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Thermaltake Armor Review
Written by Justin B. | Date: 7.24.2005 | Manufacturer: Thermaltake
Well, we're finally back from our reviewing hiatus, and we're here today with a full-tower case offering from Thermaltake-- the Thermaltake Armor. The Armor is a far cry from cheesy-looking Thermaltake cases of old. It's got a stunning all-silver design (similar to Lian Li, Coolermaster, etc) with a 3-piece side window. Let me show you:


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The Armor is a little like the Thermaltake version of the CM Stacker at a first glance. It has a whopping 10 5.25" drive bays (one is already occupied at the bottom, as you will see below), one dedicated external 3.5" bay at the top, and one additional external 3.5" bay (there is a 5.25" to 3.5" conversion bracket inside the case that lets you use one of the 5.25" bays as a 3.5"). Inside the case there is a 3-to-3 conversion bracket which converts 3 5.25" bays to 3 3.5" hard drive bays, and a separate cage (completely independent of the front section) which houses an additional 3 3.5" hard drives. Very few people are ever going to run out of space in a case like this...

Storage freaks aren't the only ones with good news: the Armor weighs in at just 16.5lbs-- enough to qualify as a "lightweight" case in our criteria. While this case may be big (21 x 8.5 x 22, H x W x D), it's not going to weigh you down too much on your next LAN trip.

Our review sample is the silver version, but Thermaltake also produces an identical black version of this case. However, neither version is available without a window. You can view the full spec sheet here at the Thermaltake website.


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The Armor has an interesting door-like feature...these two "shields" on the sides open up to give access to your drive bays. Kind of silly and pointless if you ask me, however, look closely and you'll see that it has easily removable hinges. Needless to say, this would be the first "modification" I'd do to this case.


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Here's a close up on that top 5.25" unit, and why you'll need to leave it in the case...it contains the power/reset buttons along with the HDD and power LEDs. As I said before, this unit still allows you to install one 3.5" drive, such as a floppy drive.


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Now this is cool...at the bottom of the Armor there is a plastic drawer unit that fits right into the bottom 5.25" bay! This is completely removable should you need the extra space (yeah, right!), but I happen to find it pretty cool-- great for LAN-goers or just for general computer-related items.


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Up at the top of this case is an interesting-looking grille unit which contains a covered section for the USB/audio/FireWire jacks. On the inside of the case is a 92mm top exhaust that goes out through this grille.


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Here is the three-piece side window. I'm just waiting for Thermaltake to just make a plain looking square side window, but it doesn't look like we were so fortunate this time...


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Much like previous Thermaltake and Silverstone cases, this case has the two side door latches. In case that isn't enough, however, it's got two oversized thumb screws to secure the door in place.

Now we're going to pop open the interior of this case, so turn the page...
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