A Trio of Thermaltake Towers
by Joshua Buss on August 16, 2006 2:30 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
Thermaltake Eureka - Internal
Upon opening the Eureka, nothing out of the ordinary stands out.
If you look a little closer however, you'll notice the motherboard tray is more than large enough for extended ATX motherboards and is removable as well. The tray itself is both easy to remove and easy to put into place thanks to the slot design of the parts of the case that are used to anchor the tray.
The removable drive sleds have four vibration absorbing grommets for the bottom of each hard drive, and in our installation proved to be trouble-free. However, we do have to wonder why Thermaltake felt a server case should only be able to hold five internal 3.5" drives considering some "standard" desktop cases hold six or more.
Instead of green plastic clips, the Eureka uses a single metal clip to hold all expansion cards in place simultaneously. The idea is nice, but in practice it's tricky to put more than one card in since they all have to be in place at the time the master clip is secured. The good news is that the clip is strong enough to hold all cards in securely.
While not as elegant as the two-hinge design of the Eclipse DV, the entire front bezel of this case does unclip for access to the front 120mm fan. Other than the fan though, there really is no need to open the bezel since the external drives can be slid in and out of place from the front of the case.
Upon opening the Eureka, nothing out of the ordinary stands out.
 |
| Click to enlarge |
If you look a little closer however, you'll notice the motherboard tray is more than large enough for extended ATX motherboards and is removable as well. The tray itself is both easy to remove and easy to put into place thanks to the slot design of the parts of the case that are used to anchor the tray.
 |
| Click to enlarge |
The removable drive sleds have four vibration absorbing grommets for the bottom of each hard drive, and in our installation proved to be trouble-free. However, we do have to wonder why Thermaltake felt a server case should only be able to hold five internal 3.5" drives considering some "standard" desktop cases hold six or more.
 |
| Click to enlarge |
Instead of green plastic clips, the Eureka uses a single metal clip to hold all expansion cards in place simultaneously. The idea is nice, but in practice it's tricky to put more than one card in since they all have to be in place at the time the master clip is secured. The good news is that the clip is strong enough to hold all cards in securely.
 |
| Click to enlarge |
While not as elegant as the two-hinge design of the Eclipse DV, the entire front bezel of this case does unclip for access to the front 120mm fan. Other than the fan though, there really is no need to open the bezel since the external drives can be slid in and out of place from the front of the case.
 |
| Click to enlarge |
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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)