A Trio of Thermaltake Towers
by Joshua Buss on August 16, 2006 2:30 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
Thermaltake Eureka - Internal
Upon opening the Eureka, nothing out of the ordinary stands out.
If you look a little closer however, you'll notice the motherboard tray is more than large enough for extended ATX motherboards and is removable as well. The tray itself is both easy to remove and easy to put into place thanks to the slot design of the parts of the case that are used to anchor the tray.
The removable drive sleds have four vibration absorbing grommets for the bottom of each hard drive, and in our installation proved to be trouble-free. However, we do have to wonder why Thermaltake felt a server case should only be able to hold five internal 3.5" drives considering some "standard" desktop cases hold six or more.
Instead of green plastic clips, the Eureka uses a single metal clip to hold all expansion cards in place simultaneously. The idea is nice, but in practice it's tricky to put more than one card in since they all have to be in place at the time the master clip is secured. The good news is that the clip is strong enough to hold all cards in securely.
While not as elegant as the two-hinge design of the Eclipse DV, the entire front bezel of this case does unclip for access to the front 120mm fan. Other than the fan though, there really is no need to open the bezel since the external drives can be slid in and out of place from the front of the case.
Upon opening the Eureka, nothing out of the ordinary stands out.
 |
| Click to enlarge |
If you look a little closer however, you'll notice the motherboard tray is more than large enough for extended ATX motherboards and is removable as well. The tray itself is both easy to remove and easy to put into place thanks to the slot design of the parts of the case that are used to anchor the tray.
 |
| Click to enlarge |
The removable drive sleds have four vibration absorbing grommets for the bottom of each hard drive, and in our installation proved to be trouble-free. However, we do have to wonder why Thermaltake felt a server case should only be able to hold five internal 3.5" drives considering some "standard" desktop cases hold six or more.
 |
| Click to enlarge |
Instead of green plastic clips, the Eureka uses a single metal clip to hold all expansion cards in place simultaneously. The idea is nice, but in practice it's tricky to put more than one card in since they all have to be in place at the time the master clip is secured. The good news is that the clip is strong enough to hold all cards in securely.
 |
| Click to enlarge |
While not as elegant as the two-hinge design of the Eclipse DV, the entire front bezel of this case does unclip for access to the front 120mm fan. Other than the fan though, there really is no need to open the bezel since the external drives can be slid in and out of place from the front of the case.
 |
| Click to enlarge |
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
43 Comments
View All Comments
mostlyprudent - Wednesday, August 16, 2006 - link
I have been wrestling over the case issue recently. I like the looks of the Antec P150, but need door to keep the kids from turning off the PC at random. I like the P180, but it's too big. I've considered the Sonata II, but want a different PSU. Any idea how the Aguila compares performance-wise to the Antec cases?KorruptioN - Wednesday, August 16, 2006 - link
Consider the Antec SLK3000B. No PSU, is decently quiet, very cheap, comes with a door (no lock though), and is about an inch taller. I have one (along with the new NSK6500) and am happy with it.JoshuaBuss - Wednesday, August 16, 2006 - link
The aguila would perform right up there with a p150 in terms of thermals. the p150 would be slightly quieter stock though (assuming you set its tri-speed fans to the slowest speed)