Looks like something out of Doom 3 !

Bah, my comment did not post. Anyhow my (long post) was stating how I love these cases with open ports on the front for full air to hit the internals.

Great case review! Some things I want to mention.

Firstly, on the temp graphs maybe it would work better if they were arranged from coolest-hottest. I mistakenly read it that way and assumed the Gigabyte Mars took the cake in every single test. But that is just me.

Also, I think I'm still going to settle on the Mars for my new build... whenever that is. I really like this case in some cases (pun intended), but I feel as though it is "too intimidating". I love the massive amount of fans on this puppy, and the steel-mesh, and that awesome auto-connecting cable on the side panel for the fan. But looking at the interior of it... cavernous is right. Some of the stylistic choices also bug me.

But it boils down to price for me. That and I really love the Gigabyte Mars (I can't wait to own it). $200 is pricey for a case IMO, although I would reach that far if I found my purchase was warranted. However this case doesn't, although it is a beauty.

You get extra points if this picture fits in your browser without scrolling

point :)

Verdict: a lot of interesting ideas that mostly don't work, giving us an overpriced case with great cooling but at the cost of high noise.

Not a particularly good tradeoff in my book.

The noisy, unfiltered side panel fan is a prime example, moreso since it doesn't do much for temps.

Overall, a good review, but I think Joshua's enthusiasm for some of the "innovations" didn't convey their real world (in)effectiveness.

Cool review, but I have a questions that the pictures didn't answer:

The front plate, in the first page of the article, doesn't look like there's a "hole" for the optical tray to pop out of, and when you installed the optical drive the front plate was totally off. In the conclusions, you said that there's a lack of a front door. Did I read all of that wrong? How does the optical drive tray come out after you put the front plate back on if there's no door?

Looks are in the eye of the beholder, of course, but there's nothing attractive about this to me. I like the full mesh front but you can get that in the 1200 without all the garish extras (and if you don't need a full tower you can get it in several models from Antec, Coolermaster, and others for a lot less money).

Nice case. I have a question however in regards to the way the hard drives cages function.

Is there a case out there that allows the hard drives to just slide in and lock like in a DROBO NAS enclosure ?

Adi

Nice review.

For the price though I would be hard pressed to pick it over one of these from Cooler Master:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119156
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119150
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119138

The Thermaltake looks like a cross between one of the above cases with this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119137

Any name that even suggests Speedo packages, or packages in Speedos, is simultaneously terrifying and hilarious.

It looks nice but so many fans, no HD fan and bottom mount PS? I always like to have just one fan in front of the hard drive cage. Give me a $50 Antec or Cooler Master case any day over this.

Styled like a Cadillac. You either love it or hate it, but middle ground is hard to come by.

IMO, too much fannage and not the greatest placement for same. It's a lot of case and features for the money, but I don't have the kind of hole in my head that would convince me to drop $200 for such a thing.

I like the idea of a modular hard drive bay. Two more bays could be sourced to bring the hard drive total to twelve.

That would cut down on the 5.25 bays, but I'm hard pressed to use more then two now. I really only need one DVD burner, but I can always go for more hard drives.

Boy, they should have licenced it as the Bat-Case (especially the top).

That thing would eat my Shuttle...

Not a hideous case, but why do people insist on dumb-ass plexiglas windows?

For the money, I think a P182 still seems better.

Sped-o? How are you supposed to say that?

A very interesting evolution of the Armor+ I'm using, though. More fans, some goofy dividers, and a general reshuffling of the whole case.

I guess I'll keep watching for the Sped-o Plus, cause if TT reworks this the way they reworked the Armor into the Armor+, it'll be very interesting.

It looks really...different. I kinda like it. I wouldn't buy it for me now, but 5 years ago I might have.

When I saw the name of this case, the first image that came to mind was of a man's package bulging out in a Speedo swimsuit.

Ah well, time to read.

I LOVE the sound of fans and airflow. I always buy a case with a lot of fan mounts, fill all of them and my PC always sit on top of my desk, never below. For me this case is simply GREAT.

Shades of Cooler Master Cosmos S anyone? Even the original Cosmos looks better than this.

That case is not too bad, I would also give it an A+.

If you use a ICY DOCK Multibay with that case you can fit an awful lot of HDD's in that case and they would be hot swappable with the correct motherboard or RAID card.

I can just imagine how gross the top of that case would look after living in a nerd's basement for a couple months.

It's massive, ugly, and so much cooling who cares if it's actually efficient. Why do people support such inefficient means of cooling, the difference between this case and one that has properly placed fans is going to be nothing. So it covers your typical Thermaltake product; it's horrible. I can never understand the thinking of someone who actually likes these type of cases. I'd gladly take any Lian Li or Silverstone over this. Hell I'd take one of the cheap Cooler Master cases over this.

Damn son, that's a fine case right there.

That thing is crazy ugly.

Very nice. The layout is fantastic.
Too bad I have no need for a case at the moment.

Another good case review.