A Trio of Thermaltake Towers
by Joshua Buss on August 16, 2006 2:30 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
Thermaltake Aguila - External
The Aguila takes a number of steps to really improve Thermaltake's offerings in the desktop case segment, starting first and foremost with a little more straightforward design on the front door.
Both logos - the company's and the case's - are finished nicely and look great against the respective metal mesh and brushed aluminum.
The Aguila is available in both silver and black, with and without a side window. Our silver model came with a side window, and for all practical purposes it's identical to the Eclipse DV's - extra fan ventilation and everything.
Taking design elements mostly from the Armor series, the Aguila front behind the door looks pretty familiar. With a full fledged door, things will truly be protected though, and should one want to remove the door entirely they will only be left with two much smaller flaps, (and even those can be removed as well if desired.) A vertically aligned 5.25" drive can be installed too, just like in the Armor Jr.
More like the Eclipse DV than the Eureka, opening the entire front panel of the Aguila is not only more useful but is even encouraged with true hinges and a lock specifically for this purpose.
This is how one would change the front fan filter and prepare the external bays for a drive. To that note, it should be mentioned that the bay covers for the external drives are all easily removed and reinstalled thanks to the use of real screws instead of snap-off metal pieces.
Instead of having extra ports on the side or front, the Aguila has them on top, just like the Armor. We're not too sure if the sleek pop-up cover was even necessary, but the protection from dust and food crumbs getting into the jacks will be appreciated by many anyway. In another 'nice touch' move, Thermaltake put the identifying symbols for each jack on the underside of the cover.
The Aguila takes a number of steps to really improve Thermaltake's offerings in the desktop case segment, starting first and foremost with a little more straightforward design on the front door.
 |
| Click to enlarge |
Both logos - the company's and the case's - are finished nicely and look great against the respective metal mesh and brushed aluminum.
 |
| Click to enlarge |
The Aguila is available in both silver and black, with and without a side window. Our silver model came with a side window, and for all practical purposes it's identical to the Eclipse DV's - extra fan ventilation and everything.
 |
| Click to enlarge |
Taking design elements mostly from the Armor series, the Aguila front behind the door looks pretty familiar. With a full fledged door, things will truly be protected though, and should one want to remove the door entirely they will only be left with two much smaller flaps, (and even those can be removed as well if desired.) A vertically aligned 5.25" drive can be installed too, just like in the Armor Jr.
 |
| Click to enlarge |
More like the Eclipse DV than the Eureka, opening the entire front panel of the Aguila is not only more useful but is even encouraged with true hinges and a lock specifically for this purpose.
 |
| Click to enlarge |
This is how one would change the front fan filter and prepare the external bays for a drive. To that note, it should be mentioned that the bay covers for the external drives are all easily removed and reinstalled thanks to the use of real screws instead of snap-off metal pieces.
 |
| Click to enlarge |
Instead of having extra ports on the side or front, the Aguila has them on top, just like the Armor. We're not too sure if the sleek pop-up cover was even necessary, but the protection from dust and food crumbs getting into the jacks will be appreciated by many anyway. In another 'nice touch' move, Thermaltake put the identifying symbols for each jack on the underside of the cover.
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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)