Thermaltake Tai Chi Water Cooled Case (VB5001SNA)

Operation

Under power, we got a nice while not overpowering light show.  The front and rear 120mm fans both have blue LEDs making for nice effects especially against the UV reactive water lines.  With the lines, unfortunately we ran into a problem.  The manual didn't cite an exact length to cut the water lines so we used common sense.  With the door fully opened, we measured and cut out line for a direct route between the radiator and the water block.  The manual tells you the obvious, to be aware of the water lines as you close the panel door so they don't fold up into the 120mm rear fan.  That wasn't a problem.  The problem we found was that the intuitive length we used was the exact right length to force the lines to fold and kink with the door closed.  (We peeked through the hose holes cut into the case rear.)  In the pic on the right, with the door halfway open you can barely see the stress points on the up bend where the line kinks with the door closed.  By shortening the line an inch things worked well.  By lengthening the line at least four inches to make a circular curve, all things worked well.  Personally, I'd suggest using longer cuts of line as the shorter ones would not allow the door to extend all the way.  While I didn't expect the door opening to yank out my water line, I was cognizant of having that very anxiety no matter how remote the chances of it were.

  

Here are a couple of shots of the front bezel with doors closed and open.  Again, the lighting effects were very pleasing.

  

Performance

Performance results don't mean much unless you have some time of comparison to help you extrapolate results with.  Our comparison cooler for our Intel P4 478 pin platform has been the Dr Thermal T707TN for some time now.  I'm sure we can use it just one last time prior to its being retired though.  For good measure we also tested the Tt Symphony H2O kit.  To accurately measure performance, the test system was put under a 100% load using SiSoft Sandra 2005 Pro's Burn In program.  Each product was tested five times with the highest and lowest scores being thrown out.  The remaining three were then averaged and that is what you see here.  Generic thermal paste was used in all tests and our ambient room temperature was 26 degrees C and did not fluctuate more than .5 degrees throughout testing.

Test Bed

• Intel P4 2.4GHz Northwood @ 3.2GHz (1.75v)

• ASUS P4C800E Deluxe mainboard

• (2) 512 mb DIMM of Corsair XMS4400 DDR

• Maxtor DiamondMax 80gb SATA HDD

• Generic DVD-RW drive

• Windows XP Pro with all service packs installed

Results

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Pg 1 - Introduction
Pg 2 - A closer look
Pg 3 - A longer look
Pg 4 - Inside
Pg 5 - Water cooling goodies
Pg 6 - Operation/Performance
Pg 7 - Conclusion