Page 3 - Physical Look - Inside
Removing the panels and exterior sides is a bit of a chore, but I will walk you through it. The first step is to pop off the top metal grille and unscrew the plastic frame around the top. After you remove the four screws holding this top rim in place, you will then get access to the side and front panels, which are all held on by gravity and metal tabs. If you slide the panels up, these will unhinge and then make the panels free from the rest of The Tower 100 Snow. Removing the back panel is done by loosening the four thumbscrews at the back. Finally, you can unscrew the three thumbscrews at the bottom to remove the last three mesh-lined grille panels. As you can see from the photo above, there are many panels to the Thermaltake The Tower 100 Snow. All of the ones with holes are lined with a plastic-framed mesh piece to ensure air passing through here is filtered. These filters are also easily removable for cleaning purposes. Otherwise, the glass panels are held with metal frames and have a rim around the edge so users can handle the panels without leaving fingerprints on it. The glass panels are not tinted at all, so you will get a very clear view of your components inside. While I think they could have simplified this process by making each side a single piece, the involved process makes it more rewarding when you get into The Tower 100 Snow.
After you do remove the panels, you can see we have a pretty open concept design. Rather than your typical tower, this uses a chimney effect for cooling, similar to the SilverStone Lucid LD03-AF. What is unique for The Tower 100 Snow is that this has a divided basement for the power supply to hide unsightly cables. Otherwise, the main compartment holds the mini ITX motherboard, along with a single expansion card, if you so desire.
After removing the plastic rim around the Thermaltake The Tower 100 Snow, we have the exposed printed circuit board where all of the front panel I/O are installed on. Behind this are all of the cables, which are neatly wrapped in all-black sleeves for a cleaner look. Unfortunately, the front I/O pin connections are not grouped into a single block, which is something I think all case manufacturers should do. What is good is the fact the USB Type-C connection supports the 10Gbps connector and uses a flat sleeve cable for easy handling and routing. Moving on, you can see we have a single 120mm fan to exhaust air out the top of The Tower 100 Snow. This is a Thermaltake branded fan, but it does look more like a cheaper fan. Furthermore, it is only a 3-pin voltage-controlled fan rather than a 4-pin fan with PWM control. I would have preferred the latter for better control of the fan speeds. I also would have liked to see 140mm fans here, especially since there are mounting positions for it. Otherwise, you can see the rectangular cutout for the motherboard backplate as well as two expansion slots. It would have been nice to see support for triple-slot cards, especially as more recent cards are adding a third slot. Finally, we have many routing holes around here to go between the main compartment and the backside of the Thermaltake The Tower 100 Snow.
Moving inside, we can see the open area where you would normally put a mini ITX motherboard. This area has a large cutout behind it so users can access the back. This is useful for installing third party coolers after users have already installed the motherboard or for accessing other connections at the back, such as an M.2 slot for storage. You may notice there is a thinner honeycomb grid behind this hole, but we will explore this bracket later. Otherwise, you can see the rest of the internal is white in color with the exception of a few black parts like the expansion slot covers, motherboard standoffs, fans, and the rubber grommet covering the main cabling hole. There are a few other cabling holes on the top and bottom, but only one of them is filtered with the grommet. Otherwise, one unique thing about this case is how much space is provided for users to mount larger CPU heatsinks, especially since this area is not shared with anything else like the power supply. On the flip side, there are no mounting points for radiators larger than 120mm. This is pretty typical of chassis with a chimney design at this form factor, but it is something to consider.
Towards the bottom of the Thermaltake The Tower 100 Snow, there are a few interesting points to note. Starting at the right side, we have two 2.5" drive sleds attached to the side of the inner frame. This is attached with a single screw and stands upward. There is a routing hole at the bottom of each tray for users to connect the necessary SATA power and data connections. Moving towards the power supply shroud, you can see the divider is not a solid piece of metal, but rather has a couple of different mounting holes here. This is primarily made to mount an additional 120mm or 140mm fan to further increase the airflow and chimney effect. On the far-left side of the photo, there is another larger opening into the basement of The Tower 100 Snow so that longer video cards can hang into the lower region. If you do not use this area, you can seal it up with some included plastic covers.
Taking a better look at the other side, you can see the aforementioned open area for GPUs to sink into. There is ventilation at the bottom so that fresher air can be pulled in for your video cards. Otherwise, you can also see the opening at the bottom where the power supply sits. The power supply bracket is held to the back with some screws and lifts it off the power supply from the bottom of The Tower 100 Snow on its own metal bracket. I would have liked to see some rubber padding here to further prevent vibrations between the power supply and the rest of the case. Even so, I am glad to see the standard ATX power supply supported here.
Finally, at the back of the Thermaltake The Tower 100 Snow, we have a better look at the amount of cabling space behind the motherboard tray and into the power supply area. As many cables will be running from the basement to the top, Thermaltake has provided a lot of cabling space around the power supply into this back area to make it easier. There is also a very large amount of space behind the motherboard for cables, with an excess of 40mm in some areas. This is understandable when you remember that there is a single 120mm fan mounted in this area measuring 25mm in thickness. This fan is the same 3-pin fan included at the top. Once again, I would want to see the larger 140mm fan with a 4-pin PWM header. Obviously, it does not take up all the area of the back, so I am still very happy with the more than ample spacing here. I do personally wonder about the necessity or validity of installing a fan at the back here, especially as it may be choked off from the rest of the enclosure since it will be directly facing the back of a nonporous motherboard. Even so, you can always rearrange the fan to be installed on the top of the power supply divider.
As for the large honeycomb grid, you can see there are even more mounting holes. These allow users to install up to two 2.5" or 3.5" storage options. It should be noted if users so choose to install the larger sized drive, they will need to remove the fan at the back. In total, the Thermaltake The Tower 100 Snow can hold up to four 2.5" drives or two 2.5" and two 3.5" drives at one time, making for a decent amount of storage in a case of this form factor.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Outside
3. Physical Look - Inside
4. Installation and Conclusion
