Assembly And Build Notes
Thermaltake's spacious Level 10 GT makes assembly and cable management relatively easy compared to some of the System Builder Marathon configurations I've put together. As a result, there's very little to complain about, aside from the extra work that went into getting NZXT's Hue lighting strip and Aerocool's Touch-2100 fan controller installed.
We'll start with the Hue. Sliding the control panel unit into the bottom external 5.25" drive bay and plugging in its SATA-style power cable is as straightforward as it gets. The only component that requires any thought is the LED lighting strip, and even that doesn't necessitate much skill. Simply plan out the strip's route through the enclosure, check it for size, and remove sections of the adhesive tape as you apply it.
In our case, we placed the LED strip along the inside edge of the motherboard door. We had to be careful with a few bends and twists, but the flexible lighting is quite easy to work with. Our only worry was that some of the sharper angles might stress the adhesive, and one section came loose after a little while. We pushed it back into position, and the strip is still in place, even to this day.
The Aerocool Touch-2100 was no more difficult to install than the Hue, though it presents its own challenges. The touchscreen control panel is easily placed in the space of two adjacent 5.25" optical bays. A single four-pin power connector is all that you need to drive up to five 25 W fans. Because we had Thermaltake's Level 10 GT controlling all of the illuminated fans, there was only a 130 mm rear exhaust fan left for the Touch-2100 to control. Hooking it up was simple, leaving us with the temperature probes to arrange. Even without more fans attached, the probes can still report temperatures from five different zones in the case.
We placed probes on the motherboard voltage regulator, the CPU heat sink, the graphics card, the hard drive, and the memory. Unfortunately, the included adhesive tape wasn't sticky enough to hold the probes in place for long. That issue aside, installation was a breeze. We're finally ready to show off the fruits of our labor.
