Thermaltake Spedo Advance Package Case Review

Interior Impressions


With the side panel cracked open, we were immediately shocked by the sheer amount of plastic stacked within the Spedo. This plastic is Thermaltake’s “ATC” or “Advanced Thermal Chamber” system. Call us crazy, but we don’t think there is anything terribly advanced about four flimsy plastic dividers. None the less, we kept an open mind and reminded ourselves that function often comes before form.

What we do like is the fact that all the metal is painted black instead of being left the usual drab grey. This brings a great aspect of uniformity to the interior which is a must in a high-end chassis.


Since the ATC system dominates the inside of the case, we thought we’d start by taking a close look at it. Thermaltake defines the ATC system in one short sentence: “Advance Thermal Chamber 3 provides maximum cooling and prevents hot air re-circulation”. The idea is to separate the system into three thermally isolated chambers. This helps to keep the heat produced by video cards, the power supply and the CPU separate from each other. We’ll be testing the ATC system with a pair of toasty HD 3850s to see just how effective it is.


One of the first features we noticed was the little slide out drawer. We assume it can be used to store case screws, but it is very flimsy and doesn't shut closed securely. We can understand that Thermaltake wanted to make good use of wasted space, but in our opinion, screws and stand-offs belong outside of the case in your parts bin, not inside a case.


Thermaltake numbered the ATC dividers from one to four, the first one being a simple plastic divider with thin plastic flaps. These flaps help to keep the lower section isolated without having to worry about clearing various motherboard components. This looks like it should work in theory, but it certainly doesn’t create a very air tight barrier. One must be careful with boards with active northbridge coolers, as the flaps need to be cut or directed away from the moving fan blades.


The second piece is a semi-transparent piece of plastic that covers the expansion slots of the motherboard. This one’s purpose is to isolate the video card or video cards. There are some angled ventilation openings on it to allow the large 230mm side panel fan’s airflow to enter the chamber. We were very sceptical about this opening, as it clearly won’t allow much of the side panel’s airflow to enter the video card chamber. Our first assumption was that this plastic cover would only restrict much needed airflow the GPUs, but we’ll reserve our judgement until the performance tests are conducted.


The third divider is the one with the little plastic drawer, and the fourth is the PSU chamber cover. The divider with the drawer has two small doors that slide open to allow cables from the PSU into each chamber. This could be used for PCI-Express leads, or other cables. We were once again disappointed with the quality of these dividers as the little doors kept falling off and simply didn’t have a very nice feel to them. Considering the overall sturdy and high quality feel of the case’s exterior, the interior plastic parts feel very low quality in comparison.