Assembly

Installing the mainboard is done by screwing it down on the afore mentioned bumps. As you can see, there is plenty of space around the CPU area, so you can choose your cooler freely.


To gain access to the front drive bay covers, you have to pull off the entire front of the chassis. This also reveals the 120 mm LED equipped intake fan. Once the cover is removed, you can easily slide in the optical drive and secure it in place with the plastic locks. Just slide them right to unlock, press down and slide them left to latch on.


The same process holds true for the hard drive, but since the locks are only on one side, you will still need to use traditional screws on the other. This defeats the purpose of a "screw-less" system. Installing the PSU is simply done by screwing it into place. Luckily, the unit used is of standard length so I was able to force it into position without having to remove the little support bar.


Once everything is installed you can clearly see how clean everything is within the Armor A90. Thanks to small latches in the mainboard tray and a bunch of black zip ties - which I had to supply since they are not part of the package - everything is nice and tidy. It would look even better if you were to use a modular PSU with sleeved cables. The bulk of things is hidden beside the hard drive bays. As I feared before, the opening of the mainboard tray, below the CPU area is way too small, so I am not able to remove the back plate of the Noctua without pulling out the entire mainboard. Thermaltake has cut a few corners on the interior, which leaves me a tad bit dissapointed. At this point I had that eery feeling of deja-vu and upon digging around it turns out that the interior frame is identical to that of the Thermaltake Element T which we reviewed here. Thermaltake has just added the black paint job and additional locks for the drives.

Finished Looks

What really makes this case shine is not the interior, but the cool looks. And let's be honest, that is probably why one chooses a case. The Armor A90 looks awesome in that regard, but tastes do differ. While I do not know if intended or not, the blue lighting is well placed and the glow coming from the air vents and openings looks awesome.


After all, the detail put into the design of the Armor A90 pays off in the end. As you can see, all the small tidbits look great and leave a proud smile on one's face after turning it on for the first time. This does make you forget the other shortcomings as those are now contained within that sleek shell.