Thermaltake Spedo Advance Package Case Review

Interior Impressions cont.


At the bottom of the case, we find a raised rail to seat the PSU and a stamped vent opening for PSUs with bottom mounted fans. A thin piece of mesh filter is loosely placed over the opening and is held in place by only a few notches. This appears to be a really low budget attempt to provide air filtration for the PSU. At the very least, we expected a dust filter with a frame for ease of cleaning.

We were pleased to see a large opening below the motherboard tray to allow cables up from the PSU area to their final destinations. This feature – although appearing minor – is important for cable management as the PSU leads would have to sit at the bottom of the case if not correctly led out of the main compartment.


One of our absolute favorite features of the Thermaltake Spedo is the “Wireless Side Panel Fan”. Obviously, wireless power is a dangerous proposition – especially if you cross the streams – so Thermaltake opted for pin-contacts to deliver power to the fan when the side panel is secured in place. It works a lot like the sliding door on a mini-van. When the door is closed, the pins touch the contacts and a connection is provided to a wire on the door. Anyone who has owned a case with a side panel fan knows that connecting it up can be a real pain and every time the side panel is removed, care must be taken to disconnect the fan lead before it can be completely removed.


With all of the ATC chambers removed, we’re greeted with a clear view of the case’s interior. There is heaps of space toward the front of the case in the vacant drive bays. The two separate hard drive cages are placed right in the middle of the case and occupy five bays worth of space. Although the bays are constructed of metal – which is a positive thing – there is very little space to allow airflow from the front intake fan to enter the case. This front intake fan will likely only provide cooling to the hard drives, which is why the “Fan Bar” is so important.


The odd looking bracket with the locking lever is the “Fan Bar”. This feature is essential when using the ATC system as you’ll see shortly, but it basically allows the included 120mm fan in the accessory box to be aimed just about anywhere in the case. It has two mounting holes that can be used in conjunction with self-tapping fan screws.


The 5.25 inch drive bays all utilize push-locks for tool-less installation. Both the SilverStone Fortress FT01 and Cooler Master Storm Sniper utilize a similar mounting system. Although it makes installation very simple, we’d still recommend securing the drive in place more firmly with some screws. These locks are present on only one side of the case, so the drive is usually not held in place very firmly in this manner. None the less, this is a great feature for someone who regularly takes their PC apart—no one like’s fumbling with eight little drive bay screws just to install an optical drive.


The Spedo accepts up to six hard drives using removable drive caddies, and even more if you take advantage of the included 5.25 to 3.5 inch internal adapters. They are very simple to unlock and remove, but again, the plastic and quality of the caddy leaves quite a bit to be desired. We felt that the caddy could easily be broken if care was not taken.
Not only can the drive caddies be removed, but the two cages can also be removed. This is a very good feature as most people don’t use more than one or two hard drives. Since there are three drive caddies per cage, one can be removed to allow about half of the front 140mm fan to provide unobstructed airflow to the expansion slot area of the motherboard. Since the cages are so restrictive, we’d recommend taking this route.


One very unique feature of the Spedo is the fan grille directly behind the CPU area of the motherboard tray. A 120mm fan can be installed in this location to either exhaust hot air away from the rear of the motherboard, or to intake cool air. Thermaltake pictures a fan in an exhaust mouning direction, but either way should provide some benefit. We’ll be performing some tests with Thermaltake’s fan 120mm “Turbo Fan” in this position to see if there is any measurable benefit associated with cooling the back of the motherboard.

Although this is a unique feature, it is definitely not a new concept. Another manufacturer – with a similar name – Thermalright, produced a heatsink called the IFX-10 to cool a motherboard behind the CPU socket.