Thermaltake Spedo Advanced ChassisIntroduction
Thermaltake has been around for quite a while now; ever since the first Xaser chassis came out, people knew where to look first if they fancied extreme case designs that come in big size. Each of the high-end brands from today needs to have a flagship chassis that comes with the most and best features available. Previously the Xaser series filled this gap for Thermaltake, but today Xaser is more like a normal mid tower. Spedo (Ed: yes, that's Spedo and not Speedo -- trademarks, you know) is the new lion in the cage and we will be examining it today to see how it compares to the other towers we have tested.
Gallery: Thermaltake Spedo - Exterior and Packaging
The Spedo with the Advanced Package has a massive appearance and an awful lot of drive bays, including all the necessary covers for the drive bays. There are twelve bays/covers but Thermaltake still manages to keep the design simple and sleek. It looks similar to the previously examined Cosmos S with this pseudo-robot style derived from science-fiction movies. One of the features is A.T.C.3 (Advanced Thermal Chamber), a system that is supposed to separate the different cooling zones within the PC. Another feature is C.R.M.3 (Cable Routing Management) which is actually really helpful.
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.