The review of the Thermaltake Soprano DX has shown us how a few critical elements are enough to potentially change the entire judgement on a product. It also shows us how, as buyers, we must be very careful when purchasing a new product and to look at all aspects of it and not just the aesthetics.

If it were not for the troublesome video card installation, the Soprano DX would have made a pretty good buy. Overall the case has good build-quality and is quite stylish. In addition, Thermaltake used decent materials to construct the case using brushed aluminum for the front panel and high quality plastics for the bottom and top of the front panel.

Continuing on the pros, the lockable and swingable front bezel makes installation of external optical drives much easier and also simplifies the process of periodically cleaning out the 140mm fan filter.

We are, however, still very disappointed that a company as experienced as Thermaltake has released a product that, in deeper inspection, has turned out to be very inadequate in several aspects. As we have pointed out throughout this review, the largest problem with the case is how longer video cards are partially obstructed by the hard drives. The only way to avoid this problem is by removing the HDD cage and placing the hard drives in the 3.5” disk bays. There are, however, only two 3.5” bays meaning the number of hard disks that can be installed in the system is severly limited. This is especially a problem for users who use mutliple hard drives and also want to install a 3.5” device such as a card reader.

The case currenlty retails for $116 on NewEgg. This price point takes the case out of the range of budget users, and makes it more of a product targeted at enthusiasts. Keeping this in mind and noting the popularity of longer video cards, we just cannot reccomend this product, especially if you currently own a card longer than 220mm. Even if you do not own one right now, there is no telling if you might upgrade to one in the future.

Again, the Thermaltake Soprano DX is not a bad product. It is just plagued by its terrible support for larger video cards. This one problem is enough to sufficiently ruin our final judgement of the product. The many features of the case definitely make it seem like a good buy. In addition, to the unsuspecting customer the product has it all; brand name, stylish design, and good build-quality. However, whenever purchasing a product it is important to remember “l'abito non fa il monaco”, or nothing is ever what it seems to be.