ThermalTake Sviking VA4000 Chassis

Great case, not too expensive.

Strengths: Fairly decent cooling, good looking, variety of features, nicely sized.

Weakness: Noisy, cables can get chewed up in hinge (there are simple workarounds though)

I have purchased this case for $109 CDN. The case does not include the PSU, which is quite nice since included PSUs are rarely of good quality. This lets you choose the PSU you want without wasting money on having an included PSU you won't be using. The case includes room for up to 5 3.5" bays, and 4 CD-ROM bays, which all have a toolless and easy-to-use yet reliable rail insertion system. Great...
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I have purchased this case for $109 CDN. The case does not include the PSU, which is quite nice since included PSUs are rarely of good quality. This lets you choose the PSU you want without wasting money on having an included PSU you won't be using. The case includes room for up to 5 3.5" bays, and 4 CD-ROM bays, which all have a toolless and easy-to-use yet reliable rail insertion system. Great for people who are constantly swapping out drives and the like. All mounting rails and screws are included with the case, so you won't need to purchase extras. There is also a tool-less PCI card system, but I have always found it to be better to just use the (included) screws.


As far as cooling goes, I have a very high-end system build around this case, that puts out well over 300W of heat, and the case deals with it pretty well, keeping a case temperature of around 32 C. The front panel temperature LCD and fan controls are great for keeping an eye on temperatures, and adjusting the fan speeds. The two 120mm fans included are very noisy, especially on high. However, it is possible to greatly reduce the amount of noise. The trick is to remove the purple fan guards/holders and use screws instead to mount the fans.


The clear side window is nice for showing off your rig, but more than that, it allows you to know at all times if your fans are still running ok, just by taking a quick peek. As far as the general construction goes, the quality is fairly good, and the size is just right. There is however the issue of the small wires in the hinge of the door for that temperature sensor, they tend to get worn and torn, but a quick fix is to simply wrap them in a couple layers of electrical tape to protect them, or use cable sleeving.


Overall, apart from the two weaknesses, this is an excellent case that I enjoy owning, and works very well. I would definitely recommend it.

By Jake_E - Dec 5, 2005

COMPANT HISTORY I want to start by...

Strengths: Its made by thermaltake, Price, Quality, the look

Weakness: none really

COMPANT HISTORY I want to start by letting you know who Thermaltake is and what they are doing for the PC world. Thermaltake was founded in 1999 and since then they have been and are well known for their high-end thermal related products. In 2000 Thermaltake manufactured the worlds first turbine cooler the Golden Orb, which went to sell two million units worldwide. In 2001 Thermaltake became...
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COMPANT HISTORY

I want to start by letting you know who Thermaltake is and what they are doing for the PC world. Thermaltake was founded in 1999 and since then they have been and are well known for their high-end thermal related products. In 2000 Thermaltake manufactured the worlds first turbine cooler the Golden Orb, which went to sell two million units worldwide. In 2001 Thermaltake became Intel’s foremost cooler provider. In 2002 the designs for the 1st generation Xaser II chassis are made, also in 2002 thermaltake constructs the 1st generation water cooling set and is recognized once again is the best cooling effect by Intel. In 2003 the 3rd generation external water-cooling set is unveiled. The PuerPower power supply is designed and the LanFire is manufactures to appeal to the PC gaming users. And finally in 2004 designs for the heat-conducting pipe to the specifications of desktop silent tower, fanless power supply, the Tsunami chassis, and 12CM low-noise liquid cooler which receives AMD’s outstanding partner award. So to sum up the last 5 years for Thermaltake in my opinion they have dominated the PC cooling world with their superior products. Today I have the privilege to review one of Thermaltake’s newer chassis the SViking VA4000BWS.

THE CHASSIE

First off I would like to start by saying that this is one of the coolest looking cases I have seen. I loved the Viking like front Bezel Design. Now on some other cases I have had problems with the placement of the USB, audio and speakers, and firewire but not with the SViking, the front access to USB2.0, Audio & Speakers, and IEEE1394 are placed on the top of the front bezel making this an awesome location. Another cool aspect is that the front bezel and the side panel are lockable helping to keep the dogs at bay. Now since Thermaltake is in my opinion the leader in cooling I found the dual fan controllers and the blue LCM temperature monitor to be nothing but a standard edition for the SViking. Once again putting them above the rest. The LCD temperature monitor "Hardcano" allows you to monitor the temp in Celsius or Fahrenheit and the LCD will light up red as an alarm if the temp gets too high. This is an awesome feature because if you don’t have any type of monitor you won’t know until it’s too late. The LCD monitor "Hardcano" teamed up with the dual fan controllers and the 12CM intake and 12CM exhaust silent fans are more then enough to cool and monitor the temperature of your system.
Another cool addition Thermaltake had added is incorporating a large side window; this allows you to have a perfect view of all the bells and whistles of your system. Now for the inside of the SViking it is very accommodating for my hardware giving you more then enough room for all your optical drives, and hard drives. Not only is their plenty of bay with 4 x 5.25” and 1 x 3.5” external and 5 x 3.5” internal bays but these are all a screw less design making it very easy to install and remove drives at will. I tend to like bigger cases due to the amount of room inside to allow for better airflow the amount of room in the SViking allows for sufficient airflow. Thermaltake has added a blue tool box in which are the optical drive, floppy drive and hard drive rails, hard drive screws and other various screws. I have seen other cases with a zip lock bag filled with all this but Thermaltake has outdone themselves with this. This “tool box” sounds like a little thing but it shows Thermaltake’s attention to detail and their professionalism. They could be like everybody else and give you the zip lock bag but they do a little extra for you.
The one flaw that I had with the SViking was the wire for the front bezel. Once I took off the front bezel to put my drives in I had to fight with the wires. I ended up laying the bezel on top of the case so I could get to the bays. It was worse for me when I needed to put the front bezel back on. The wires kept on getting in the way of the floppy drive and the top optical drive making it almost impossible to have an optical drive in the top spot. The wire’s kept on getting pinched and I just kept on thinking if the wires were a few inches longer I would not have this problem.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion I feel that Thermaltake continues to improve on their already superior quality and designs. From the awesome look of the case, adding in the Hardcano into the front bezel, and placement of the various ports, the design of the interior and the high end cooling system makes this SViking case a need for any PC enthusiast. I highly recommend this case and all Thermaltake products in general. I would like to give a big thanks to Annie Wu at Thermaltake for making this review possible.

By justin3680 - Nov 10, 2004

Excellent Case

Strengths: Good construction, great fans...love the lay-out. Has a nice look to it...a bit different. You can make the interior look as good as you want to.

Weakness: The little tool box is a bit cheesy.

Some folks said they don't like the switches and USB access at the top of the case...to each there own, it's a good idea to me if you use a thumb drive a lot. I do like the front fan speed adjustments.

By MallardMike - Jun 7, 2006