It's a common belief among inexperienced PC users that there isn't a difference between two computer cases. The belief, though, is absolutely wrong.

Sure, all cases have the same fundamental function, which is to hold the various hardware components that make up a personal computer. Besides appearance, however, there are many other factors that vary among cases, each of which need to be given careful attention. The generalization that “they’re all the same” simply cannot be applied to cases.

An aspect that is one of the most difficult to assess before buying a case is the simplicity
and the convenience hardware components can be installed with. This is especially difficult for beginners because they might overlook some key elements that either make hardware installation easier or more difficult. Sometimes certain qualities of a case are completely overlooked and end up limiting future hardware expansion. These characteristics need to be kept in mind when buying a case, especially if frequent hardware upgrades will take place.

Our review today of the Thermaltake Soprano DX will highlight some of these aspects that should be kept in mind when choosing a new case. The Thermaltake Soprano DX seems like a case that has it all; a good name backing it, a sleek design, and excellent build quality. Despite all that it has, though, it also comes with some critical flaws that end up changing everything. It is essential to see how these few crucial elements change the entire user experience and leave a sour aftertaste.

The Soprano DX is a mid-tower case that supports ATX and Micro ATX motherboards.

Here there are the main technical specifications:

Colors: black or silver with an optional transparent window on the side.
Dimension (millimeter): 478 x 210 x 497
Construction Material: SECC plate and aluminum
M/B Format Supported: ATX, m-ATX
5.25 inch slots: 4
3.5 inch slots: 7, 5 of which are internal
Cooling system: two frontal fans: 140x140x25mm and a rear120x120x25 fan with a blue led.
Connections: USB2.0 x 2; MIC x 1; SPK x 1; E-SATA x 1
PSU: Standard ATX PS2 (not included)

The Thermaltake Soprano DX is available in four different versions and two different colors; either black or silver. One version features a plexiglass side window while the other is completely covered save for a small opening for ventilation. Both versions use the same design for the front panel, which features a sinuous line that emits a blue light during operation.

The entire case is made out of brushed aluminum. In addition, the front plate has been finished with a coat of semi-reflective paint. The end result is a case with a modern apparence. Although it doesn’t turn out to be very flashy, it is still sleek and attractive. As is clear from the photograph, we chose the version without the side window.

The front panel is equipped with a bay-covering door that completely hides the four 5.2 inch drive slots along with the two 3.5 inch bays, which are used for a number of devices including floppy drives and universal memory card readers.

The start and reboot switches are also hidden from view behind the front bezel, along with the hard drive activity LED and the system LED. Near the bottom of the case there is an intake which lets air flow into the case. Immediately behind the intake is a fan which helps pull additional air in.

In the middle of the case’s top there is a flap that covers two usb ports, two minijack connectors for earphones and microphones, and an external serial ATA port. The location of these ports actually turns out to be inconvenient, especially considering how it might be hard to reach, for example, when placed on a desk next an LCD screen.

The side panel is held to the case, as has become very common among case manufacturers, using two thumbscrews along with two sliding latches, one of which can be locked.

There isn’t much to say about the back of the case other than it is organized in the traditional ATX form.

A Look Inside

Internally the case is well divided and organized. On the right side there are four slots for 5.2 inch devices, usually optical drives or fan controllers. Underneath the 5.2 inch slots there are two 3.5 inch bays, usually used for floppy drives or card readers.

Directly infront of the hard drive compartment there is a 140mm brushless fan. The case supports a total of 5 hard drives, and the entire HDD cage is detachable. All edges of the cases’ frame have been tempered to help avoid cuts and scratches during assembly.

There are a total of 7 PCI/PCIe expansion slots in the case. Directly above them is a 120mm fan that is made of a semi-transparent plastic material and comes with a built-in blue LED.

Located in the lower left corner of the cases’ front there is a small switch that is automatically activated when the case is locked. Connecting this switch to the appropriate motherboard jumper and enabling the proper BIOS options, a security feature is activated that doesn’t allow the system to start when the case is open.

Component installation is a critical aspect of a case’s quality and can really tell a lot regarding how much thought a manufacturer has placed into the design of its product. For the most part, the Thermaltake Soprano DX uses a number of features that simplifies the installation process and helps avoid many installation issues.

Starting with the installation of 5.25 inch drives, it is necessary to first remove the front panel of the case. This would normally be an arduous task, however, it is simplified thanks to a special locking system invented by Thermaltake. A provided key can simply unlock the front bezel, allowing it to be swung out without completely removing it. From there, hard drives can be easily installed or removed.

Swinging out the front panel also reveals an air filter over the intake. The swingable front panel allows the filter to be cleaned much more often than would have been possible if it had to be completely removed.

Once we have access to the frame, the only thing we have to do is take a screwdriver and remove the small panels that cover the bays. Thermaltake has used resusable panels for all bays except for 3.5 inch slots.

Installation of 5.25 inch and 3.5 inch devices is completely tool-free. Various drives can easily be secured in the bays by using lock-in connectors provided by Thermaltake.

To install a hard drive, it is necessary to first remove the HDD cage, which is completely detachable. This simplifies hard drive installation, and for the most part makes it much easier to install multiple hard drives.

Thermaltake places anti-vibration pads made of rubber right next to the screw holes of the HDD cage. These absorb a good amount of vibration that occurs during normal operation of a hard drive and helps reduce system noise.

Installing a power supply unit is more difficult than installation of most other componenets. This is primarily because the wires of the top USB ports are located in the same area and partially obstruct the PSU.

Motherboard installation is quite simple and only requires alligning the motherboard with the proper holes depending on the form factor of the motherboard being installed. To make installation easier, a handy legend is printed on the chassis that tells which screws that should be used with the various motherboard formats.

In most cases, installation of PCI or PCI Express devices isn’t much of a problem. For the Soprano DX, installation is compltely tool-free, and a locking device hold cards in place.

The problem starts when we try to install a dual-slot video card solution that is more than 220 mm (22 cm or 8.661 in). In our case it is a GeForce 7950 GX2, but a Radeon X1900 video card also has relatively the same length. What happens after installation of the video cards is that the end of the cards touch the hard drives, which are located in the HDD cage. What this ends up doing is making it impossibe to connect several essential wires, including the PCIe 16x 6-pin power connector.

In the case of even longer video cards ( actually there is only the GeForce 8800GTX) it is necessary to remove the HDD cage completely. Instead, the hard disk must be installed in the 3.5 inch slot, originally designed for floppy disk readers or memory card readers. This is a problem, though, if you are using multiple hard drives as there are only two 3.5” drive bays.

In the end it is also particulary difficult to install a dual video card solution with the Thermaltake locking system.

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.