A Trio of Thermaltake Towers
by Joshua Buss on August 16, 2006 2:30 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
Thermaltake Eureka - External
Time to move on to a slightly newer case from Thermaltake, the Eureka. Stepping away from the more traditional exotic looks Thermaltake is most known for in their case designs, the Eureka is much more monolithic in its appearance. The all aluminum case is adorned only with the company name and case name on the hinged front door.
The right side panel is completely void of any variations, and a honeycomb stamped grill sculpted in the shape of the number 3 is the only area of interest on the left side of the tower. The same feet which come standard on many Thermaltake cases are present on the Eureka as well; these feet can be rotated if necessary.
Taking another step in a little more unconventional direction Thermaltake made the front door very curved - almost a complete semicircle in fact. It has a very solid feel to it though, and it's held shut with two magnetic points near the top and bottom.
With the door open the case's five external 5.25" bays and two 3.5" bays become visible, along with the power and reset buttons, power and hard drive activity LEDs, and a large ventilation area at the bottom. The divots at the side of each bay indicate the drives slide in using provided rails.
Just like the Eclipse DV, the Eureka's front-mounted ports are located on the right side of the case, just behind the door.
The Eureka's ports are pretty tight though, so one would have to get some extension cables if any of the devices they'd like to plug into here directly are overly large.
There isn't too much of interest on the back of the case; standard-sized thumbscrews are used to hold the right side panel on more permanently, but a keyed latch in the middle of the back edge of the panel does hold it sufficiently.
Time to move on to a slightly newer case from Thermaltake, the Eureka. Stepping away from the more traditional exotic looks Thermaltake is most known for in their case designs, the Eureka is much more monolithic in its appearance. The all aluminum case is adorned only with the company name and case name on the hinged front door.
 |
| Click to enlarge |
The right side panel is completely void of any variations, and a honeycomb stamped grill sculpted in the shape of the number 3 is the only area of interest on the left side of the tower. The same feet which come standard on many Thermaltake cases are present on the Eureka as well; these feet can be rotated if necessary.
 |
| Click to enlarge |
Taking another step in a little more unconventional direction Thermaltake made the front door very curved - almost a complete semicircle in fact. It has a very solid feel to it though, and it's held shut with two magnetic points near the top and bottom.
 |
| Click to enlarge |
With the door open the case's five external 5.25" bays and two 3.5" bays become visible, along with the power and reset buttons, power and hard drive activity LEDs, and a large ventilation area at the bottom. The divots at the side of each bay indicate the drives slide in using provided rails.
Just like the Eclipse DV, the Eureka's front-mounted ports are located on the right side of the case, just behind the door.
 |
| Click to enlarge |
The Eureka's ports are pretty tight though, so one would have to get some extension cables if any of the devices they'd like to plug into here directly are overly large.
 |
| Click to enlarge |
There isn't too much of interest on the back of the case; standard-sized thumbscrews are used to hold the right side panel on more permanently, but a keyed latch in the middle of the back edge of the panel does hold it sufficiently.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
43 Comments
View All Comments
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)