Thermaltake Level 10 GT: Monument to Excess
by Dustin Sklavos on July 26, 2011 11:50 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- Thermaltake
- Full-Tower
Conclusion: Works Great, But With Caveats
If you're looking strictly at performance, it's fair to say the Thermaltake Level 10 GT comes out a winner. Thermaltake's design marries strong heat management with some of the quietest acoustics we've tested, and that's something most of us can get behind. It proves that the enthusiast can have a case that performs well and does so without drawing attention to itself--or at least, drawing attention to itself by way of noise.
Thermaltake's aesthetic is undoubtedly going to strike some of you as being pretty ostentatious and I'm not sure I disagree. If you were interested in the way the original Level 10 looked but were unwilling to shell out the mad duckets to actually purchase one, the Level 10 GT is at least a more affordable (but still expensive) alternative. Yet the resulting case still seems to speak to a "gamer aesthetic" I'm not even sure actually exists in the marketplace, at least if our readership is anything to go on. There's a switch on the top of the case that lets you toggle the LED lighting in the fans between blue, red, green, or off, which is at least a concession to both personalization and to the users that want their enclosure to be neither seen nor heard. And while the external connectivity is fantastic, the arrangement is at least a little perplexing.
There's also the assembly. While a lot of it is painless and appreciated, like the standoffs for an ATX board being built into the motherboard tray and a decent amount of space for routing the dreaded AUX 12V line, securing external drives is more fraught than it should be, and I can't fathom why the hot swap drive bays don't have both data and power leads coming off the back of each. In-Win pulled it off in their $100 BUC and the Level 10 GT is almost three times as expensive. And then having an extra piece when you want to mount an expansion card is just a bit more irritation thrown into the mix.
Finally, there's the price tag. At $279 the Thermaltake Level 10 GT is basically a luxury item. Does it perform effiicently and quietly? Yes, it does. Does it perform to the level of $279 of efficiency and quiet? That's up for debate, and it's really going to depend on your needs as an end user as well as your personal tastes and aesthetics. Personally I find it to be a bit too heavy, ostentatious, and unwieldy, but I'm also tiny and frail, and your mileage may vary.
We have the SilverStone Fortress FT02 coming in soon, and that monster is five pounds heavier than this beast. I think that will wind up being the real test for the Level 10 GT: the FT02 is an older case, but it's also established. We'll have to wait and see, but for now we can at least give the Level 10 GT a nod of acceptance, if not outright approval.
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KoolAidMan1 - Tuesday, July 26, 2011 - link
It is inferior in construction and design to Corsair and Silverstone cases, yet it costs more than most of them. Again, I don't see the point.kevith - Wednesday, July 27, 2011 - link
I don´t think it´s all that ugly. And actually, I´m surprised to see how many, that are willing to set looks over anything else when we´re talking an enthusiast case like this.To me it´s about cooling and noise, and in those fields this seems like an absolute winner.
The issue of the securing the drives doesn´t matter to me anyways, I´m am a silence-freak, so I always find a way and a place to hang my drives freely mounted in rubberbands. Every "silencing, rubber mounting grommets" I ever tried were absolutely worthless. And HDD hum is a major noise factor. Eliminated trough SSD´s of course.
(Frankly, I dont understand why manufacturers haven´t made up a "rubberband munting system long ago, and a caselike this isn´t supposed for lan-parties anyway.)
And the price: Come on, if you go for this case it´s probably going to last you a very long time, so if you take the price pr. year, it´s not more than a cheaper case, that´s likely to be swapped substantially sooner.
One thing about the price though: It´s not very nice to read about a poor paint job in this segment!!
But thumbs up for Kevin G.´s post, the fine review and the interesting case
CList - Wednesday, July 27, 2011 - link
So I have a question for other "enthusiasts" out there...If you have the means and/or prioritize your PC so much that you're willing to spend $250+ on a case - why on earth do you need that many drive bays? Is it a macho thing to have a large case or do you actually have that many drives that you want to keep?
I mean drives are so damn cheap these days... How many do you need? If you are willing to buy such an expensive case, then there's really no reason to own a drive that's smaller than maybe 750GB. Give the thing away and buy a larger one.
If you need 10TB of RAIDed storage isn't it a lot easier to just put it on a little NAS box that you can stick in the closet with your router?
Similarly for DVD drives - does anyone even have more than one now? What on earth do you use it for? I have one external USB-based BluRay drive that I plug in when I want to watch a movie or install some software, and then it goes back in the drawer for another two months.
I have a really hard time understanding why anyone would want so many drive bays - unless you're operating on a budget, in which case why would you buy this case or one like it? Is it a "mine is bigger than yours" thing?
Not trying to be critical, just curious...
Cheers,
CList
Dustin Sklavos - Wednesday, July 27, 2011 - link
NAS boxes still cost money, and even if they're RAIDed you're still looking at a bottleneck over the network interface.Honestly, I'd use all the 3.5" drive bays here. I edit video; I keep project files and personal data on a RAID 1, then my scratch disk and gaming drive is on a RAID 0. And then my system drive is on an SSD.
People out there will definitely use these drive bays.
As for optical drives, I have a blu-ray reader and then a blu-ray writer, so that's two right there. ODDs are becoming less and less important over time, but they're still relevant.
etamin - Friday, July 29, 2011 - link
Thinking as logically as I can, I think the bays only exist to fill up space, a decision by the manufacturer and not something a typical user looks for. With at least one bay and a hdd rack, the length of the case must become longer. If a full sized tower (sized based on mobo) were to maintain a semi box-like appearance, there would be a lot of empty space in the front end. Using that space for extra fans is less cost effective for manufacturers than simply adding racks to the chassis. Some makers go for hdd racks, and others go for bays.Just a thought..
just4U - Wednesday, July 27, 2011 - link
I build a fair number of systems and get to test out alot of cases because of that.. I keep thinking that perhaps it's time to go back to some older models since the designers of some of these cases need to be shot. I use 2 Lian-Li PC60 cases. (7 years now) and keep going back to them. Removable motherboard trays, Brushed aluminum, and just overall solid designs. I keep changing fans but that's it.I think.. make the case a little fatter to accomadate 120mm fans (front back) Move the Psu to the bottom, add a filter, add 1 140 or 200m fan to the top, add usb 3.0 and microphone/headphone jacks to the front.. you now have the perfect case. Call it a day. Even lian-li won't do it. Ticks me off. How hard can this be???
just4U - Wednesday, July 27, 2011 - link
and yes .. I know about the Lian Li PC-60FNW but it doesn't have a removable motherboard tray like the PC60,A,+ etc. Not sure why Lian-Li moved away from them because they were major selling points.etamin - Friday, July 29, 2011 - link
good news...what you want exists: Lian Li PC-V2120bad news...it's oversized and very expensive
corriellan - Wednesday, July 27, 2011 - link
I'm adopting this one.Conscript - Wednesday, July 27, 2011 - link
looks like we have another Stranger in a Strange Land fan...I smiled :)