Rosewill Thor v2: The God of Cooling and Silence?
by Dustin Sklavos on August 24, 2011 2:15 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- Full-Tower
- Rosewill
Introducing the Rosewill Thor v2
Most enthusiasts are familiar with Rosewill as a brand of inexpensive parts of decent quality. They've had enclosures on the market for ages, but those cases are almost always for budget builds. But today we have something that you may not be prepared for: an enthusiast-class full tower enclosure, competitively priced but clearly not for just any build. Rosewill's beast is able to support the largest of ATX motherboards and can handle quad-SLI and quad-Crossfire rigs with room to spare. In a market of SilverStones, Antecs, Corsairs, and Lian Lis, should you be giving Rosewill another look?
I'll be candid: I wasn't expecting a case like this from Rosewill. This thing is a monster, clearly designed with performance in mind, and priced that way. The plastic and steel build is actually remarkably staid, while connectivity is among the best of breed. It's not a bad looking case at all, and from just glancing at the specifications, the Thor v2 looks like it may have what it takes to perform with the best of them.
| Rosewill Thor v2 Specifications | ||
| Motherboard Form Factor | Micro-ATX, ATX, E-ATX, XL-ATX | |
| Drive Bays | External | 6x 5.25", 1x3.5" (shared with 5.25" using separate faceplate) |
| Internal | 6x 3.5"/2.5" | |
| Cooling | Front | 1x 230mm intake fan |
| Rear | 1x 140mm exhaust fan | |
| Top | 1x 230mm exhaust fan (supports 2x 120mm/140mm) | |
| Side | 1x 230mm intake fan (supports 4x 120mm) | |
| Bottom | 1x 120mm/140mm fan mount | |
| Expansion Slots | 10 | |
| Front I/O Port | - | |
| Top I/O Port | eSATA, 2x USB 2.0, 2x USB 3.0, fan controllers, mic and headphone jacks | |
| Power Supply Size | ATX | |
| Clearance | 13" (Expansion Cards), 180mm (CPU HSF), 200mm (PSU) | |
| Weight | 30.42 lbs. | |
| Dimensions | 22.84" x 9.14" x 21.89" | |
| Price | $149 | |
In addition to the staggering amount of expansion space within the Thor v2, the front 230mm fan glows red, a feature you can toggle on and off using a recessed button on the face. The fan controllers also support up to three fans per channel for six total. What perplexed me from the get-go was the venting on the top, though: there's a slider switch you can use to open or close the top vents, which seems like a cool idea until you realize that with those vents closed, there's nowhere for the top exhaust fan to channel air. Just from a cursory examination, though, it seems like airflow should be the last of the Thor v2's problems.
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black44dog - Friday, September 7, 2012 - link
I know this is an old article.. But i wanted to let everyone know the updates this Case has gotten since the article has been written.I just put together my Rosewill Thor v2 case with these parts:
Asus Sabertooth Z77 mobo
Intel Core i5 3570k
g-skill 16mb ram x2 8gig chips
CM Hyper Evo 212 CPU Cooler
LG Blu-ray burner
OCZ Vertex 4 128gig SSD
EVGA GeForce GTX660 TI 2GB
I purchased the case for 103.99 on newegg last week. It was on sale for 129.99 plus had a 20% off promo code.
The USB 3.0 pass through no longer exists. They replaced it with an ACTUAL USB3.0 Connector to the motherboard header. HUGE upgrade there..
The grommets are still flaky.. not a big deal.
Everything fit perfectly and looks amazing with the Sabertooth's Thermal Armor.
Hope this helps others looking into reviews for this case.
Horrabin - Saturday, January 12, 2013 - link
with the original V2 I've had for close to a year has been entirely positive. I consider this to be the best case I've ever used for a build in its price range (and one or two more "upscale" in the past). I really like all the the ports for cable management (aside from the grommets, as has been mentioned). I have 2 graphics cards, 6 HD, a DVD burner, a card reader, and an add-on 3.5 USB3 front panel that came with my motherboard, and still have plenty of room unimpeded by the usual cable spaghetti if I want to add anything else, although I'm pretty maxed out of stuff I'd want to put in. Since this fits (barely) under my table I keep the top grille open so the cat's not a problem... I actually like the back-routed USB3 setup. The onboard header is used for the add-on unit, which gives me 4 front USB3 ports. I did notice from the beginning that the fan control system didn't seem to do much about noise levels, but I'm not that bothered by fan noise anyway. The stock fans included with the case provide enough cooling and airflow, with the cables all tucked away behind the motherboard, to keep all my temps generally in the low 30's at idle and about 15 degrees higher when I'm running games (Crysis, Rage, FC3, Borderlands 1 & 2,etc). The CoolerMaster Hyper 212 cpu cooler fits with room to spare. Asrock 990FX Extreme 4 with Vishera 6-core, 16GB GSkill 1866, and dual AMD 5775 cards (those are somewhat dated, but enough in CrossFire for me on my budget). I would buy this case again for any other full-tower system I'd want to build.jlpurvis - Monday, March 11, 2013 - link
I just received y Thor V2 in the mail last week, and it is a very solid, good case. Just a heads up, they did replace the USB 3.0 connector with an internal motherboard header, so I don't have to hook it up in the back, but directly onto the motherboard. Also, the rubber grommets feel very secure, and the fan knobs don't feel clunky, or loose. I believe they fixed your biggest complaints about the case.PA Systems1 - Sunday, June 23, 2013 - link
I've just purchased this case from Newegg. Bought it for its size and cooling capabilities. I do have one question that the article doesn't seem to answer. If the front USB cables do not connect to the USB 3.0 headers on the mobo how are they connected to the system and powered? Before reading this article mentioning that I thought I would absolutely need a mobo with USB 3.0 internal headers. To be honest I haven't looked inside it YET because the other parts to my new build are waiting on price drops from Newegg. It could be a slow process but this case and some other components came on Newegg as deals first.frostshoxx - Tuesday, September 15, 2015 - link
Where exactly is the reset button? I can only find the power button.