Chieftec Case & Thermaltake
Water Cooling Kit
Reviewed by
Shadrach
4.22.2003
Putting it together:
Initially, to quantify the
benefit of the water cooling system, only air cooling was used in the case.
The case includes four 80mm red glow fans for cooling. The processor is cooled with an after-market
Avalanche HSF from AVC. The installation was fairly simple and straight
forward. A nice benefit of this case is the removable hard drive and
floppy cages. This allows plenty of clearance for the motherboard to
be worked into place, while also allowing easy access to the wiring for the front
bezel lights and switches.
It was a disappointment to find the motherboard tray of this case was not removable, but the
amount of room to work is acceptable after removing the previously mentioned
hard drive and floppy cages. The tray also contains all the standard
pre-determined holes for the motherboard stand-offs.
Installation of a CD-ROM was quite straightforward and easy. Chieftec supplies a caddy on the bottom of the case for drive
rail storage. One drive rail must be screwed onto each side of the drive to be mounted, and then the drive can simply be slid into the case. This has become a popular feature over the past couple years, particularily on this style of case. It's important to make sure the front of the drive lines up correctly with the front of the case, or the rails will have to be readjusted. Two minutes might be an overstatement of the amount of time it takes to install a 5 1/4" drive in this case. The extra step of painting the CD-ROM bezel black, to match the case, was taken, as pictured below. This
takes a couple hours, or less, of work (mostly paint drying time), is very simple, and the reward is
tremendous! The bezel must be removed, and the moving parts separated before
painting. This
CD-ROM Light Mod shows how to remove the bezel.
Of all the benefits of this case,
one negative side is the lack of thumb screws. It was disappointing to see such
a gorgeous case lacking something so simple. Although this is somewhat a matter of personal preference, it doesn't make much sense to use a screwdriver unless absolutely necessary. The purchase of thumbscrews at the
same time as the case is ordered is recommended for the best experience. Also, this case does not come with a power supply. This helps keep the cost down, and
allow for a more "customizable" installation. On to the water
cooling installation...
