Thermaltake Tsunami: A Complete Visual Overhaul

External Design

The external design of the Tsunami reminds us of a car. It has curves and a shiny paint job that we see on automobiles.

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The bezel consists of a door that features an S-shaped curve from side to side. At the top of the door, Thermaltake has printed the market name of the case "Tsunami Dream" with a Tsunami wave under it. Half way down the door is a horizontal silver strip, which resembled the trim on some cars. At the bottom of the door, there is an array of machined out vents for the intake fan mounted on the opposite side. When turned on, there are two blue LED's that shine from behind the column at the right of the door.

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To open the front door, there is a key lock located on the right side of the bezel. The lock itself has 3 positions; locked, half unlocked, and completely unlocked. When half unlocked the front door will open to reveal the drive bays, Power/Reset buttons, and an array of vents that covers about 1/3 of the façade. This front bezel also has a glimmering paint job to match the rest of the case's shell.

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This bezel can also be unlocked and opened in the same way as the front door to show the bare front of the chassis. When this final piece is opened, new drives can be installed or replaced by removing the drive bay covers, which are secured to the chassis by Philips head screws.

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Moving to the sides of the case, we notice again the shiny paint job. The right side panel is completely bare with no special features besides the mirror-like paint. The left side panel, on the other hand, features an X-type window, which covers about 95% of the panel. The plastic window features the Thermaltake logo and motto pressed into it.

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The left side panel also has a new type of locking device to secure the panel to the case. To remove the panel, the two release devices would need to be pulled forward simultaneously and the panel pivoted outward from the back. Though it is not a feature that will especially benefit the average user, it is a luxury to have. The top one of the two securing devices features a key lock to prevent unwanted access through the side panel.

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At the top of the case, we see the auxiliary connections behind a trapezoidal flap. It includes the standard dual USB, audio, and FireWire ports. This pod can be removed if the wires on the inside interfere with other components as we will explain later.

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