Thermaltake Armor Series VA8000BWS Black Aluminum / Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case

Pros: THIS CASE IS AMAZING!! Yes, it’s very, very large. Much larger than I thought, but it has tons of room for anything you could think of. The front tool-less design for the drives is very well designed and easy to use. The case is sturdy, but not too heavy, and the airflow is the best I have ever worked with. This case had 2, 120mm and 2, 90mm fans. These 4 fans perform extremely well and are super quiet. Plenty of extra screws and hardware included. This case made mounting all of my hardware simple and fast. My dual video cards in SLI have plenty of room to breathe in this case. I would recommend to anyone looking for a good case with lots of room and room to grow TO BUY THIS ONE. For the price I would say it is unbeatable. I was trying to build a high end gaming system on my tax return budget and didn’t quite want to spend so much on a case, but now that I have it IT WAS WORTH EVERY PENNY!!

Cons: No major cons here at all, all the reviews are 100% correct in that this case is HUGE. I knew it was going to be big but it was 2x larger than I had imagined. With the airflow and ample amount of space to route wires / cables it is well worth it. The only item that I am not 100% in love with is the rear tool-less for the PCI cards. It works great but I found when having to take a card back out it is quite tight and hard to get the card out. The cards do however come out ok, but the tool-less is plastic and I am always afraid that pulling on it so hard to get the cards out that I am going to break it. It can be removed and screws can be added if needed though.

Overall Review: I like this case so much I have recommended it to 2 friends and I think I will order one for my wife (I may get the Armor Jr. for her though, she doesn’t need the extra space). GUYS – I did weeks of research and read hundreds of reviews, THIS CASE IS WORTH EVERY PENNY. I would recommend if you are not using a ton of devices and not running SLI, to buy the Armor Jr.

Pros: This thing is heavy! It’s a very sturdy case with quality materials and construction. It’s not meant for transport to LAN party. Loads of room inside. It has plenty of space for a large PCI Express card, like the ASUS Geforce 7950GX2 I installed. Four fans (one front intake and three exhausts) provide good cooling.

Cons: CAUTION! This case shorted out my new mobo; ASUS P5W DH Deluxe. The case has brackets positioned immediately under the mobo so it can be converted from ATX to BTX in the future. The brackets protrude from the case such that they nearly touch the back of the mobo. In my case they DID touch the mobo. That’s when lights in the house dimmed, snapping noise, funny smell (you get the picture!). NewEgg accepted the RMA. As usual, they are the best! There is a ‘caution’ for this listed in the case manual. Unfortunately, it appears on the next to last page and it does not come with the case; you have to download the manual from the Thermaltake website. Mylar adhesive patches are provided to stick onto the protrusions. The case has ‘wings’ on the front exterior which serve no purpose, except to interfere with the optical drive tray operation.

Overall Review: If you haven’t installed the mylar patches, I recommend you do so just in case the mobo warps from heat and touches the metal case interior. I also recommend that Thermaltake apply the mylar patches BEFORE shipping and let the consumer remove them when/if the case is converted to BTX.