Thermaltake Spedo Advance Package Case Review

Cooling Performance cont.


Hard drive cooling is an often overlooked aspect of case cooling, but it is perhaps one of the most important. It is a fact that hard drives kept cool outlive hard drives that run at higher temperatures. This becomes even more important with high-RPM drives like the Western Digital Raptor series. As you can see, the drive in the open bench configuration received no active cooling, and quickly exceeded 40°C. The Thermaltake Spedo and Cooler Master Sniper have actively cooled hard drive cages that are very effective at keeping the drive temperature down.

In this particular test, the Thermaltake ATC system didn’t benefit the hard drive. This is expected, as the drive cages sit in front of the plastic dividers.


When it comes to PSU temperature, both the Sniper and Spedo perform very similarly. Once again, we’re pleasantly surprised by the ATC system, as it was able to shave off a full degree from the load and idle temperature of the PSU exhaust. This may not seem too significant, but it was definitely measurable.


As we mentioned earlier, we removed the fan from the “fan bar” and installed it behind the motherboard tray to see how actively cooling the rear of the motherboard would impact CPU temperature. To our genuine surprise, it made a very significant improvement. Idle temperature dropped three degrees, and a full five degrees was shaved at load. We’d whole-heartedly recommend that this feature be taken advantage of. Just about any 120mm fan in this location would make a worthwhile addition.


To show just how crucial that “fan bar” fan is, we ran a quick CPU/GPU load test without it. As you can see, load temperatures really shot up beyond acceptable levels. Thermaltake really doesn’t do a very good job explaining where and why to mount the fan, but as you can see from our testing, its location is essential when used in conjunction with the ATC system.