One of the oldest and largest chassis creation companies in the Far East, Thermaltake has provided some interesting design ideas over the years – mostly toward the large-scale end of the market. The new SD101 is a little smaller than the Mozart or Level 10. KitGuru pulls out a magnifying glass to investigate.
With external dimensions like 26.1cm x 11.9 cm x 26.4cm, this new case is much less than a foot square (in old money). The front panel connections are far from old though, with a pair of high speed USB 3 ports.
Although billed as ‘fine for HTPC builds', all round the design does look a lot more aggressive – stealth fighter style – so possibly more suited to a LAN gaming environment.
It comes with an 80 PLUS Bronze power supply, which peaks at 88% efficiency and can be used both horizontally and vertically.
With two PCI expansion slots available at the back, it will take a double width card – but you would need to check internal dimensions before going with a ‘serious GPU monster'.
Interestingly, Thermaltake CEO Kenny Lin has decided to include some very special software with the chassis. This loads up very early on and allows the system to function as a full NAS device. Will be interesting to see how this works in the real world.
Finally, in terms of cooling, Thermaltake has integrated what it calls a ‘Turbo Fan', which they claim gives you all the airflow you need at just 23dBA.
Full details on this chassis available here.
KitGuru says: d
Comment below or in the KitGuru forums.
There’s nothing new here, it’s basically an InWin BM643 with vents added and a facelift!
I own a BM639 and have had it for 4 years! It’s not a bad case, just don’t think you’ll be able to replace the 15mm fan with a 25mm, it will foul the memory catches!
Refering to the expansion slots mentioned abouve, you can’t put in a ‘serious GPU monster’ as the slots are low profile, sorry.