Thermaltake Armor review

Here is a review of the new Thermaltake VA8000 Armor case:

http://www.overclockercafe.com/Reviews/cases/Tt_VA8000_Armor/index.htm

Seems to be a great case

i really dont understand the mini doors on the front. its also just a ripoff of the stacker.

yeah, id take the stacker over that...

I would not. Too many flaws with Stacker.
I would definitely go for the Tt Armor!

that case looks ridiculous

I would have to build into one before passing judgement, but I do have a few reservations off the bat.
Why are there two mounting areas for HDDs? I suppose it's not really a bad thing except that the rear unit causes the PSU to be mounted sideways which might upset the cooling path in the power supply (I think it might with my NeoPower).

I absolutely HATE toolless mounting rails ( not just TTs) and fail to see why they are necessary. Not only is aligning your drive faceplates perfectly made more difficult, but installing many halfsize breakout panels (fan controllers and digital readouts for instance) is nearly impossible. The extra five or ten minutes during the initial build seems a small price to pay for the flexability that screw mounts afford.

The door "wings" and the "storage tray" are pure eye candy...TT is famous for trumpeting useless add ons as great advances in design/functionality so these "features" surprise me not.

I'll pass.
CM did a much better job on the Stacker, TT should have stayed closer to the original.

I can't agree with you. Why PSU sideways and the offer of another place for a HDD cage? I think they're great options. Are you thinking about the BTX needs? And about the fan controllers and digital readouts, you'll see that that's not an issue. Everything will fit.
Tooless mounting rails are a must have this days (they make instalation so much fast and easy) when almost everyone likes to make changes in their systems, often. The ease of portability was also thought by Tt, making this case a light 7Kg one.
The Stacker drive cages are too difficult to work with. The rail attachment is also not well done. Not to mention the fact that, as you know, nowadays many people use FDDs and HDDs, and once the Stacker offers to put both in only one HDD module, no proper ventilation of the HDDs is possible. Tt Armor, on the contrary, offers a bay cover integrated into the bay itself, designed to accept the mounting of a 3.5" FDD or rheobus. The mentioned HDD cases and many more things.
Here you can check some more info about Tt Armor:
http://www.thermaltake.com/xaserCase/armor/va8000swa/va8000swa.htm

the stacker has a better front look but i hate the 300mm mesh thing on its window.....it would rock if they made a 300mmfan for it though

Ponche said:

I can't agree with you.

Click to expand...

I am not surprised, you already said in your initial post that the TT "seems to be a great case", although whether this is based on personal experience I have no idea.

Ponche said:

Are you thinking about the BTX needs? And about the fan controllers and digital readouts, you'll see that that's not an issue. Everything will fit.

Click to expand...

The Stacker is BTX compatable out of the box...TT requires an optional kit.
Why is it "not an issue" re: controllers, etc...how will you screw in a Sunbeam rheobus for instance?

Ponche said:

Tooless mounting rails are a must have this days (they make instalation so much fast and easy) when almost everyone likes to make changes in their systems, often. The ease of portability was also thought by Tt, making this case a light 7Kg one.

Click to expand...

We can agree to disagree on the utility of toolless rails.
I probably redo my PC more often than most folks and still don't see what the big advantage is, but I can ( and have) seen what the disadvantages are.
As far as "portability" goes, in this day of SFF cases if LANning was in the picture why would you buy a full tower to begin with?

Ponche said:

The Stacker drive cages are too difficult to work with. The rail attachment is also not well done. Not to mention the fact that, as you know, nowadays many people use FDDs and HDDs, and once the Stacker offers to put both in only one HDD module, no proper ventilation of the HDDs is possible.

Click to expand...

Is this based on hands-on experience?
None of this was a problem with my Stacker.

Anyway, have fun with your new case.

Ok can we all move past the whole Stacker is better part. After all TT didn't do anything another company hasn't done before.

You probably won't go to Lan parties. Well, you can find there Mini, Medium, Full tower cases. And, believe it or not, more and more are being seen Full tower cases - you can get an idea of why, by looking at those cases: big amount of HDDs, 3 or 4 optical drives, Sound Blaster drive bays, fan controllers, even rheobus kits). Definitely, a 7Kg Full tower case like Tt Armor helps a lot!
As for the tooless rails, no one does it better than Thermaltake. They achieved great performance with their tooless systems. So, if this eases the instalation process, why not offering it? I think Tt made a good choice there.
I don't have personal experience with the Tt Armor (only my vendor - who is also a friend of mine - has already been trying it out and he's really amazed with it; I'll probably go home in 2 weeks and a few days, so I'll then have the chance to try the case), but I have it with Stacker and the flaws I mentioned, they're pretty real. The mounting rails have the problems I mentioned; the issue with the HDD cage, only one 3.5” drive supported, ...well, all that I said above.
I'm not saying Stacker is a bad choice. I really liked it as soon as I got the chance to try it last year. I only replied about Stacker because members start mentioning it. Now, all I'm saying here is that it might not be the best option now that Tt Armor is here. Armor seems to beat Stacker in many aspects.

darkknight187 said:

the stacker has a better front look but i hate the 300mm mesh thing on its window.....it would rock if they made a 300mmfan for it though

Click to expand...

you can get it with a window sidepanel instead of that thing

Aphex_Tom_9 said:

you can get it with a window sidepanel instead of that thing

Click to expand...

aye thanks and sorry for calling the side panel the "window" i've gotta pay better attention to what i say while i'm about to leave class for lunch....

P.S. i would still like to have a 300mm fan for it

darkknight187 said:

aye thanks and sorry for calling the side panel the "window" i've gotta pay better attention to what i say while i'm about to leave class for lunch....

P.S. i would still like to have a 300mm fan for it

Click to expand...

They make those, but they're like $75, iirc.

First time TT has actually gone with a somewhat "clean" design. However, I think the front wings are completely useless, and the Armor takes a back seat to the stacker in terms of functionality because it lacks the extra room for dual psus.

See i have a Armor. and i love it. all the techs at my shop have been drooling over it for the past 2 weeks. and as the build comes afew minor tweeks and you have a stellar rig. As for the Clean look i cant agree more with fldrice with the clean look. I speent weeks trying to find a case that was Unique with out a irritating flap door and gobs of plastic on it. I also am going to be using this box as a Multimedia center when i am not gaming so it needed to look elegant and NOT goddy. with the minor add ons that i have done for (cool Factor) IE the LCD screen and custom Volatage and fan controler it looks sweet. I also dumped the blue fans and went with red cold cathods and anodized fans so it looks sharp. I will post pics of it as soon as it fully finished but if anyone askes I think its one of the Easisest cases to work on and by far one of the most flexible ones that i have ever owned..

But that is just my 2 cents

Hack the Planet (At least OverClock it)

Here you have some more reviews of Tt Armor:

http://www.hardkorehardware.com/review/010/tam.htm
http://www.tweakup.dk/article/550/dk/
http://www.vtr-hardware.com/articles/a5856_0.html

I definitely like the armor better than the stacker.
The grill on the side of the stacker is funky looking.
Unfortunately neither have a removable motherboard tray so the
search for my next case continues.

For me i would go for the stacker and these are my reasons.
1 Dual psus, if i ever get a stacker, i will be putting some powerful stuff in there and i would want dual psu
2 the look, i think those flaps are just silly and anoying
3 tooless systems don't really matter to me and i dont think they do a better job than any other company, and really they take it too far, toolless pci bays??? Who is too incompetent to screw in a pci screw
4 Its clealy not a lan party case, if you actually go to a lot of lan parties you would realise that the case is a little big to be carting around
5 the window is stupid looking, i dont need some weird lines in the middle
6 if you ask me half of those things are just dumb, you have a little try to hold crao....in your computer?????

EDIT:
when i say that its not a lan case i mean that being light is not an advantage and it would probibly feel a litle more flimsy then the stacker

Let me just say one thing...........EVERYONE IS ENTITLED TO THEIR OWN OPINION! So it doesn not matter if you like it or not, it is your choice not any one else's. So why do you try to keep fighting for the armor Ponche? Some will like, some will not, you arn't trying to change their mind so they will be more inclined to buy it are you............

PEACE