Rosewill Thor v2: The God of Cooling and Silence?
by Dustin Sklavos on August 24, 2011 2:15 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- Full-Tower
- Rosewill
Introducing the Rosewill Thor v2
Most enthusiasts are familiar with Rosewill as a brand of inexpensive parts of decent quality. They've had enclosures on the market for ages, but those cases are almost always for budget builds. But today we have something that you may not be prepared for: an enthusiast-class full tower enclosure, competitively priced but clearly not for just any build. Rosewill's beast is able to support the largest of ATX motherboards and can handle quad-SLI and quad-Crossfire rigs with room to spare. In a market of SilverStones, Antecs, Corsairs, and Lian Lis, should you be giving Rosewill another look?
I'll be candid: I wasn't expecting a case like this from Rosewill. This thing is a monster, clearly designed with performance in mind, and priced that way. The plastic and steel build is actually remarkably staid, while connectivity is among the best of breed. It's not a bad looking case at all, and from just glancing at the specifications, the Thor v2 looks like it may have what it takes to perform with the best of them.
| Rosewill Thor v2 Specifications | ||
| Motherboard Form Factor | Micro-ATX, ATX, E-ATX, XL-ATX | |
| Drive Bays | External | 6x 5.25", 1x3.5" (shared with 5.25" using separate faceplate) |
| Internal | 6x 3.5"/2.5" | |
| Cooling | Front | 1x 230mm intake fan |
| Rear | 1x 140mm exhaust fan | |
| Top | 1x 230mm exhaust fan (supports 2x 120mm/140mm) | |
| Side | 1x 230mm intake fan (supports 4x 120mm) | |
| Bottom | 1x 120mm/140mm fan mount | |
| Expansion Slots | 10 | |
| Front I/O Port | - | |
| Top I/O Port | eSATA, 2x USB 2.0, 2x USB 3.0, fan controllers, mic and headphone jacks | |
| Power Supply Size | ATX | |
| Clearance | 13" (Expansion Cards), 180mm (CPU HSF), 200mm (PSU) | |
| Weight | 30.42 lbs. | |
| Dimensions | 22.84" x 9.14" x 21.89" | |
| Price | $149 | |
In addition to the staggering amount of expansion space within the Thor v2, the front 230mm fan glows red, a feature you can toggle on and off using a recessed button on the face. The fan controllers also support up to three fans per channel for six total. What perplexed me from the get-go was the venting on the top, though: there's a slider switch you can use to open or close the top vents, which seems like a cool idea until you realize that with those vents closed, there's nowhere for the top exhaust fan to channel air. Just from a cursory examination, though, it seems like airflow should be the last of the Thor v2's problems.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
35 Comments
View All Comments
PA Systems1 - Sunday, June 23, 2013 - link
Considering the cooling, kitty would freeze his little butt off curled on top.geniekid - Wednesday, August 24, 2011 - link
I want an FT02 for my upcoming build, but I may have to settle for this case instead. The FT02 looks so much nicer, but not $100 nicer.realjetavenger - Wednesday, August 24, 2011 - link
Anyone else notice how similar this case is to the HAF X? The Thor has the moving top vents and a bottom mounted fan but otherwise in specs and appearance it is Rosewill's version of a HAF X.Onus - Wednesday, August 24, 2011 - link
I have no doubt that the Rosewill case is superior to the HAF X. Almost every Coolermaster case I ever bought had untapped screw holes and poor tool-free mounts; most had minor panel misalignment and/or other QA issues. I've switched to Rosewill cases, and have not found any of these (admittedly trivial) issues with any of them.I'm not a fan of huge cases (I'm not a madd overclocker, and don't run 1kW of GPUs), but if I were, this Thor v2 would be on my short list. There would be no Coolermaster cases on it; as nice as their designs can look, they are not well executed.
f4phantom2500 - Wednesday, August 24, 2011 - link
Maybe Cooler Master's quality has gone down since I bought my Centurion 5, but I haven't had any issues with it. Admittedly, I haven't used a Rosewill case, and every case I've used prior to the C5 was off-brand and ranged from acceptable-but-not-too-good to just bad. But in the review here he states that the 5.25" drive bay locks in this Rosewill case aren't very good; I actually really like the locks in my C5. Then again my standards are probably substantially lower than Dustin's. The only toolless element of the C5 that could use improvement, imo, is the expansion card clip holder things. They're not completely useless but I wouldn't trust them if I was putting in a robust (read: heavy and expensive) GPU and/or moving the computer around a lot.Khronikos - Sunday, August 28, 2011 - link
I disagree. In fact, I think CM has went up in quality more than down. I use a 690 ll advanced, admittedly not a top end, and I have no issues whatsoever. Sure, you might run into problems with any case but there are zero alignment issues or anything of the sort. I haven't run into tap problems but that could be an issue on any case and is remedied pretty easily. I like my minimalist case look better than the HAF as well. The Thor looks okay but really not my kind of case and way beyond my needs lol.Metaluna - Wednesday, August 24, 2011 - link
I'm not in the market for a case like this, but I do like the top-mounted ports. I currently have a P182, which I keep on the floor. It has the USB ports sticking out at a right angle on the lower half of the front bezel, and when cables are plugged in, it's just way too easy to trip over them and pull out the cables or damage the ports. I actually broke one of the ports once this way. Fortunately Antec sells replacements, but I'd rather have the front ports up off the floor in a more protected position.ajlueke - Wednesday, August 24, 2011 - link
I saw at the beginning of the review that you stated this arena was typically the forte of brands such as Antec, Silverstone, Corsair and Lian-Li. All those brands are represented as comparisons in your review, save for Lian Li. I was curious how this case compared to the lian Li offerings, particularily the TYR-X2000, or X2000F (USB 3.0 version.) I have been using the stateside version of the TYR-X2000 in the form of the ABD Canyon 695 for some time now, and was wondering how this case compared to the far more expensive Lian Li cases. Perhaps we'll see that in subsequent reviews?pandemonium - Wednesday, August 24, 2011 - link
Just like Ferrari's and Lamborghini's don't like being smashed up just for an action scene, Lian-Li's don't like being subjected to pokes and prods by reviewers. >.<matt3D - Wednesday, August 24, 2011 - link
I saw this case at school today... lol, I got a free t shirt from newegg.