| Thermaltake Armor VA8000 Review | Today's Top Stories | ||||||||||||
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(Review) - Thermaltake is known for its gamer oriented cases, and it’s not a surprise to see huge, rather spacious cases from the company. The Armor VA8000 is another beast of a case that’s going to wow the PC enthusiasts who are interested in expanding their components throughout the years. The Armor VA8000 is available in silver and black colors that look quite amazing with an all aluminum body for durability. Thermaltake has learned to present its cases in a way that will make them a great addition to the overall aesthetics of the room, unlike some of the previous ones we had looked at from years ago. The days of the gaudy cases are gone for good, thankfully. There aren’t too many differences from one case to another, and that’s true with the Armor. However, it does have some notable exceptions that are noteworthy. The front panel is equipped with an accessory box and an option to include 10x 5.25" and 2x 3.25" drives at any given time. Personally, we really found the integrated accessory box to be a great addition. That will help keep critical things, such as driver CDs, application discs and cables, organized. Although you will never use the 12x drive bays, they are there in case you need them. Obviously the Armor VA8000 is for the hardcore enthusiast and not for the average gamer. Thermaltake Eureka Home Server Case The top of the case is also ventilated with approximately 62 percent of the area open for airflow, according to Thermaltake. The top is also loaded with 2x USB 2.0 ports, 1x IEEE 1394 Firewire port, and audio and speaker ports for convenience. To further help with the airflow, the Armor comes with 2x 120mm and 90mm fans throughout the case. Obviously you can relocate the rear and front fans to better dissipate heat depending on the amount of hard drives you have, which will have you place an additional fan in the front. Since the case also has a clear side panel with a lock, the 2x LED fans will look great from the outside. With that said, the internal design is completely tool-less to make installation of various components as effortless as possible. There are 6x 3.5" bays for the hard drives, which should be more than sufficient for a lot of you. The expansion slots are also easy to manage with a simple snap-and-click design. Once you insert the components in their respective slots, the locks will snap in place. Unfortunately, we noticed the locks to be relatively loose, and they didn’t grip the cards quite as well as we had hoped. Although the cards won’t fall out of their slots, we could easily wiggle them from side to side. In addition to the locking mechanism, we also found the drive bays to lack that smooth sliding capabilities to push the drives in. Not to mention, the 3.5" drive bays aren’t tool-less. However, everything else was just as we had expected with plenty of space for you to work around the case. Another fun thing to notice is that the case is liquid cooling compatible with just the right holes around the case to integrate a liquid cooling kit. Thermaltake’s Armor VA8000 is BTX convertible as well, though you would need to purchase an optional kit for that. In essence, the Armor VA8000A is an impressive case from Thermaltake with minor quirks that shouldn’t be much of a concern in the grand scheme of things. For the price of $149.99, it’s a little steep, but keeping its usability in mind, we don’t expect you to switch the Armor VA8000 anytime soon, and as such, this should be considered a long-term purchase. For that, the $149.99 price tag is justifiable. Click here to purchase the Thermaltake Armor VA8000 from ClubIT! |
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