REVIEW: ThermalTake Soprano Snow Edition Case

Review: ThermalTake Soprano Snow Edition Case

By: Christopher “Synther” Wilson

Like all of my reviews for ThermalTake, I was excited to do this one.  And this case is awesome!  As you can see, even my helper cats Panda and Bella think it smells good.  I’m not sure how else to do this but to dive right in, so buckle up TT fans!

The ThermalTake Soprano case has been around for quite some time, actually.  In fact, I remember selling it as a smattering of offerings available at CompUSA back when I was an assistant tech manager at one of their retail locations.  Yeah, that puts a date on my age!  Back in those days, the Soprano had a reputation as being a quiet case but having a rather flimsy front door panel.  Let me tell you right now, those days are gone and there is absolutely nothing about this case that is “flimsy” at all.  I would have to rate this as being one of the sturdiest and most well-built cases I’ve ever had the pleasure of working on.  Gone is the hollow and flimsy two-paned front panel door and enters a solid front door with magnetic door lock and metal finish.  Sick and slick is the only term I can use to refer to the fit and finish on this case.  The side panels all slide on and lock into place with a very solid feeling and there are no gaps when the panels are put into place.  The matte white paint job is even and heavily applied.  You shouldn’t have to worry about finger prints or accidently chipping when gripping this case or moving it around.  Literally, the whole thing is built to be used.  And finally, I’ll cap it off with the beautiful feet of the case.  The Soprano Snow Edition uses feet that are standard as shock absorbers on most home theater PC cases.  They’re offset so that you don’t easily see them, wide enough to serve their purpose, and are in no way in your way.  This case is as aesthetically pleasing as it is functional and will fit easily into any white framed environment if that is what you choose.  The front of the case makes it easy to reach the Power and Reset buttons and has quick access to the USB 2.0, USB 3.0, and front audio ports.  The top of the case also sports a docking bay for both 3.5 and 2.5 inch hard drives and SSDs.  Does your friend have some movies and music on a hard drive that they want to copy?  No problem, just slap it in.  This alone makes this case a technophiles dream.

The interior of the case is just as awe inspiring with its all black paint.  And the side panels each contain sound dampening foam.  This case runs extremely quiet because of this.  If you were to couple this with a ThermalTake Water 2.0 PRO all-in-one liquid cooler, as I have, you will find that the system runs so quiet that you have to do a double-take to see if it is running at all.  The case includes a 200x200x20mm fan with a blue LED on the front intake, as well as a black 120mm exhaust fan.  On the bottom of the case you’ll find a slide out dust filter for your PSU intake fan and an optional 120mm intake fan grill.  The motherboard tray has grommets available to run cables and there is plenty of room to tie everything off when you’re done.  On the back of the case are grommets for running liquid cooling and a tube bracket.  ThermalTake clearly had full liquid cooling modification in mind for this case.  Exceptionally nice features!

This case is clearly designed for a home theater setup, no doubts about it, with its run silent design and lack of windows on the side panels.  So, how does it run when we put a well-used gaming system in it?  Let’s find out.

As usual, I’ve used Vindicator…which my fiancée has renamed to “The Mistress” since I evidently have a mistress in my computer.  And with the abuse that I put this poor computer through…she might be right.

Motherboard: DFI P45-T2RS

CPU: Intel Q9550 Core 2 Quad-Core overclocked @ 3.23GHz

CPU Cooler: ThermalTake WATER 2.0 PRO with LGA775 bracket (the literal last of the 775 brackets ever made for this cooler, it is no longer available for LGA775)

RAM: 6GB clocked @ 912MHz (4GB Kingston HyperX DDR2 1066MHz and 2GB G.Skil 800MHz)

GPU: GIGABYTE Radeon HD 5770 SuperClocked 1GB @ 900MHz

RAM Cooler: Kingston HyperX RAM Cooler

Boot Drive: Patriot 32GB PS-100 Solid State Drive

Storage Drives: Seagate Barracuda 2TB, Seagate Barracuda 1TB, Seagate 250GB

So, as you can see, Vindicator is going to generate some heat and will suck up the front bays on this case.  Vindicator’s biggest problem is the video card.  GIGABYTE’s HD 5770 SuperClocked is a hog for fresh air.   Vindicator was in an AeroCool AreoEngineII case and had an average idle CPU temp of 48c with an average GPU idle temp of 38c.  Let’s see how the parts do in the Soprano Snow Edition!

Cable management with the Soprano is a DREAM!  You don’t have to have any imagination at all!  ThermalTake has basically done all the work for you!  Building a computer in this case is amazing and I have to stop to wonder why there was no window put on the side panel?  They designed the cable management so you could show off your components and optimize airflow.  I’m a little perplexed at the quicktabs they added for the hard drives, though.  It’s a nice idea but I can think of literally no time, ever, that I would want to quickly pull my hard drives out and yank all the cables involved with them.  This might be a great idea for the future but just looks a bit silly now.  When would this be used?  It wouldn’t.  And considering the cable management system, it would just be problematic.  Why was this design a requirement to begin with?  I’m lost on this.  Ultimately, it’s nice but completely useless.  The drive trays do contain rubber grommets to quiet the vibration of the hard drives though.  Yet again…I’ve noticed a LOT more important sounds coming from my computer than the hard drive vibration.  But it does do a good job of making things quiet, I suppose.  But like I said, I didn’t hear it to begin with.

Moving into the Soprano Snow Edition was a fairly painless process, overall.  I’ve spent the last week or so putting the new Vindicator system to the test.  At idle I found the CPU was running at 50c while the GPU was at 42c.  Using the system as a home theater unit didn’t prove to be any problem at all.  But the system is running hotter than usual.  Ramping it up and playing a game proves to be a problem when the case just simply cannot exhaust enough heat and the video driver crashes as a result.  This wouldn’t normally be an issue with the CPU hitting 65c and the GPU hitting 58c, but the heat simply can’t be exhausted fast enough for the system to recover.  In order for the system to run properly, I had to run the case with the side panel completely off and the dust filter removed from the bottom of the case.  This case is clearly designed for those seeking a quiet case but not for those seeking high air flow performance.

And that is perfectly alright.  The case preforms fantastic when running 1080p movies and streaming music.  It does this exactly as it was designed and it does it silently.  But this is not going to be the case used by the average gamer.   At no point did I see the temps reach a level that they should be considered “overheating.”  Instead, I just saw the temps sitting at the same temp and never going cooler or getting cooler so slowly as to not make a difference.  I think the Soprano would have done much better with an optional 120mm exhaust port on the top of the case and this may be something that I’ll be adding to the case.

In conclusion, the Soprano Snow Edition is a great purchase for anyone that is looking for a run quiet case and would make an excellent addition to any home theater setup.  With a few minor modifications, this case could be a screamer for gamers, as well.  But I think that the average gamer may want to consider one of the other fine offerings of cases from ThermalTake before settling on the Soprano, especially if they are new to the use of a Dremel tool.