Jump to content

Vice-President of CaseLabs calls out Thermaltake for directly copying their designs (Computex 2015)

Mysticode
 Share
Posted

The drive cages were astoundingly shitty. They took the existing designs and literally broke them...I should work on that review tonight its hilarious. 

 

Actually that's exactly my beef as well: installing anything below the first drive cage basically means that (unbeknownst to me at the time) you absolutely need an L shaped SATA data cable and a similarly extremely low profile sata power cable otherwise the back cover will bend and break your fucking connector. I still have that never used broken SATA 2 TB hdd sitting beside me.

-------

Current Rig

-------

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

Actually that's exactly my beef as well: installing anything below the first drive cage basically means that (unbeknownst to me at the time) you absolutely need an L shaped SATA data cable and a similarly extremely low profile sata power cable otherwise the back cover will bend and break your fucking connector. I still have that never used broken SATA 2 TB hdd sitting beside me.

I had to have them send me new ones just got them that's what I was holding my review for

muh specs 

Gaming and HTPC (reparations)- ASUS 1080, MSI X99A SLI Plus, 5820k- 4.5GHz @ 1.25v, asetek based 360mm AIO, RM 1000x, 16GB memory, 750D with front USB 2.0 replaced with 3.0  ports, 2 250GB 850 EVOs in Raid 0 (why not, only has games on it), some hard drives

Screens- Acer preditor XB241H (1080p, 144Hz Gsync), LG 1080p ultrawide, (all mounted) directly wired to TV in other room

Stuff- k70 with reds, steel series rival, g13, full desk covering mouse mat

All parts black

Workstation(desk)- 3770k, 970 reference, 16GB of some crucial memory, a motherboard of some kind I don't remember, Micomsoft SC-512N1-L/DVI, CM Storm Trooper (It's got a handle, can you handle that?), 240mm Asetek based AIO, Crucial M550 256GB (upgrade soon), some hard drives, disc drives, and hot swap bays

Screens- 3  ASUS VN248H-P IPS 1080p screens mounted on a stand, some old tv on the wall above it. 

Stuff- Epicgear defiant (solderless swappable switches), g600, moutned mic and other stuff. 

Laptop docking area- 2 1440p korean monitors mounted, one AHVA matte, one samsung PLS gloss (very annoying, yes). Trashy Razer blackwidow chroma...I mean like the J key doesn't click anymore. I got a model M i use on it to, but its time for a new keyboard. Some edgy Utechsmart mouse similar to g600. Hooked to laptop dock for both of my dell precision laptops. (not only docking area)

Shelf- i7-2600 non-k (has vt-d), 380t, some ASUS sandy itx board, intel quad nic. Currently hosts shared files, setting up as pfsense box in VM. Also acts as spare gaming PC with a 580 or whatever someone brings. Hooked into laptop dock area via usb switch

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

Lol the first one looks similar but they aren't identical and the second looks more like a 900D than there's. There just mad because these will be a lot cheaper and take business away, CaseLabs stop complaining this is business, be happy they didn't literally copy your cases.

 

(I haven't seen the internals which may change my mind but from purely looking at these photos this is my opinion.)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

I won't participate in this with my opinion just yet because I know more than most and still need to know more. But I will say that some here are mistaken about Caselabs cases being steel. The parts are all 3-5mm thick aluminum which is mucho expensive, lighter and stronger than steel.

Also, TT has had some pretty original stuff lately but also some that are extremely.. Inspired. It's way beyond just the Fractal Design case and the Caselabs cases too, quite a few other companies have had similar issues.

Sponsored Build log (In Progress): The Utterly Imbalanced CaseLabs TX10-D build(s)!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

I won't participate in this with my opinion just yet because I know more than most and still need to know more. But I will say that some here are mistaken about Caselabs cases being steel. The parts are all 3-5mm thick aluminum which is mucho expensive, lighter and stronger than steel.

Also, TT has had some pretty original stuff lately but also some that are extremely.. Inspired. It's way beyond just the Fractal Design case and the Caselabs cases too, quite a few other companies have had similar issues.

You are right. I always thought hey were steel because the way they felt in my hands in person, much like old steel cases I had (they even rusted).

wow, I feel stupid

dsc-5784.jpg

muh specs 

Gaming and HTPC (reparations)- ASUS 1080, MSI X99A SLI Plus, 5820k- 4.5GHz @ 1.25v, asetek based 360mm AIO, RM 1000x, 16GB memory, 750D with front USB 2.0 replaced with 3.0  ports, 2 250GB 850 EVOs in Raid 0 (why not, only has games on it), some hard drives

Screens- Acer preditor XB241H (1080p, 144Hz Gsync), LG 1080p ultrawide, (all mounted) directly wired to TV in other room

Stuff- k70 with reds, steel series rival, g13, full desk covering mouse mat

All parts black

Workstation(desk)- 3770k, 970 reference, 16GB of some crucial memory, a motherboard of some kind I don't remember, Micomsoft SC-512N1-L/DVI, CM Storm Trooper (It's got a handle, can you handle that?), 240mm Asetek based AIO, Crucial M550 256GB (upgrade soon), some hard drives, disc drives, and hot swap bays

Screens- 3  ASUS VN248H-P IPS 1080p screens mounted on a stand, some old tv on the wall above it. 

Stuff- Epicgear defiant (solderless swappable switches), g600, moutned mic and other stuff. 

Laptop docking area- 2 1440p korean monitors mounted, one AHVA matte, one samsung PLS gloss (very annoying, yes). Trashy Razer blackwidow chroma...I mean like the J key doesn't click anymore. I got a model M i use on it to, but its time for a new keyboard. Some edgy Utechsmart mouse similar to g600. Hooked to laptop dock for both of my dell precision laptops. (not only docking area)

Shelf- i7-2600 non-k (has vt-d), 380t, some ASUS sandy itx board, intel quad nic. Currently hosts shared files, setting up as pfsense box in VM. Also acts as spare gaming PC with a 580 or whatever someone brings. Hooked into laptop dock area via usb switch

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

Actually not hard to believe there's a couple of key factors

-They ship every case unassambled. This is actually rather important since most cases that are damaged end up damaged during delivery at some point

-They build everything to order. Again no mass production line or anything that needs to have tolerances they can just manually see if it's gonna work or not.

 

This means that they will always be a relatively tiny company with 0 hopes of succeeding beyond their current notch above a mom and pop business level. It is indeed hard to fail when you take 0 risks, self evident in their designs as well: black squares placed around 100% for functionality, the design is actually up to the customer to decide on finish, types of panels, virtually everything.

 

Now is it actually worth the money? Not to me but there's certainly a market of "rich enough yet lazy enough" individuals doing custom builds out there. As for your question, here's an actual professional review of one of their products such a thing does exists:

That's a bit of a rude way to put it, and actually if I could afford one of their fully custom cases I'd say the following: give me the Enthoo Primo with grommets on the back for water cooling friendliness. It's not about being lazy, though being rich may very well be part of it. Getting EXACTLY what you want is more the goal. Now, they very well could increase standardized production of some of their more popular models and go beyond the size you imply they're limited to. What that'll do to revenues vs. margins and what not I can't say exactly, but chances are they like being where they are, or they'd move up and onward.

Software Engineer for Suncorp (Australia), Computer Tech Enthusiast, Miami University Graduate, Nerd

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

Welp, never buying anything from Thermaltake again...

 

Anyone notice this?

 

5e65ad1161.png

 

Good ol JayzTwoCents :P

him

 

 

 

I like him 

muh specs 

Gaming and HTPC (reparations)- ASUS 1080, MSI X99A SLI Plus, 5820k- 4.5GHz @ 1.25v, asetek based 360mm AIO, RM 1000x, 16GB memory, 750D with front USB 2.0 replaced with 3.0  ports, 2 250GB 850 EVOs in Raid 0 (why not, only has games on it), some hard drives

Screens- Acer preditor XB241H (1080p, 144Hz Gsync), LG 1080p ultrawide, (all mounted) directly wired to TV in other room

Stuff- k70 with reds, steel series rival, g13, full desk covering mouse mat

All parts black

Workstation(desk)- 3770k, 970 reference, 16GB of some crucial memory, a motherboard of some kind I don't remember, Micomsoft SC-512N1-L/DVI, CM Storm Trooper (It's got a handle, can you handle that?), 240mm Asetek based AIO, Crucial M550 256GB (upgrade soon), some hard drives, disc drives, and hot swap bays

Screens- 3  ASUS VN248H-P IPS 1080p screens mounted on a stand, some old tv on the wall above it. 

Stuff- Epicgear defiant (solderless swappable switches), g600, moutned mic and other stuff. 

Laptop docking area- 2 1440p korean monitors mounted, one AHVA matte, one samsung PLS gloss (very annoying, yes). Trashy Razer blackwidow chroma...I mean like the J key doesn't click anymore. I got a model M i use on it to, but its time for a new keyboard. Some edgy Utechsmart mouse similar to g600. Hooked to laptop dock for both of my dell precision laptops. (not only docking area)

Shelf- i7-2600 non-k (has vt-d), 380t, some ASUS sandy itx board, intel quad nic. Currently hosts shared files, setting up as pfsense box in VM. Also acts as spare gaming PC with a 580 or whatever someone brings. Hooked into laptop dock area via usb switch

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

I never planned on buying a Thermaltake product but this assures I never will.

N64 HTPC: [Completed]

 

Main PC: i7 4770k @ 4.2 Ghz | Be Quiet! Dark Rock TF | Asus Z87 Maximus VI Formula | G Skill Ripjaws X 16GB | Zotac GTX 1070 | Samsung 850 EVO 500GB | Seagate 1TB Hybrid | Samsung 840 EVO 128GB | Corsair 1200i | Thermaltake Core P5

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

thermal(TAKE)

Case: Phanteks Evolve X with ITX mount  cpu: Ryzen 3900X 4.35ghz all cores Motherboard: MSI X570 Unify gpu: EVGA 1070 SC  psu: Phanteks revolt x 1200W Memory: 64GB Kingston Hyper X oc'd to 3600mhz ssd: Sabrent Rocket 4.0 1TB ITX System CPU: 4670k  Motherboard: some cheap asus h87 Ram: 16gb corsair vengeance 1600mhz

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

Every case is a copy now, with a few exceptions. 

kinda but they already did it to fractal design before

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

question: one is Fractal Design, one is ThermalTake, guess what's what
 
R1UHWsT.png
 
OC3D has a summary video on what's happening:
 

 
---
 
my take on this:
did ThermalTake copied the original blueprints? looks line not - TT had to design their own product from ground up, even if they did reverse-engineering, that's still work to be done
TT did not sold (copy) products with the original manufacturer's logo, they sold the products with the TT logo

 

this industry has gone nuts with the things you can patent

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

I know which one is FD's, but only because I know which is which :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

the one on the left has the LED light top center, so there's one difference that stands out for Fractal, lol

R9 3900XT | Tomahawk B550 | Ventus OC RTX 3090 | Photon 1050W | 32GB DDR4 | TUF GT501 Case | Vizio 4K 50'' HDR

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

Not this topic again :mellow:

Love cats and Linus. Check out linuscattips-fan-club. http://pcpartpicker.com/p/Z9QDVn and Asus ROG Swift. I love anime as well. Check out Heaven Society heaven-society. My own personal giveaway thread http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/387856-evga-geforce-gtx-970-giveaway-presented-by-grimneo/.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

Looks like they doing some shitty business. Plagiarism is bad in every sense.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

Welcome to the world, were Americans and Europeans have great ideas but the Chinese make it for cheaper. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

I don't care for thermaltake's products, but there are only so many ways you can put together a case.

CPU i7 6700 Cooling Cryorig H7 Motherboard MSI H110i Pro AC RAM Kingston HyperX Fury 16GB DDR4 2133 GPU Pulse RX 5700 XT Case Fractal Design Define Mini C Storage Trascend SSD370S 256GB + WD Black 320GB + Sandisk Ultra II 480GB + WD Blue 1TB PSU EVGA GS 550 Display Nixeus Vue24B FreeSync 144 Hz Monitor (VESA mounted) Keyboard Aorus K3 Mechanical Keyboard Mouse Logitech G402 OS Windows 10 Home 64 bit

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

I never planned on buying a Thermaltake product but this assures I never will.

Exactly what I thought.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

Wait those cases at computex were from TT?

WTF

I looked at them and thought they were caselabs. I was like "Why the hell is caselab showing an already released year ago product"?

 

I thought the EXACT same - didn't even click on links, I've already seen plenty of caselabs builds and the thumbnail looked no different

 

Just as further reminder to everyone on how much of a tool Shannon@Thermaltake is, see my posts in the T81 thread

 

http://www.overclock.net/t/1490666/thermaltake-urban-t81-owners-club

 

You wonder why no popular media/youtuber has a good and frequent rapport with him....... :rolleyes:

I honestly, probably would have put up with that case (T81), but Shannon's responses just made me disgusted with the company in general and made me want to jump ship even more

seriously, screw Thermaltake

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

After their clear rip off with the Core series

 

Excuse me? There's nothing like the Core V21. And if you're going to bring up Cooler Master's crappy "stacking" cases, they're not even modular, and are designer's brain farts in comparison, kindergarten level stuff.

 

Thermaltake may take inspirations here and there, normally I would be against direct copies like the above Caselabs example is approaching, but not if their design is better. And lately, Thermaltake's products have been nothing but improvements. I'd expect Cooler Master to shovel their entire HAF stacker inventory to the landfill the second TT showed off Core series.

 

I expect the improvement here will be price, as the TT one is unlikely to be overbuilt to the point of elitism like Caselabs cases are.

 

 

question: one is Fractal Design, one is ThermalTake, guess what's what

 

R1UHWsT.png

 

OC3D has a summary video on what's happening:

 

 

Dude, that case production line belongs to NANOXIA (!!!) in the first place, if you're going to point fingers, learn your shit.

Fractal Design produce the R4 AT THE FREAKIN' NANOXIA FACTORY!! And there's an identical Nanoxia branded case.

In case the moderators do not ban me as requested, this is a notice that I have left and am not coming back.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

First the define r5 copy and now this... come on thermaltake

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing Tech News

×