Page 4 - Installation and Conclusion
Overall, installation of components into the case was very easy. The only procedure that needed screws was the PSU installation at the bottom of the case; as well as the installation of the motherboard onto its respective risers. Installation of my Seasonic M12 500W power supply was a cinch. The Thermaltake Spedo is very spacious; and adds even more space when the whole Advanced Thermal Chamber is removed. The case's SECC construction is very durable and seems sturdier than the standard aluminum case, although not much of a difference can be noticed simply by looking at it. It is, however, obviously heavier than standard aluminum cases. There are no rough edges or any particular blemishes or errors made during the manufacturing process.
As stated earlier, the hard drive trays are all removable and hard drives are very easy to install. All that needs to be done is to remove the tray, and then insert the hard drive. There are four easy push in switches to secure the hard drive in place. Reinserting the hard drive tray secures it back into the case. Finally, you will just need to plug in the cables from the other side of the case, and your hard drive will be physically ready to go.
To reiterate, the only screws used for installation were for the motherboard and power supply; pretty much everything else was tool-free and very easy to install. The only difficulty I had was with the Advanced Thermal Chamber -- it is very simple to remove, but reinserting proves to be quite difficult. The plastic on the sides of it also seems quite flimsy making things even harder, since the plastic slides out of place easily. In terms of cabling, things were generally easily hidden behind the back of the motherboard tray.
Finally, when everything is plugged in and in good order, I had to admit that I sat there admiring my own work haha. The fan on the side panel is a reasonably good addition for cooling performance; unfortunately the fan is also unnecessarily loud, similar to lower quality 120mm fans. The overall noise of the case is not unbearable, but definitely has room for improvement. A rhythmic buzzing can be heard about a meter away from the case; this definitely resembles a sports car, but definitely not the pleasing V8 exhaust note from something, say, a Ford Mustang? Haha. Fortunately it's not as loud as a 'fart pipe' ricer muffler, it is still quite annoying -- we definitely don't need it on a computer. The other thing to complain about is that, as a problem evident in some other cases, the front panel case LED wire are not split independently, which causes compatibility problems with some motherboards (Like the different +,0,- or +,- pin requirements on various motherboards) -- which we unfortunately had a problem with my Asus P5E3-Deluxe. It's not unfixable; it's just annoying haha.
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How well of a job does this 'car inspired' Thermaltake Spedo Advance Package case do? Pretty good, I should say -- aside from some minor setbacks! First, let me recap the positive aspects of this case. First off, the tool-free formula implemented into the hard drive trays, up to the 5.25" drive bays, all were very easy to use to install parts, not to mention very convenient to use as well. The case is also very spacious, allowing more room to work with; and all new jumbo sized GPUs will fit nicely into the case. Overall, the SECC construction (Although I would still prefer an aluminum chassis) of the case was very nice and durable; with clean cut corners. The design of the Thermaltake Spedo is questionable, however, since it does involve quite a bit of plastic for a premium case. I'll give it some credit for its perfectly removable panels -- including the top and the face of the case itself. The Thermaltake Advanced Thermal Chamber design is truly unique, but the flimsy pieces and strips of plastic touching hardware is not only unsightly buy possibly harmful to a certain extent. Not all of them are bad ideas, I must clarify -- since one of the pieces has an integrated mini storage box, so you never have to worry about losing small bits and pieces. The Cable Routing Management system is also a bit obnoxious at times, especially when your cables become too thick to fit the plastic pieces back into place. The fans are quite loud, and judging by the amount of fans, it should be acceptable to let the fans spin at a lower RPM while maintaining adequate cooling performance. Another minor problem was that the power LED internal motherboard connector not being split independently which creates minor compatibility problems. The lack of an onboard speaker poses minor inconveniences (Unless you have something like Asus' LCD Poster). In essence, the Thermaltake Spedo Advance Package is actually pretty good -- and not only does it have the style of a sports car, it also manages to distinguish itself from the crowd with its Cable Routing Management and unique Advanced Thermal Chamber. If Thermaltake goes on to further refine their innovative systems and improve fix some of the issues mentioned in this review, we would have a near perfect, premium full tower case. Refinement is the key.
Special thanks to Ramsom over at Thermaltake for making this review possible.
APH:Renewal Award | APH Review Focus Summary:
7/10 means Great product with many advantages and certain insignificant drawbacks; but should be considered before purchasing.
8/10 means Definitely a very good product with drawbacks that aren't likely going to matter to the end user.
-- Final APH Numeric Rating is 7.3/10
Please note that the APH Numeric Rating system is based off our proprietary guidelines in the Review Focus, and should not be compared to other sites.
Sports car-inspired case with many unique features, great design, and very spacious. The Thermaltake Spedo Advance Chassis needs a bit more 'refinement' to become the ultimate, and we are sure that they're getting there.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Outside
3. Physical Look - Inside
4. Installation and Conclusion
