Thermaltake Armor Series VA8000BWS

[VirtualLarry]

CUATION!!!!!!!

Reviewed By: Jammer on 9/25/2006
Rating + 3Rating + 3Rating + 3Rating + 3Rating + 3
Tech Level: somewhat high - Ownership: 1 day to 1 week
This user purchased this item from Newegg

Pros: This thing is heavy! It?s a very sturdy case with quality materials and construction. It?s not meant for transport to LAN party. Loads of room inside. It has plenty of space for a large PCI Express card, like the ASUS Geforce 7950GX2 I installed. Four fans (one front intake and three exhausts) provide good cooling.
Cons: CAUTION! This case shorted out my new mobo; ASUS P5W DH Deluxe. The case has brackets positioned immediately under the mobo so it can be converted from ATX to BTX in the future. The brackets protrude from the case such that they nearly touch the back of the mobo. In my case they DID touch the mobo. That?s when lights in the house dimmed, snapping noise, funny smell (you get the picture!). NewEgg accepted the RMA. As usual, they are the best! There is a ?caution? for this listed in the case manual. Unfortunately, it appears on the next to last page and it does not come with the case; you have to download the manual from the Thermaltake website. Mylar adhesive patches are provided to stick onto the protrusions. The case has ?wings? on the front exterior which serve no purpose, except to interfere with the optical drive tray operation.
Other Thoughts: If you haven?t installed the mylar patches, I recommend you do so just in case the mobo warps from heat and touches the metal case interior. I also recommend that Thermaltake apply the mylar patches BEFORE shipping and let the consumer remove them when/if the case is converted to BTX.

I have one of these cases and I have yet to build with it. Is this a serious problem? Can anyone else chime in about the BTX mounting and mylex patches? I'm a bit wary of installing "adhesive patches" to the mobo tray for long-term use, temps usually cause those things to eventually fall off.

Has anyone come up with a more permanent solution?

 

[mpilchfamily]

Never go by customer reviews. The dude is obviously a noob that hasn't got a clue. When installing a motherboard you should only have the stand offs in place that you need. All others should be removed. Your motherboard will never warp to the point that it makes contact with the motehrbaord tray.

That dudes review is now my favorite of all the dumbass newegg reviews i've read. LOL!

Look the "solution" that guy is talking about are pads to cover the standoffs that shouldn't be there to start with. Only use the standoffs your board needs and keep the rest out and you will be fine. When/If you change over to another motherboard format, very unlikly, you'll remove all the standoffs and istall those needed for the new format.

 

[daw123]

Thats what I thought. Why would you install more stand offs than was necessary to mount your MB?

 

[RealRedRaider]

Just whip out the old dremel and whack them off... Simple...

 

[F1shF4t]

I got 2 of those cases. Has plenty of room under the board to the point where I could mount a TT HSF bolt through bracket AFTER the crazy cool copper thingy on the back of my p35 DQ6 and still have room to spair. The guy's a noob who put in too many standoffs.

They are great cases btw, not good for carrying them around though especially the steel one.

 

[mooseracing]

I've been using the orginal Armor case that is a BTX/ATX style since it first came out. I've never had a single issue except cooling with dual overclocked CPU's. Apparently somebody didn't know what they were doing when they put their board in.