Thermaltake Tai-Chi Liquid Cooled

Si MPS · 26 Dec 2005 at 01:19

lay-z-boy said:
people who just like to bash thermaltake, please go here.

XtremeSystems Forums

try and bash thermaltake over there, considering they make the best air cooler designed so far in the history of heatsinks, you will have a hard job.
also the tai-chi is a tank, it is constructed very well and uses very high quality components, look for reviews on it by people who know a thing or two about high end stuff, with penumatic doors and very thick walls, its more of a zalman tnn500 style case at a snip of the price.

i am not a fanboy of any sort, however i will show that good products deserve recognition, the tai-chi is one of those.

lzb

It's a tank, made out of ALUMINIUM. Riddle me this. What the flip are the ridges for eh? Heat Disappation? THERES NOTHING ATTACHED TO THEM. Air is the worst conductor of heat, therefore, hows it going to effectively passed it onto a 13kg hunk of crap to dissapate? What is the point in the Pneumatic side panel? At ALL? None of the design is functional at all, it is there entirely for show, it is wolf in sheeps clothing, and its too goddamned expensive to be considered even a worthwhile purchase.

MikeWild74 · 7 Jan 2006 at 10:33

i have been after a watercooling rig for a while but i never fancied putting it together myself.

Do you think the Water cooling setup is any good?, i thought £230 for a big case and watercooling was ok but then i had a look at the same case without watercooling and is only £40 cheaper.

Does this mean the wxtra kit is only £40 (sound cheap for a watercooling setup)

WJA96 · 7 Jan 2006 at 12:50

@MikeWild74 - if you want a pre-build then look at the Koolance PC3 range. They are built on Lian-Li cases and work about as well as possible.

Also - Alphacool do systems based on Silverstone, Chieftec, Coolermaster and Lian-Li cases.

I am currently looking at the Koolance PC3-725BK which is a triple 120mm RAD system in a Lian-Li V1100B case. OK - it's £350 but it is a proper water cooling system in a proper case. I think Koolance start at under £180 with a Lian-li case. That's good value I reckon.

MikeWild74 · 7 Jan 2006 at 15:01

thats the one! Koolance PC3 range

thanks for that, looks much better quality.

jadeskye · 7 Jan 2006 at 18:19

it's little brother, the Kandalf is much better in my honest opinion. Most review sites and magazines i've read have given it a bad review. mostly for the price. it is a good case, theres just much better out there for the 3 figure price tag.

mattio1980 · 20 Jan 2006 at 00:42

ii love this case and have done everything i can think to make the water cooling better

1. changed pump to a 400lph one

2.changed rad fans to 2000rpm ones

3 added n/b , gpu water blocks (mosfet on way )

4.added flow meter and water level indicator front bay

5. added 2nd i-cage

6 changed system fan for 2000 rmp thunder blade

and thats it !!!! have added some pics

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i know it's a bit of a mess at the moment

Yewen · 20 Jan 2006 at 09:29

You should not have to do that much to make a 'out of the box' kit better!

COuld have got a much better case, and equivalent watercooling for the money. They are £80 overpriced at least. If they were -£80 they would be a buy everytime, but as has already been said, for the money you can get better.

Cases however are not objective choices, you buy them most of the time without thinking with your head, and you always end up with a brilliant case for you. Although your case may be messy, im sure its the perfect one for you, and nothing I can say will ever be able to make you change your mind

And in response to the earlier making the best aircooling they dont! The bar is there to aid in keeping the door open with the watercooling there, most fnacy way of doing it, and its true about air being the worst for heat. Just Tt do make cheap cases with lots of features, just if you try and compare the BUILD QUALITY of one to a similarly priced Lian Li, it cant compete but will trounce it on show off features which you don't really need.

I now start praying on your behalf you dont need Tt customer support, my 2 experiences on that for other memebers, well they were terrible, ended up with them telling me to basically go away!

mingwingming · 3 Mar 2006 at 21:20

Mattio out of interest how much difference have you noticed in temps since upgrading pump and the faster fans, I`m interested as I too have the Tai Chi, and dare I say it as I can see peeps slating it here, I really like it !! Pictures do it no justice in my opinion.. I personally would have liked a Lian Li with the Koolance kit but that was just a little too much..

Anyhow tell me more I am running a Opteron 146 @ 2850Mhz and it keeps the temps around 29 in Windows and goes to around 36 when pushing the system... Certainly seems to do a better job then my old Coolermaster Hyper and was very easy to install, personally I would rate it as nice but then im biased lol..

Anyhow i`ll go against the grain and say Nice case

Trifid · 3 Mar 2006 at 21:58

Opterons don't report the correct temperatures. The temperatures shouldn't be too bad, and remmeber he has his card on there. I would expect about 28*C with a room temp of 26.

You need to sort out your cabling, as it is a mess in there.

When that is done, I will say it looks good.

lay-z-boy · 4 Mar 2006 at 21:13

Sandmaster500 said:
Not "THE" best, that title is taken by the scythe. But yes it is a very good cooler. TBH i think thermake are a pretty good company, they make stuff which looks good (although it isn't always their idea) but at a very low price.

Nope the ttbt is better than that as well, but times have changed so the tuniq tower is now the best aircooler.

It's a tank, made out of ALUMINIUM. Riddle me this. What the flip are the ridges for eh? Heat Disappation? THERES NOTHING ATTACHED TO THEM. Air is the worst conductor of heat, therefore, hows it going to effectively passed it onto a 13kg hunk of crap to dissapate? What is the point in the Pneumatic side panel? At ALL? None of the design is functional at all, it is there entirely for show, it is wolf in sheeps clothing, and its too goddamned expensive to be considered even a worthwhile purchase.

What's your problem?
You make it sound as if its my fault that the case exists.

If you dont like it, dont buy it, dont e-shout at me telling me its a pile of junk, if you get irritated at every point to the case then i advise, not to buy a case so there is nothing to criticise.

Kamakazie! · 5 Mar 2006 at 00:53

lay-z-boy said:
Nope the ttbt is better than that as well, but times have changed so the tuniq tower is now the best aircooler.

what reviews say that the Big Typhoon is beter than the Ninja?
out of interest as all the roundups that i have seen put the Scyth as the best, if its not then i can save a good bit of money and get the Big Typhoon.

The Tuniq tower does look very impressive though

megatron · 6 Mar 2006 at 21:47

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/coolers/display/tuniq-tower120_8.html

Almost makes me want to buy it, however if I upgraded everytime I see something slightly better then what I have I would be constantly upgrading.

WJA96 · 7 Mar 2006 at 08:40

That is ENORMOUS. I was thinking, "what's so special about that?" Then I realised it had a 120mm fan sandwiched into the middle of it. Air cooling reaches even dafter extremes!

Stupido · 8 Mar 2006 at 16:20

i posted about this case a while ago and only got 1 reply lol . You guys who have it , How does he watercooling perform ? compared to air please ?

I have fou d a fair few revies anout the case but none that specifically examine the watercooling set up performance .

thank you

Yewen · 8 Mar 2006 at 16:26

For the watercooling performance you are better of posting in the Overclocking and cooling section about it.

But I do beleive it has cooling comparable to high end air cooling.

Andybtsn · 8 Mar 2006 at 16:28

I bought this case a week ago.

I like it, yes it is HUGE, and man is it heavy, it has metal handels that kill your hands, but then i don't do LAN things, so size has never been an issue for me

My CPU runs at about 33oC, thats with all the fans turned down via a fan controller. And is very seilent too

Easy setup though, plug an play

Yewen · 8 Mar 2006 at 16:31

andybtsn said:
Easy setup though, plug an play

Once you realised that watercooling eats up more water when you fill it up than you thought

mingwingming · 26 Apr 2006 at 01:09

OK so I want to upgrade pump and block on me Tai Chi. would love some advice..

After reading through this thread I had to chuckle at the passion that people talk about a computer case !! :eek:

I will say this I brought the Tai Chi as a noob to water not becuase I was expecting it to be the best watercooling system on the block, but purely as a way in to watercooling without worry and also I brought it because I actually like the case it certainly has presence.

Anyhow any advice now I`m confident & understand a bit more about W/C would be great... Simple bits first Pump and Block maybe anything else you can suggest.. Thankyou. :cool:

jellybeard999 · 26 Apr 2006 at 01:42

Got any pics of the position of the pump ? and what size (internal diameter) is the tubing ?

How much are you prepared to spend...

I mean, 2 x Iwaki RD-30 in series, plus a LR Storm G5 would be spot on, but cost ya...

Id say Alphacool DDC Ultra and a AQX MP-05 LE or a Swiftech Storm would be the best bet... or if you want to spend less, the Alphacool NexXos (NON lite)

Yewen · 26 Apr 2006 at 02:00

You should post that question in its own thread in overclocking and cooling, will get 10x more replies by people who feel passionate about water cooling.