Rosewill Thor V2 White Edition Case Review, Cable Management, Hands-On
Rosewill Thor V2 White Edition Case Review, Cable Management, Hands-On
2012-03-18
hey everybody this is Steve from gamer
sexist Annette and today we're going to
review the Roseville Thor version 2
white edition case it is a full tower
case that fits micro ATX ATX EA TX and
excel ATX motherboards so it fits just
about anything you can throw at it in
terms of the gaming is definitely a sort
of an upper range case it is around $130
to 150 depending on your purchase
location and it is intended for
enthusiasts it has a couple of really
awesome features so first I want to run
through what kind of who should be using
the case this case is probably not
something I would recommend for the
ultra enthusiast for someone who might
have maybe around $200 spent on a case
you do have better options out there but
if you're building a computer and
probably the 700 to 900 range maybe
seven hundred to a thousand range even I
would say absolutely consider this case
because it is a very good value for the
prep for the for what you get is a
fantastic value and that said though
here's here's what we have for features
that are notable now the most instantly
noticeable thing of course in this video
is going to be the chevron design top
panel that when you slide the switch it
pops the Chevron dragon-like blades up
it kind of looks like a dragon spine or
a dinosaur spine and it pops those up
which of course reveals access to one of
the fans there is a top 230 millimeter
fan a rear 140 millimeter fan both of
those are exhaust a front to 30
millimeter fan and a side to 30
millimeter fan both of those are intake
and there is room for a bottom 120 or
140 and room for an additional top 140
they say now I looked at the top there
is definitely a fan mounting location
for another fan but I just don't see it
happening it's not going to cool a whole
lot it's right above a drive bay you
really get nothing out of that fan you
might get something if you have some
pretty hot drives there I could
definitely see that if you have maybe a
high powered drawing front panel display
or something to that extent view on the
NZXT century something like that but
let's move on from the fans though they
do keep things pretty cool the case
overall runs very quietly for what it is
it has two fan speed controllers on the
front panel and you can see those right
here you can set up the fans any way you
want so I set up
intake fans on one speed controller and
my exhaust fans on the other speed
controller and I actually did double up
my CPU fan on one of them just because I
was feeling too lazy to route it out the
back which is a bit of noise annoying to
handle so beyond these controllers you
also have two USB 3.0 ports with the
full 20 pin header so if you have a
motherboard that supports that you're in
luck there are also of course two
standard USB 2.0 ports and then your
audio panel so nothing too original
there there's also an eSATA connector
but not extremely common for these
gaming pcs the front panel is angled up
so it is out of traffic that we don't
actually break your USB keys when you're
walking by now that we have all these
basic exterior objects out of the way
let's go back to the chevron design for
just a second I want to talk about why
exactly would even use it
I actually was wondering myself why
would I ever want to close this thing
because then I'm just invalidating my
top fan and even my cpu fan which shoots
air up and creates a huge heat vortex so
I was trying to figure out why would I
want to close this obviously you want to
keep it open when you're gaming so what
I came up with and what I tested is you
do want to close it for when you are
when you're not going to be using the
computer heavily maybe when you're
recording a video like this or when you
are going to bed because it keeps the
dust out of the case so it does keep
things clean it keeps dust out of the
top honeycomb fan mesh you don't need to
close to keep dust out of that because
of the way it is designed because of the
way it is interlaced with that Chevron
kind of shape it will keep dust out of
there even when it is open because you
have an awning over the fan base the
2:30 and the 140 fan so that will keep
dust landing on the chevrons rather than
in the fans and that's really great for
dust control now in on the topic of dust
control on the bottom we have an easily
removable filter for dust so you can
just pull that out vacuum it off with an
anti-static compliant vacuum or replace
the filter entirely if you want to so
that is a bit better over say behalf of
X which has terrible dust control you
have to do it all manually so that is
pretty nice to see it does have filters
in other locations as well there's a
bottom filter for the additional 140 fan
though I didn't see an option to remove
it looking at the internals we do see
that there are
tons of rubber grommets and a holes to
shove cable through so it is fantastic
for cable management I have to say I
just before this case I was looking at
1/2 X with the same system in it and it
was horrible for cable management I had
nowhere to shove all those cables and
that is in part because I have a non
modular power supply so I have and it's
a high end power supply so it has tons
of extra cables that I'm never going to
use I can't remove them this case has a
place to shove them as a couple places
to shove them and it does not obstruct
cooling surprisingly and it also looks
pretty good you don't even see them
completely out of sight so you route
everything behind the board for the most
part it has a full I believe 25
millimeters back there which is about an
inch of space so that's big enough for a
24 pin connectors that cable and also
the 12 volt 8 pin connector for your
motherboard so you can actually Reeve
those over each other and still have
enough room
I think Rosewell realized there is no
point in having all these grommets in
here all these holes to shove cables
through if you have more to put cables
in then pull them out of or vice versa
so they definitely did a good job
stepping that up in terms of design
especially at a $130 price point you
really didn't get that until recently so
kudos to them for that we also have the
now standardized quick switching the hot
swappable drive bays so for your hard
drives and for your optical drives but
I'll get to those in a second the hard
drives you can phase either outward or
inward meaning either out towards the
left or in towards the right panel so if
you want to write your SATA cables
behind the case you can absolutely do
that if you want to route them out the
left side of the case where they are
obviously a bit more visible but more
accessible if you're switching drivers
pretty frequently then you can do that
as well so it's nice to have that option
I didn't feel like the plastic was a
little bit flimsy on some of the case
but overall the drives are pretty stable
pretty solid and the optical drives now
this is where some of the quality comes
into question the optical drive mounting
location is very easy to just push in
the pin and instantly screw in that
drive with no screws no screwdriver
required you just push in the pin and
then slide it to the right and lock it
and that will hold your optical drive in
place unfortunately I felt like it was a
little bit flimsy little cheap that
almost fell off when I used it the first
I'm so definitely be careful if you get
the case when you're using that you
don't want to break it it did seem like
it was it was okay it wasn't going to
break but definitely not the best
quality again for $130 case though is a
pretty good value all of this really
helps keep cables out of the way and it
really helps newcomers especially to
cable management kill management is not
something you necessarily think about
the first time you're building a PC
you're more concerned with how do I not
kill this thing by accident so that's
totally understandable
but it is very important to cable manage
your system so that you can more easily
maintain it later and keep dust levels
down and of course to not obstruct
airflow that this case does make cable
management very easy I'm telling you it
took me maybe 40 minutes to do
everything perfectly the way I wanted it
of course this was a lot of undoing and
redoing so I do suggest this case for
anyone that is a either newer builder
new to cable management afraid of cat of
spending a lot of time on cable
management or you just have kind of a
budget again if you were an ultra
enthusiast I would push you towards a
more expensive case it is a good bang
for the buck there definitely a great
value the build quality is so-so on the
outside it is pretty good-looking
especially the white edition it has a
very sleek look personally not for me
I'm going to stick with the black cases
but it is a very cool look for a white
black case the build quality overall is
solid I can't complain too much other
than that one piece with the optical
drive and of course the the filters are
a little bit are kind of hard to get out
at times but really that's not a huge
complain that doesn't take any points
off that back to the exterior though
since we're talking about build quality
of the outside you can very easily pull
out the top panel and some of the front
panel pieces so that you can hot swap or
pull out things that you drop in those
chevrons by accidents they're impossible
to reach into so you can pop that top
panel off and pull stuff out if you need
to the front pieces that come off
actually reveal the external drive bays
so you slide off the one side basically
the right side you just slide it off you
pull out the cover and then you shove in
your new drive just like that really
fast so again big big thanks to them for
that for making it easy I do have to say
though and I hope Rose will hear
I almost dropped this computer a couple
of times because of there's just nowhere
to hold it and that's expected with
these bigger cases they're unwieldy
they're heavy there's really not a lot
of places to put it to put a grip so
that's okay what I didn't like was that
the top is so easy to remove and the
side is so easy to remove that they were
sliding around on me since they're not
really secured by very much and when I
picked it up I the front side slid off
and I almost dropped the case which of
course the computer in the case would be
find the floor might not be but that's
another story altogether so I would have
to say be careful picking it up again no
huge point after that just you know be
careful when you're handling it you're
not going to move it around a lot anyway
so not a huge deal in the long run there
is no side panel no no Plexiglas side
panel or anything like that so as
someone who has some nice components and
some really cool lighting I was kind of
disappointed not to see one they do a
good job of making the black mesh with
the massive fan look pretty good though
because of course the massive fan does
take a lot of space about 230
millimeters obviously so that is kind of
understood I would say if you really
want to display your components you're
either going to have to do a serious
case mod or you'll have to go elsewhere
so if that is a deal-breaker for you
then the Thor version too is not your
case in summation the Thor version -
white edition case it does look pretty
cool of course the white and black are
the same in terms of features so the
Thor version 2 by Roseville does have a
great value it is a large case which
does mean that it tends to be cooler
because there's more open air less area
for cables to obstruct it is of course
heavier for that reason if vaguely
resembles a Thor from Starcraft 2 if
that concerns you though so you might be
afraid seeing that in the night but it
does have crazy good cable management in
terms of performance that's the one area
it sort of falls a little bit short it
was pretty warm I averaged I think about
50 Celsius with this case whereas my 1/2
X was a little bit better was more in
the 45 range for when I'm when I'm not
gaming and that is with an overclocked
system so to keep that in mind it might
be different for you your mileage will
vary it is still good at cooling it's
still
going to do what you need to do for the
most part again the only people who
really have concern here are going to be
the enthusiasts if you want you can plug
in better fans or more fans though there
aren't a ton of expansion areas there's
one in the bottom and one on the top
that's really it in terms of extra fans
so again keep that in mind as well when
you're purchasing it does have those
nice PSU dust filters that make things
nice the chevron design is great for
dust is very good with dust in general
and cable management those are two big
key points the detriments are just going
to be performance that's really the main
one I have the build quality is a little
bit flimsy in some areas but overall
fantastic build quality other than that
one optical drive that I've already
complained about so I think it's a
pretty good case if you like it then
definitely like this video or if you
have questions comment below let us know
what you need to know about this case I
still have it so I can answer any
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will talk to you guys next time peace
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