Not posting here in a while so here goes:
Bought a Black Thermaltake Lanbox to replace my sonata and be my all in one media system for the new flat. I decided not to go for the silly version with the carryhandle, instead mine is just the plain piano black version with no side window or carryhandle.
Having never owned a thermaltake case I was a bit dubious. I'm used to lians li's and coolermasters and always though that thermaltake made all the tacky stuff
I was going to buy a sugo but they seem to getting common these days so decided to be different and get a lanbox!
The box and instructions were spot on, with extra thumbscrews, nice stickers and I even got a lint cloth for cleaning the case with! It'll take mini-itx mobos, micro-atx mobos and a std atx psu- I know this case might interest a few what want a conroe capable sff pc.The case itself is slightly bigger than I imagined but it sits very nicely on my desk. It's also very heavy and sturdy, something I like in a case, not my women.
Installation took a while but was relatively easy. There are quite a few thumbscrews on the back (10 in all!) But once you've figured out which ones release the lid, psu and mobo tray it's quite easy to work with. The case itself consists of 4 main parts; the lid, psu holder, mobo tray, optical drive holder and the chassis itself. I found that even when I wanted to do little modifications all I needed to do was remove one or other of these parts to get access, and I didn't have to strip down the machine totally to get to the hard disk, like other sff pcs I've owned.
One bit I did like was the HD audio header was there as standard. The front pannel wires are a bit too messy and could've benefitted from some sort of cable wrap as they can interfere with the fan at the front if they aren't tucked away.
Fan wise there is a 90mm instake fan with no led (the carryhandle version has a blue led) and at the back above the mobo outputs there are two 60mm thermaltake fans. These all run off molex connectors and are actually very quiet, although I'm not convinced the 60mm ones are spining fast enough to make a noise!
Anyway, I put the hard disk in the front 3.5" caddy which can also double for a card reader or floppy drive if you've got one. Because I'd put the hard drive on the front section I could remove the hard disk caddy that sits right in front of the 90mm intake, so that should help the airflow a bit. Theres an extra space at the back above the pci-e slots where you can attach an extra fan and even a foldable bit of metal that allows you to put watercooling hoses into your case (unfortunately this has given me ideas!)
I've been running the system for about a while now and am quite impressed. The std fans are silent and case temps sit at 35 degrees in a heated room. I installed a low profile Zalman cooler as there isn't much clearance between the hsf and psu. It performs ok but you could get away with a zalman 7700. At stock speed (p4 805d) temps were around 38 with the cpu fan on full whack (3000rpm). Overclocked to 3.3ghz and temps went up to 42. With the cpu fan speed lowered to 2000rpm case temps sit at a constan 38 and the cpu at 44 on idle. This also makes the case almost totally silent, just as quiet as my sonata2.
The only downside is the lack of space around the psu which can be heavily restricted if you don't have a modular psu like me! Please see the second picture to get an idea of what I mean. I reckon I do need to invest in a modular psu to get the full benefit of the case.
Anyway, time for some pics! Only thing I've done is add an old red circular cold cathode onto the fan at the front.
Specs:
Intel Pentium 805d overclocked to 3.3ghz
AsRock Conroe945g Mobo
MSI 7900gto
Zalman CPNS8000 cooler
OCZ 520watt psu
2x512mb Corsair ddr2 667
Maxtor 250gb Sata2 drive
Lite-On Dvd writer
I do like this case and I think it'll stay with me for a while. I do fancy putting some watercooling into it. I reckon if I get a modular psu to tidy up the cables I can put the radiator on its side on front of the 92mm fan. Haven't measure it up yet but I'll need some encouragement from you guys to do it.
Bought a Black Thermaltake Lanbox to replace my sonata and be my all in one media system for the new flat. I decided not to go for the silly version with the carryhandle, instead mine is just the plain piano black version with no side window or carryhandle.
Having never owned a thermaltake case I was a bit dubious. I'm used to lians li's and coolermasters and always though that thermaltake made all the tacky stuff
I was going to buy a sugo but they seem to getting common these days so decided to be different and get a lanbox!The box and instructions were spot on, with extra thumbscrews, nice stickers and I even got a lint cloth for cleaning the case with! It'll take mini-itx mobos, micro-atx mobos and a std atx psu- I know this case might interest a few what want a conroe capable sff pc.The case itself is slightly bigger than I imagined but it sits very nicely on my desk. It's also very heavy and sturdy, something I like in a case, not my women.
Installation took a while but was relatively easy. There are quite a few thumbscrews on the back (10 in all!) But once you've figured out which ones release the lid, psu and mobo tray it's quite easy to work with. The case itself consists of 4 main parts; the lid, psu holder, mobo tray, optical drive holder and the chassis itself. I found that even when I wanted to do little modifications all I needed to do was remove one or other of these parts to get access, and I didn't have to strip down the machine totally to get to the hard disk, like other sff pcs I've owned.
One bit I did like was the HD audio header was there as standard. The front pannel wires are a bit too messy and could've benefitted from some sort of cable wrap as they can interfere with the fan at the front if they aren't tucked away.
Fan wise there is a 90mm instake fan with no led (the carryhandle version has a blue led) and at the back above the mobo outputs there are two 60mm thermaltake fans. These all run off molex connectors and are actually very quiet, although I'm not convinced the 60mm ones are spining fast enough to make a noise!
Anyway, I put the hard disk in the front 3.5" caddy which can also double for a card reader or floppy drive if you've got one. Because I'd put the hard drive on the front section I could remove the hard disk caddy that sits right in front of the 90mm intake, so that should help the airflow a bit. Theres an extra space at the back above the pci-e slots where you can attach an extra fan and even a foldable bit of metal that allows you to put watercooling hoses into your case (unfortunately this has given me ideas!)
I've been running the system for about a while now and am quite impressed. The std fans are silent and case temps sit at 35 degrees in a heated room. I installed a low profile Zalman cooler as there isn't much clearance between the hsf and psu. It performs ok but you could get away with a zalman 7700. At stock speed (p4 805d) temps were around 38 with the cpu fan on full whack (3000rpm). Overclocked to 3.3ghz and temps went up to 42. With the cpu fan speed lowered to 2000rpm case temps sit at a constan 38 and the cpu at 44 on idle. This also makes the case almost totally silent, just as quiet as my sonata2.
The only downside is the lack of space around the psu which can be heavily restricted if you don't have a modular psu like me! Please see the second picture to get an idea of what I mean. I reckon I do need to invest in a modular psu to get the full benefit of the case.
Anyway, time for some pics! Only thing I've done is add an old red circular cold cathode onto the fan at the front.
Specs:
Intel Pentium 805d overclocked to 3.3ghz
AsRock Conroe945g Mobo
MSI 7900gto
Zalman CPNS8000 cooler
OCZ 520watt psu
2x512mb Corsair ddr2 667
Maxtor 250gb Sata2 drive
Lite-On Dvd writer
I do like this case and I think it'll stay with me for a while. I do fancy putting some watercooling into it. I reckon if I get a modular psu to tidy up the cables I can put the radiator on its side on front of the 92mm fan. Haven't measure it up yet but I'll need some encouragement from you guys to do it.
