ThermalTake Shark Case

Part 1- The package

Last week I received Thermaltake’s latest case offering the Shark this case is a full tower with 5x5 25 bays and 7x3 5 bays including the 2 floppies. This case came out of the blue for me and I wasn’t sure what it would be like, I mean by that I wasn’t sure what a case based on a shark would be like. But hopfully it will be up to thermaltakes usual high standards or better  lets find out shall we.

As you can see the packaging is what we would expect to see now days , this is the standard with most cases now before I remove the case let me give you the specs

Ok as you can see the case is a full tower but still only ways 14lbs very impressive. Let’s remove the case and have a look.

Taking the case out of the box I was pleased to see it looked good the front fin design and the gill like slats all kept with the theme of a shark. Open the door and you will immediately see the 5 cdrom bays as well as the 2 floppy bays, as well as the fin shaped fan air intake. One of the other things I noticed was the feel of this case, although most other aluminum cases I had looked at had that flimsy feel to them this didn’t it had one of those mmm I just brought something very nice  you know that feeling of satisfaction you get when you feel money well spent and I haven’t even opened it yet

As you can see the door has quite a substantial slice of aluminum  but it felt secure , also the locking mechanism was different with only the door being locked and no panel lock (unlike previous cases) in which the front panel was also a door. There is of coarse a mic, audio jack, a firewire and two USB ports on the side of the case this was nice and positioned in the right place

Moving onto the other side we see the side ermm I would say window but it’s not so lets call it the grill, the grill has no backing to it which means what you see there is it those are open holes into the case (I suppose if you were really fussy you could mount a bit of Perspex there or remove the grill). I mean how many of us get a case and not tweak it in someway. Moving onto the side panel opening it was nice to see a new locking mechanism here as well, with a brushed aluminum handle and the lock behind that. Moving onto the back is where this case hides its little surprise.

Don’t you see it yet lets zoom in a bit and take a closer look

Still unsure what they are? Well let me enlighten you, these circles with slits are pressed holes removing these is just a simple case of putting the screw driver in and gently pushing that’s it  still not sure what there for maybe the pictures bellow will help

Yep you guessed by now Thermaltake have made the case open to water cooling kits (of coarse with a mount for there pump) but they have not been selfish the only bonus thing for there BigWater Kit is the pump can be mounted to the back of the case instead of the floor, but the rest of its universal. On closer inspection and with a tape measure I was pleased to see that all the holes (apart from the bottom photo 4) had plenty of space around them to be widened for the bigger ½ hose style builds with a bit of work even the 2 above the PSU. Ok time to look inside and take that side panel off.