Thermaltake Shark Case Review

Your case is one of the most visible components of your system and can say a lot about who you are and what your computer is for. With so many different designs and styles available to choose from, you can say almost anything you want. Today Dan Wellman takes a look at the Thermaltake Shark case, a high end enclosure built to look good and cool well.Thermaltake has built a solid reputation as an innovative manufacturer of top quality cooling solutions, and their stunning range of high-end cases is no exception.  The Shark VA7000 case is one of the more expensive cases in the Thermaltake range, so expect to pay somewhere in the region of $150 - $170 for one without a PSU. One with a PSU or liquid-cooling system thrown in is much more.
For a case that’s pretty expensive, but Thermaltake is giving you much more than just somewhere to put your motherboard and drives. Almost every aspect of the case is bursting with innovation and ideas that make working with the case a pleasure.  Even the cardboard box that the case comes in is colourful and attractive!

Upon purchase, you obviously get the case itself.  You also get a bagful of screws and whatnot for attaching your drives and seating the motherboard, etc.  Thermaltake being the masters of cooling also throws in not one, but two 12cm 2000rpm fans (intake and exhaust) to ensure that a constant supply of cool air is dragged over the internal components and then pushed out as it heats up.  It is also compatible with all current types of liquid cooling systems.  The form factor is ATX or mini-ATX.
Beginning with the aesthetics then; the case looks incredible and is available in either black or silver, with the internal and front lighting in blue. It’s pretty big at 52cm high, 20.5 cm wide and 50cm deep, but it still manages to come off as an elegant and stylish full tower. For a case this size it is surprisingly light, weighing in at 6.8kg when empty which it owes to its aluminium construction. 

 Those of you that like to be able to look right into the case may be slightly let down by the fact that the side of the case is not completely transparent.  It does feature a cut away section however that instead of being clear plastic is an uncovered grill to further help with air flow.  EMI shielding is also provided by the side panel to help prevent noise or interference escape.

The front bezel is hinged and lockable, and the removable side panel is tool free and also lockable.  There are also magnets into the door and front of the case to keep it firmly closed, and for added stability, four retractable feet sit at the bottom of the case.  These can be removed if necessary.

Even the inside of the case is incredibly well engineered.  The inner chassis is sectioned off into distinct compartments; a main one for the motherboard tray, a vertical drive bay shaft toward the front of the case, and a top section for your power supply unit.  The inner frame takes up no more space than it needs to, leaving each of the compartments spacious enough to work comfortably in and there are plenty of spaces between the casing and frame to run cables through.  This is probably the easiest case to build or upgrade a PC with that I have ever used.  It was easy to get everything into it and next time I want to add or upgrade anything, the spacious layout and design means that will be easy too.

It is packed with features that make adding any of the core system components extremely easy.  The motherboard is mounted onto a removable tray rather than the casing to make inserting or removing it a snap, and it is held in place with thumb-screws making adding or removing the motherboard tray a tool-less operation. 

 

The PCI card slots at the back of the case can be quickly removed by the use of an ingenious bracket that holds the slot covers or PCI cards in place.  Like the motherboard tray, this is also a tool-free component.  As expected with a full-tower case, you get a nice amount of expansion slots, seven in this case (no pun intended).

The blanking plates in the front of the case actually contain rails that are screwed onto the side of your optical drives, which then slot neatly into the case.  Once they are attached to the drives, adding and removing them to change jumper sittings or whatever becomes tool and hassle free.  There are a total of five 5.25 drive bays.

The floppy-drive or card-reader (or both) are housed in a cage that once again, slots in and out of the case without the use of tools.  This is also based on a rail system for your convenience.

 

Inside the case are a further five drive bays for your hard-drives; each of these bays provide a cradle that clicks out of the chassis and screws onto your HDD.  Shock pads and EMI shielding can help protect your drives, provided you can correctly work out which of the screws provided you are supposed to use.  There is a clear inch of space between each of the drive cradles that can help heat to dissipate, another clear sign of Thermaltake design quality.

I’ve described each of these products as tool-free and what I mean by this is that the various components, motherboard, drives, etc, are removed or inserted without using tools.  To actually change the motherboard, you would need to use a screw driver to release it from the seating pillars.  But all of these features are still excellent time savers because it is far easier just to unclip a hard drive and then unscrew it from the rails once it is free from the cage rather than having to get the whole case out of your desk and almost take the whole thing apart just to get to the drives retaining screws.

The case features two USB 2 ports, a firewire port and audio in and out sockets on the side of case.  This is great because it doesn’t mean you have to have the door open when you want to temporarily connect a camera or plug in your headphones.  The cables for the front access panel and also for the power-button and lights are clearly labelled; this doesn’t sound like much of a feature but it’s surprising how many low end cases still don’t do this.  Another small but far from insignificant details that helps you to understand where those extra dollars went is the fact that the audio connections connect straight to the motherboard, instead of standard 3.5mm jacks that have to be routed out of the case and back in through the rear audio sockets, which again, is the all-too familiar scenario faced when you buy a cheap case.

The case does come with a very basic instruction manual that actually seems to provide more value in the humour content generated by the poorly translated instructions rather than actual useful information, but there are some pictures to help clarify certain points and it’s a nice touch to even include a manual with a case.
Performance-wise, there isn’t much I can comment on; generally cases don’t actually do much except house your components.  One thing I can say is that the case fans in the Shark are a little loud.  They aren’t deafening or anything but when it’s late at night and you’re trying to concentrate, the last thing you want is continual background whirring.  I’ve had the case in use now for about a week so it may just be a case of them needing to be worn-in.  Only time will tell if this is the case I guess.

Overall then, this is without doubt the best case I have ever owned or in fact seen.  With its bold impressive design, brushed matt finish and cool blue lighting it looks incredible.   I hate to repeat myself, but in case you missed it, I’ll say it one more time; it is a pleasure to work in this case.  You can remove whatever device you want to modify or change, without using tools and without spending ages elbow-deep in the case.  In the past when I’ve upgraded, the case has been one of the cheapest and least considered parts of the new PC, but if you do find yourself in need of a new case, spending the extra money on the Shark is well justified.  I’ll probably not buy a new case now for a very long time. 
Pros

• Stunning looks
• Security locks on front door and removable side panel
• Two full-size mounted fans (one with blue LED)
• Front access panel with USB2, firewire and audio
• Proper audio motherboard connectors on front panel audio sockets
• Lightweight aluminium construction
• Tool free access to interior and to all core components(PCI slots, motherboard and all drives)
• Plenty of space between chassis and casing for tidy/hidden cable routing
• Water-cooling compatible
• Spacious and easy to work with

Cons

• Expensive
• Fans are slightly noisy
• Screws needed to secure HDDs are hexagonal – you may need to invest in a PC toolkit to obtain the correct type of screwdriver

XG Viper 2 Case

When building a custom computer, it used to be that selecting a case for your machine was based solely on the internal configuration. Power supply, number of internal and external drive bays, and cooling potential were pretty much the only things that were important. All cases looked the same, square and beige in color. Today’s cases include the look and feel of what old case modders used to spend weeks perfecting. The Viper 2 case, the latest case in MGE’s XG line, is the best of both worlds: a well designed case wrapped in a sleek exterior.

XG, which stands for Extreme Gamer, has come out with their newest case, the Viper 2.  This case in another in a line of cases designed around today’s computer enthusiasts, who want their machines to look as good as they run.  Today I’ll be building a machine using the Viper 2 case as the platform.
On XG’s website, they have this to say about their new case:
The new Viper 2 carries on the tradition of the case that put XG on the map in the PC case market in 2004. The Viper 2 is truly designed with the extreme gamer in mind with its stylish design, aluminum 400W power, SATA 2.0, 20 + 4 pin connector and PCI express connector. With its ultra-gloss custom paint and hot design, the new Viper 2 features an advanced LCD display for time, CPU temperature, alarm, and fan speed. Other advanced features include a tool-less drive bay, PCI slot, and easy access side panel. Ideal for LAN Parties, Viper 2 comes with its compact size and ultra light weight.

Just from the pictures, the case looks pretty good.  Let's take a look at the specs for the case, as listed on XG’s website:

Case Type	Mid ATX, 1.0mm Aluminum alloy
Power Supply	Aluminum, 400W, Active PFC, SLI, and Smart Fan Control
5.25 Drive bays	4
3.5 Drive bays (external)	2
3.5 Drive bays (internal)	4
USB	Yes
Firewire	Yes
Fan Included	1x80mm front & 1x120mm rear red led fans
Audio/Mic	Yes
LCD	Time, date, and fan speeds
PCI Slots	7
Case Dimensions (DxWxH)	540mm x 260mm x 420mm
Cuft	3.5
GW	8.0 kg
NW	9.0 kg
SATA	Yes
PCI Express	2
SLI Ready	Yes
Color options	Black, Blue, Red, Silver

Let's move on now, and take a look at the case itself…First of all, I’d like to point out that the package came from MGE boxed in plain cardboard, just like the XG Dragon case we reviewed.  This keeps the contents anonymous to the casual observer.  If UPS leaves this thing sitting on your doorstep, it’s more likely to be ignored as a plain paper box, than as a shiny packaged box.
Once you open that box, however, you are greeted with the professionally finished box.  As with the Dragon case, it seems obvious that the packaging has been designed for a retail shelf, with its sleek appearance and specs listed on the sides.  A quick visit to CompUSA shows this product in stock, so it’s confirmed.  Here’s a couple pics:

 

I’m not sure what the deal with the red tape, is.  Maybe they were out of clear in the warehouse?  Before we move on and open the box, there are a couple of things I’d like to point out here.

As you can see from the picture, this one side of the box seems to list 3 different power supplies.  First, a small box on the right says its 500W SLI Ready.  Next, in the Features section, it says it has a MGE 450 Watt w/SLI and SATA.  Finally, near the bottom in the Specs section, it claims an MGE 400 Watt Power Supply, SLI Ready + dual fans.  To make matters worse, on the opposite side of the box, is another small box that reads 500W SLI Ready Power Supply.
With all of this, even reading the box and trying to make a determination of whether or not to buy the case could make for a confusing situation.  In this case, the PSU is the same as listed on the website, which coincides with the third listing on the above image. It’s the MGE 400w, SLI Ready + dual fans.
Opening the box, I found that the case is enclosed in a generous layer of foam, so any small dings that normally occur with boxes during shipping and moving would not damage the case.

  

As you can see, the case is well protected for shipping and handling.  My box had a number of small dings and dents, but the case didn’t suffer the smallest scuff or blemish.After removing the case from the packing materials, we get our first glimpses at this sleek case.

  

As you can see above, the Viper 2 case has a glossy red finish.  The silver highlights and the odd-shaped window go a long way in giving this case a cool and distinctive look.

 

The front of the case is hinged, and swings open to allow access to the external drive bays as well as the front panel USB, Firewire, and Mic/Headphone jacks.  To be honest, the placement of these front panel jacks is a little inconvenient, since you are unable to have any of them plugged in while having the front of the case closed.  If the case does get forced shut very hard for some reason with wires plugged in, you have the possibility of breaking the door, the jack, or the wire itself.

  

Finally, here are pictures of the back and open side of the case.  One important thing to note here are the black PCI lockdowns above each of the expansion slots.  I would also like to point out how the contents inside the case are situated.  The cable cluster for the PSU and the black box holding all of the materials are both free to bounce around inside the case while shipping.  This is normally not that big of a deal, but in a case with a side window, it can cause undue scuffing on the inside of the window before the user gets a chance to scuff it up on his/her own.  Looking at the image on the right, there was a very long white twist tie (about 14 inches long) that was connected to the back of the case.  It seems like this large tie might have been intended to hold the PSU cable cluster in place, but was just never attached to it.

  

Opening the box that came inside the case, we find the following:

• Users Manual
• Power Cable
• Hardware bag with screws and standoffs
• Entertainment Book
• Entertainment CD
• Cable ties
• Drive Mounting Clips

The drive mounting clips, pictured on the right, are a cool tool-less innovation that lets you quickly install and remove drives from the Viper 2 case.  There are enough clips to fill every bay in the case to capacity.  You will see these clips in action when we are installing the components.One of the first things you do when installing a motherboard into a new case is figuring out how it’s going to mount.  Most cases come with a variety of holes and mounting points, and you need to figure out which ones your board will use.

In the above image, you can see where I’ve added a number of brass stand-offs to the case itself.  When the motherboard is added to the case, holes in the motherboard will line up with these stand-offs, and screws will be used to fasten the motherboard in place.
Additionally, you will see that I’ve pointed out some mounting slots towards the front of the case.  I don’t see these very often anymore.  It used to be that you would use plastic stand-offs on motherboards, which would slide into slots like those above.  There would then be 2 or possibly 3 brass stand-offs on the motherboard to lock it in place.  With today’s cases, it’s not uncommon to use 7 or 8 brass standoffs to mount your motherboard firmly into the case.
Being that I’m a little on the obsessive side, I don’t like pushing on my motherboard when there is nothing underneath it to support it.  As it stands, my motherboard extends about 2 inches past the brass stand-offs towards the front of the case.  If I plug in IDE cables or new memory, I’m pushing down on part of the motherboard with nothing underneath it.  This could potentially cause damage to the board, so I’m not going to do it.  At the same time, none of the holes in my board line up with the mounting slots for the plastic stand-offs.  What do I do?  Improvise.

 

As you can see, I clipped off the bottom of the plastic stand-offs with some wire cutters.  I then attached them to the two corners of the board that had no support beneath them.  Now, when mounted into the case, these corners of the board are supported.  In the last picture above, you can see how the memory banks are located in between the plastic stand-off, and the last mounting hole for the brass stand-offs.

Finally, here is a picture of the motherboard inside the case.  I’ve taken the opportunity to point out all the screw-down locations, as well as the two additional plastic stand-offs.  As you can plainly see in this picture, those two plastic stand-offs will come in useful when installing memory or the IDE cables.
I have a final note on the installation of the motherboard.  This case is light and compact, which also makes it a little difficult to install the motherboard due to the close quarters.  I’ve done my share of installs over the years, so this wasn’t that huge of a deal, but it could have been much easier with a removable motherboard tray popular with most new cases, nowadays.As I said earlier, this case has a total of 10 drive bays: four 5.25 external, two 3.5 external, and four 3.5 internal.  To be honest, the front panel controls (USB, Firewire, and mic/headphones) take up one of the external 3.5 slots, which makes for 9 total usable bays.

  

Here you can see the open 5.25 bays, and then me using one of the tool-less clips to fasten in the Pioneer DVD burner. These clips seem to work quite well.  You line up the small pins with the screw holes in your drive, and then press the whole assembly into the little odd-shaped hole, and turn.  This locks the clip into place, which in turn holds the drive in place.

As you can see, I’ve now done the same to the two hard drives in this case.  I find it interesting to note, that the hard drive bays rest directly behind the front air intake.  Since the hard drives are one of the most heat-intensive parts of your machine, direct airflow will help to keep them cool.
None of the front-panel controls (USB, Firewire, or mic/headphones) will work without being attached to your motherboard.  Here’s a shot of the wiring harness for these connections, as well as a close-up of the front panel.

  

After a few quick connections, the front panel is all wired up and ready to go.
Next thing to do was install my cards.  This particular motherboard did not include an on-board network adapter, so I needed to install one of those, as well as a video card.  At this point, I’d like to again point out the tool-less PCI lock-downs.  These individual lock-downs did an excellent job securing the cards in place.

What good would a case review be without reviewing the PSU that comes with it?  With all of the confusion about the PSU on the box aside, here's what we have.

As you can see from this picture, the PSU itself it mounted at the topmost part of the case.  I prefer this design; it puts the PSU as far out of the way as possible, and it gives you as much open room as possible to work with.
As you can see in the picture, the wire harness for the motherboard is wrapped in a black mesh, which holds the cable together nicely and gives it a clean look.  The rest of the power wires were not so lucky, and have no wrapping whatsoever.

Here’s a pic of the label on the PSU.  As you can see, it has two 12V rails, but with a disappointing 10A and 8A, respectively.  Those of you who know power supplies know that 18A per rail is pretty standard.  While this PSU will get this machine up and running, it’s not going to drive a gaming system.
Once I got the machine installed and running, I ran some load tests on the PSU to determine the voltage while idle versus load.  Here’s what I found with my digital multimeter:

Rail	Idle	Full Load
3.3v	3.31v	3.31v
5v	5.02v	4.98v
12v1	11.98v	11.94v
12v2	11.97v	11.91v

There’s not really much to write home about, here.  If you are building a performance system, you’re going to want to trade out this PSU for one better.

Now that we’ve got the machine put together, the next thing we need to do is power it on.  I do this for the first time on my workbench without even plugging in a monitor.  If there is something I forgot or connected incorrectly, the machine will let me know with a number of error beeps (assuming I’ve hooked the internal speaker up correctly).
In this case, everything was good to go.  Here’s a couple of pics of the machines first power-up, with the LED fans all lit up.

  

The two LED fans give off a nice red glow, but not nearly enough to illuminate the case from the inside.  Now that we’ve got the case done, we can put the side back on.

The above pic is from inside the door.  I’ve put two arrows on it, so I could point out two things of interest.  In the beginning of the review, I stated that the PSU cables and the XG box could just shake around freely inside the case.  As you can see by the arrow on the left, there is some scuffing on the inside of the window.  It does not seem to be a common practice with MGE to put a protective film on the inside of their windows, as other case manufacturers do.  This causes these windows to be susceptible to scrapes and blemishes before the end user even opens the box.  This has been a problem with this case and the XG Dragon case I reviewed a couple of months ago.
The arrow on the right points to the silver grill on the inside of the case.  This grill is perforated to allow airflow, and with a little customization might be possible to mount an intake fan to it.  Again, with a little more design work, that could easily become a nice feature of this case.

   

As you can see here, I’m peeling the protective film from the outside of the window.  Note again the perforated flaring to the left of the window, and how clearly you can see inside the case.  From this angle, you cannot see the scuffing on the inside of the window.

Here’s a picture of the XG Viper 2 case next to its more expensive big brother, the XG Dragon case.  The Viper 2 is a full 3-4 inches shorter than the Dragon, though it’s hard to tell from this angle.
Here’s a couple more pictures of the two cases, with the lights on and off, to show the lighting effects:

  

As you can tell, the Dragon has much more of a presence from the light.  The two red LED fans in the Viper do very little to illuminate the insides of the case.  To be fair, though, the Dragon case has an additional mod kit installed, which assists in the internal illumination of the case.

Here’s a shot of the front of the case while its powered on.  This is, in all honesty, my favorite part of the case.  The two blue lights on either side resemble narrowed snake eyes, and the mesh part behind the LED panel looks like an open mouth.  From this view, you can also see the red glow of the front intake fan from under the LED panel.
The LED panel itself is a cool piece as well.  It can show you the current uptime of your computer, or the actual time of day.  In addition, it can show you the temperature of your CPU (using a probe you insert into the heat sink) in Fahrenheit or Celsius, as well as up to 3 fan speeds.  The front and back fans are already wired into this, and there is a third fan plug inside for adding a possible third.  You can even set a temperature alarm to go off when your CPU reaches a temperature you program into the front panel.  The only thing I don’t like about the LED panel is the flashing; the picture of the Viper’s head flashes every half second.  Maybe this would not be so annoying if it was the HDD activity indicator, but it is not.  The dragon on the Dragon case also has the same annoying behavior.
Speaking of the HDD activity indicator, that is located in the ‘eye’ on the right.  There is a really dim light that flashes in there when the HDD is active.  If you keep this case on your desk, you might be able to see it, but in my opinion, it’s not noticeable enough.

If you are looking for a sleek case at a somewhat affordable price ($120 at the time of this writing), this case may be just what the doctor ordered.  I personally find it aesthetically pleasing and plan on investing in some additional lighting to trick it out a bit more.

Here’s what I consider the highs and lows on this case:
Highs:

• Attractive high-gloss finish
• Definite cool-factor
• Front and back fans included
• LED readout for CPU temp, time, and fan speeds
• All aluminum construction (this case is super light)
• Good and functional tool-less design
• Front panel USB, Firewire, Headphone, and Microphone

Lows:

• Inside of window needs protection during shipping
• Confusing conflicting info on box
• PSU weak at best
• Hard to see HDD activity indicator

While the case looks cool, I could not bring myself to give it more than a 8 out of 10 rating.  The weak PSU and the other minor issues really brought down the score of this otherwise excellent case.
We’d like to thank MGE for sending us the Viper 2 case to review.  For more information about the Viper 2 case, or any of the other cool products in the XG product line,