Hardware Bistro

Product: WingRS 301
Manufacturer: Thermaltake
Supplied by: Thermaltake
Price: 59.9USD/RM203
Launch Date: Aug 2009

 

Thermaltake has always been considered as one of the leading companies and they cover wide range of computer products. Today we are not going to look into Thermaltake high end gaming case but a mid tower case; WingRS 301 which was just launched a month ago. One of the major selling points of WingRS 301 is the strengthen handle which is designed for convenient transportation; let us dive deep further.

 

Company Profile

Started from the passion for the DIY (Do It Yourself) concepts and the desires to realize the goal of "Ideas are originated from humanity; Realizing ideas is our belief." Thermaltake Technology was established in January, 1999 and has been market to the world with "Thermaltake" brand name ever since.

Thermaltake became the number one choice for PC DIY enthusiast worldwide with its innovatively breakthrough product designs. The concept of "Quality", "Performance", and "Reliability" have been incorporated into the design of Thermaltake PC Chassis, Cooler and Power Supply to assure the components meet the highest standard.

 

Features

- Strengthen handle for convenient transportation
- Front mesh grill for maximum ventilation
- High efficiency ventilation: 120mm TurboFan at rear (front is optional)
- Air guide and openings on side panel for better CPU & VGA cooling
- Tool-free for easy assembling all drive bays and PCI devices
- USB x 2, MIC & Speaker (support AC'97 & HD Audio)

 

Specifications

Package & Contents

 

Thermaltake WingRS 301 is packed with an eye-catching black box which is pretty solid and sturdy to ensure Thermaltake WingRS 301 is protected well from being damaged especially during handling and shipping. Some of the major unique selling points are stated on the box with some diagrams to gain more attraction from the potential customers.

 

The foams for Thermaltake WingRS 301 packaging are breakable type (lower cost) but it was well made enough to protect the case as both of the case and outer box were arrived on our doorstep safely (Thanks to Fedex as well). Since Thermaltake WingRS 301 is an entry mid tower case, it only comes with standard accessories such as user's manual, installation screws, PCI filler and so on.

 

A Closer Exterior Look: Thermaltake WingRS 301

One of the advantages of Thermaltake is their product range as you will definitely be impressed by the number of products they have. There are total 24 series of chassis and WingRS series (mid tower) is one of them which delivering cost-effective solutions without compromising precision, quality and performance. Among WingRS series, there are total five models; WingRS 200, WingRS 201, WingRS 100, WingRS 101 and WingRS 301.

 

All the Thermaltake WingRS series cases are quite similar in term of the design, color and layout where the major difference among them is the front panel. Besides the front panel, Thermaltake WingRS 301 has something unique than other WingRS series cases which is the case handle for users to carry this case around more conveniently. The overall dimension and weight of Thermaltake WingRS 301 are around 420 x 190 x 478 mm (H x W x D) and 4.8KG.

 

Thermaltake WingRS 301 is a mid tower case so it is able to support four 5.25" and a 3.5" exposed drives. For those are having plenty of optical drive, control panels like fan speed controller, temperature panel then Thermaltake WingRS 301 is a suitable case to accommodate all these panels. There front I/O (two USB ports and audio jacks) of Thermaltake WingRS 301 are located right above of power buttons. The whole front panel is constructed by perforated mesh to improve the cooling ventilation.

 

The side panel of Thermaltake WingRS 301 comes with two venting openings to enhance the CPU and GPU cooling performance. Besides that a detachable air guide is added for CPU venting opening so that more fresh air could be centralized to cool down the CPU further. However the CPU air guide is not compatible with any high end tower cooler due to the height constraint; not a real issue.

 

Right panel of Thermaltake WingRS 301 is a standard panel without any fascinated feature or design while its bottom panel comes standard case feet which is good enough to ensure the case is placed on the ground firmly since Thermaltake WingRS 301 is not a tower case; retractable case feet are only required for tall tower case. 

 

As we told you previously the case handle is one of the major unique selling points of of Thermaltake WingRS 301 where users can carry this case around easily; like attending gaming competition, Lan party and etc. The case handle of of Thermaltake WingRS 301 is pretty solid as the whole top panel is fully inserted and integrated with the case body.

Here is the rear panel of Thermaltake WingRS 301 which is pretty standard where the PSU opening is located at top and follow by rear I/O panel, rear ventilation and PCI slots. Although 120mm cooling fan is widely being used for most of the latest mid tower cases but it is still good to have it for of Thermaltake WingRS 301 since it definitely performs much better than 80 or 92mm cooling fan.

 

A Closer Interior Look: Thermaltake WingRS 301

 

After gone through the exterior look on Thermaltake WingRS 301, now let us focus on its interior design which is pretty important as a good interior design will ensure the ease of using it. Our first impression on Thermaltake WingRS 301 is the pre-cut mounting opening on the motherboard plate for simplifying the CPU cooler installation where users do not need to remove the motherboard to install the CPU cooler's backplate which is pretty troublesome.

 

Another nice feature of Thermaltake WingRS 301 is the tool-less installation for optical drive, hard drive, control panel and etc. Basically this tiny tool-less black device is a simple plastic holder to lock and fasten the drive on the drive cage. This is a useful device and if it is not compatible with certain of control panel (like half size panel) than a normal screw installation is still workable on it.

 

Since Thermaltake WingRS 301 is a standard mid tower PC case, it is able to support what it supposes to have; 4 x 5.25" exposed drive, 1 x 3.5" exposed drive and (4 + 1) x 3.5" hard drive. As we mentioned previously all these drives can be fastened easily by the black holder on the left panel but a manual screw installation is required on the right panel if it is needed for sensitive device like HDD.

 

For the rear cooling, Thermaltake WingRS 301 is equipped by a 120mm cooling fan. The better installation and maintenance, this 120mm rear fan is mounted on a fan holder which is fastened on the case body. Such caring consideration is not only allows users to maintain the fan frequently but also reduce the operating vibration noise.

 

The rear 120mm cooling fan is a Thermaltake TT-125 which is widely being used for most of the Thermaltake CPU cooler such as Thermaltake Contac29. Thermaltake TT-125 is a 12V/0.3A DC PWM fan (1300 RPM fan speed, 17 dBA noise) and comes with nine black fan blades; newer version comes with seven orange blades with notches.

 

Besides the drive installation, the PCI slot of Thermaltake WingRS 301 is also come semi tool-less installation where there is only single screw installation for all these seven PCI cards. Such design is not only simple but also cost saving where some of the PC makers have started to implement such design for most of their desktop systems. The air duct and air vents are used to enhance the CPU, VGA and other ventilations.

 

The front panel of Thermaltake WingRS 301 can be detached from the case body easily; tool-less design. However we have spent some time to remove the front panel safely as it is fastened on the case body quite securely. The front I/O is attached on the case body rather than the front panel for simplifying the design and manufacturing cycle time.

 

The front I/O of Thermaltake WingRS 301 consists of two USB2.0 and audio jacks which are good enough for basic usage although Firewire IEEE1394 is not available. So far we are quite satisfied with Thermaltake WingRS 301 in most of the aspects but we do hope Thermaltake will include another 120mm cooling fan as the front intake to further enhance the cooling performance.

 

Installation, Testing & Performance

 

Now let us talk about installation part of Thermaltake WingRS 301 and frankly to say we didn't encounter any installation difficulty or compatibility at all since Thermaltake WingRS 301 is a standard full ATX case. Anyway let us discuss them one by one and first of all, the PSU and motherboard installation are extremely easy as the interior of Thermaltake WingRS 301 is quite spacious; pretty user friendly especially for newbie. CPU cooler installation is absolutely simple and furthermore the motherboard plate comes with pre-cut mounting hole which is ideal for advanced tower CPU cooler.

Next will be HDD & optical drive installation since Thermaltake WingRS 301 comes with tool-less mounting method, it really does help to reduce the complexity by just simple snap and lock. For the PCI card installation, Thermaltake WingRS 301 only comes with semi tool-less installation as it reduces the number of screw installation/uninstallation into single step. Besides that, the CPU air guide has to be removed if tower CPU cooler is used else it will be blocked. 

 

Test Bed 

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E8300 @ 2.83GHz
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3 (Gigabyte G31M-ES2L)
Heatsink: Thermaltake Contac 29
Memory: Kingston HyperX DDR2 8500
Hard Drive: 250GB 7200RPM 8MB Seagate
Graphic Card: Galaxy GeForce GTX260+
Casing: Thermaltake WingRS 301
PSU: Aerocool V12XT-800
Router: TRENDnet TEW-639GR
Optical Drive: DVD RW
Monitor: Dell 22" Wide Screen LCD
Speaker: Edifier R501
Mouse: SteelSeries Ikari Laser
Mouse Pad: SteelSeries QcK+
HeadSet: SteelSeries 3H
Operating System: Microsoft XP Pro SP2/Vista Home Premium
Ambient Temperature: 27 Degree Celsius

Here is the performance result of Thermaltake WingRS 301 and we found that it performs pretty well comparing with other similar full ATX cases for most of the hardware; HDD, CPU, system except VGA since computer case will not impact much on a graphic card cooling performance. Anyway for better cooling performance, it is good to install another 120mm cooling fan at the front panel as the intake fan.

 

Verdicts

Thermaltake WingRS 301 is a real reasonable budget case with quality construction and decent performance. Its MSRP is only around 60USD; neither cheap for a non PSU case nor expensive for such high quality case. Besides that its strong handle is convenience for user to carry it around like attending Lan Party or gaming competition. Other advantages of Thermaltake WingRS 301 are like tool-less installation method, detachable CPU air duct, rear fan mounting bracket and etc. Last but not least Thermaltake WingRS 301 is a great ATX entry case which is absolutely suitable for entry and budget users.

 

Pros: 

+ Well-built & spacious design
+ Strong handle
+ Pre-cut motherboard mounting hole
+ Tool-less installation method
+ Detachable CPU air duct
+ Decent ventilation
+ Rear fan mounting bracket

Cons:

- Front fan is not included

 

 

Thanks to Thermaltake for providing this sample for us to review.

Only registered users may post a comment.

There are currently no user submitted comments.