continued from part 1
Inside the Level 10
To gain access to the inside of the Level 10 you first have to remove the right side panel by first unlocking it, loosening the thumb screws, sliding the panel to the rear, and then tipping it out.
With the panel off you have access to the hard drive back plane area and the locking tabs for each of the compartments.
Looking closer at the backplane for the hard drive we can see the combined power and SATA connector. The Level 10 only comes with two of these connectors. The end user is to provide cabling for the remaining 6 drives. Thermaltake store has these on their
website for $9.99. To the right is a switch that is pressed when you have a hard drive in the slot. This switch turns on an LED that tells you have a drive in that slot.
To lock the hard drive cages, as well as the 5.25" drive cage, there is locking bar that has to be pressed downward to unlock the cages. The bar is held in the locked position by spring pressure. It can be removed completely if you like, but there is no other way of keeping the drives in place.
There is plenty of room for hiding wires; there is a trough in the very bottom that has the stock wiring run in it and there is room to run more.
With the Level 10 opened up we can start to get a look at the inside. The Level 10 does come with two fans for in the main chassis. The first is a 140mm to help bring air into the case for the video cards and the second is a 120mm to help pull the air out.
By removing four thumb screws the motherboard tray can be removed. As you can see the fans have insanely long power cords (40 inches (1 meter) to be exact), plus a 12-inch (30 cm) 3-pin fan to 4-pin molex connector. There should be no issues getting the fans to a fan controller if you chose to use one.
The motherboard tray has a plastic insulator/cheat sheet. It is very nicely made and has a key screen printed on it to show what mounting holes are needed for what motherboard type. It can be removed if you like but it doesn’t hurt anything to be there.
The inside of the motherboard bay cover is what will limit you CPU cooler choices. There is a 150mm height cap. As you will see later I was able to get the 158mm tall Noctua NH-U12P cooler in the Level 10, but just barely.
Inside the Level 10 Continued
The PSU cage is held in place with two screws at the top and locking tabs at the bottom. Remove the screws, tilt out, slide up and it's out.
The cage is removable to make installing the PSU easier. The front side of the cage has an adjustable tab to help keep the PSU from moving around. PSU length is limited to 210mm.
On the back side of the cage there is the mounting plate for the PSU itself. Now, so you can align your PSU’s cooling fan with the vent in the PSU cage, the mounting plate is removable to change the orientation. This is a rather tight fit to a standard PSU; I had to remove the mounting plate, mount the PSU to it, and then slide the whole assembly into the cage.
The 5.25” drive bay cover doesn’t open very far -- it’s just enough to give you access to the back of the devices. So to aid in installing devices the cover can be removed completely.
By opening and lifting the cover comes off, giving you plenty of room to work.
The hinge pins are steel and mount into holes back in the case. Putting this back in is a little bit of hunt and peck as you can’t see the holes.
Now for the hard drive bays. There are six hard drive bays, all are capable of holding either 3.5” or 2.5” hard drives. The top two bays are already set up with a back plane and 60mm fan. The remaining 4 bays do not have a back plane or fan, which is up to you to provide. Now, for a $700+ case I would have like to have seen all of this in place. In this image we can also see the switch that turns on the LED indicator that shows there is a drive in that bay.
The drive bay can be removed, but to do it is a large pain. To reach the forward mounting screw for the drive tray itself you either have to have a very small 90 degree Phillips screw driver or take the whole back side panel off. I ended up doing a little of both. I removed the screw from the front edge of the back panel; this allowed me to bow the panel slightly to get my 90 degree Phillips screwdriver in to remove the screw.
In the top of the bay there is a spot for a 60mm fan.
The drive tray itself is nice. It has a plastic sheet to insulate the drive from the aluminum tray.
Installing Parts Into the Level 10
With such a large case you would think there would be more to the installation accessories than this little box would have in it.
But inside is all that is needed to mount your hardware. There are motherboard standoffs and screws, drive mounting screws, a couple of reusable wire ties, the keys and a D-Ring key chain. You also get a speaker and a wipe down cloth.
I started by installing my motherboard. The smallest cooler I had, aside from the stock Intel HSF, was the Noctua NH-U12P. I could not mount the cooler in the normal front/back orientation as its 158mm height prevents the case side from closing. I tried turning it 90
o as you see above and it worked, just ever so barely.
Peeking through the motherboard tray from the back side we can see the CPU cooler bump out and how the cooler lines up with it. There is no room for a fan to be mounted on the bottom to push the air up through the cooler. It will need to be mounted on the top and pull it through the cooler or blow it down. Either way, dual fan configuration is not an option, but a single fan NH-U12P is better than most sub 150mm tall coolers.
I then mounted the PSU. My XFX 850 Black Edition was a snug fit, and the length was such that the end stop support in the cage could not be used. The tightening screw ended up under a support strap and couldn’t be used. Not that it matters a whole lot -- the PSU is so tight to the cage it’s not going anywhere. I was happy to see that I could still reach the modular ports with ease, even with my big hands.
Here we have the backside of the motherboard tray with all the parts installed. There is plenty of room for wiring, and the CPU cutout in the motherboard tray is even close.
On the other side everything is wired up. I was a little concerned with the wiring being routed so close to the intake fan, but with everything in the wires cleared with nothing getting hung up in the fan.
With the system fired up I was happy to see that the light bar wasn't blindingly bright.
Even the icons for the front I/O ports are back-lit. This is nice if you like working in a dark room, no having to feel around in the dark for the port.
Final Thoughts
The Level 10 is by far the most expensive case I have ever used. It is built amazingly well with a very distinctive look and feel to it.
Thermaltake and
BMW's DesignworksUSA did a very nice job on making not only a sharp looking case, but a downright complicated one to build at that. I found installing all the parts into the Level 10 to be fairly easy. The only time that I was frustrated was when I was trying to figure out how to add in fans to cool the hard drive bays.
This leads me to the downsides of the Level 10. The first downside is the sheer size -- particularly the height. With the case height combined with the way wire needs to be routed you are going to need very long SATA cables. The longest I had was a 12" cable, and with the optical drive in the very top and my SATA connector on my motherboard at almost the bottom of the case 18" wouldn't even cut it. So, keep that one in mind if the Level 10 is on your list of possible cases; longer is better.
The biggest rub is on the hard drive bays. Only the top two bays have the backplane and cooling fans. With the price tag north of $700 one shouldn't have to add anything to it outside of the system hardware. The remaining 4 hard drive bays can either be handled the traditional way or the end user can spend another $40 to outfit the drive bays with SATA backplanes. The same goes for the cooling of the hard drives; the top two drives have fans and the remaining four do not. It is a large pain for the end user to add these items in as the locking bar has to be removed and the right side panel bezel loosened to gain access to all the screws needed to remove the bay and add in the parts. It would have been nice if the bays were all fitted with the SATA backplanes and fans from Thermaltake.
In the grand scheme of the Level 10 these are minor annoyances. If you're dropping the money to get the Level 10 then you're building a centerpiece that is getting your undivided attention and a budget to go with it.
Due to its design there is a limit on the height of the CPU cooler you can use, which is 150mm. Although, there is room for self-contained water cooling units like the Corsair H50. With the right parts and a little planning you may even be able to get a custom loop for the CPU in there, but no full on full system water cooling. Well, not without a lot of hacking, and if you can swing $700+ for a case just to cut it up, more power to you.
Currently the Level 10 can be found on our shopping link for as little as
$708 and free shipping. The next price up on the list is $830. So the decision to pick up a Level 10 isn't going to be a light one.
Thermaltake has done something with the Level 10. They have shown the world that an off-the-shelf case doesn't have to be a box that looks like every other case on the market. Thermaltake spent a good amount of money and took a rather large risk in doing so. Yes, the Level 10 is pricey, but it was costly to design and make and it shows on every aspect of the case. The fit and finish is quality. Combine that with the unique look and design, and that is why we are giving the Thermaltake Level 10 our Innovation Award.
Bottom Line: The Level 10 is by far the most unique case I have seen to date, and the most expensive. Thermaltake and BMW were definitely thinking outside the box on this one.
source:.legitreviews end
