Review: Thermaltake Spedo

Today I am reviewing the Thermaltake Spedo Case, this is the ‘Advance Package’ version.

First off I will get into the differences between the original version and the updated Advance Package.

Original Spedo
- Not painted black, plain silver/white.
- No side panel window, replaced with the option of either 2x 140mm fans or 2x 120mm fans.
- No C.R.M.3 cable management covers.
- No A.T.C thermal chambers.


Advance Package
- Internally painted matte black.
- Side panel window & 23cm Intake fan (Which is somewhat ‘wireless’).
- C.R.M.3 Cable Routing Management 3, which eliminates cable mess.
- A.T.C.3 Advance Thermal Chamber 3, which separates the PSU, Video card & CPU from each other. Resulting in better thermal management & control over the temperatures of each component.

I have to say it is a great looking case and Thermaltake has done great with this case. I absolutely love it.

Front Panel
- 2x USB2.0 Ports.
- Headphone & Microphone jacks.
- 1x eSATA port.
I have to also say that the front panel is EXTREMELY EASY to remove. No screw's or anything, just small clips that insert themselves into the front of the case. Allowing you to remove it, and put it back on with ease. It is strong and doesn't come off easy, something that more case manufactures should really pick up!


Cable Management
Cable management wise both Spedo’s are great. There is so much space behind the motherboard tray (which isn’t removable) that they give you the option of a exhaust or intake fan to be mounted right behind the CPU coolers mounting bracket. Yes, you can mount a full sized 120mm fan there. That should give you a idea of how much room you have for cable management.


Now let’s move onto the hard drive caddies & drive bays. They are completely screw-less and Thermaltake have a separate accessory that you can buy which converts the hard drive caddy’s into hot-swappable bays. The case also comes with a few adapters which allows you to remove the side mounted hard dive caddy’s and mount them in the front 5.25” drive bays. Which is a nice feature. Each caddy also has small rubbery stand-offs to reduce vibrations from the hard drives.



On a side note, the Spedo has two hard drive caddies. Both of which can hold 3 hard drives. Now with the removal of the bottom caddy, it will allow you to install pretty much any video card you choose. Whether it be a ATI HD5870 or 5970, there is room all the way up to the front intake fan. Which is much longer than a 5970.


Cooling
The cooling capability's of this case are amazing. The thought that the designers have put into it is truly great, in terms of the thermal management features they have built into it. You actually have the ability to completely seperate the Power Supply from the Video Card, and the Video card from the CPU. Resulting in some great airflow, this is illustrated in the image above.

I myself am running a Intel Core i7 920 at 3.6Ghz, with the Prolimatech Megahalems CPU Cooler. Right now at idle the temperature is really low, approximately 36 degrees celsius. My ATI HD5850 is currently running at 35 degrees celsius, this is with all of the thermal panels installed. Yes I do know that RealTemp say's 2.9Ghz, that is a lie. It really is at 3.6Ghz, speedstep is also off.

The case also has two 23cm fans installed, one on the side panel which has no cable leading into the case. Instead it actually has a small cable going to a microchip attached to the side panel, which touches another microchip attached to the case. That is how it is powered, meaning you can take the side panel off 1000x a day and not have to worry about unplugging the fan back in all the time. However there is one small problem with this side panel fan, it is quite loud! I have actually replaced mine with the same type of fan, but it has some nice blue LED's and is clear. Rather than the plain old black fan Thermaltake provides with it. Only problem with that is I have lost the ablitity to use the 'wireless' power design. Also the ability to mount a fan behind the motherboard seems useless to me, as it doesn't really do anything but add another cable to hide and more noise to put up with. Since it is quite close to the side panel it makes quite a racket!

You have room for 8 fans in this case, yes 8. Here are some images showing where they are located. The 'Adjustable Fan bar', which is shown in the 6th image hasn't worked so well on my case. In fact it broke the first time I tried to use it, and was already stuck. I doubt that is a widespread problem, just me being a bit rough while trying to free it. So I am now just holding the fan up in the bracket with a cable tie!

140mm (Included)

2x 120mm (Included)

230mm (Included)

120mm (Included)

120mm (Not Included)

120mm (Not Included)

That is about all I have to say on the Spedo. In my personal opinion it is a freaking great Full Tower case for the price you pay. Features are up there with some of the more expensive SilverStone & Lian Li cases, yet the price is down with the lower-end cases. Ranging from around $280-$320 AUD. Cooling is great and there are so many things you can do with it, this beast would also handle almost any setup you throw at it.

I highly recommend this case if you can get your hands on it. Priced very nicely and is one of the best Thermaltake cases I have come across!