Thermaltake Soprano Snow Edition Chassis Review

Thermaltake are a popular chassis manufacturer and they have been re-releasing some of their models with a new white colour scheme. Today we are a looking at the latest Soprano 'Snow Edition' which is sure to attract a new audience. One of the first chassis to be recreated with the Snow theme was the legendary Thermaltake Level 10 GT, which has proven popular with the enthusiast userbase. The Thermaltake Soprano is a more delicately designed case, almost 'Macintosh' like. Specifications Case Type Mid Tower Dimension (H x W x D) 460 x 220 x 510 mm (18 x 8.7 x 20 inch) Net Weight 8.3 kg/18.3lb Color Exterior & Interior : Black & White Material SECC Cooling System Front (intake) : 200 x 200 x 20 mm Blue LED fan x 1 (600rpm, 13dBA) Rear (exhaust) : 120 x 120 x 25 mm Turbo fan (1000rpm,16dBA) Bottom (Intake) : (optional) 120 x 120 x 25 mm Drive Bays - Accessible: 4 x 5.25’’, 1 x 3.5’’ - Hidden: 5 x 3.5’’ or 2.5’’ - HDD Docking: 1 x 3.5’’ or 2.5’’ Expansion Slots 7 Motherboards 9.6” x 9.6” (Micro ATX), 12” x 9.6” (ATX) I/O Ports USB 3.0 x 2, USB 2.0 x 2, HD Audio x 1 PSU Standard PS2 PSU LCS Upgradable Supports 1/2”、3/8”、1/4” water tube Other CPU cooler height limitation: 175mm VGA length limitation: 315mm The Thermaltake Soprano Snow Edition is packaged in a large black box, with a product picture that stands out on the black background. The back of the box elaborates on a few key features of its 'unique design' , including 'Aluminium Front Panel with streamlined Design'. The chassis is protected by two large Styrofoam blocks, and a transparent plastic bag to stop it getting scratched and dusty. Included inside the case is a small user guide and the usual bag of screws/cable ties etc. The Soprano Snow Edition is finished in an attractive white, with an aluminum front panel to provide some contrast. The top of the chassis incorporates a 3.5" and 2.5" dock, perfect for hot-swapping hard disk drives, as well as featuring an on/off button and reset button. The sides of the chassis are finished in a similar fashion, although no fans can be installed on either panel. The back of the chassis follows a traditional design, but does feature 3 watercooling holes at the top of the case. The bottom of the chassis features a large dust cover which caters for both the power supply fan and the optionally mounted bottom fan. The front of the chassis is hinged, which on opening gives access to up to 4 x 5.25 " drives (e.g. DVD Drives), and 1 x external 3.5" drive (e.g. Card Reader). At the top of the chassis are 2 x USB 3.0, 2 x USB 2.0 ports and a headphone and microphone socket. The insides of the chassis are completely black, a total contrast to the outside. The 4 x 5.25" bays feature a very simple tool-free mechanism to install an Optical Disk Drive, for instance, and hold it firmly in place. The rear of the chassis features a 120mm fan and 7 PCI slots. The left-hand side panel feature thick sound-proofing, which should really help improve acoustical performance. Removing the right-hand side of the chassis we can see the large CPU cut-out as well as several cable routing holes, which are already fitted with grommets. This right-hand side panel featured a much thinner sound-proofing layer, but it is still going to help. First off we installed a Seasonic Platinum Rated 1000W Fully Modular power supply. We then installed a new Motherboard and CPU bundle, with a Akasa Venom Voodoo CPU Cooler. There is still plenty of space around the ATX board for installation and large graphics cards. Installing 2.5" drives is a case of screwing them in place into the 3.5" trays. The same is true for 3.5" drives, except you screw them in place from the side using different screws. You can then just slide these trays into the 3.5" bays until they click securely into place. We then installed a graphics card. There is clearly plenty of space for larger, high-end graphics cards. Finally we connected everything together. This was relatively easy in this chassis although we were unable to route our CPU Power cable behind the motherboard tray and resorted to routing it round the outside of the CPU cooler. It is certainly not the tidiest build we have ever accomplished. Today’s test system will give us a good idea of how well this case works in terms of thermal and acoustical performance. Ambient temperatures were 23c. Processor: AMD FX-4170 Quad Core @ 4.6 GHz. Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970-UD3 Cooler: Akasa Venom Voodoo CPU Cooler Memory: 4GB Kingston HyperX DDR3 1800MHz Graphics Card: XFX Radeon 5450 HD (GPU @ 700 MHZ, Memory Clock @ 650 MHz) Power Supply: Seasonic 1000W Platinum Full Modular Boot Drive: Kingston HyperX 3K 120GB Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB OS: Windows 7 Home Edition 64bit Pyle Digital Sound Level Meter PSPL25 Thermal performance of the case is very good, especially when considering the CPU is running at 4.6 Ghz. The hard drive and motherboard temperatures only increased by a small percentage under load, highlighting the airflow through the case. Today, to test this chassis we have set our Sound Level Meter one meter away from the case. We then temporarily turned the two Akasa Venom Voodoo fans off, which leaves us with only the included case fan and very little noise from the power supply fan. As this can be a little confusing for people, here are various dBa ratings in with real world situations to help describe the various levels. KitGuru noise guide 10dBA - Normal Breathing/Rustling Leaves 20-25dBA – Whisper 30dBA – High Quality Computer fan 40dBA – A Bubbling Brook, or a Refrigerator 50dBA - Normal Conversation 60dBA - Laughter 70dBA - Vacuum Cleaner or Hairdryer 80dBA - City Traffic or a Garbage Disposal 90dBA - Motorcycle or Lawnmower 100dBA - MP3 player at maximum output 110dBA - Orchestra 120dBA - Front row rock concert/Jet Engine 130dBA - Threshold of Pain 140dBA - Military Jet takeoff/Gunshot (close range) 160dBA - Instant Perforation of eardrum This case is very strong acoustically, barely audible in a quiet room from a short distance. When paired up with a balanced set of low noise components, this would make a good foundation for a quiet enthusiast system build. The Thermaltake Soprano Snow Edition is a well designed, nicely finished mid-tower chassis. We appreciate the addition of sound-proofing foam at the sides which help to reduce overall noise levels. Thermaltake have also fitted a top-mounted Hard Disk Drive hot-swap Docking Station which allows you to quickly add a 3.5" or 2.5" HDD or SSD to the system. This is really practical for transferring files from an old computer or for making backups as you don't have to take the system apart. The build quality is at the upper end of the scale for ThermalTake. The front aluminum panel highlights the appearance of a very expensive chassis, however the company have reduced the production costs by not using it throughout the design. We like the hinged door although this may not appeal to everyone, depending on where the chassis is going and how much space there is available. This door is only hinged on the right-hand side so you have no alternative, unlike the BitFenix Ghost Chassis which could be hinged from both sides. The thermal performance of the chassis is commendable, with a decent level of airflow from front to back. We were able to run an AMD FX-4170 @ 4.6 GHz at full load for 20 minutes without the CPU temperature breaking the 50 degree mark. There was enough airflow to maintain an excellent thermal threshold. The sound proofing on the Soprano Snow Edition helps to ensure that this case will appeal to the noise sensitive audience. It rated around 34 dBa in our tests, indicating low noise performance. The most important factor for this case is the price, and the original Thermaltake Soprano retails for just over £100 from Scan.co.uk so we would expect the Snow Edition to retail within a few pounds of this. Sadly, it would appear that the Snow Edition demands a premium as we found it on Amazon for £119.50 inc vat. This is expensive, and the Soprano Snow Edition certainly faces some stiff competition at this price. If your main focus is on lowering noise emissions however, then the Soprano deserves some serious consideration. Pros Looks great. Performs well. Lots of features fitted into a mid-tower chassis. Aluminum front panel. A very quiet chassis. Cons Very Expensive. Can only add 1 more fan Kitguru Says: A very nicely designed chassis, although this 'Snow' version is currently quite expensive.