Fridge turned popcorn machine - Thermaltake reveals Tower 100 mini-ITX chassis

[tikker]

Summary

After the absolutely massive 25 kg beast that was the Thermaltake Tower 900, in June last year the company announced its little brother: the Tower 100 mini-ITX case. At CES 2021 they have now revealed it. No pricing has been announced yet, but a release date of "end of January" for the US and Canada are mentioned. It will be available in black and white and takes up 463x266x266 mm on your desk. It focusses on a ''vertical design'', as they say, to reduce its footprint and help heat extraction through a chimney effect.

 

 

Quotes

Quote

TechpowerUp

Thermaltake, the leading PC DIY premium brand for Case, Cooling, Gaming peripherals, and enthusiast memory solutions, announces the launch of the brand new mini-tower gaming PC case, the Tower 100. Based on the award-winning Tower 900, "Pocket-sized" down into a mini-ITX Form factor powerhouse, take on compact cooling and showcase the build with the perfect presentation.

...

With airflow in mind, cable management is also covered throughout the Tower 100 with a custom cover plate. Modular cut out for larger graphic cards, supporting native "No Sag" vertical mounting, provides a convenient way to hide the GPU cables and easily connect to the power supply located at the back of the case.

...

Backed by a limited 3-year warranty, the Tower 100 will be available in the US and Canada in late January.

 

AnandTech

According to Thermaltake, these chassis are designed for optimal airflow, and include two 120 mm 1000 RPM cooling fans, with one preinstalled in the top, and another in the bottom. It has support for additional fans including one 120/140 mm in the top, one 120/140 mm in above the PSU cover, and one 120/140 mm in the rear. Users can also install a 120 mm AIO CPU cooler in the top, with maximum clearance for a CPU cooler standing at 190 mm. It also includes capabilities to install graphics cards with a maximum length of up to 330 mm, which is fine for cards such as the NVIDIA RTX 3080, but a little short for the top-spec RTX 3090.

 

My thoughts

Personally I really liked the Tower 900, but after considering it for a bit it was just too large and heavy for me. This shrunk down version of it makes it a much more considerable option for people I think, although in some aspects such as available fan space it might be a tad too small or offer too little for its size.

 

I love the big open view the three glass panels give, and it's the first time I have seen a vertical GPU mount this way. They claim its verticality will have a chimney effect in removing heat from the chassis and I'm inclined to believe it may actually hold some ground. It's refreshing to see a case where the tempered glass does not obstruct the exhaust like e.g. in my Corsair 570X. On that same note however I'm a little worried/confused where it will get its supply of fresh air from and I don't see this as a particularly attractive option for watercooling (something I really hoped for when I saw it). I hope to be surprised and to see some cool loops attempted with it thought!

 

Any thoughts on this?

 

Sources

TechpowerUp

AnandTech

Thermaltake product page

[bcredeur97]

I've never bought a thermaltake product and went "you know, the quality of this is nice"

All their stuff (In the past) has felt very cheap to me.

Have they changed?

[Helpful Tech Witch]

1 hour ago, valdyrgramr said:

Some of their cases and PSUs are good.

Some is right lol. The smart series is historically bad.

[Bombastinator]

The chimney effect by the vaguely household chimney shaped case is beyond useless.  Household chimneys are meant to use the chimney effect on what is basically a multi thousand watt heat source and the were made out of brick so the actual chimney vent was MUCH narrower.  Anyone here olde enough to remember the MacChimney?  Was used for old toaster macs and it actually did work.  Thing had a flue a foot long and about  the size of a half dollar.  
 

None the less.  I like this.  Good form factor.  Is it available without glass?  

[Mling]

A quick read of the chimney effect on wikipedia causes me to call BS on the science in the marketing.

 

Is the GPU hard against glass?

I would prefer this with mesh panels all around and space for a mATX board.

[Fnige]

7 minutes ago, Mling said:

A quick read of the chimney effect on wikipedia causes me to call BS on the science in the marketing.

 

Is the GPU hard against glass?

I would prefer this with mesh panels all around and space for a mATX board.

Thatll be called Tower 100 Airflow

[StDragon]

1 hour ago, Bombastinator said:

The chimney effect by the vaguely household chimney shaped case is beyond useless.  Household chimneys are meant to use the chimney effect on what is basically a multi thousand watt heat source and the were made out of brick so the actual chimney vent was MUCH narrower.  Anyone here olde enough to remember the MacChimney?  Was used for old toaster macs and it actually did work.  Thing had a flue a foot long and about  the size of a half dollar.  
 

None the less.  I like this.  Good form factor.  Is it available without glass?  

My next PC case will be a Mexican Chiminea.

[tikker]

10 hours ago, gabrielcarvfer said:

This doesn't seem like a chimney. No perpendicular airflow on the top to suck out hot air from inside.

There is (room for) a 120mm fan on the top.

10 hours ago, Bombastinator said:

None the less.  I like this.  Good form factor.  Is it available without glass?

Haven't seen anything about a non-glass version so far sadly. Especially a full mesh panel for the side the GPU is on would probably be nice.

[Beskamir]

13 hours ago, bcredeur97 said:

I've never bought a thermaltake product and went "you know, the quality of this is nice"

All their stuff (In the past) has felt very cheap to me.

Have they changed?

I have a thermal take case (Thermaltake View 31 TG) and I think it looks/feels high quality? Was rather nice to build in thanks to the amount of space it has.

[SteveGrabowski0]

Meh what's the point of going mini ITX if the case is going to be 32 liters?

[Mihle]

When Iook at that it reminds me of 3D printers

[n0stalghia]

On 1/9/2021 at 11:34 PM, bcredeur97 said:

I've never bought a thermaltake product and went "you know, the quality of this is nice"

All their stuff (In the past) has felt very cheap to me.

Have they changed?

I've had their mice and keyboards for solid 6 years now - still work like a charm. The particular mouse (BMW design) was not the best ergonomically (the reason why I switched brands), but it sure is robust.

[dizmo]

Interesting. If I saw a point to having a PC on a desk then this is likely something I'd consider. Always liked the look of the larger one.

 

On 1/9/2021 at 3:34 PM, bcredeur97 said:

I've never bought a thermaltake product and went "you know, the quality of this is nice"

All their stuff (In the past) has felt very cheap to me.

Have they changed?

Their higher end mice are some of the nicest mice I've ever owned. Helps that BMW helped design them.

5 hours ago, SteveGrabowski0 said:

Meh what's the point of going mini ITX if the case is going to be 32 liters?

Keeps the overall size of the case small if you want something of this style.

[Bombastinator]

On 1/9/2021 at 6:53 PM, Mling said:

A quick read of the chimney effect on wikipedia causes me to call BS on the science in the marketing.

 

Is the GPU hard against glass?

I would prefer this with mesh panels all around and space for a mATX board.

I agree with the whole “not actually a chimney” thing.  I would call it ‘top vent’ there aren’t any actual chimney effect cases that aren’t fantastically expensive finned aluminum things. And they will use laminar flow effect to make a sort of 3 sided chimney using the big metal fins on the out side. The MacChimney was this goofy looking cardboard thing that was still like a foot tall. 

[Bombastinator]

I wonder if my playing a recent video game caused me to think differently about this thing. It was a physics simulator game.  Looking at it now, I never noticed that back vent. A top fan would I think maybe just suck air in from mostly that vent and not across the parts.  Plus negative pressure only case. It still the styling nice I guess.  I thought the form factor might be handy.  This may depend a lot on how much it sells for as to whether it’s a “worth it” or not.  I got a nasty suspicion simulations weren’t even done on this thing.

Edited January 11, 2021 by Bombastinator

[rcmaehl]

I REALLY don't need any other cases/PCs right now, but I'm interested in turning it into an actual tempered glass popcorn maker.

 

[Mark Kaine]

On 1/10/2021 at 7:37 PM, Mihle said:

When Iook at that it reminds me of 3D printers

Thats because it was made with one, apparently! 

 

Who thought having a gpu right against a glass wall was a good idea though...? 

 

I wish people would stop trying to invent the wheel all the time, but most companies seem to think their products wouldn't sell without gimmicks. 

 

5 hours ago, rcmaehl said:

popcorn maker

well, thanks, now I can't unsee it...