New Thermaltake Tsunami Case -> What's wrong with hardware reviews these days?!

Hi All,
While in the process of building new pc, I decided to wait up for the
release of a new ThermalTake Tsunami Dream series case, which was
heavily advertised on Tomshardware and other hware websites.
(http://www.thermaltake.com/xaserCase...sunamimenu.htm)
I have patiently waited for the case to be reviewed by "prominent"
hardware review sites. Every review has given this case 10/10 and high
recommendations.
Well that along was enough for me to go out and buy the case.

Brought it home, opened it up... Well the case feels really small and
cramped. Not any better than my current Aopen H600A and no where near
as roomy as Antech P160.

Did compulsory twist/bend test and got a shock!. The case almost
folded in 1/2 after only a little push. Overall, I could not beleive
how bad the design was and how pitfull was the build quality. I guess
when u utlize 0.8mm thick aluminium u can't possibly expect
structurually sound quality. Well few hours later I took the case back
and got something else. But what I am really ****ed off about is how
all those "great" hardware testing sites have not mentioned any
obvious weaknesses and pitfalls of this case. Looks like hardly any1
this days writes proper unbiased reviews on hardware. I guess getting
free hardware does wonders to an unbiased eye!

Cheers
Vlad

On 1 Jul 2004 01:03:18 -0700, (Vlad) wrote:



Did compulsory twist/bend test and got a shock!. The case almost
folded in 1/2 after only a little push. Overall, I could not beleive
how bad the design was and how pitfull was the build quality. I guess
when u utlize 0.8mm thick aluminium u can't possibly expect
structurually sound quality.

Thats my beef on a lot of the cases I bought recently - the Antec I
bought a while back was cramped and the build was so thin , it felt
like if I sat on it , it would have been demolished. I didnt want to
lean against it or anything. for fear of putting dents in it. I
dropped a pen on it and put a dent on the top once. I soon got rid of
it . sold it really cheap to someone who really wanted it. I got a
full size Antec tower that is incredibly roomy and is far sturdier.
Its not like the old cases I have and many people have the big old
heavy as a boulder beige cases that were the norm years ago - those
you can stand on them and nothing happens. But then they weigh a TON.

My current Antec is a decent compromise between the old ones that
weighed a ton and the new one that are light as a feather and crumple
if you breathe on them.

Well few hours later I took the case back
and got something else. But what I am really ****ed off about is how
all those "great" hardware testing sites have not mentioned any
obvious weaknesses and pitfalls of this case. Looks like hardly any1
this days writes proper unbiased reviews on hardware. I guess getting
free hardware does wonders to an unbiased eye!

They do leave out a lot of stuff so I use them as one source of info
not the holy grail of hardware opinion. Still at least they do get
exposed to a lot of stuff which the avg poster doesnt. The avg poster
may have formed an opinion from using one or two of a product so even
if they are intelligent , they jus didnt have access to all the stuff.
Also for me - it seemed like when tech was so hyped that a little
website venture seemed the center of the universe , very important -
one story showed Anand of Anandtech who was still going to high school
or had just graduated getting out of his Porsche or something and
there was talk about plans for his complex of buildings or something.
When things seemed that hyped - there seemed to be way way more
attention to reviewing everything out there .

Now they seem to view it almost as a big hobby , lots of stuff doesnt
get covered until much later if at all and they dont seem to pay as
much attention to their sites.

On 1 Jul 2004 01:03:18 -0700, (Vlad) wrote:

snip

Did compulsory twist/bend test and got a shock!. The case almost
folded in 1/2 after only a little push. Overall, I could not beleive
how bad the design was and how pitfull was the build quality. I guess
when u utlize 0.8mm thick aluminium u can't possibly expect
structurually sound quality.

Yikes! I won't even buy 1.0mm Al cases anymore. Right now I
have one of the Antecs and would've rather had steel version even
at same cost. Used to like Enlight but they too went to thinner
metal. You can still get thicker cases but the price-point is
now higher, too high for only that difference. Problem is, you
pay more expecting thicker metal but end up with something barely
better than those $30 specials you wanted to avoid for (at least
one of) the same reasons. I guess that they just can't
understand that some of us don't want to take all our gear to a
lanparty and would gladly pay a proportional, reasonable amount
more for a case that just has thicker metal and good, plentiful
large fan mounts.


Well few hours later I took the case back
and got something else. But what I am really ****ed off about is how
all those "great" hardware testing sites have not mentioned any
obvious weaknesses and pitfalls of this case. Looks like hardly any1
this days writes proper unbiased reviews on hardware. I guess getting
free hardware does wonders to an unbiased eye!

You'll see similar reports over at Newegg.com, customers giving
tinfoil cases praise. I have to wonder what they're comparing it
too. Fortunately some of them do look nice, but the glossy paint
seems to be getting more popular too, something that doesn't make
much sense because it's easier to blemish and shows fingerprints
quite easily.

Fortunately I have a bunch of older cases just waiting for me to
get motivated enough to refurb for modern components & features.
Used to be you could get a smaller midtower that was sturdy but
these days it seems pretty rare unless you want to spend in
excess of $100.

On Thu, 01 Jul 2004 10:21:10 +0000, kony wrote:

On 1 Jul 2004 01:03:18 -0700, (Vlad) wrote:

snip

Did compulsory twist/bend test and got a shock!. The case almost
folded in 1/2 after only a little push.

Yikes! I won't even buy 1.0mm Al cases anymore. Right now I
have one of the Antecs and would've rather had steel version

I have an old steel InWin case that is built like a tank, and has spacious
living quarters for several pets and small children. I could easily fit
2 mobos in there (complete with full height PCI cards) if I had the right
mounts. I'm afraid I lost the tow-bar attachment though, so I won't be
taking it with me on vacation.



-
[H]omer

It is good to know that there are people out there who have the same
opinion as I do!!!
Not everyone wants to go to a LanParty with a "see through" case which
weights nothing. I wanted a good housing for my high performance
business system and Thermaltake failed to deliver.
Did you "John" end up buying Performance Plus 1080?
Nice solid modern case that is. Lian Li of course are the gods of
alloy cases but I for once am not paying $300+ (AUD) for a box. I
would rather spend the extra money on the faster CPU, RAM ,HDD and
things that really matter in the system performance.

However my main grief is with ALL THE "REPUTABLE" hardware review
sites that seemed to have no concept of unbiased opinion. I guess why
would company send you a free hardware if in your last review you
didn't give'em 10/10.
As an example, Thermaltake Tsunami Dream should get max 2/10 (and it
is generous) but all reviews so far have given it 10/10.
I guess in the future I would not buy anything untill I look at it
myself and make my own opinion up based on my knowledge

Cheers
Vlad



" wrote in message . ..
On 1 Jul 2004 01:03:18 -0700, (Vlad) wrote:



Did compulsory twist/bend test and got a shock!. The case almost
folded in 1/2 after only a little push. Overall, I could not beleive
how bad the design was and how pitfull was the build quality. I guess
when u utlize 0.8mm thick aluminium u can't possibly expect
structurually sound quality.

Thats my beef on a lot of the cases I bought recently - the Antec I
bought a while back was cramped and the build was so thin , it felt
like if I sat on it , it would have been demolished. I didnt want to
lean against it or anything. for fear of putting dents in it. I
dropped a pen on it and put a dent on the top once. I soon got rid of
it . sold it really cheap to someone who really wanted it. I got a
full size Antec tower that is incredibly roomy and is far sturdier.
Its not like the old cases I have and many people have the big old
heavy as a boulder beige cases that were the norm years ago - those
you can stand on them and nothing happens. But then they weigh a TON.

My current Antec is a decent compromise between the old ones that
weighed a ton and the new one that are light as a feather and crumple
if you breathe on them.

Well few hours later I took the case back
and got something else. But what I am really ****ed off about is how
all those "great" hardware testing sites have not mentioned any
obvious weaknesses and pitfalls of this case. Looks like hardly any1
this days writes proper unbiased reviews on hardware. I guess getting
free hardware does wonders to an unbiased eye!

They do leave out a lot of stuff so I use them as one source of info
not the holy grail of hardware opinion. Still at least they do get
exposed to a lot of stuff which the avg poster doesnt. The avg poster
may have formed an opinion from using one or two of a product so even
if they are intelligent , they jus didnt have access to all the stuff.
Also for me - it seemed like when tech was so hyped that a little
website venture seemed the center of the universe , very important -
one story showed Anand of Anandtech who was still going to high school
or had just graduated getting out of his Porsche or something and
there was talk about plans for his complex of buildings or something.
When things seemed that hyped - there seemed to be way way more
attention to reviewing everything out there .

Now they seem to view it almost as a big hobby , lots of stuff doesnt
get covered until much later if at all and they dont seem to pay as
much attention to their sites.

On 2 Jul 2004 06:22:34 -0700, (Vlad) wrote:

It is good to know that there are people out there who have the same
opinion as I do!!!
Not everyone wants to go to a LanParty with a "see through" case which
weights nothing. I wanted a good housing for my high performance
business system and Thermaltake failed to deliver.
Did you "John" end up buying Performance Plus 1080?

Yeah thats the one but I got it without a PS . I bought that
separately - an Antec PS. Its just the way it was on sale here at
Compusa. In fact most of the cases now sold at the local Compusa come
w/o PSes.


Nice solid modern case that is. Lian Li of course are the gods of
alloy cases but I for once am not paying $300+ (AUD) for a box. I
would rather spend the extra money on the faster CPU, RAM ,HDD and
things that really matter in the system performance.

Me too. In fact for the longest time I stuck with the old Enlight I
had. No way would I buy something with lights and fancy paintjob for
$100-200 but this was on sale so I bought it.

My old Enlight which Im using for a second PC is still lighter than an
even older Enlight case which I gave to someone. She is still using
that and when I pick it up with all the cd drives in it, it literally
weighs a ton ! Thats considerably heavier than my other Enlight case
to the point I dont relish caryying that thing back to my place to
work on it at all.

..

"In any event, the first thing to notice about the sides (and really
the rest of the case) is the aluminum finish and paint. Thermaltake
uses a thinner layer of aluminum for the side panels as opposed to
the front door. This thinner layer is noticeable when you press down
on the sides. The aluminum panels actually have some give in them
which will make you think you're working with plastic. As nice as the
panels look, we do wish that Thermaltake used thicker sheets of
aluminum here. " -
http://www.whiningdog.net/Reviews/PC...ream/page3.php


Some reviews meantion the thin panels

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