirements, I wanted a case that would cool 5 drives adequately. Because of the large 120mm fan in front of the drives, this case has performed the task admirably.
http://www.turbocarz.com/shapegsx/tsunami/target6....">Here is a picture of 4 hard drives installed in the case. I now have 5 drives installed in the case (1.1TB) and the drives still never get hot.
I really wanted a case without a door on front, but it is really hard to find everything you want in a case. And for me, the hard drive cooling was paramount.
My next case will also be a Thermaltake.
Lonyo - Wednesday, August 16, 2006 - link
I managed 5 hard drives in a Coolermaster Praetorian with 2x80mm front fans right in front of 4 of the HDD's, and no door.There are many things which do not really appeal, such as the lack of a sliding motherboard tray, the doors, the side/front ports etc.
Nothing which makes it have any appeal over other cases really, I think I would be more likely to get Coolermaster again.
araczynski - Wednesday, August 16, 2006 - link
i like aquila, unfortunately i'm tired of the closing/swinging door designs (on the front), as well as buttons being on the front of the case, rather then on top.i'm getting a centurion 532, simple design, great price, build it and forget it. i want to stare at the screens (games) not the tower, how much enjoyment does one get from staring at spinning fans? and even after a while i would think that too much lighting in the peripheral vision would get annoying to what you're trying to focus at, perhaps even unhealthy for the eyes?
but to each their own.
Araemo - Wednesday, August 16, 2006 - link
Just a question about the motherboard in use...Why does it have a PCI-express slot near the right edge? What model is that?
Murst - Wednesday, August 16, 2006 - link
I never really got into the TT cases. They just seem too colorful for me. The last 2 cases I've had were a lian-li and the wavemaster, and they're both simple-enough looking while still remaining sharp.But I guess that's just personal preference.
Looks aside, the only things that really matter are noise level, how easy it is to install components, and the available space (like, some cases don't even have enough space for some heatsinks) - imo anyways. From what I've seen, TT cases never really met all of the above conditions in a single design, but maybe I've missed something.
JoshuaBuss - Wednesday, August 16, 2006 - link
That's what I'm really try to emphasize here.. the Aguila is really startin to get everything right. The Armor definitely had some issues.. namely the green clips.. but the Aguila really doesn't have much wrong with it... (at all)