Thermaltake Spedo Advance Package Case Review

Installation


To install our testing rig into the Spedo, we started with the PSU. It went in without difficulty, but our slightly longer than standard Antec Signature series PSU would make installing the optional 120mm bottom intake fan a difficult task. Even longer PSUs would completely obstruct this opening. Thermaltake should have shifted this intake closer to the 5.25 inch bays, as a device in the lowest bay could easily be relocated, whereas the PSU cannot.


As you can see, the CRM system is located perfectly to allow header leads and PSU leads to be hidden away. To our surprise, there is enough space underneath the CRM panels for a fairly large bundle of cabling. Hats off to Thermaltake for this system as it made what would have been a very unsightly installation very clean.

There are two other locations that can be used to hide away PSU leads; the lowest 5.25 inch bays and the rear of the hard drive cages. Assuming hardware has found its way into these bays, they make an ideal location to hide away excess cabling.


Installing the fan behind the motherboard tray was a simple procedure. Self-tapping fan screws secure it in place with little effort. Our only gripe about this method of installation is that the fan cannot be removed without taking the motherboard out of the case. We’ll be testing the system with this fan installed in one of our tests to see how it impacts CPU temperature.


Installing the hard drive into one of the removable caddies should have been a piece of cake, but it had us pulling our hair out and dropping a few “F-bombs”. After over ten minutes of fiddling with it and even referring to the instructions, there was simply no way our Seagate drive was going to fit into the caddy. We tried the other caddies in the case to no avail, so we attempted to install a Western Digital model, which snapped in place with about five seconds worth of effort.

The problem is the plastic clips; they simply have zero tolerance for any of the mounting holes being off on the drive. And when we say the drive mounting holes were not perfectly aligned, we’re talking less than half of a millimeter. Nothing in this world is perfect, so Thermaltake should have allowed for small variances. We’ve installed this exact Seagate drive in many cases without issue, so clearly the tolerances are too tight on these caddies. Thankfully, we were able to remove the plastic clips without breaking them and secured the drive with two screws from below.


Aside from this frustrating issue, the drive caddy slid and locked into place very easily. Power and data connections can be made from the rear, and threaded mounting holes are in place for Thermaltake’s optional “AC0002” hotswap adapters. Given the high price of this case, it would have been nice to see at least one of these adapters thrown in, like with SilverStone’s FT01.

Although hot-swap functionality is great in a server environment where a drive must be replaced without shutting the system down, it is purely “nice to have” in a home environment in our opinion.


Installing a 5.25 inch optical drive into the Spedo was incredibly simple. We removed the front panel, slid the drive into place and locked it in using the push button clips. This is a popular type of mounting system that we’re beginning to see in quite a few enthusiast cases.

The bay covers are stamped grills with a foam dust filter within. The filter is several millimeters thick, so it should be pretty effective at keeping dust bunnies out of the enclosure. On the negative side of the equation, because of the filter’s thickness, airflow through the front bays will most certainly be restricted. Those more interested in performance than cleanliness can easily remove the foam filters and throw them in a drawer for future use.


Appearance is very subjective, but with the front case cover put back on, we’d describe the case and black optical drive as having a very clean appearance.