Thermaltake Shark + A8N SLI = Pain

[Crey]

Well, I finally got everything together to build my new computer. I was really excited about the Thermaltake Shark case. I knew about the front fan issue. Read about it in a few of the reviews for the case and sure enough, my filter was bowed back slightly and was in contact with the fan. After taking care of that, I went to put the motherboard on the removable motherboard tray. That's when I discovered a problem. See, the motherboard tray has edges on both ends bending up. On the A8N SLI motherboard, the placement of the screw holes mean the back edge of the motherboard has to rest on the back raised tray edges. This isn't a big deal for most of the length of the board, but the end with all the connections has little metal bits along the bottom edge of the board which come in contact with the tray edge. This makes it so the motherboard doesn't rest on the screw mount in that corner. After thinking about it for a bit, I noticed that the removable tray (which really is more trouble that it's worth...do yourself a favor and just leave the tray in there and put the motherboard in the old fasion way) had a gap between it and the case on that end. So, I ended up taking a pair of needle nose pliers and bending the tray edge so that the edge of the motherboard rested just behind the edge, and the metal pieces didn't come in contact (or barely did). This allowed the corner screw to be put into place without putting stress on the motherboard. I don't know what the people at Thermaltake were thinking, but there's no need to have that edge on the tray be that high. There's just no excuse for such short sightedness on a $150 case. I guess as an alternative to bending the edge outwards, you could take a metal file and file the edge down a bit. That's probably a better solution.

Do you think having some of the metal bits on the back edge of the motherboard in contact with the motherboard tray will cause a problem? I've never encountered anything like this before.

 

[mozzartusm]

If I understnad you correctly, then I am totally lost as to what the deal is with your Mobo tray. I have the shark myself, and while we dont have the same boards my Mobo tray doesnt have the same edges that you are descrbing. I can see how that either during installation in the factory or in pulling the tray out how the edges could easily be formed. The trays are fit in a very tight manner, of course this most likely is due to the fact that the tray only had the 2 Thumscrews holding it down. This design is far ahead of the others that I have seen. As for the fan issue, I hope you didnt go to much trouble because fixing that takes about 2 mins tops if you know th trick. This is the best case I have ever owned, and well worth the cost. Im surprised that you didnt mention all the good points like the fact that it is super quite or that it has an excellent stock cooling system and design.

 

[Crey]

The reason I didn't mention the good points is because you can find those in any of the reviews out there on the web, or on Thermaltake's website. You can also find them advertised on the box. And the fan issue was easily fixed. But I knew about it going in. However, having the motherboard not fit on the motherboard tray is huge. Let me see if I can explain what's wrong a little better.

On the back end of the tray (along the end of the tray where the motherboard IO ports will be located), there is a flap of metal bent upwards. You can see it clearly in this picture of the tray:
http://www.overclockercafe.com/Reviews/cases/Tt_Shark/1017.html

Now, on the A8N SLI, when you position the motherboard over the screw mounts in the tray, the back edge of the board is completely flush with this upward bent flap (it rests on top of it). Along most of the edge of the board, this doesn't cause a problem. However, the A8N SLI also has little metal pieces on the back of the board along it's edge where the IO ports are. Here's a link to a review. If you scroll down the page, you will see a pic of the IO ports. The little metal pieces I'm talking about are clearly visible beneath the IO ports along the edge:
http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=98&type=expert&pid=3

The problem is that these metal pieces hit the metal lip and don't allow it to sit flush with metal flap. The one that caused me to the most grief are the little metal pieces beneath the Firewire port. Therefore, the board doesn't sit flush with the screw mount in that corner and the IO mounts don't line up correctly with the IO plate. The only way I can see to fix the issue is to bend the metal flap out slightly so the metal pieces fall behind the flap and allow that corner of the motherboard to come flush with the screw mount. Or, you could take a metal file to the metal flap and take about an 1/8 of an inch off it's height.

Again, there's no reason for the metal flap to be that high. Just one person going, "OK, here's our proposed design. What all could go wrong with it?" and they could have avoided this issue.

Maybe I'm taking this too hard. But when I buy a case that expensive, I don't expect to have to physically modify any part of it to get the motherboard to fit correctly. Heck, I don't even expect that of the cheap cases. Now, maybe the fault lies in Asus and the A8N SLI. Maybe the screw holes on the board are off a little bit and the motherboard edge would have come to rest just slightly behind this metal lip if they were placed correctly. I don't know. But having that lip be so high that motherboard has to rest on top of it was unnecessary.

 

[mozzartusm]

Now this is going to sound crazy, but I took my MoBo out of the case because I couldnt remember what you were refering to. Man I swear mine is different. There is no lip. Im not saying that yours doesnt. Maybe they changed something slightly, I dont know. When did you get yours? I know that they havent been out long, but I was one of the first to receive mine, I had even prepaid before it was stocked. Who knows, maybe they had a batch that for whatever reason they modded it differently. Mine is fairly thick, but it could be bent. I would lean towards bending it in a vice before filing it unless your confident that it would never need to have the lip in the future.

Good luck

 

[Crey]

My case just arrived on Monday.

I got some advice from a friend at work, and I ended up bending the lip out a little (to make sure the screw hole was flush with the mount and make it line up with the IO plate) and then added some electrical tape around it to make sure nothing contacting it would short out the motherboard.

Honestly, after finding the solution, it's not that big a deal. It's a pain and you shouldn't have to do it, but you can work around it in about 5 minutes. But there's always that time period when you don't know what you're gonna do that drives you nuts and you're thinking, "Am I even going to be able to use this case?"

Anyway, thanks for letting me talk through it and listening (actually, typing and reading). It really helped me get my head around the problem.

 

[mozzartusm]

Other than the Mobo problem, what is your opinion of the case. I love this case. I guess I had already mentioned that. The honeycomb side panel was a very good idea. I also have the Tsunami Dream Tower. Its ok, but even with a fan on the side panel it heats up alot more than my Shark does. The thing I like the most is that I have plenty of room to work inside the case. Lights are cool to. I never would have beleived that I would have like the way the door is designed, but I even like that now. I have never had a case that the door didnt latch without using the lock. They are solid!

 

[Crey]

Well, now that I've had a chance to play with the case a bit and really get to use it, here is my oppinion.

For looks and easy of use (minus the fan and motherboard tray problem), this case is really good. The looks can't be beat, and there's lots of room to work in and hide cables.

Air flow is amazing, and my temperatures stay really low.

However, in my instance, the case is really loud. Now, I don't think it's because of the case fans. I don't have a water cooling system right now. I'm just using my AMD in box fan. I also have eVGA 6800GT card in there. Both of these fans are right near the open grill on the side, and spill their noise straight into open air. Also, I think where I have my case placed on my desktop setup bounces this sound a little and makes it worse. Also, the PSU isn't as quiet as advertised, but after a little adjusting with the speed nob, I found a setting that isn't too loud and moves enough air.

So, I'm just left with solving my CPU and video card noise issue because of the open grill on the side. I was thinking about seeing if the other side panel of the case is interchangable with the grilled side. If so, I might be able to order another non-grilled panel and replace the grilled one to cut down on noise. The would also prevent dust from being sucked through the open grill. However, with the grill gone, that will most likely cut down on air flow and raise the case temperatures. However, I'm just running an AMD 3500 Winchester, and with two 120 fans in there already, I'm betting I'll get enough air flow even without those side grills. I may just have to experiment and see.

The only other knock I have on the case is the front IO ports are on the side (making them almost unusable to me with my setup...they are against a desk board) and are uncovered.

Overall, I like the case, but I'll REALLY like the case once I figure out how to get around these annoyances.