ThermalTake

tomfrew · Post by **tomfrew** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 8:58 am

people here seem to have something against thermaltake.

i think there products are preety cool!

am i missing something?

gharkins · Post by **gharkins** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 9:02 am

I think thermaltake cases are very cool, but only in the UK (as of the expodential price in the USA). I am buying the Eclipse DV, as they seem to be the leading cases manufacturers when you are looking for the wow factor.

I do not agree with their cooling systems. They have not made a good CPU cooler in a long while. While I would definately buy their case, I would stay away from their cooling products.

Cheereo

justblair · Post by **justblair** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 9:09 am

I think that they have a couple of good coolers...

The Typhoon is VFM if you live in the UK, a very quiet and good performing CPU cooler.. The schooner does a good job as a vga cooler as well.

The prices in the UK are pretty good.

I run two modded typhoons in my HTPC and bedroom pc. Both were good performers out of the box. Mod them and they tan the Ninja at about 2/3 of the price.

But they do get a bad rap here. Many are happy to slate them without trying them. Shame that but hey, keeps the prices down for the more open minded buyer.

BillyBuerger · Post by **BillyBuerger** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 9:59 am

The two main reasons I think people don't like TT is because their specs are not always honest and they're all about Bling. That isn't to say that their products can't work well. But I think people around here don't have respect for them because of this. For instance, they market their Big Typhoon as being 16dBA @ 1300rpm. This kind of mis-information just makes it more difficult to find good parts and inform the general public.

As for the Bling, that's just a personal preference. But I think when you see something that's so flashy like a lot of TT stuff is, you wonder what it is they are trying to hide? In TT case, it tends to be that their products don't meet up to their claims. I would rather something that didn't look so good but did the job it needs verus somthing that just looks cool.

Bluefront · Post by **Bluefront** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 10:04 am

I'm reasonably open-minded when it comes to computer components, but Thermaltake has some serious issues/flaws. The company continually publishes fan sound specs that are outright lies. But many people actually believe the stuff. Considering this is SPCR.....lies about sound cannot be accepted, period.

Then there are the multitude of their computer cases, every one of which I have ever seen has very thin metal, and is flimsy. Wouldn't want a single example....

These two serious flaws in the Thermaltake product line, are enough to keep me from buying any of their products.

justblair · Post by **justblair** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 12:08 pm

The bling thing is something I'm not into. But then I dont buy the products aimed at that market. TT does market towards the bling modding crowd, but that is not a reason to dislike all of their product.

The somewhat exagerated marketing is an issue... Though not just from TT. What I can say about the Typhoon is that the 1300rpm fan is pretty quiet. It also undervolts nicely to become near silent. I had it running a 2100pally at 800rpm in free air. It was inaudable at under a meter. There were no other fans running at the time. At 7v (1000rpm) it is no louder than the Scyth Ninja and fan that my brother uses. And as I said before in another thread this is at 25gbp as opposed to 40gbp for the ninja.

The passive coolers for VGA do their job. My brother was using the schooner for a while, I have the model before it un the bedroom machine I am typing on at the mo. Got mine for around 15GBP (was a while ago cant remember exactly). This was far cheaper at the time than any of the oppositions passive VGA offerings and it does a good job.

As for their cases, well they are not all to my tastes, I like the silverstone designs if I had to choses. Although a work colleague brought in his tsunami. I was more impressed seeing it on a desk working than racked up on shop shelves, even quite liked the styling. Never worked on one so I wouldn't like to comment on the build quality.

Dont get me wrong, I'm not advocating buying just any TT product. Most in the ranges are aimed at a different market to the one we exist in. But every so often they come out with a good one that can serve a buyer (especially the UK budget buyer) well.

Every machine I build is done to a budget. I generally use at least some hand me down technology in my machines. I have meals out, drinking and other stuff like the mortgage to pay. If by carefully selecting a component from TT (and lets face it, it doesn't take much in the way of brains to work out which are likely to be effective no matter what the advertising says) I can get my project in under budget then yup I will go against the grain.

Shadowknight · Post by **Shadowknight** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 4:23 pm

Aside from false specs, they have a well-known history of ripping off other companies' designs, On a product standpoint, their products don't cool that well because they always use a high fin density, restricting airflow and making cooling less efficient.

LBadvance · Post by **LBadvance** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 11:31 pm

5 things
1.) ripping off other company's work
2.) false specs
3.) quality is 2nd grade, flimsy Al, cheap plastic etc.
4.) prices are on par with real good quality products.
5.) too blingy, no performance

In the end it just isnt worth the money. they cost just the same as the org for a pirated copy. i see no point.

Mars_3K · Post by **Mars_3K** » Tue Jun 06, 2006 12:28 pm

A housemate built my current machine (on a tight budget) a couple of years ago. I've only just gotten around to replacing the TT Volcano he installed with a new Arctic Cooling Copper Lite. That old Volcano was the noisiest fan I've ever witnessed in a machine. Needless to say, it went down a treat at LAN parties!

Very embaressing.

It came with a fan speed controller, which I always had to rely on to keep noise to minimum, but it's just as well I have a pair of closed headphones because even at a low speed setting it was still noisy as hell.

Best thing I ever did for my machine (and my sanity!) was get rid of that thing. If I'd have known it'd be that noisy, I'd have never had it installed in the first place.

justblair · Post by **justblair** » Tue Jun 06, 2006 2:24 pm

LBadvance wrote:5 things
1.) ripping off other company's work
2.) false specs
3.) quality is 2nd grade, flimsy Al, cheap plastic etc.
4.) prices are on par with real good quality products.
5.) too blingy, no performance

In the end it just isnt worth the money. they cost just the same as the org for a pirated copy. i see no point.

1) There is always a bit of replication in the pc component market. Thermaltake have to abide to international patents to compete in almost any western market. Breach of the patents would mean not being to sell in these markets.

2) The false specs deal is certainly an issue, though as I said before, it isn't a huge mental leap to work out if the product is going to be loud.

3) The quality in my experiance is not that bad. You get a lot of copper in some of their coolers. The finish of the product may not be to everyones tastes (I dont like the black and orange fans)

4) This I think is the crux of the debate... If you live in the UK, and you shop online, It is the norm to pay considerably less for the TT offering. Couple that with for example the Typhoon which in review operates within a degree or three as the Ninja. If you live in the US the products seem to be coming in at comparable price to other brands. So then yes you are likely to opt for the Ninja.

5) Performance varies across the ranges, as does the styling. For some the styling is to their tastes, and performance is measured in less subtle indicators than we use. Hell they got to buy that stuff, TT offer it. Other products though. I dont have or want case windows, so styling is kinda unimportant in components. One or two of the TT products are aimed at high performance or low noise. I have no problem cherrypicking from their range.

But in the end of the day a buyer makes a value judgement on their choice of purchase. I personally will look to any manufacturer for the best product for me. That may mean saving a few pounds from the average or it may mean spending a bit more if the product merits it.

qviri · Post by **qviri** » Tue Jun 06, 2006 3:45 pm

justblair wrote:2) The false specs deal is certainly an issue, though as I said before, it isn't a huge mental leap to work out if the product is going to be loud.

For you and me it isn't. But for an ordinary person who never read the SPCR it is. And that's why seemingly every week we get posts from new registrants saying "that 680 W power supply from Thermaltake is only 19 dBA!! Why doesn't SPCR recommend it?!?1" (that's actually their rating for a double 80mm fan PSU with the fans doing 2000 rpm).

LBadvance · Post by **LBadvance** » Tue Jun 06, 2006 4:09 pm

Its just that i don't trust companies that lie in their specs and copy other companies design outright. If they lied in their specs, one might wonder what else they lied about?

"There is always a bit of replication in the pc component market" A bit?
Thermaltake Orb = Zalman Flower cooler, Thermal Schoozer = Zalman VGA heatpipe cooler. Thermaltake Rocket = Zalman Fanless WCer. Zalman Soprano = Coolermaster Wavemaster. Thermaltake typhoon = Thermalright cooler. Hell even their fans are Yate loon (Nexus) orange.

Even their division company is a knock off name. "ThermalRock" err. Asus had Asrock for a while...

See a pattern here? They only change the design minutely in order to avoid pat. infringements. The looks are obviously made to look similiar to confuse customers. I read the article about the Thermaltake orb. The manufacturing process is different to Zalman's (even tho the output looks the same) thus they are permited to sell it. Thats just devious.

Awhile ago not sure if its still on their website, they boosted "fanless operation" which was in put into a case with TT fanless components. The thing would overheat in a minute.

I have yet still see a thermaltake innovative product that works well. The innovative products that came out of their R&D are just mostly for looks. Like the tidewater thing, the performance is more or less a bit better than air cooled ones.

Their motto: "coolALL your life" reminds me of "digitALL Life" from samsung.

qviri · Post by **qviri** » Tue Jun 06, 2006 4:46 pm

LBadvance wrote:Their motto: "coolALL your life" reminds me of "digitALL Life" from samsung.

Ah, that explains a lot. And here I was trying to understand what the heck was the significance of phrasing it like that.

Interestingly, just like a lot of other things they have "inspired" elsewhere, I daresay the motto works better in the original form.

JazzJackRabbit · Post by **JazzJackRabbit** » Tue Jun 06, 2006 7:50 pm

LBadvance wrote:Its just that i don't trust companies that lie in their specs and copy other companies design outright. If they lied in their specs, one might wonder what else they lied about?

For example about this power supply. Officially rated at 400W, marked as 480 making consumer believe it's a 480W power supply and which chokes at only 277W load.

LBadvance wrote:"There is always a bit of replication in the pc component market" A bit?
Thermaltake Orb = Zalman Flower cooler, Thermal Schoozer = Zalman VGA heatpipe cooler. Thermaltake Rocket = Zalman Fanless WCer. Zalman Soprano = Coolermaster Wavemaster. Thermaltake typhoon = Thermalright cooler. Hell even their fans are Yate loon (Nexus) orange.

You're re right on most of the points. However, thermaltake orb came out loooong before zalman 7000 series.

Chris Chan · Post by **Chris Chan** » Wed Jun 14, 2006 6:58 am

I'd not trust that XP480 with even 250W! It's probably just a rebadged 250w anyway. And Yes the Tt Orbs came out loooong before Zalman 7000, but the Golden Orb II and Blue Orb II are ZM7K-esque.