Thermaltake has been around forever, providing enthusiasts and modders with innovative and groundbreaking products at a great price with the quality you’ve come to expect from top manufacturers. Thermaltake is also one of the few companies who isn’t afraid to go against the norm and try something new. Today we’ll be looking at Thermaltake’s answer to small form factor cube cases, the LANBOX Lite.

First off, I’d like to thank the folks over at Thermaltake for supplying us with this wonderful product for review. Now that that’s out of the way, lets take a closer look at the LANBOX Lite.

Looking at the specifications of the LANBOX Lite, you’ll notice the case has some pretty large dimensions, coming in at 11.8″ x 17″ x 9.1″ (W x D x H). This is pretty large for a small form factor case, though, 13.45lbs is light for a steel case. I’m glad Thermaltake chose steel as their material of choice. Not only is it very durable which could come in handy when transporting the case (heck, it is called “LANBOX” for a reason), but it also silences loud fans better than aluminum does.

The LANBOX Lite comes packaged in a regular cardboard box which features a sturdy plastic carry handle at the top. This makes transporting the LANBOX Lite very easily. Inside, everything is secure and sound. It’s placed in a cloth like bag to prevent scratches as well. You won’t have to worry about this case getting damaged in shipping at all, which can happen if the case isn’t properly shipped from the manufacturer.

The Styrofoam holders fit the case well and are sturdy. This will keep the case from denting and or cracking if it should be dropped during shipping (and we all know that can happen). I’d also like to point out that this box setup would come in handy as a neat little “carrying case” for transporting the case to a lan party, etc.

Out of the box and exposed, the first thing you’ll notice is the awesome finish on the case. It’s hard to explain, it’s like a gloss black with flecks in it. The front bezel matches accordingly, making the case appear a lot more expensive than it actually is. The case is very sophisticated looking, lacking all the ugly curves and plastic a lot of the competing lan cases have.

Inside of the case is a blue plastic bag which holds the screws and extras that come with the case for installation of all your goodies. The extras include a metal bracket for installation of the optical drive and black plastic channeling for use around the watercooling hole stamp out, to prevent a sharp edge from puncturing tubing. The included manual is very detailed which is a plus, a lot of cases include a manual that doesn’t explain much of anything. Also included is a cleaning cloth for the case (which does have a tendency to show fingerprints). Very nice touch, and a true indicator of quality as well as keeping the customer in mind by Thermaltake. Last but not least is the Key 3 Spirit case badge. This is included with most of Thermaltakes products. Yet another nice addition for those who choose to use it.

The front of the case is very simple and clean. The power buttons are very solid and have a very secure feeling. They’re also easy to push. Some cases have reset buttons so small you can barely push them with your pinky finger. There are two external 5.25″ drive bays and one external 3.5″ drive bay. The external 5.25″ bays come with pre-installed plastic stealthing covers in case your drives don’t match the case, which is yet another feature that puts this case above the rest at its price point.

At the rear, there is two 60mm Thermaltake fans for cooling. Along with the fans are vents above the PCI area as well as vented PCI brackets to keep video cards and other peripherals running cool and stable. All of this lets the motherboard and video card breathe exceptionally well, which is key for these small cases and todays powerful computers with quad core CPU’s and factory overclocked video cards. You may also notice a lot of thumbscrews. This is because this case is fully modular, in the way that you can empty the whole thing out, including the motherboard tray which is fully removable. More on this later, though.

On the left of the case there is a large vent for the video card. Though this is indeed useful, it’d be nice if Thermaltake allowed the user to optionally mount an 80mm fan there for additional cooling. The left of the case also contains two USB 2.0 ports, a Firewire port, a headphone jack and a microphone jack. I like this placement, because it keeps the front of the case clean looking, though it may not be the best for some people depending on where the case is at their desk.

The right side is a mirror of the left, with the lack of front peripheral ports (USB, etc). The same discrepancies apply though, the ability to mount a fan would be nice. Regardless, the inclusion of a vent is more than some other manufacturers bothered with.

These are just a few details I found which I really liked. First, the stamped Tt LANBOX logo on the sides. That is awesome in my opinion. It’s a very nice touch, and makes the case appear very high quality. Same goes with the feet. Instead of using standard black or beige rubber feet, Thermaltake decided to take it a step further and use very nice big feet with silver rings around them.

On the back, there is a very nice metal ring attached to the removable motherboard tray. This makes sliding it out extremely easy. Now lets take a look at how the case comes apart and how the inside is laid out.

After removing three thumbscrews, the top piece of the case slides off, revealing what looks like a maze of metal. Don’t worry, you’ll have more workspace than that.

After removing the two circled thumbscrews, the external drive bay cage slides out of the case on a built in rail system.

It slides on four of these, two on each side. This is there to make removal and installation for the user very easy.

After removing the external drive bay, the hard drive bay becomes visible. This is also removable, by unscrewing a single screw and sliding it to the left. The cage holds up to two hard drives. You’ll also see the included 90mm Thermaltake blue LED fan.

Next out is the power supply bracket, and finally the motherboard tray. Yep, all of that comes out. The power supply bracket is removed by unscrewing six small screws around the top. While this may seem like a pain, it’s not necessary to remove the bracket. Installation of the PSU in an empty case is easy, however, if you wanted to replace the PSU with a different one when a computer was already inside of the LANBOX Lite, removing the bracket would be the easiest way. The motherboard tray is removed by unscrewing a few thumbscrews from the rear and then tugging the pull handle.

Yeah, that’s the case empty. Isn’t that the craziest thing you’ve ever seen?

Heres another view of the dual 60mm fans at the rear. While most users won’t enjoy these as they tend to make more noise than they’re worth, there was really no other option as far as fitting fans in the rear goes.

Heres a quick photo of the front panel connectors. Note that this case has both the required plugs for HD Audio and AC’97. Also note that there is only a 3-pin power LED. My particular motherboard only has a two pin socket, thus I cannot use the power LED. Most motherboards feature both plugs as a precaution though.

Time to install the hardware! The specs are nothing out of this world, as the parts out of my 2nd rig are going into this case. The 2nd rig is basically a workhorse, used for surfing the internet, chatting online (AIM, MSN, etc), photo editing, burning DVD’s and CD’s, the usual. Anyway, it’s a Athlon 64 3600+ Brisbane on a MSI K9VGM-V motherboard with 2GB of G.Skill 2GBHK, a 20x Lite-On DVD+RW Drive and a 80GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.10. The power supply is an Antec EarthWatts 380w.

The first problem, optical drive installation. Well as you can see the screws are sort of down inside the cage. That’s no big deal. The second issue is the metal bracket required for installation of the optical drive in the top most bay. If you can’t see it in the picture, it’s not screwed in. Why?

According to the manual, you need to get your screwdriver down in there to screw the bracket in. Whoops, screwdriver doesn’t fit! Oh well, two screws and the bracket for support are more than enough.

Installing the card reader was a task too. Thank god the hard drive installation was a bit easier. The hard drive cage feels a little cheap though, some included rubber grommets would be a nice addition.

Power supply mounting was straight forward as well. Couldn’t have been easier.

Motherboard and PCI card installation was very easy as well. The motherboard tray is extremely sturdy, unlike some other cube cases I’ve used.

The rear is nice and clean with everything installed. Inside, on the other hand, is pretty hard to manage as far as wiring goes. Once everything is inside, it gets quite hard to navigate around and plug in things. Plugging in anything once the external drive cage is installed is virtually impossible. While the modular idea appears to be a good job, its benefits all fall apart come assembly time. If any crucial connectors on your motherboard are placed under where the power supply would be, you had better plug them in before you mount the power supply or getting to them will be interesting.

Also be aware that there are some sharp edges to this case on some of the removable cages. One of them got me!

With everything installed, the case still maintains the handsome appearance it had before any hardware was in it. The case does include two plastic 5.25″ stealthing covers for your drives but I chose not to use one on my drive as it was black anyway, and I prefer to see the drive.

With the lights out, the single blue LED fan throws a good amount of light. Just enough in fact, to emit a soft glow from the sides and front of the case. Add some cold cathodes and this thing will light up like a Christmas tree.

Comments/Suggestions:
As I wrap up this review, I’d like to give a few tips to Thermaltake for them to consider if they do design another small form factor cube. First, please replace the rear fans with something other than dual 60mm’s. They’re not the most efficient choice and they can be bothersome. Second, the modular approach to the case seems intelligent, but in the end it’s useless. A better design and layout inside the case would make it much easier to work with. Third, better optical drive mounting is a must. It’s extremely cumbersome right now, and there needs to be an immediate remedy. Finally, the last gripe is, the lack of side fan mounts. The vents are there, they’re the approximate size of an 80mm fan, why not put four holes in and let a user mount a fan if theres room? Now for the final judging of the case.

Pros:

• Cools well
• Great looking aesthetically
• Lots of great features for the price
• Great paint finish
• Good fit and finish
• Plenty of thumbscrews in all the right places
• Relatively silent stock fans
• Matching drive bays included
• Will fit a large PSU & Graphics card
• Plenty of vents

Cons

• Cumbersome re-installation of the modular pieces of the case
• Some sharp edges
• When using a large graphics card, the hard drive cage must be removed (8800GTX sized cards)
• No ability to mount side fans
• Only 2 hard drives may be installed, 3 with no external 3.5″ device
• 60mm fans not acceptable by todays standards

Awards

Thanks again to Thermaltake for providing us at OverclockersPulse with this wonderful review sample.