Introduction
Contents
Thermaltake has just released a new mid-tower case within their Armor series, A60. Let’s see what are the differences between the new A60 and the A90, which we’ve already reviewed, and see if this new case is a good buy.
The new A60 is clearly based on the body of the A90, but several small changes were made. The door available on the front panel of the A90 was removed (which, in our opinion, is an improvement), the second USB 2.0 port of the front panel was replaced by a USB 3.0 port, the number of USB ports was reduced from four to two, a place for an optional fan was added on the top panel, and a hot swap 3.5” bay (which is compatible with 2.5” devices) was added. This hot swap bay is accessed from the left panel of the case, so you can install a hard drive or an SSD without opening the case. In Figure 2, you can see that, when a drive is not installed, the hole is covered by a retractable lid that has Thermaltake’s logo on it. In Figure 3, you can see the 3.5”/2.5” drawer being installed through this hole.
Figure 1: Thermaltake Armor A60 case
Figure 2: Thermaltake Armor A60 case
Figure 3: Hot swap bay
The left side panel supports the installation of an optional 120 mm fan.
The front panel of the Thermaltake Armor A60 can be seen in Figure 4. As already explained, the front panel of the A60 is identical to the A90’s, but without the front door. The second USB 2.0 port was replaced with a USB 3.0 port. Because USB 3.0 ports are usually located on the motherboard rear panel, the front panel USB 3.0 port uses a regular USB A cable to be connected on the motherboard rear panel. On the A90 the eSATA port and two additional USB 2.0 ports are located on the top panel, and on the A60 the manufacturer moved the eSATA port to the front panel and removed the two additional USB ports.
Figure 4: Front panel
The Armor A60 has three external 5.25” bays and one external 3.5” bay, which use meshed covers with air filters. The A60 comes with a 120 mm fan (model TT-1225) on its front panel, which glows blue when turned on. This fan rotates at 1,000 rpm and produces a 16 dBA noise level, and it comes with a standard peripheral power connector, so you have to install it directly on your power supply and can’t monitor its speed. You can install a second 120 mm fan on the front panel, as you can see in Figure 5, or you can remove the front fan and install a “200 mm” fan (we put it between quotes because the size is not exactly 200 mm, as we will explain in the next page). You will need to use some plastic spacers to install this bigger fan.
Figure 5: Front panel