Thermaltake Review

Thermaltake

Commander MS-I

VN400 Series.

Purchase Price £39 from Amazon: 10^th Dec 2011-12-21

The unit arrived well packed in its own box. Which was further boxed into a larger box.

There are two versions of this unit, one has USB3.0 slots at the front.

Model VN40001W2N USB2.0 VN400A1W2N USB3.0

I have installed a Gigabyte GA-MA790XT-UD4P which is not a full size ATX size. An ATX full size motherboard takes 9 screws. The 6 screws at the rear and the middle of the mobo fitted but there was no mounting holes for the end sections. This can be a problem as when you install the memory you need to put a bit of pressure on the mobo and it has no support there. I resolved this by the plastic stand off that came with the case.

The case is made of thin metal so it is not heavy and all panels are as per the info for the product. There are no sharp edges I could find but be careful anyway.

I have installed an ATI HD 6870 and that fits without any problem (length wise). There is a bit of space left so an even longer GPU can fit as well.

The fan on the front (which does not come as part of the package) is a problem.

First of all you need to find four long screws to attach to the case, the self threading screws do not work. You also need a thin screwdriver to be able to screw in the medium length screw (thru the outer holes of the fan). This is quite a bit fiddly.

Once I installed my mobo I tried to connect a fan on the top side ….alas I was unable to do that as the top front fan area is obstructed by the memory on my mobo and the rear top is also obstructed by my Arctic7 fan. Picture below shows this clearly.

The power Supply area puzzled me for a while as I could not get the PSU to go in the slot…..then I noticed that there was a securing metal part screwed via two screw on the underside of the unit.

Connecting the Hard Drive using the screwless method was very fiddly. The locking mechanism does not unlock or lock with ease. It also feels it is about to break…this could have been done much better but for the price cannot complain I guess.

All in all with a bit of effort everything fits and works with this unit.

The front connectors to Mobo are great as the USB and Front Audio are all contained in a 10 pin header block, both worked first time. The power , reset and LEDs are loose but are clearly marked and are quite robust, no issue with this.

Conclusion: If I had the unit prior to buying it I probably would have looked at alternative cases but for £39 you are getting a good case with no items that are a show stopper.