Penultimate Gamers Case, Courtesy of Thermaltake and BMW Group

Posted by Grant Brown in Featured Articles, Games, Review, System on Dec 27th, 2009 | View Comments

What do you want in a computer case? A great design to impress your gaming buddies? A low thermal footprint so you can use your overclocked processors? Maybe just a clean interior design that doesn’t leave the cables in mounds on top of all your components, blocking airflow and causing unnecessary wear and tear? Now, for all of the above, how much are you willing to pay? Does $849.99 sound reasonable to you? A look at the Level 10, directly on. Thermaltake thinks so, with the introduction of its Level 10 Extreme Gaming Station! By collaborating with the BMW Group DesignworksUSA, Thermaltake has produced what it hopes to be arguably the best commercially available case today, and when you get a look at the design, you just might have to agree with them.

Construction

The Level 10 has been created with gamers and graphic designers in mind. From its asymmetrical balance to its heavy duty aluminum construction, this case screams quality and thoughtful planning through and through. The case has a minimal of plastic molding on it, with virtually the only plastic being the decorative red LED strip running across the top and sides. Its all aluminum construction, unlike many other cases on the market today, is thick; giving it the ability to withstand the bumps and tumbles of moving without a dent. In fact, moving it was a need taken into the design with two artfully placed handles which allow for two people to easily lift it at a time. You’ll need those two people too. High-end construction like this does come with a drawback; it’s darn right heavy weighing in at about fifty pounds!

Drive Bays

The six hard drive bays on the side are all provided airflow from a fan system at the top of the stack; each one being able to easily adapt to 2.5 or 3.5 inch hard drives (for those with SSDs) with the top two having integrated SATA 2 plug-ins for the drives. Each bay also has a red LED which is turned on by a switch that is depressed when a drive is in the bay, letting you know it’s there.

The optical drive bay above the hard drive racks is designed for three 5.25 inch drives, with the top drawer having a flip-down, button activated cover that can be adjusted to accommodate most commercial drives available today, a convenient feature!

Motherboard Tray

The motherboard bay has a removable tray, a high end feature that makes installation of parts a breeze! It can easily accommodate up to an 11 inch card, allowing you to add the most powerful graphics cards of today! A look at the Level 10, side on. The form factor of the interior agrees comfortably with standard ATX and micro-ATX designs. It also comes with two built in red LED lit fans, one for inflow, the other outflow.

PSU

The PSU bay is built for easy installation, with cable routing through the back of the case allowing you to reach your boards and drives with a minimum of cable showing. This feature helps improve airflow through the case, improving its cooling ability. The back of the case will come off as well (with the help of two locks for security, one for the optical drives, the other for the PSU and motherboard) allowing you to easily route the cables. The access points have been beveled and shrouded so the cables will have as little wear as possible from rubbing on the edges.

Conclusion

Really there is so much to be said for this case it’s impractical for me to say it all! From my readings it has all the things that you could want from the thoughtfully beveled edging to an awesome industrial design.

Some downfalls I noticed while researching this product included…

Some cables may not be long enough for this case, you’ll have to buy 24 inch SATA connectors and some PSUs may need extensions.
It’s really heavy, about like a sack of flour, so if you plan on lugging it around a lot make sure you can lift one first.
Pricey as all get out! $850 is rather much in my opinion. I’d like to see this case down closer to $400 before I’d consider (beyond my lotto winning dreams) buying it.

Though many of its pros make up for these shortcomings…

Heavy duty construction, no flimsy plastic or floppy aluminum siding here!
Removable motherboard tray, it’s really a great feature that makes installing new parts much easier, as well as servicing.
If you’re looking for a unique design unlike any other case on the market now, this is the case to beat.

To take a look at or buy this beast, you can find it here on Newegg.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811133089

If you want to learn more about this case, you can visit the official website here.

http://www.ttlevel10.com/

For an in depth review from unpacking to installation to finish, the folks over at PC Perspective got you covered.

http://pcper.com/article.php?aid=834