Mid-tower cases aren’t breaking much new ground these days, especially outside the aesthetics department. Thermaltake’s newly announced Urban T81 might just be an exception to that trend, though. It has not one, but two doors on its left side: one for the main system components and a second door for the storage bays. Thermaltake claims the design was "inspired by automotive ‘suicide doors,’" which is probably not the wording I’d use in a press release, but… well, see for yourself:
It doesn’t hurt that the Urban T81 otherwise looks pretty stylish. I dig the clean lines, the brushed-aluminum front door, and the refreshing lack of garish vents and LEDs. Thermaltake has come a long way since the Xaser series.
So, how much hardware can this puppy hold? Quite a lot, apparently. There are three removable cages with room for a total of two optical drives and eight hard drives or SSDs. Thermaltake supplies the case with two 200-mm front fans, another 200-mm spinner at the top, and a 140-mm exhaust for good measure. Users can strap in a fourth 200-mm fan at the top and two 140-mm units at the bottom. And there’s a 10-fan controller built in—although, as far as I can tell, the front-panel buttons only offer "high" and "low" speed options.
Last, but not least, Thermaltake has made plenty of room for liquid cooling. The Urban T81 supports 420-mm radiators at the top and front, a 280-mm radiator at the bottom, and a 140-mm unit at the rear. If you need that much liquid cooling, though, I think you might as well just build a whole case out of radiators and duct-tape your motherboard to ’em. Why bother with a middle-man?
Check the image gallery below for more glamor shots of the Urban T81.