Thermaltake Tsunami Aluminum Case (VA3000)

The floppy drive rack is also removable by pulling back on a spring loaded clip that locks things in place.

  

Yet another feature that Thermaltake has honed over time is their drive rails for 5.25" drives.  These are the essence of tool free.  The rails have two nipples that snap into your device and are held in place once mounted by the drive bay itself.  The system yet another quick and easy accessibility feature. 

  

Those of you who have been coming around here for a while know that I'm a wire neat freak.  There truly have been times that putting a system up (including installing the OS) has taken less time than it takes me to tie and tuck all my wires away neatly.  Over time my eyes are instantly drawn to anything that will allow me to hide wire better and quicker.  The obscured side of the HDD rack has a good amount of space next to it that begs to have extra line tied and mounted here.  Another spot I liked was the side of the PSU area which was cut out.  The cut out section is longer than the typical PSU so if you have any extra power rails you want to pull out of view here is your chance.

  

Putting It All Together

The moment of truth is upon us.  Selecting an AMD based system to drop in we went to work.  Under power we were rewarded with a nice little light show.  As you can see the 120mm blue LED fan gives off a good amount of light as do the two LED bulbs tucked into the fold on the front bezel.  The only extra lighting we have in there is an LED IDE cable made by Thermaltake.  One odd thing we found (or rather didn't find) was a case speaker for the panel.  No really big deal but the case should have one and it doesn't. 

  

Conclusion

The Thermaltake Tsunami is a definite pleaser.  It has features neck deep and weighing in at a mere 6 kg can make an outstanding LAN box.  To list the high points of this case would require a recitation of this review all over again.  The problems with this case are few and even mitigated.  The lack of a mainboard tray is excusable with the extra work room provided in removing the drive racks.  I have no idea what the no case speaker thing is all about.  While not a big thing, I do feel better when I can actually hear the power on self test.  The final concern we had was with the side mounted 90mm intake.  The screen cover (I intentionally did not say filter) is perfect for keeping things bigger than duct out of the box.  But as far as duct is concerned, all I can say is pick up some compressed air every other month.

Thermaltake has taken a very successful mix of features and blended it with a sharp new look guaranteed to catch more than a few eyes.  Pricing information at the time of this writing is not available but I'm guessing in the $120 (USD) range.  The Thermaltake Tsunami does not disappoint and would be a welcome home to anyone's machine.

Pros

• Beautiful design

• Nice accent lighting

• Weights 6kg

• Mirror finish on paint job is outstanding

• 120mm filtered intake fan

• 120mm exhaust fan

• AGP/PCI card clipping mechanism is fantastic

• Rubber grommets on HDD rack dampen any possible vibration

• FDD and HDD cages are both removable

• Very nice drive rail system

• Top mounted ports

Cons

• No filter on 90mm side panel fan

• No case speaker

• Price and availability questionable at present

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