The Level 10 GT Snow Edition -
When you first look at the Level 10 GT it looks a tad awkward and ungainly. You can also see the family resemblance to its older brother the Level 10. However, where the Level 10 is has graceful lines and curves the Level 10 GT is blocky; also while the Level 10 makes use of Aluminum for its construction the Level 10 GT has quite a bit of plastic in evidence. Thermaltake has put in areas for cool air to enter the front of the Level 10 GT even if they are broken up somewhat. There is also a barrel lock on the front to keep the drive bays secure. On the right hand side is a “PlayStation” (to quote one of our Facebook Fans) looking vertical bar. Here we find the main control and a group of four USB 2.0 ports. We also get a closer look at the four 5.25-inch drive bays. Each of these is covered by a panel that has a mesh opening for improved airflow.

When we rotate the Level 10 GT 90 degrees we find that some of the awkwardness seems to go away and we are left looking at a case that has some serious potential. Even with a very brief glance we see that Thermaltake has put in good ventilation. There is an open area that should allow for cool air to enter in beside any optical drives you may have in your system. Over the motherboard area is a rather large opening for a 220mm fan to pull air into the Level 10 GT (ok, from this point forward I will call it the L10 GT).This has a removable filter that should help to reduce dust intake.  Above this is a small but well placed window allowing you to see some of your hard work. We also see another barrel lock here, this is (of course) to keep the case secure and prevent unwanted casual access (if someone really wants in they will get in).  Right next to this is a lever which happens to control louvers for directing air flow up or down inside the L10 GT.

Looking down from the top we find two exhaust ports and what looks like more controls and ports. The exhaust port at the front is fan-less but does help to vent some of warm air out the top of the drive stack. The larger exhaust port does have a fan and does a good job of removing the hot air from the CPU, Motherboard and Peripherals. The controls and ports we talked about turn out to be two USB 3.0 ports (using an internal header) a single e-SATA port and some fan and LED controls. The LED control button allows you to cycle through some interesting choices for lights while the fan speed control runs the fans on high or low. You can also see where that Headphones hanger goes on the side of the L10 GT.

As you can see in the pictures and video above the L10 GT looks pretty good in action. After we marvel at the lights (which were shot in the Lab) we need to head back to the beach and take a look at the right hand panel of the L10 GT. Here is a single large panel that hides away a very spacious are behind the motherboard back plane. This area is great for cable management with multiple rubber lined ports to run your power cables through. Looking at the very back of the L10 GT we find a fairly typical layout here. The PSU is situated on the bottom with a slightly larger than normal number of peripheral ports, but the normal 180mm exhaust fan. There are also three openings for external water cooling accessories.

Now let’s move back around to the front and the drive bays. Here we have five numbered bays that are ready for you to drop almost any sized HDD into. At the back of each tray Thermaltake has put in both power and data pins so that all you need to do is slide the drive in and you are all set. On the back side of this you will still need to connect a SATA data cable but Thermaltake has already connected a power cable to all five. At the end of this cable is a SATA power connector that lets you run all five drives from a single SATA power plug from your PSU There is also a front mounted fan that pulls in cool air over these drive bays.  

Now that we have been around the case let’s crack open the door and take a look inside. To do this we do have to unlock it and then press a small release button under the case door. You can easily locate this by the small white triangle near the bottom of the drive bays. Once this has been pressed then the case door will swing open.  As we mentioned the inside of the L10 GT is very roomy even though it might not look that way at first sight. Thermaltake has also put in a good deal of effort into making cable management easy for just about anyone (including me). The large cut out in the back plane is to make adding a new cooling system in without the need to remove the motherboard. The door fan that we talked about earlier has a nice feature, instead of needing to manually plug it in each time you close the door Thermaltake has setup a contact switch to control the fan, as soon as you open the door it loses power when you close the door it starts back up. Along the bottom Thermaltake has put in another screen to help reduce the amount of dust and other floating particles that gets into your system.

So while the outside might look a little bulky and awkward, inside it is quite nice and I can see that it Thermaltake has put some thought into keeping it clean. Now let’s find out how well it performs.