Technical characteristics
Type of case: Full Tower * Materials: Steel, plastic * Color: green * Types of motherboard: Microatx, ATX, EATX * Settles of 5.25 inches: 4 external * Settles 3.5 inches: 5 external * Expansion slots: 8 pcs. * Fans: 200 mm (600-800 rpm, red, green and blue backlight) on the front, upper and side panels, 140 mm (1000 rpm) on the rear panel * Input/output panel: 2x USB 3.0, 4x USB 2.0, esata, audio * Additionally: holes for hoses of it, stand for headphones * Dimensions: 58.4×28.2×59 cm * Weight: 12.7 kg * Price for June 2012: 9500 rubles
To come up with something new in case building is an arch-sized task. Yes, about once a year this or that manufacturer strains his design department, but this, as a rule, does not lead to anything good. A striking example – Thermaltake Level 10 , designed in close cooperation with the BMW car concern. On a long rectangular rack, isolated cuts were placed for each part of the system: power, hard drives, optical drives, and the motherboard. From the side it looked stunning, in practice – the moving elements of the creaking, the assembly process required patience, and the price tag “from 25,000 rubles” scared potential buyers. In December last year, Thermaltake released a lightweight version of the design – LEVEL 10GT , intended for powerful game configurations. And in April this appeared a variety Battle Edition , which we ordered for tests.
Plastic surprise
The concept is the previous (wall-stand with protruding rectangles), but the device itself has seriously changed. The height decreased by eight centimeters, the breakdown into volumes disappeared, and the cooling now works according to the classical scheme "Facial-Each". Oddly enough, the appearance from this became only better. Instead of a strict monument suitable for the office of the designer studio, an aggressive box turned out to be perfectly fitting into the definition of the “gaming corps”. Battle Edition adds the entourage: Dirty-green “military” color with yellow and white inscriptions in the manner of instructions on some manual grenade launcher. The impression is slightly spoiled by an abundance of plastic, from which all decorative elements are made.
Put what you want, there is enough space
Level 10GT is collected much easier than its predecessor: with the exception of some details, everything is familiar. The insides are closed by a large cover fixed on two loops. If desired, the compartment can be locked, on the left side there is a keyhole. Another costs in front and limits access to HDD. Keys included a couple of pieces, and it is not recommended to lose them, otherwise you will have to use the mount.
There are no serious restrictions on components, graphics cards up to 360 mm long are supported, eatx form factor and coolers with a height of 190 mm.
Interesting ideas and their implementation
We started assembly with the motherboard. As a subject, Gigabyte GA- X58 A- UD3 ATX standard. The stand for it is mounted in the design, so the chipset had to be installed directly on the case. Nothing complicated – they filled LEVEL 10GT on its side, screwed up the racks and pulled the board with bolts.
The role of the processor was assigned Core i7-920 with an impressive heat emission of 130 watts. It was entrusted with a high tower Cooler Master V6 , which is attached through the bar on the back of the motherboard. For such cases, there is a neckline on the LEVEL 10GT pallet that opens access to the rear of the socket.
Under the power supply, the whole bottom is dedicated to the ventilation holes and covered with a removable vacuumber. The scheme is simple: they laid the PSU, pushed it along the guides to the wall and tightened with four bolts. For ours Hiper K900 There was enough space with excess. It turned out to be a little more difficult with expansion cards. There are eight slots with standard plugs held by screws with large heads. Just unscrew them and free the compartments is impossible. For fidelity, they are locked with a perpendicular bar on two screws. For what? We do not add reliability without a concept, and time takes away. However, stick a 27-cm GeForce GTX 580 It didn't hurt us.
Optical drives – the most elementary in Level 10GT. We pull out the tongues on the front side one of the four metal nets, push the drive and shift a special lever. But with HDD engineers missed. The idea is ingenious: there are five boxes located outside the case, separately from the main part. To get them, you need to press the button, pull the dock on yourself, put the disk in it and return it back to click. The curiosity of the situation is that the hard drive needs to be screwed to boxing with four bolts, and this kills the very idea of a quick installation in the root.
But what you can’t hold on is to organize wires. All cables – buttons, USB, audio, fans – are arranged in neat harnesses and tightened to the right places. The rest – from PSU and motherboard – it is proposed to lay on the back of the pallet. To do this, there are many holes taken by rubber inserts in it, in the kit there is an extension cord for powering the processor, and a single wire of SATA, designed immediately for all drives, go to HDD.
700 mm cooling
Four turntables are blown up for cooling in LEVEL 10GT: one 200-mm on the ceiling, front and side panels and 140 mm on the back. With the exception of the latter, all are equipped with variable backlighting of red, blue and green colors, which is switched by the button on the roof of the case. Immediately two keys responsible for the speed of rotation of impeller. Two USB 3 are located nearby.0 with ESATA and a small recess in which it is convenient to keep external HDD. “Inclusion” and “rebooting” were placed on the front of the wall-hardware, under them are four USB 2 ports.0 and two 3.5 mm jack for headphones and microphone.
We had simple performance testing. First, we measured the temperature of the crystal at the open stand (38 and 51 ° C without and under load, respectively), then assembled the system in Level 10GT and repeated the test. At low speeds, the same results were obtained as “in the air”, but after the transfer of the “Carlsons” to High mode, the indicators decreased by 2 ° C, which is very worthy.
Note that in Level 10GT it is allowed to redirect the air flow from the side 200-mm fan. To do this, next to it a number of strips with a lever that was bred, which can either be lifted or lower the curtains. We did not notice any effect from these manipulations, but the very opportunity is funny.
In the end
Thermaltake Level 10GT has many controversial points: plastic panels, restriction on the number of hard drives. Another sample for 9500 rubles we would have smashed for this to fluff, but the creation of Thermaltake does not want to scold. Still, we are in front of us, first of all, a designer model that can not only accept the system of any power, but also provide it with proper cooling. There are no similar solutions on the market, and if you need a beautiful case and you have no desire to limit yourself to the choice of components, Level 10GT will be a successful purchase.
Pros:
- Great appearance
- High -quality processing of internal angles
- Castle on the door
- Headphones stand
- Good ventilation
Cons:
- The abundance of plastic
- High price
- noisy
Table 1
The temperature of the processor
Testing conditions Core i7-920 (2.66 GHz), without load Core i7-920 (2.66 GHz), under load
Open stand 38 ° C 51 ° C
Thrustmaster LEVEL 10GT (fans on LOW) 38 ° C 51 ° C
Thrustmaster Level 10GT (fans on High) 38 ° C 49 ° C
This is interesting
- The LEVEL 10GT includes a plastic headphone stand. It is attached to the net on the left side.
- The power on the side of the 200-mm fan is supplied through a group of spring-loaded contacts located on the side wall. This means that when you remove the lid, do not disconnect the wires.
- Lateral and front fans, as well as the power supply, are closed with removable vacuum nets, the upper fan of this protection is deprived.
- There is a tongue on the back panel, under which you can draw wires from a mouse or keyboard.
- SATA wires can be brought in advance to all compartments.
- The case does not remember the settings of the fans. After rebooting, the turntables work in slowly and shine in blue.
- In boxes under HDD there are vertical holes for fixing 2.5-inch drives.