- Steel Mini-ITX Tower
- USB 3.0 x 2, HD Audio x 1 Front Ports
- 180W Power Supply
- 1 External 5.25" Drive Bays
- 1 x 3.5" or 2.5" Internal 3.5" Drive Bays
doesn't leave room for a decent power supply
04/17/2013
This review is from: Thermaltake SD101 VP11821N2U Black Steel Mini-ITX Tower Computer Case 180W Power Supply
Pros:
Roomy for a mini-itx case. Laid out well for a single-hdd low-power build. I had intended to use mine for a small footprint linux desktop, so I loaded the build out with an SSD in the drive house and a 3.5" hdd in the drive bay (had to get mounting brackets for each one, no eggs taken away for that though).
Cons:
Needs modding to fit a different psu. The mods required totally bork the case though (see other thoughts below). My board (Asus C8HM70-I) needs 300w power to operate, and a lot of the builds I'm seeing lately use high wattage psu's, so I don't understand why Tt did not make the case just an inch longer to accommodate bigger psu's.
Overall Review:
I bought this case thinking I could *easily* swap out the 180w factory psu with a 400w (same one that another reviewer suggested, an Athena Power model), but no luck - the mITX sized psu is too big to fit anywhere in this case, which makes it a huge disappointment and waste of money for my build. Without modding, it can only fit in the 5.25" drive bay or where the actual drive housing sits, but both of those slots are occupied by my drives.
My plan to make the psu situation work, is to cut the lip over where the factory-installed psu sits, and notch out the 5.25" drive bay bracket, so that it has a place to sit. As for mounting, looks like the only way to go is by drilling a few holes to match the mounting nuts on the front of the case (in the metal behind the front panel).
This makes a problem for my hdd that I wanted to mount in the 5.25" drive bay because the huge notches I need to make there will totally eliminate the pre-drilled holes for mounting the drive.
Additionally, now I need to go find someone's Dremel to borrow so I can mod this case. I'm not a modder kind of guy, I just want to assemble the parts and play, so this is a huge drag for me to go through to salvage the money spent on this case.
Seriously Tt, I had expected much better from you guys!
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- Andrew C.
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Verified Owner
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Owned For:
less than 1 day
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