The Thermaltake Armor A60 has proven to be an exceptional chassis during our testing and what has amazed us more than anything is that this product is in my opinion worth more than the £60 inc vat asking price. Let's recap the major points across the review for those too lazy to read it all.
Firstly, the paint work is first class and it belies the budget pricing. I expected some slightly miscoloured or patchy sections internally, or even some sharp filing on a few of the metal edges. I found none at all and I spent considerable time analysing the surfaces.
The fans are really high quality and while Thermaltake have been over enthusiastic about their rated dbA output, they are what I would consider to be high quality units. You also get three of them with the purchase, 2x 120mm and 1x 200mm. Taking an educated guess I calculate the 120mm fans are worth £5-6 each and the 200mm around £10. Lets even it out and say £20 for the included fans. Remember this isn't a £120 case, this is basically one third of the asking price on fans alone. They haven't skimped either as all the fans have removable dust filters included, as standard. Even the PSU vent has a removable dust filter.
Internally, the system is well finished and designed. The three fans work in a classic, traditional push/pull airflow methodology and you have room to add 4 more. We added one to the side panel and we were able to cool a GTX480 to almost the same standard as a Silverstone Raven 02.
Connectivity is excellent, you have ports for everything, eSATA, headphones, USB 2.0 and even USB 3.0. There is a side button to remove a primary hard drive and you can add plenty more into the spacious drive area.
Acoustically the case is superb, we measured 32db in a test environment and we were also pleased to record a complete lack of vibration problems … dampening issues are sometimes associated with a less expensive product, but this isn't something the Armor A60 suffers from. You aren't required to find a screwdriver either as it is a tool-less design throughout.
So realistically what flaws could we document? The only thing I could really say would be the drive bay locking trays. These feel really cheap and nasty and I hope in a later revision they improve the quality of the material. I would also like to see a side panel case fan as standard but I am sure this would raise the price a little.
KitGuru says: That really is all we can say, this has to be the best chassis in its price range, bar none.
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