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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cbuchach - Wednesday, August 16, 2006 - link
I have been looking to upgrade my case for some time now with my planned new build and really think the Aguila may fit the bill. Unfortunately the windowless version that I would be interested seems to be very hard to come by in the US at this time. We'll see.imaheadcase - Wednesday, August 16, 2006 - link
Yah been hard to find windowless one in the states, I found one but they inflated the price to like $300. lame.Budman - Wednesday, August 16, 2006 - link
One word. YUCKKalessian - Wednesday, August 16, 2006 - link
I don't understand why you would say that. The Eureka is very plain... what kind of cases do you like?I think a black Aguila would look great.
imaheadcase - Wednesday, August 16, 2006 - link
The agila is the only decent case, the others look like rejects from Voltron casting.Frumious1 - Wednesday, August 16, 2006 - link
There's a law on AnandTech case reviews: no matter what they might review, a bunch of people have to show up and grouse about how the cases look like crap, or they're nice looking but too expensive, or some other opinion followed by the statement that "no one would ever buy these...." Luckily, AnandTech seems to do a reasonable job of just presenting the facts on the cases and letting people decide for themselves whether or not they like how the case looks and would be interested in purchasing one.Too bad the Eureka is loud and cools the HDD/mosfets so poorly. Of course, I prefer a bit smaller cases anyway, and the Aguila looks pretty decent.
Frumious1 - Wednesday, August 16, 2006 - link
Oh yeah - I still don't trust the big orange TT fans. Things spin pretty fast and make a decent racket in my experience. Maybe some of them are better now, but the older 120mm dayglo orange things were pretty mediocre. I'm actually surprised any of these cases can manage to come in under 40 dB! Guy I know bought an Armor last year; freakin' turbine that thing is! Doesn't need to blow dry his hair if he angles the fans properly....tk109 - Wednesday, August 16, 2006 - link
I agree. They are ugly as butt.I saw the first one and I thought that maybe the rest will be better. But nope. One of them isn't too bad but I'd still not want to own it even if it was given to me. Like most of the case trends in recent years I think you have to be one of those super nerds to like em or something. They try way to hard on cases. Clean, straight, and simple is the way to go.
GoatMonkey - Wednesday, August 16, 2006 - link
Get yourself an iMac and be done with it then.
KorruptioN - Wednesday, August 16, 2006 - link
Or a Lian-Li.