Thermaltake Spedo Advanced Chassis
by Christoph Katzer on January 5, 2009 3:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
Specifications
| Thermaltake Spedo Specifications | ||
| Motherboard Form Factor | ATX, Micro ATX | |
| Drive Bays | External | 7x 5.25", 1x 3.5" |
| Internal | 6x 3.5" | |
| Cooling | Front | 1x 140mm intake |
| Rear | 2x 120mm exhaust | |
| Top | 1x 230mm exhaust | |
| Side | 1x 230mm intake | |
| Bottom | 1x 120mm (Optional) | |
| Expansion Slots | 8 | |
| Front I/O Port | 2x USB, 1x Audio, 1x Micro , 1x eSATA | |
| Power Supply Size | Standard ATX | |
| Weight | 8.66kg | |
| Dimensions | 610 x 232 x 536 (WxHxD in mm) | |
The initial impression on opening the case is that the interior is very roomy. There are several covers at the bottom; the first one covers the power supply and the second one above is the A.T.C.3. You can see a small green PCB at the bottom, which is another unique feature Thermaltake offers with the Spedo. This contact board has a counterpart on the side panel. When you close the panel, the two board connect to each other and enable the fan in the panel to run -- there's no need for additional cables or connections. If you install the PSU facing down with a 120mm fan, there is a filter to keep out the dust. Unfortunately the opening just beside this does not come with a filter. The other side reveals the C.R.M.3 that contains four table-like plastic parts connected to the back behind the motherboard. All cables going through the case can be stored under these parts.
System Installation
The installation of parts is easy and the first impression of a big interior space is confirmed, as there's ample room after installing a normal size ATX motherboard. Space beside and above the motherboard allows you to easily route cables and helps allow air to circulate and cool the various components. Even longer video cards will fit inside of this case with no conflicts on the right side. The hard drives install without tools since Thermaltake provides a handy tightening system in the hard drive frames.
Our only minor complaint is that after installing our standard test bed, we installed all of the plastic covers again and found that the cover above the power supply touches the third graphics cards in our triple-SLI setup. This prevents fresh air from reaching the card's intake fan, which will almost certainly cause problems. As you will see on the next page, the definitely impacts GPU cooling.
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14 Comments
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Sadasius - Friday, January 30, 2009 - link
Nice review! I am wondering very badly actually who makes that contact switch at the bottom of the case for the fan on the side door. I need one pretty badly to hide some wiring in a new build with two 250mm fans on the side door. Would love to hide the wiring with this switch. Please and thanks. Already contacted Thermaltake and they will not sell me the switch but are more then happy to sell me the whole case.alexopth69 - Thursday, January 8, 2009 - link
I would like very much to know the temperatures with side door openv12v12 - Wednesday, January 7, 2009 - link
testing123v12v12 - Wednesday, January 7, 2009 - link
Bah this is nothing but an overpriced server box, masquerading as a "desktop" that's all these "large" boxes are. And the lemmings will leap off the cliff to pwn one! BTX? LLMFAO that ANTIQUATED and FAILED intex attempt at changing the ATX market? It's long proven INEFFICIENT Vs ATX designs. What a joke: PSU at the bottom = more dust, requires LONG ass cables, horrible cable management, upside down PSU = sucking even more dust and grime collected at the bottom of the case. TERRIBLE hardware placement for water pumps and other items that would normally sit at the bottom of an ATX case.And the price: Yes noobs will continue to buy cheaply produced boxes for top dollar b/c it looks cool. $100 for a box made from scrap yard quality "alloy?" Geesh when is it going to stop?! Do I want one, CERTAINLY... IF it's below $90 + tax.
Strid - Tuesday, January 6, 2009 - link
Are the graphs supposed to say "Room temperature - lower is better"? :-PI have a really cold room, is that good? Soory, not very important, but still ... fun, lol.
Zak - Tuesday, January 6, 2009 - link
There is a cheaper version of this case too:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...">http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...
Unpainted interior and plain side panel, no window, just cutouts for two 12cm fans and I'm not sure about the top fan.
Z.
theartofcreation - Monday, January 5, 2009 - link
its good to see that at long last there is a windowd case ont he market where they designers have remembered to paint the inside of the case too! - i always ojected paying a fortune for a windowed case only to have it sowing off all the unpainted metal insideZak - Monday, January 5, 2009 - link
Nice case. I like the black interior:) I guess 3 more hard drives can be installed all the way on the bottom, below the two hard drive cages. But 3rd cage would be nice. I think I'll go with the Antec Twelvehundred though.Z.
aaronfmd - Monday, January 5, 2009 - link
Accoustic Noise Graph "Y" axis is labled wrong. Otherwise, thanks for the great article.GiantPandaMan - Monday, January 5, 2009 - link
Naming a computer gadget similarly to a company that's known for tiny banana holders...yeah, bad marketing.