Thermaltake Shark Aluminum Full Tower

Performance:

With all the components hooked up, we were finally ready to give it a first run. The Thermaltake Shark provided fairly good ventilation for all the components. The side panel especially helped a lot with the CPU cooling. Unlike with our P160, having the side panel on and having the side panel off did not affect the CPU temperatures. This was very good to see since it indicates that the side panel is not restricting airflow. The hard drive temperatures were fairly good also (around 24°C), but only while the front the front door was open. While the front door was closed, however, airflow was restricted so much that the hard drive temps went up to around 29-30°C.

Conclusion:

We had mixed feelings about this case. The looks and performance of the case certainly impressed us greatly. Ease of use and functionality is something that could have been improved. The front door was very well constructed and very stylish. The insides of the case were not as well constructed, but certainly not bad. Where we did, however, run into various problems was while installing the components into the case, such as drive rails being stuck. This detracted from our experience using the case. Performance wise the Shark did very well and provided very good ventilation for all the components (as long as the front door is not completely close, which greatly cuts off ventilation). Overall we were pretty happy with this case. The Thermaltake Shark can be bought around $150, which is on the expensive side, but it isn’t extremely overpriced. We would guess that most of this premium can be attributed to the amazing, all aluminum front door.

Pros:

· Amazingly well built, all aluminum front door
· Great ventilation from mesh side panel
· Pretty good cooling for hard drives
· Stylish design
· Tool-less PCI expansion slots
· Security features for LAN partygoers
· Very convenient predrilled holes for water cooling systems
· Good overall cooling performance
· Plenty of space to work

Cons:

· 5.25” drive rails tend to be stuck
· Front bezel is a pain to remove
· 120mm front fan can only be accessed while front bezel is removed
· Front door greatly restricts airflow while closed