Thermaltake Level 10 GT

Dredgy · March 24, 2016

This is actually the second time I've reviewed this case, but I have a microphone now! The video also got used as a dumping ground for editing practice, but still turned out pretty good. I recommend watching!

Pros

Well designed for ease of building
High quality plastic, stops yellowing over time.
Solid steel construction
Spacious
Headphone hanger, feet, and largely toolless design
External hotswap bays.

Cons

Price
Fit and finish not perfect - rattling from the lock mechanisms necessitated their removal.
E-ATX boards will obstruct some cable management grommets.
Appearance is a bit "gamery", but at least it is with function in mind.

Overall, a great case, 5 years after initial relase. So easy to build in, and external hotswap drives make it really the only consumer option for my workstation needs.

Loleo · March 24, 2016

Hello Dredgy,

I saw your review and wanted to rate it/ give my feedback and options about it. Although I'm not a reviewer myself I have watched a lot of them seeing that I have been subscribed to LTT, Hardware Canucks, Paul's hardware, AN and some other ones. Feel free to read all of it (you should, sqarespace)

First off I wanted to tell you that the camera work was very well done and keep that up. It was both visually pleasing, high quality and not overdone. Your equipment did not limit you in any obvious way so I would say that you can keep your microphone, camera, etc and remain happy with them as it is now. You provided lots of valuable information about the case; build quality, usage, asteathics and much more. However your statements was not justified according to me. You said some of the following statements: ''The hot swappable hard drives bays are at the front and these are the greatest thing on any case evah.'' Maybe for you they are the best thing evah* but for the average consumer or even enthusiast it would no be. You could still say this but rephrase it a little, a more suitable way of saying it would be: The hot swappable hard drive bays are at the front and these are one of the best things ever since they assist me greatly in my need of swapping media storage regularly. This goes for a lot of what you said in the video, be clear to say what the function or item does to you and why, this would help the viewer more. I.E The hot swappable hard drive bays are one of the best functions of any case ever since they help me and make my life easier by reducing the time and effort it takes to normally switch internal storage. This is a need for me since I have both big and many files that I need to switch between and work on.

Before you reviewed this case you had been using it for a year or so, this means that the picture that you take will not actually represent what the case would look like when purchased this could be fixed by taking some of the pictures of the case beforehand and such. This would prevent you from lacking footage as in the video when you could not show us the headphone hanger nor the case without the PSU shroud and the original case fan. <----- THIS IS IMPORTANT, the consumer gotta know what he is actually buying.

Another point that you should be training on is maybe writing the script for the video completely and practicing it even more. This will come naturally after you've done more and more reviews but at this time you said ''uhh..'' too many times and along with some other normal stuttering, other than that you remained calm and were talking quite comfortably.

Other possible improvements:

A bit better intro along with an introduction; maybe what you will be covering in your video (I.E In this video I will be covering both the quality of the case along with sound, looks and etc). A more structured video would be nice maybe even with differently named segments such as ''Quality'' and then you start talking about the quality of the product.

But I got to hand it to you, you've done an amazing job for a new reviewer and I do really hope you will continue with videos even if it's not that many people that are watching you now you could still end up as LTT one day.

TL;DR

PROS:

Good camerawork, quality audio, the voice talking in the video was good with few exceptions, video was informative and along with personal experience and thoughts, reviewer had used the case for more than a year which means a very true review and he had a lot of time so he could have seen almost any flaw with the case. the video had intro, outdo and had AWESOME music.

CONS:

No footage of case in original state, a bit of voice stuttering; uhhh, a bit overly dramatic statements that were not justified, hand gestures could be improved (try to either stand behind a tall desk or fix posture so you don't lean forward at all IMO). The structure of the video could be improved along with a short introduction summary of the contents of the video.

Pheew, that was a long reply and I do really hope you read it since I put a lot of effort into just this. You are awesome and I hope that you can grow and continue making videos. *I was just making a bit fun of your accent, nothing serious; it's awesome.

Med vänliga hälsningar Loleo.

Dredgy · March 24, 2016

@Loleo thank you for the detailed critique there. I won't address every point since its very late here, but I have read them all and taken them onboard. Thanks again

In regards to the "uhh"s I didn't realise any made it into the final cut. None of this video production (writing, hosting, shooting, editing) is my field. So am learning in all of them. If you look up my original review of this case, you'll see how far I've come

The rest is simply a matter of time. Since Sunday is my only day off, I write, get all of the shots I need AND do the edit all within the space of a few hours. Usually I pick up any shots I missed on the Wednesday before I upload. This review was particularly difficult because it required my workstation to be offline, which compounded all of the B-Roll shooting into under an hour. If you look closely at the desk shots, you will notice that the case is not actually on my desk, but added in later. Once my system was plugged in again, I was unable to get the shots I missed since I keep it out of the way.

I would have loved to get a good shot of the hotswap backplane, but disassembling and reassembling the cable runs was not going to happen in the hour I had. That's why as the review progresses, the less B-Roll there is. I was against the clock.

With the PSU shroud, again the mess of cables under there wouldn't be helpful to anyone viewing, and I didn't have time to disassemble. Another reason for that was, when you see the tracking shot of "PSU Shroud Not Included" - I needed to know how to do that kind of shot for an upcoming video, so was a learning experience.

For the actual case though - hotswap bays are exactly as awesome as I described. Maybe not for the person who doesn't mind screwing in a hard drive, but for both the pro and the beginner. I've been building PCs since the 90s and anything that shaves 2 minutes of installation, allows for easy upgrade-ability, can be accessed without opening the case and reduces cable management is a big deal. I just bought a Cooler Master HAF XB EVO, pretty much solely because it has hotswap bays.

Thank you for your comments and I look forward to doing more stuff you enjoy!