A new addition to Thermaltake’s award-winning ARMOR series of PC cases, the ARMOR A30 sports a characteristic black bulletproof armor design with metal mesh elements, delivering an extremely stylish, compact and powerful gaming chassis that attracts gamers and LAN party goers alike. Designed for use with Micro-ATX and Mini-ITX motherboards, the ARMOR A30 still provides enough room to swallow a standard PS2 PSU and the most powerful graphics card available on the market today like NVIDIA GTX 580 and AMD Radeon HD 6970. Top and front blue LED fans and dual 60mm fans at the rear create exceptional combat ambience and airflow. Other notable features include transparent window, anti-vibration 3.5’’drive bays, 2.5’’ SSD/HHD support, and front I/O with USB 3.0 and e-SATA. With the ARMOR A30, demanding LAN party goers don’t have to sacrifice function for form.
Outstanding Cooling SystemThe Thermaltake ARMOR A30 has built-in top 23cm blue LED fan, rear 6 cm fan x2, front 9 cm blue LED fan, plus large area of vents to optimize airflow while delivering attractive light-effects and quietness. The Top 23cm fan will exhaust warm air from CPU zone.
Full Modular Chassis with Massive Storage CapabilityThe fully modular structure, such as the removable motherboard tray, offers a convenient way to assemble a highly upgradeable system in the smallest amount of space. Compatible with Micro-ATX/Mini-ITX motherboards, the ARMOR A30 offers enough room for 2 x 5.25” and 1 x 3.5” accessible devices, as well as 2 x 3.5” and 2 x 2.5” hidden devices.
Supports Long Graphics CardThe Thermaltake ARMOR A30 supports high-end graphic cards up to 13”/33 cm.
USB 3.0 PortThe I/O panel offers convenient access to one USB 3.0, e-SATA, USB 2.0 and audio & mic ports.
Pros: I love thing. It's small, it's sitting on a shelf literally right next to my monitor. I don't have a giant semi-ugly plastic/aluminium/steel amalgamation taking up floor space next to me. It's also blissfully COMPLETELY SILENT! I run this thing all night and if it weren't for the lights, I wouldn't know it was on. If I visit a friend, or move, or have to run for my life(you never know when Godzilla's gonna come around), this case/monitor/keyboard/mouse combination can go in a single car seat without any problems.
Cons: Every bad thing you've heard or read about this case is completely true. I don't care, it didn't stop me, but I'm not gonna deny it. Airflow is lower than I'd like. The included fans(while silent) push about as much air as I would walking perpendicularly to the case from across the room. There is absolutely ZERO room in this case once everything is assembled. The biggest problem overall is the psu size, which Thermaltake doesn't adequately offer an answer for. Your only real options are a 140mm fully modular psu or Silverstones SFX series, if you want to have any real space or airflow in the system.
Overall Review: I've been feeling it for a long time, and there are a few articles out there discussing the death of the 20+ year old atx form factor, and happily so. Your average user has little to no reason to need a super tower anymore, much less an atx mid tower case. With the onset of things like the NUC from intel, Micro-ATX(and even mini-ITX) is where manufacturers should be beginning to focus. I'm not saying ATX should go away, but there should be a top of the line version of both, or even all three. I'd been planning to make a move to this type of case for years(I fell in love with the Fragbox in 2003), and had already swapped my system into a micro-atx apu setup with an ssd and laptop drive. I figured that specifically using the smaller drives in this system would make a difference, and it did in terms of airflow, but not room. All the cables go in the same area, and they can't really be tucked below properly, so short cables are really your only way of improving room any further.