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
Introducing the Thermaltake Level 10 GT
This promised to be a good month for big stonking enthusiast-class cases, and we're delivering on the second half of our one-two punch with Thermaltake's monstrous Level 10 GT. This is the biggest, most expensive enclosure we've reviewed to date. It was one of the major centerpieces of Thermaltake's line-up back at CES, and later it showed up housing one of the most powerful gaming systems we've ever reviewed, the CyberPowerPC Gamer Xtreme FTW. Today we get to take a look at the Level 10 GT on its own and pit it against the best and brightest we've been sent so far.
When I reviewed the CyberPowerPC unit back in May, I found myself with some reservations regarding the Level 10 GT. A great many of those were ameliorated when I went to actually test that tower and found it to be a remarkably capable enclosure, able to dissipate the heat generated by a pair of GeForce GTX 590s and a massively overclocked Intel Core i7-990X without creating too much of a racket. At the very least on that front it seemed like it would be a winner, and spoiler alert: it is.
Within that review I stated that I'd come back and review the Level 10 GT on its own merits, and that's on the docket today.
| Thermaltake Level 10 GT Specifications | ||
| Motherboard Form Factor | Extended ATX, ATX, Micro ATX | |
| Drive Bays | External | 4x 5.25", 1x 3.5" |
| Internal | 5x 2.5"/3.5" (see above) | |
| Cooling | Front | 1x 200mm fan |
| Rear | 1x 140mm fan | |
| Top | 1x 200mm fan | |
| Side | 1x 200mm fan | |
| Bottom | 1x 120mm fan mount | |
| Expansion Slots | 8 | |
| Front I/O Port | 4x USB 2.0, headphone and mic jacks | |
| Top I/O Port | 2x USB 3.0, eSATA, fan controller, fan lighting toggle | |
| Power Supply Size | ATX | |
| Clearance | 13.5" (Expansion Cards), 190mm (CPU HSF), 290mm (PSU) | |
| Weight | 28 lbs. | |
| Dimensions | 23" x 11.1" x 23.2" | |
| Price | $269 | |
From the stats it's pretty easy to tell: the Level 10 GT is big. Off the cuff it looks like it retains a lot of the design and compartmentalizing cues from the original (and comically expensive) Level 10, but as we get into the review you'll see the Level 10 GT is really a very different beast.
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B3an - Tuesday, July 26, 2011 - link
Yep thats one seriously ugly case! Just what this market segment needs... yet ANOTHER ugly case.Why is it so hard for these companies to design nice looking cases that dont look like cheap tacky shit??!
If i see this at a friends house i would think a blind family member built it, or they found random old cheap case parts in a dump and glued them all together.
Sunburn74 - Tuesday, July 26, 2011 - link
Second that thought. Own a FT02. Case is amazing. There is nothing on the market I'd replace it with, even if the replacement was free (even including some of those $400+ lian lis)etamin - Tuesday, July 26, 2011 - link
agreed. I saw the Level 10 GT at microcenter and the entire exterior surface looks like it's covered in wads of incompletely melted plastic pellets. The market needs more clean cut refined box towers with all 90 degree angles (hint hint look at Lian Li)Built three Lian Li's: PC-A71F, PC-B10, PC-9F
dfjgkheu - Tuesday, July 26, 2011 - link
believe you will love it.
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Stuka87 - Tuesday, July 26, 2011 - link
No Sir, I don't like it.I actually really liked the original Level 10. It had a cool look. But this one just looks like a cheap knockoff.
It actually reminds me of a cheap plastic RC car that has the same basic shape as the real thing, but with many of the details filled in. So you end up with a plasticky looking knock off.
It seems to cool decently, but its *really* a stretch to say its worth the price.
Tetracycloide - Tuesday, July 26, 2011 - link
Could not a agree more, this is a huge step down in aesthetics from the previous generation which and a much slimmer, sleeker look and feel to it. This one looks like some kind of grotesque, mutant hybrid offspring of the original Level 10 and the stereotypical 'enthusiast' case with plastic and mesh everywhere.ViperV990 - Tuesday, July 26, 2011 - link
The original Level 10 wasn't something I'd have associated with ThermalTake.This Level 10 GT here however, definitely belongs.
etamin - Tuesday, July 26, 2011 - link
"This one looks like some kind of grotesque, mutant hybrid offspring of the original Level 10 and the stereotypical 'enthusiast' case with plastic and mesh everywhere."Spot on. You read my mind.
marvdmartian - Tuesday, July 26, 2011 - link
Personally, I'd love to know who thinks it's a good idea to build a case that looks like some half-mad person slapped together a modular home, over a 40-year period of time. Add a box here, add something there, etc.Looks like something a teenager would build, to tell the truth. And at that price point, I'm 100% certain that one of these will never cross my home's threshold!
don_k - Tuesday, July 26, 2011 - link
This over a Lian-Li? I would say no.