Thermaltake Tsunami VA3400: Beautiful & Effective.
Written: Feb 02 '05 (Updated Feb 17 '05)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Elegant, effective cooling, clean layout, quick snap fasteners, ATX power supply included
Cons: Expensive, no EATX PSU, awkward port position for some situations, Aluminum dings and bends easily
The Bottom Line: Elegant computer case with good cooling layout.
|
|
|
| theuerkorn's Full Review: Thermaltake (VA3400SNA) ATX Full Tower Case |
A computer case is often an afterthought and for off-the-shelf systems that holds true unless you get tired of that cookie cutter design and want something more attractive. (Sure, you could switch to a Macintosh and get more stylish out of the box.) But there is also those who want to pick their own components and basically build their own computer. Once you put that much effort in a computer, a nice case is a great way to convey your pride and the generic look doesn't cut it anymore. Picking a new case can be more complicated than some might expect. The Thermaltake Tsunami VA3x00 series is a great mid tower case for those who don't like flashy but want elegant styling.
Mother nature just recently reminded us that a Tsunami is nothing to take easy, and Thermaltake's naming may appear a little unfortunate in that light. Nevertheless, it's set to make waves, subtle but irresistible to users looking for elegance in a PC casing. (One might also notice the front of the case which resembles a wave.)
VARIATIONS
The VA3x00 series consists of basically 3 different families which are divided into color, side panel design and power supply. Decoding the model number is easy ...
VA 3x00 yzA
x = ...
0: Bare case with 2 fans
4: Same as '0' but with 400W ATX power supply
y = ...
S: Silver with 'mirror' finish coating
B: Black with 'mirror' finish coating
z = ...
N: Solid standard side panel
W: Window and additional fan in side panel
This review covers mostly the VA3400SNA. The VA3000SNA is practically identical and is only missing the power supply. The same applies to the VA3400BNA and the VA3000BWA which are only different in color. The clear side panel of the VA3x00SWA is not covered in this review but realistically is only a nuance anyway in that variant.
MAIN FEATURES
Aluminium Case: Especially the aluminum front door has a very solid feel to it since it's a thick extruded profile. The whole case weighs in at 5.6kg (12.3lbs) without the power supply. Weight is normally not a major factor for computers though, but rigid build quality certainly is. The Tsunami is solid enough and most parts fit very well. I guess that's what you ultimately pay for with $90 or more (without PSU). The aluminum helps dissipate heat better but is also more prone to getting dinged. The feet can be retracted for transport and in normal use help to keep the light tower upright.
Side Panel: The right side panel is conventionally screwed to the housing and the left side slides on very easily. It's then locked into place with latches and one of them can be locked (to restrict access). Nice build quality and as long as it's not bend easy to remove. The 1mm 'thick' aluminum can be easily bent and steel panels have superior strength in that regard.
Power Supply: The VA3400 includes a Thermaltake "Silent PurePower 480" power supply. While 'silent' apparently doesn't mean quiet, the fans do their duty relatively unobstrusive. However, this is not a fan-less design and noise is naturally higher than those (but also cheaper). The power is enough for most applications with single CPUs and one graphics cards. When planning to eventually step up to SLI (i.e. ASUS' awesome A8N SLI Deluxe motherboard), keep in mind that a new power supply north of 500W is also needed. The included power supply peaks at 500W and holds a sustained 400W, but only offers an ATX power plug. For dual CPU or SLI motherboards you may be better off with the VA3000SNA and just get your own EATX power supply.(The EATX power plug which has 24 pins instead of the 20 pin ATX plug.) Otherwise some crasftsmanship is required to fashion an 'EATX extension' from the mostly unused P6 plug and a spare ATX plug or modified EZ plug inserts. (There are a few ATX-to-EATX adapters in the market if you're patient enough to look for it.)
Sliding Rails: Removing side panels may be easy in most cases and especially so in the Tsunami, it's still even easier if one could just slide disk drives out and not worry about side panels. The VA3x00 series allows that for the 5.25" devices and changing a drive becomes a snap. Excluded from that comfort are the 3.5" slots, which are not accessible from the front anyway. The included rails work very well, as they snap into the driven and then slide and anchor into the 5.25" slots.
Removable 3.5" frame: Both frames for 3.5" devices can be removed very easily via latch fasteners. This comes in handy when changing drives or simply accessing the mobo better. This feature alone became a 'life saver' during the trouble shooting I went through when upgrading my system. Especially impressive is the lower 5-bay frame. Each device is fastened via thumb screws and dampened with elastomeric grommets. The latter reduces body noise significantly and quiets down overall operating noise.
Screwless PCI brackets: If you're frequently changing cards in your PC, this feature will make the swap much easier. Since there is only a quick snap fastener, no screw can be lost or has to fumbled with. Even if you're only occasionally changing a PCI board, this feature makes it soo much easier. Besides, now you can't loose screws anymore or don't have to worry about a leftover somehow getting stuck under the motherboard and possible damage it (electrical shortage). The drawback of convenience is the limited retention of the cards which is most obvious for outlets mounted in single brackets. Pushing a plug into the outlet (i.e. USB) may unlock the bracket and require opening the case to fix it.
Hinged Front: All drives and switches as well as power LED and HDD LED are 'hidden' behind the beautiful aluminum front door. It's hinged for easy access and can be locked. Even the housing front can be opened like a door (hinged) and allows easy access to the drives and the fan (for cleaning). Excellent for having the tower on your left. When placing it to your right, it becomes a slight annoyance since the door swings to the left. Besides, the drives are behind the door and will collide with it in case you forget to open the door in time.
Cooling: Both fans in the front and the back are 120mm in diameter and the front plate allows generous airflow. While the ATX form factor is not optimized for today's power houses (heat generators), the Tsunami still manages to keep it several degree cooler than my old Ahanix dBox ever could. Granted, the AMD processor runs cooler anyway, but even when comparing the same board I found the Tsunami to be about 5F - 10F cooler under full load with all components to be the same. But before you get too excited about that keep in mind that the Ahanix dBox was designed for 'looks' and not performance. ;-)
Port Location: For all those who would like to have a clean front which is not cluttered by outlets for USB etc., Thermaltake chose to go a more elaborate route and integrated two USB2.0, one Firewire, one microphone jack and an earphone jack in the top of the case. This is good for most applications. However, if you choose to slide it inside a computer desk, it becomes hard to reach in some cases. The connectors leading to the mobo are mostly easy to sort out but the audio front panel description by Thermaltake differs significantly from Asus despite Tt's citation of Asus' pinout.
Lock it up: At home this is more to satisfy your paranoia of some service guy stealing components from your computer and examples for that are rare and far inbetween. However, LAN parties are all about showing off and in this case it's good to know that the Tsunami's side panel as well as the front can be locked (via key) and this way prevent easy access for thieves. At home it may help you feel better, just keep in mind it's light enough to be easily carried away. ;-)
BEAUTIFUL: INSIDE & OUT
The Tsunami series is beautiful, no doubt about that. The choice of materials, the mirror finish and the elegant design make it mid tower case with bragging rights. The only thing flashy about it, may be the blue lighting in front profile of the door. That may not be enough if you want a lot going on. For everybody else, there no reason to envy Macintosh users anymore, your PC can be just as cool. (At least from the outside.) Sure, it's still a square box but a fancy one. ;-)
The front cover resembles a wave and forms a handle for opening the door. It's also hiding the 2 blue LEDs that illuminate the front, but too focussed and could be better diffused (see picture). Opening the door may only be necessary when changing disks as the hidden power switch is actually a positive feature and most motherboards allow to turn the computer on via keyboard anyway. (At least my old Gigabyte SINXP1394 and the new Asus A8N SLI Deluxe do such trick.) The brushed aluminum gives the front a very timeless appearance and may be around for as long as there is ATX motherboards. (Assuming that the new BTX format is not going to take over too quickly.)
The overall elegance is slightly disturbed by the large 'Tsunami' sticker in the top left corner. While I like the 'Tt' (Thermaltake) logo in the bottom right corner, the 'Tsunami' logo feels a little much considering the overall appearance of the case.
The side panel comes in 2 different variations and if you can do a beautiful wiring job, you might consider showing it with the SWA or BWA (both with window). Otherwise stick with the SNA or BNA. That also allows to show more of the so-called 'mirror finish'. It's a nice paint job but nowhere close to what the description implies. In fact, it's more like a satin orange peel type finish.
Inside it looks more like a traditional case. Driven by ATX specifications, the difference is in the details only. Both fans sport orange rotators which are not visible from the outside. That's about as flashy as the Tsunami comes out of the box. In my case that's a good thing.
CONCLUSION
The Tsunami VA3000 series is a beautifully crafted mid-sized tower for those who like elegant design even in a computer. Match the VA3400SNA with the right monitor (i.e. the ViewSonic VP201) and both make for an attractive couple on your desk, reason enough not to hide the computer away. In fact, add the JBL Creature to the mix and the trio looks like they're made for each other. (If there just were not a million cables attached to it.)
Build quality is great, layout and little practical details are even better. Only shy of a motherboard tray, the case sports many features to make building and upgrading a snap. Cooling performance is excellent and it remains to be seen how much of that the upcoming BTX form factor can improve. (The changed layout of the BTX form factor will render existing ATX cases incompatible and with it the Tsunami.)
The included power supply is a good start and keep in mind that 400W don't cover all applications. When choosing the VA3000SNA, you might as well go for a fan-less power supply and eliminate a great part of the noise.
Other system specs:
Monitor: Viewsonic VP201s
Motherboard: ASUS A8N SLI Deluxe
Processor: AMD Athlon 64 3500+
Memory: Kingston HyperX DDR400 (C2), 1 GByte
Hard drive: Western Digital Raptor 74G SATA 10k
Operating System: WindowsXP Home SP2
Video Driver: Catalyst 5.2 (Radeon driver 8.10)
Chipset Driver: nVidia nForce v6.39
Graphics card: MSI RX800Pro-TD256E
ONLINE RESOURCES
http://www.thermaltake.com/xaserCase/tsunami/tsunamimenu.htm
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.