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Price : RM942 |
Spedo Advance Package
Think excitement – Think Spedo! At least that’s Thermaltakes’ spin on it. But what’s in a name anyway? Well, a lot less than what’s packed inside this Spedo… Spedo Advance Package gaming chassis that is. Name aside this case at first glance appears to have a lot going for it. It has a laundry list that would rival St. Nicks naughty/nice list in length, items such as Advanced Thermal Chambers (A.T.C. 3) and Cable Routing Management (C.R.M. 3). Is all this stuff needed or is this a gimmick? Benchmark Reviews will take a closer look at the outwardly impressive Spedo Advanced Package full tower case (model VI90001W2Z) and see if this is eye candy or the real deal. My hopes are high as this is really the first case that I’ve reviewed that has many of missing elements on my cons list of previous chassis reviews.
The Spedo Advance is Thermaltakes attempt at improved thermal management through better airflow direction while also separating each heat source from one another with strategically placed plastic inserts. In theory this should allow each heat source to cool itself better by not introducing additional heat from the other sources.
These air chambers are combined with an excellent cable management system to offer a unique spin on component cooling. On top of all of that, throw in six included fans (3 x 120mm, 1 x 140mm and 2 x 230mm) with two optional locations for fans and you can see the Spedo Advance chassis takes cooling seriously.
thermaltake spedo advance airflow
As you can see in the image above there are many vents, channels, intakes and exhausts. This is a huge departure from the typical tried and true in lower front out upper rear approach. Think Spedo, think excitement.
Closer Look: Spedo Exterior
I almost hate to say this but this chassis arrived to me with minor damage. The chassis is boxed with the rear of the case at the bottom of the box and the front at the top. The top and bottom of the chassis are encased in foam. Nothing covers the front drive bays. If anything is stacked on the box off center it only needs to push enough to bend the cardboard flaps and you now have dented drive bay covers. I blame this both on the shipping company and Thermaltake. I can’t believe this would be the first time this has happened with this packaging design. I do think they should look at their packaging process for this case. I didn’t mention this to Thermaltake but I know they would have taken care of me if I had. This was not a huge deal for me or most I’m sure as I usually remove at least two bay covers for DVD drives anyway but worth mentioning all the same. If a small packaging change can save many RMAs let’s do it.
thermaltake spedo advance front
Tall dark and handsome. This case is BIG! The front view is very clean with no cumbersome buttons or knobs save the power and reset buttons which are flush with the front bezel. Looks are very subjective but I think most will agree the Spedo Advance is aesthetically pleasing. The entire face bezel is black mesh, with plastic trim on either side. The bezel removes very easily for cleaning as you’ll see in the details section. At this price range I think it would be nice to have optional front external inputs like USB, eSATA, mic and headphone. Not a deal breaker you can buy them online for about $20 but it would be nice all the same.
thermaltake spedo advance rear
On to the rear and starting at the bottom you can see this chassis has a bottom mounted PSU. This is the norm lately for full tower cases. What I like about this specific example is the ability to mount bottom mount fans like my Corsair TX750 correctly with the fan facing down. More about that in the details. Moving up you can see eight vented expansion covers. At first glance they appear to be held in place with the tooless design. However upon closer inspection they are actually non re-usable knock outs. That’s bad enough but Thermaltake did not include any of the standard expansion covers to replace any no longer needed open bays etc. Above those are two 120mm exhaust fans. It’s worth mentioning these fans are standard 4 pin molex plug designs so no option of monitoring them with the 3 pin motherboard connections. To the left of the fans are two grommets for water cooling options. The rear of this case is very reminiscent of the Antec 1200.
thermaltake spedo advance top
On to the top. The rear half is covered in large honeycomb mesh which offers all but unrestricted airflow out of the case from the top 230mm exhaust fan. The triangular vents on the front half allow cool air to be brought into the chassis. The front most contains two USB ports on either side, headphone, mic and eSATA in the middle. Gone is firewire, which is slowly becoming the norm on the modern gamer chassis.
*Original source from http://benchmarkreviews.com
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