Thermaltake Armor VA8000 Tower Case

Lurch · Rated PG Joined: 08 Jun 2005 Posts: 3

Just a couple of questions:
I am currently using an OCZ powerstream PSU.
Just wondering if it will fit in the available space?
(175 X 150 X 86mm)

Also I'm running a Radeon X850XT (AGP)
It takes up an extra pci slot. I'm not entirly sure that
the screwless clips for the pci slots will work...

Help would be much apreaciated ^.^

**Doctor Feelgood** · Posted: Wed, 08 Jun 2005 20:01:06 Post Subject:

Hi Lurch... Welcome. Wave

Not sure on the PSU, but it should be ok... put it in first! I used an Ultra Products XConnect PSU in the review, and it took some twisting and turning to get it in, but it eventually popped in.

The tool-less slot covers shouldn't be a problem... They flip out of the way, and can be completely removed, if you really needed to.

Lurch · Rated PG Joined: 08 Jun 2005 Posts: 3

Thanks for the quick response, The powersupply is quite a bit longer than standard PSU's. I thought it might not fit with an optical drive in the top bay.
I haven't purchased the case yet. One of my buddies has the same video card as I do, along with a Tsunami case (same pci clips). He had to cut part of the plastic clip to fit the card in...

**Doctor Feelgood** · Posted: Wed, 08 Jun 2005 20:30:55 Post Subject:

The optical drive will not be the problem, as I have a good 6" between the psu and dvdrw... but, the odd shaped brackets around the psu are what makes it a trickier install.

The green clips on the pci slots should pop off, but if that isn't enough, you might have to get the dremel out...

HackaX0rus · Posted: Wed, 08 Jun 2005 20:33:51 Post Subject:

i have always felt uneasy about dremeling cases...there is just so much that can go wrong Bang Head

...i have done it a few times.

BeerCheeze · Posted: Thu, 09 Jun 2005 11:43:41 Post Subject:

Yea, the first time I went to add a big fan to the side of one of my Antec cases, I measured, measured twice, confirmed the measurement. Cut it out, put the wholes in for the screws, put the fan on the panel... fit perfectly!

Then went to put the panel back on the case only to find the fan was too big to put it where I did and it hit the drive cage... Bang Head

squee · Posted: Mon, 20 Jun 2005 23:27:23 Post Subject: Armor Full Tower Case

Well I finally got my Armor case.... After about 4 hours of installing everything in to it, I was sadly somewhat disappointed with the quality control of some of their designs.

For starts those green screw less locking tabs for PCI cards, well let me tell you they (The green lever itself) comes off easily, but impossible to get back in....
And then they don't seem to hold very well either, because when I was pushing on a cable on the outside the PCI card just slid right out of the socket.

The hard drive bay located next to the power supply, well I was sadly disappointed when it requires a flathead screwdriver and some force to get the cage out.... You would have thought they would make it easily slide in and out....

Also there is no support for full length PCI Cards, not sure if this is so safe for the card, it would be nice if they had an accessory that would give it support, like that useless bracket that youâ€™re suppose to put on that locks your power supply (this is the bracket that everyone is like no clue what its' for, you should probably read the manual)

The front drive bay with blue fan... I tell you the front of the computer looks very nice with the blue behind the black front in the dark however, it would be nice if the blue effect radiated from the whole front, not just the bottom. It would be nice if you could buy extra of those mounting thingyâ€™s so you could have like 2 or even 3 blue fans in the front, since they have no way of attaching the fans to the case itself.

I've got to say I was rather impressed with the location of screw placement for motherboards, and nice labels, I had every screw post line up except for 1 out of 12 (I think) and Iâ€™ve got an oversize odd motherboard, so I was impressed with that.

Somewhat disappointed with the length of the cable for the switch that monitors when the case is opened.

Also another accessory they should sell would be like the right side panel, so we could use it on the left for those who don't prefer to look at the insides of their computer.

Overall Iâ€™m impressed with the airflow, as my system is running a lot cooler then before, and its like almost silent too, Smile

I'm even thinking of getting another one of these cases to use for a RAID computer with 14 hard drives in it, and it would keep them all very cool, although the steep price causes me to think twice and watch the budget, since I just bought another gig of ram for the system Smile

As far as that center 5.25 slot in the front where you can't use the clear self locking things that's designed for a 3.5 drive.... had a difficult time screwing in the zip drive to there, not sure if the 3.5 to 5.25 conversion tray comes out or not.

So if anyone is willing to sell their front fan drive bay fixture, please let me know, thanks a lot.
Wave

Reaper450128 · Rated PG Joined: 07 Jul 2005 Posts: 1

I don't know how many people are still checking this thread but since I have the silver version of this case I thought I would add a few things to the mix. No one has mentioned anything about the fact that the silver version is aluminum and not steel, that's why there is a price difference. It also only weighs 7.5kg (16.5lbs), and the weight is the reason I went with it over the black one, as much as I like black cases.

squee, I think this is what you are looking for, but good luck finding it. I was looking for an extra cage so I could add another fan and a RAID5 array, and found this on their site in my search. I did a quick search on froogle looking for them for sale, and can't find it, but an email to ThermalTake might help that.

Personally I am very pleased with this case, it looks good, it's pretty light (as long as you shell out for the silver one) and the airflow inside really is excellent. I almost think I could get away with returning to air cooling, but I like the overclocking capacity the water gives me. My only problem with the case so far is the card holder tabs like squee mentioned, I keep popping my backplane USB bracket into the case when I plug things into it, same with anything else that doesn't plug into the board. I haven't traveled with it yet to see how anything else holds together, but I'm moving in a couple weeks so I'll find out then. It was either this or the Kandalf, and as far as I can tell the Kandalf is just an Armor with removable extensions on the front flaps.

squee · Posted: Thu, 07 Jul 2005 23:46:22 Post Subject: Silver Case - Weight

*fv@%*! Dam I wish I knew that the Silver case was half the weight, cause honestly I was trying to go for a lighter case because I recently hurt myback in a bad car accident and can't lift heavy objects (my computer) darn, a 16 pound case would have been pretty sweet. I think i'm going to have to buy the silver one too, i was going to purchase a couple more of these for my servers, because i like how many harddrives you could put in them and the overall cooling. I'll have to contact ThermalTake tomorrow via Phone, I'll let you know if I make out with being able to buy them seperate.

Thanks for the info on the Silver, it would have been nice if like in one of the 25+ reviews i read about the case if they had mentioned that the silver case was aluminum and lighter! oh well Smile

**Doctor Feelgood** · Posted: Fri, 08 Jul 2005 13:09:24 Post Subject:

Wow... I didn't know that, and now I am a bit upset. I had asked for silver to review, since it matched my drive bays, optical drives, fan controllers, etc... But did not know one was aluminum and one was steel.

Looking on the Tt site now, I see that silver weighs 7.5kg, and black weighs 16.2 kg... over double the weight!!

Nice find on that spare drive cage too... would be nice to find one for sale!