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Written by [t0rc]
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The Soprano is another entry into the enclosure field from the cooling
giant Thermaltake. Lately we've been seeing a lot of pre-mod cases
being mass produced and many of them aren't worth buying. Obviously the
appeal is there for many individuals who want the "cool" looking case
but don't want to do the work. Pre-mod cases aren't all bad for modders
though, as even the transparent PC cases have spawned some of the
greatest mods around. With the Soprano under our inspection, let's see
if Thermaltake has created a pre-mod case worth buying.
| Product: | Thermaltake VB1000 Soprano |  | | Manufacturer: | Thermaltake | | Common Price: | $89.99 USD | | Where to Buy: | Check Here | | Details: | - Dimension: 495 x 210x 478 mm (HxWxD)
- Dual USB 2.0, IEEE 1394 Firewire, Audio & Speaker ports
- X type Window
- 3 included fans
- Easy and tool free locking drive bays (HDD, Optical, and Floppy)
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*Specifications found at the Soprano Product Page.
Similar to most of the cases we get in for review now days the box it
was shipped in is self-promoting. Everything was intact when the
package arrived.
The cases front panel looks similar to the extremely popular Wavemaster
but that's not a bad thing as it's an attractive feature. The front
panel door and bezel are coated with a well done high gloss finish. One
of the biggest annoyances we have with cases are when your traveling
with it or moving it, bump into something, and a chip of paint comes
off or the paint gets permanently scuffed. Thermaltake took care of
this issue; heading out to a few LAN parties we put the case under
enough harm that the paint should've been permanently damaged in some
way.
We ran the case into multiple objects and even knocked the case off a
desk; the paint took a few smears but they wiped off. Then we blatantly
ran the case into a wall and the door picked up some white paint marks
-which came off with a rub of the thumb and the included cloth. The
cloth also does a much better job at removing fingerprints than your
T-shirt. We were surprised at the durability of the paint job and it
was very pleasing to find a case that could take some reasonable wear
without ruining your investment.
The interior of the case is fairly decent; we found the HDD bays
crowding our hands when inserting the motherboard. It'd also be wise to
make sure the PSU is the first thing you put in; we tried both
inserting the PSU before and after the motherboard had been installed.
Installing it before the motherboard was much easier because you have
to maneuver around some framework in the case already along with the
top port cabling and you don't have to worry about damaging your
motherboard. We needed all the space we could get when installing our
510 Deluxe.
A few of the features internally include easy locking expansion slots,
snap in 120mm fans, and easy drive mounting for all the bays (Optical,
HDD, Floppy). Unfortunately unlike the easy to use expansion slot
locks, the front bay locks are usually a pain to use. Based on a
rotating plastic lock, they must slip behind the metal edge of the bay
to lock the drive in place. The plastic prongs won't always slip behind
the metal until you apply enough force to nearly break the lock (we
were bending the plastic rotating piece in order to lock in the drives;
nothing broke though) -even then the lock may not turn.
The locks only go on the window side of the drive which leaves a little
playing in the drive. Of course this little amount of space to move
around leaves the drive open to vibrate even further; especially with
higher RPM drives (10,000 RPM Raptors come to mind). We also speculate
that your HDD life could be shortened as it may sustain damage from
this little room to jump around. Meant to be a tooless timesaver,
pulling out a screwdriver may be quicker and safer(for your hardware)
than this locking system. One things for sure, screws are much nicer to
look at than the green and purple locks. What were the creators
thinking?
The optical drive installation system is extremely easy to use and made
insertion very quick. The system uses two long rails that attach into
the screw holes on your drive, just make sure you get the left and
right side rails in their positions respectively. We thought optical
drive installation went very well...until we installed drives in the
top two bays. We couldn't get the bay covers off. Why? because they're
jammed behind a hinge mount for the front panel door. The edge of the
bay cover that you have to unscrew is overlapped by the door hinge. We
had to unscrew the hinge for the door in order to get the two top bay
covers out -so much for quick installation. The locking system is
great, but the bay covers need to get fixed.
Situated in front of the HDD bays is one of two 12cm fans. They run
fairly quiet and keep your system cool; a welcome addition to the case.
With one in front and the other mounted in back, they run
intake/exhaust front to back air circulation. The fans are easy to
remove due to their snap-in mounting system (the snap in cage can be
removed to mount other fans with screws). The front bezel would benefit
greatly from a different vent design; the paper-cut slits that are used
constrict airflow much more than most other designs. Cooling is the
high point of this case, with 3 fans included (2x 120mm, 1x 80mm) it
keeps an A64 3500+ Winchester (939) with stock HS/F at 39°C while
running an hour of some desktop overlay visualizations and 42-44°C
while running Doom 3. The 80mm fan is a bit noisy which is a trademark
of smaller high RPM fans.
The USB 2.0/FireWire/Audio ports usually located on the front bezel are
on the top of the Soprano. The location makes the benefits subjective
depending on where your tower is placed (i.e. if your case is on the
floor but under a desk, depending on the clearance you might find it to
be easier to reach or harder to get to). The obvious benefits are
support for FireWire, 2x USB 2.0, and front audio (headphone and mic)
devices. The cables for the ports drop the full length of the case in
order to connect them to your motherboard. This has the same affect on
airflow as non-rounded IDE cables: they decrease smooth airflow and get
in the way when you're going through your case trying to fix something.
The case window is well done. Plenty of screws to keep the edges from
coming up, the edges of both the metal and plexi are smoothed, and the
window also has "Thermaltake" and "Cool your life" etched into the
side. The window side panel also has a lock to keep intruders out. The
front panel has a 3-position lock (lock door/lock bezel, lock
door/unlock bezel, and unlock both). Having locks for both is
convenient and it'd be even better if they used the same set of keys
instead of having two sepearate sets of keys.
The Soprano is full of features and does not neglect the necessity of
cooling and good looks (for the most part). Unfortunately some of the
features are more of a hassle than a benefit, such as the annoying
locks for the HDD and floppy bays. The Soprano also has two big design
flaws, one being the top two bays require the removal of a hinge before
you can get the covers out and the second is the color scheme of fan
mounts (purple) and the bay locking system (purple and green). We can
handle the orange and black fans but the purple and green are just
plain ugly. We love the external case design and it's high gloss front
panel. Good cooling ability and decent bundled hardware (3 fans,
cleaning rag, locks/keys) also help out the Soprano's score.
Unfortunately, the Soprano's attempts to make things simpler were only
about 50% successful. We recommend this case cooling and good looks and
it's got some modding potential. We could probably use interior vinyl
dye on the locks to color them more appropriately. It certainly isn't
the easiest case to work with but it gets the job done. The Thermaltake
Soprano receives a 81% rating and a Bronze Award. The case needs some
work and with a revision or two it's performance would improve greatly.
Thanks to Thermaltake for making this review possible.
| Soprano: | Tone Deaf: | - Good looks
- Sturdy construction and paint
- Good cooling
| - High price for what you get
- Ugly locks
- Design conflicts
- Bad locking system (except for optical drives)
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