Detailed Exterior Features

Here’s how it works. Just slide the corner off like the arrows show, and after you line up the slide grooves, pop it back on. You can also see the bezel tabs that lock the covers in place.

The bay covers use a slide in notch and tab design. One side has plastic tabs that the bay cover’s metal tab clicks into, as noted in the above image. The other side has notches that the metal bay cover tabs slide into, shown with the arrows (below image). You can see the bay cover metal tab partially inserted into the receiver notch. I didn’t like this design at first, but after playing with it, it’s fine and should last as long as any design would. The only downside to this design is that the bay covers aren't as easy to get off and on as the slide and snap design.

If you paid attention to the exploded diagram above, you’d have seen that the top also comes off. Yep. In fact, that’s how you change out the top fan. This also means you have access to the front panel's pcb board. Here’s an image of the top after I scalped it. The front is where the top I/O panel wiring goes. The back is the top fan vent. (Nice haircut, THOR.)

It's time, so please sit down. You may get weak in the knees. Here's why I called the THOR V2 a sort of "transformer" like case at the beginning of the review. See the arrow? That's where it all starts, baby. But before I show you what happens, please note a nice little top recessed tray for pen drives and other small goodies, lined with a rubber mat. That's nice. Okay, okay, on with the show.

Slide the little button backwards, and you get ROCKET POWER! I like how it looks. It gives the case a very unique, aggressive look. The hair on the back of its neck is standing up as it transforms from a smooth, slightly muscular design into a mean looking attack case. As Duke would say, “Come get sum!"

Since this is obviously a design high point for the Rosewill THOR V2, I thought I’d give you a view from the back, also. I really like the design. It’s eye catching.

This struck me as a gimmick at first. That is, the aesthetic appeal of the design isn’t a gimmick, but, rather, the slider to open and close the exhaust vents. Other than the dinosaur louvers, there aren’t any other exhaust holes for the top fan. So the question is, “Why would you ever close it?” That would defeat the purpose of the top fan, or at least greatly diminish it’s purpose. Well, a good reason to close the vents is to move or work on the case so the fins don’t get broken. They aren’t thin plastic, though, but they do protrude, as you can see, so being able to close them is a bonus. Other than that, though, you’d be leaving them open all of the time.

Next, we have the top panel, and a nice assortment of connectors: two USB 2.0 and two USB 3.0, plus an eSATA port and your normal audio ports. The eSATA port connects to a hard drive port on the motherboard. Rosewill has also included a built in fan controller. The two knobs operate either A or B fans. Each fan control knob can attach three fans, and the fan power plugs into a power supply lead. One negative here: The fan knobs are pretty darn sloppy. I don’t know if that’s going to spell doom or not, but it’s worth mentioning. Other than that, they work well and turn smoothly. The excess play just makes them feel cheapo, though.

The THOR V2 comes with a switchable LED front fan. That’s great, but the design, in my opinion, is flawed. The button is on the bottom of the case. I think it should have been near the top, for easier access. Second, the mounting system is backwards. The pins that hold the switch into the front bezel are attached as female connectors to the front bezel itself. That means you’ll need a tool to unplug the fan LED switch when you take the front bezel off. Adding to that frustration is that the front bezel fan filter is built into the bezel itself. So you’re stuck cleaning the filter with the wires attached to the front bezel, unless you disconnect the switch, and then that requires tools to do so.The red box shows the clip and the white box shows how the clip holding the switch is built onto the front bezel. Break one of those tabs, and you’re out of luck. A better design would have disconnecting the switch using your thumb and forefinger with pressure clips on the switch side. You could fix this yourself by simply cutting the wires and tossing the entire fan. Just joking. Really, though, you could cut the wires and splice in a couple quick disconnectors, problem solved.

The side panels on the THOR V2 are of the traditional slide in the front close the back, and thumb screw to secure flavor. I had a little trouble getting the screws to match up and that was annoying, but it could have just been me too. That’s about it for the exterior. Next, we’ll look at the internals and how well they do their job. So far the THOR V2 is mostly positive in that the design is neat, simple and useable. Let’s see how the internals measure up.

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