Thermaltake Armor+ MX Mid Tower Case Review

Exterior Impresions

As with many other Thermaltake cases in the past, the Armour+ MX will receive very difference receptions depending on who is looking at it. It is flamboyant without having any particular parts we necessarily dislike but many people will look at it as a bit of an ugly duckling since it caries with it a somewhat acquired taste.
That being said, it is alot less "out there" than many other cases Thermaltake has released in the last two years so we can be somewhat grateful for that since the MX's design is actually quite sleek. When one looks at the Armour from the front on, or at just the right angle it can be considered a very charming looking case. Of course you have to squint and tilt your head to do it but it is possible.


The very first thing which literally stands out on the exterior of the Armor+ MX is the plastic "spoiler" that Thermaltake has stuck on to the top of this case. Don’t get us wrong plastic is good and fine when we are talking about a $75 case but on a case which is twice that, we expect to find aluminum rather than somewhat cheap looking plastic. Sure, a little tasteful accent of plastic is fine, it can even accentuate the beauty of a case’s lines; but in this instance the plastic spoiler is as subtle, well thought out and above all else refined as much as swift kick to the nads is a subtle rebuttal in a college level debate.

Maybe this is being overly harsh, maybe it will appeal to some people, but the biggest problem we have with it, is it looks like an afterthought which was tacked on during postproduction. It really looks like Thermaltake took a normal square mid-tower case and slapped a plastic spoiler on the top of it. It does not add anything to the lines or help refine the beauty or grace of this case, in fact it truly looks like a first time modder’s pet project gone awry. On the up side, it is only disconcerting when viewed from above or from behind.


Now the plastic spoiler is not all bad, in fact there a few really good positive points about it which actually help mitigate the looks of it. The biggest positive is the added ventilation the numerous holes in the spoiler provide. It is a known and easily verifiable fact that hot air rises and in some cases this hot air gets trapped between the power supply and your optical drives. We have known people who in search of lowered burn errors have actually cut out a top section of their case and installed a fan. While this may be a little bit extreme to say the least and while we would have liked to have seen a fan installed to actively push said hot air out the top of the case, at least these holes will make it very easy for any air to passively rise from the case.


The second interesting addition is the front half of the spoiler also doubles as a hidden storage bin. While we are not fond of top mounted bins as they tend to take up valuable space, there is a good portion of the general public who do. If there is one thing which Thermaltake have always gotten right it is by following the age old maxim “know your customer” and with touches like this we can see that this Armour has been designed for the masses.


Also on the positive side, the top of this case also contains the various power and connector options. From left to right you have a eSATA port, two USB ports, stereo headphone jack, a microphone jack, reset and power button. Just below the reset and power button you have the hard drive activity led and power led. All in all this is a very nice front package which actually melds seamlessly into the front. Even better than the layout was the actual placement of these connections which by mounting them on the top of the case, leaves the front completely clear for the 5.25 bays and armor wings that give this series their unique look.


As previously noted the front of this case is different and if you have never seen this style before it can be down right striking in that the entire front is made up of nothing but removable 5.25 bays, all of which are covered in an air filtering mesh grill.


These grills are some of the best and well laid out examples of this style we have seen. Instead of relying on small plastic latches for the four sides to hold them in place, these are inserted and removed just by swinging open a little bay door in the center. This easy latch style greatly reduces the chances of breaking them when they are removed for cleaning the dust out of the filters (which you will have to do from time to time). Besides offering a veritable cornucopia of mounting options, having the full front covered in these mesh doors allows for a lot of air movement. As we stated earlier, hot air is the enemy and anything which helps reduce pockets of hot air has to be considered a good thing.