Thermaltake Armor Revo Snow Edition

Component manufacturer Thermaltake knows that there's not much point in screwing around with a winning formula. The company's Armor Revo Snow Edition case ($189.99 list) utilizes a lot of the features and design elements that so distinguished our Editors' Choice Award recipient from last year, the Chaser MK-I ($169.99 list, 4.5 stars), but with a somewhat harder-core sense of style. But beneath their eye-catching outsides, the two cases are almost identical, with each offering a superior framework for constructing a high-end gaming PC. Which is better for you ultimately boils down to your personal preferences and style?either one is a winner.

If you're past the point of being excited by black hardware, the Armor Revo Snow Edition delivers instead, as its name suggests, a vision of computing in white. Unlike other cases that go this route, however, such as the similarly priced NZXT Switch 810 ($169.95, 3.5 stars), you'll find no bulky, cheap-feeling panels here. The Armor Revo's framework and the doors are all white steel; only the front panel, the black mesh on its 5.25-inch bay covers and covering the intake fan, and the chicly-shaped side-panel window are constructed from what looks like money-saving plastic. This helps the Snow Edition look at once adult and attractive.

Further aiding with this are the flip-out metal fins located on either side of the front panel (providing the Armor of the case's name). But aside from a redesign of the top of the case that eliminates the removable panel there (thus reducing the dimensions to 21.7 by 10 by 23.1 inches, HWD) while leaving the front-panel paraphernalia?the three-button fan controller, power and reset buttons, hot-swappable 2.5- or 3.5-inch hard drive dock, and front-panel I/O ports (headphone, microphone, eSATA, two USB 3.0, and two USB 2.0)?clustered in an easy-to-access front-of-system location, there are no other significant changes from the Chaser MK-I.

So everything else that applied with it applies now. Completely tool-free construction means you'll only need your Phillips screwdriver for securing the motherboard. There's a ton of interior room for installing components, including eight expansion slots (with more than enough clearance to comfortably house even the longest and most powerful video cards like the AMD Radeon HD 6990 and the Nvidia GeForce GTX 690), four external 5.25-inch drive bays (a converter is included if you want one to function as an external 3.5-inch bay), and six internal 3.5-inch bays. Features aimed at enthusiasts abound, comprising a pre-cut hole to facilitate installing an aftermarket CPU cooler, grommeted channels for routing wires and cables into the luxurious large area beneath the (nonremovable) motherboard tray, a spacious bay for a bottom-mounted power supply (vented, and with a removable filter), and, yes, even a headphone hook on the side panel. And four large fans (two 200mm for intake on the front and side panels, one 200mm for top exhaust, and one 140mm for rear exhaust) make full-scale cooling, ahem, a breeze. Whatever you may need or want for your ATX or microATX gaming build, you'll have room to include.

So aside from the side-panel fan, which the earlier case is missing, are there any substantial differences between the Chaser MK-I and the Armor Revo Snow Edition? Uh, no. So we're going to have to get really, really picky here. The indistinguishable nature of the cases' insides means that not only are installations every bit as easy and comfortable in the Armor Revo as in the Chaser, but the color scheme is the same as well. Whereas the light blue accents on the retention switches on the 5.25-inch bays and the 3.5-inch hard drive trays complemented the 5.25-inch drive bay covers on the Chaser, they look distractingly out of place in the Revo. Had Thermaltake been quite as serious about aesthetics, it would have either used white instead of this small amount of blue or made the internals white to match the exterior and used black accents instead (probably the preferable choice for consistency's sake). And the unpainted front fins do look a bit more out of place than they probably should. (Hey, we said we were going to get picky.)

So if you're fanatical about the look of your case, the Thermaltake Armor Revo Snow Edition does not quite live up to the inside-and-out standards of quality the Chaser MK-I exhibits. If you're willing to grant more leeway, this case is just as Editors' Choice?worthy as the other one. Regardless, either case will make a terrific enclosure for a high-end PC?you just have to decide whether you're in the mood for basic black or a (moderately) wilder white.

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