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[OC3D] Thermaltake is copying more than just CaseLabs products

CtW

This topic could be seen as an extension to the previous one about the same issue (link http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/379036-vice-president-of-caselabs-calls-out-thermaltake-for-directly-copying-their-designs-computex-2015/)and will go into more detail about things detailed in the OC3D article as well as TTL's thoughts on the issue.

 

Source http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews/cases_cooling/thermaltake_designs_at_computex_2015_look_familiar/1

 

This article will basically cover the issues besides the caselabs one as well as some QC issues. It's a big, but important read.

 

 

At Computex 2015 Thermaltake has been showing off a large number of "new" case designs, the problem being that all of these designs are very similar to designs from a variety of other manufacturers. 

 
This started last week when Thermaltake announced their Suppressor F51 Chassis, a case which is strikingly similar to Fractal Design's R5, so much so that those who are not well acquainted with these cases could not tell the difference.
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[Fractal Design R5 (left), Thermaltake Suppressor F51 (Right)]
 
A single case with these kinds of similarities could be forgiven, but looking at many of other Thermaltake products this is not the only case of designs which looks similar to competing products coming from them.
 
Below I will post pictures comparing many products from several other major companies, including Caselabs, NZXT, EK, Bitspower, Koolance and the list goes on. The products below range from water cooling components, fans, fan controllers and even cases, this problem is clearly widespread across all of Thermaltake's products. 
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  NZXT GRID Fan Controller(Left), Thermaltake Commander Fan controller(right)
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NZXT Sentry 3 Touch fan controller (left), Thermaltake Commander FT Touch Fan Controller (right)
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Thermaltake Riing Fan (left), Antec True Quiet Fan (right)
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EKWB Multi GPU WC Bridge (left), Thermaltake Design (Right)
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Koolance and EKWB Waterblock designs(left), Thermaltake's new waterblock design (Right)
As you can see above, It is not hard to believe that Thermaltake could have been using copy and paste design methods, going much deeper than just Fractal Design and Caselabs, or even just cases manufacturers like we first though. If I were to show you every thing that Thermaltake has which is directly comparable with a different manufacturers earlier design you would be reading this article all day.
 

The article goes on to talk about some alarming quality issues with Thermaltake's liquid cooling products.

 

Looking at Thermaltake's products, I can say with absolute certainty that a lot of their products are inferior to their aesthetically similar counterparts from other companies, and this is coming from a fully trained Mechanical Engineer (Yes I am a Fully Trained Mechanical Engineer).

 
I will give you guys a few examples of this, the first of which will be with the design of their GTX 970 Strix GPU Waterblock. 
 
To the left is a picture of  EK's FC970 Strix water block, which as you can see can covers and cools all of the GPUs major components, like the VRMs, VRAM and the GPU core.
 
Looking at the Thermaltake design (For the same GPU) on the right, you can see that they do not have any active cooling on the GPUs VRMs. Thermaltake have decided that passively cooling the GPU's VRMs is adequate, adding a vent above them to help with passive airflow. Allowing the VRMs to passively cool on this GPU will shorten the lifespan of this GPU, especially since most GPU watercoolers overclock their systems. 
 
In my eyes, again speaking as a fully trained mechanical engineer, who is well acquainted with the processes required to design and make such a product like this, that reason is cost and time. to make this GPU block properly you need detailed PCB designs from ASUS, more material to cover and cool the VRMs, more time spent to design the block and more time is required to machine and assemble the product. THIS THERMALTAKE DESIGN IS OBVIOUSLY INFERIOR TO EK'S. 
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My second example will be with Thermaltake's coolant, a Glycol based coolant which is both toxic and can degrade components in your water cooling loop.  As many of you who use Rigid Acrylic tubing my know, Glycol based coolants will degrade your tubing, causing it to crack and could destroy your loop and your PC.
 
Most other Coolants on the market have moved away from Glycol, or alcohol based coolants altogether due to it's toxicity and potential reactions with other water cooling products. 
 
Thermaltake's radiators are made using Aluminium primarily, unlike most others that use primarily copper. Copper is known to be a better thermal conductor than Aluminium and for this reason copper makes for a superior radiator. One other reason why copper is primarily used is because most other metal components in a water cooling loop is made of copper, and the mixing metals in a liquid based cooling loop is preferable in order to avoid corrosion, though the anti corrosive additives most coolants do help to avoid corrosion. If Thermaltake anodized their Aluminium Radiators with a protective oxide layer, like all other manufacturers, the corrosion issue would not be that big, but Thermaltake just use bare Aluminium, which is a problem.
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Thermaltake have dug a huge hole for themselves in our book, producing many products which look identical to other companies designs is bad, but their inability to even improve on any of these products, at least in my opinion, and make only what appears to be a bunch of cheap and nasty knock-offs makes matters even worse.
 
At times like these I wish OC3D had a negative award to give a company,  or even a certificate of condemnation to send to them in the post. When a company shows a lack of creativity over a number of years, I usually say that there it is a time to change their management, or in more extreme cases time to sell up. Thermaltake need to change the way they make product, not by looking at what other companies are doing but at what PC builders actually want, creating products which can be defined as innovative, or at least unique. 
 
Below I want to hear your opinions on this. Do you think they copied the designs of other companies? Do you see this as a Problem?

TTL made a lengthy video about this, covering everything in the article.

 

Edit: DazMode (seller of liquid cooling and modding supplies) has put out a shorter video on the same topic. The video does contain some strong language so don't watch it if you get offended by that stuff.

 

Now for my opinion:

I completely agree with what the author of the article as well as TTL have said in that Thermaltake has blatantly ripped off other companies' designed and, in regards to their liquid cooling products, have made some harmful design choices in the name of cost cutting. As many people have stated in the other thread, this is just unacceptable and needs to be dealt with. I could understand if Thermaltake wanted to work with some manufacturers as OEMs to create a cheaper product that was more accessible to end users while still giving credit where credit is due, but this is wrong. I think that this has definitely left a huge hole in their reputation as a company and will probably lead to some form of litigation from CaseLabs and maybe Fractal Design. 

 

TL;DR: Thermaltake ripped off designs and made some really bad liquid cooling products.

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Yea this is a bit more than "accidentally" borrowing the likelihood of someone else.

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@Enderman Didn't you post a video about this too?

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I just really don't like this. They may get a few sales, but I doubt their copies will be even close to the quality of the originals. If they only had one case (lol pun) of this, then it would be iffy, but fine in the end, but when they are doing this much, its just ridiculous. I personally won't be buying anything from thermaltake until they stop doing this.

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To be fair theres only so many ways you can design a waterblock let alone a radiator...

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I don't understand why this is an issue in a free market.

 

If a company can get outdone by an imposter with lower price/quality, then maybe you're the problem in that equation.

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To be fair theres only so many ways you can design a waterblock let alone a radiator...

To bad their designs are complete shit and they won't work properly.

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To bad their designs are complete shit and they won't work properly.

 

Yeah that "vent" above the vrms is a freaking joke haha

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I don't understand why this is an issue in a free market.

 

If a company can get outdone by an imposter with lower price/quality, then maybe you're the problem in that equation.

So then all of the ripoff fashion products, cars, movies, tv shows, games, tech products, etc. that exist in this world are absolutely fine? Imagine if you had worked hundreds of hours and spent tons of money to design an original product that you feel passionate about and then suddenly someone larger than you just came in and took it then called it their own. Would you be ok with that? I don't think you would. It's still possible to create a product that directly competes with another and still make it original and stand out in its own way. Simply making a worse version of the same product just to capitalize off of another's success is wrong. This is a large part of the reason why copyright and patent laws were created, both of which do very little to hurt a free market economy.

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I will say they've atleast improved some areas of some cases.  Their Fractal copy has more rad support than even the Define S(with a 420 in the front instead of a 360), and while it lacks management straps in the back, it does come with a magnetic filter on the top as well as modu-vents, E-ATX support which no Define except the XL has had in the last long while.  It's a shame they didn't try to change the design and make it their own, but at least they offered a few improvements in certain areas of the case with expand-ability and support.  And if they offer a bit of a better case, at a lower price, and somewhat decent quality - woo.

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Well .. it is in their brand name ... ThermalTAKE (we will take your design bwahahahaha!).

Personaly I am not upset about this. Why? I already have Define R4 and I dont think that I will be buying another case for at least 5 years.

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I wish I knew about this a few weeks ago

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Hey @CtW DazMode did a video about this too talking about the water cooling hardware a fair bit

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsFhrLpb8ls

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So then all of the ripoff fashion products, cars, movies, tv shows, games, tech products, etc. that exist in this world are absolutely fine? Imagine if you had worked hundreds of hours and spent tons of money to design an original product that you feel passionate about and then suddenly someone larger than you just came in and took it then called it their own. Would you be ok with that? I don't think you would. It's still possible to create a product that directly competes with another and still make it original and stand out in its own way. Simply making a worse version of the same product just to capitalize off of another's success is wrong. This is a large part of the reason why copyright and patent laws were created, both of which do very little to hurt a free market economy.

That would depend on if your product is actually revolutionary or not. If it's revolutionary it should have a patent. If it's not revolutionary in a way warranting a patent, then everyone will know about it and not buy a knockoff.

 

Caselabs cases are only revolutionary because they're steel cases who aren't afraid to be boring. Anyone can be boring, and any case can be steel. They're not just capitalizing on caselabs success , they're trying to create their own success. If caselabs can't handle the incumbent competitor, then that isn't my problem.

 

Wouldn't you agree that a monopoly would be worse than having competition? Because all thermaltake is doing right now (in regards to caselabs) is ending a monopoly and creating a market.

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I'm interested on the legal side of things here; specifically, does Case Labs, Fractal, and all those other guys... do they have patents / copyrights on these designs (they better do! and have a good legal team)?

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I just have to question about the lcd fan controller and waterblocks, I mean, really? There's only so many different ways you can make these things look, and those look pretty different anyways.

 

The cases are definitely taken, the fan controller maybe (again, only so many ways can you do it), but the rest seem like they're grasping at straws here trying to find products that look slightly similar just so they can claim that those were copied too.

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I don't understand why this is an issue in a free market.

 

If a company can get outdone by an imposter with lower price/quality, then maybe you're the problem in that equation.

 

It's not about legalities. It's about integrity.

why do so many good cases only come in black and white

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Was never really a thermaltake fan to begin with . . now I wont ever buy anything after this stunt.

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It's not about legalities. It's about integrity.

Integrity is generally just an inhibitor of success

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