Ask Me Anything - Official Thermaltake Representatives

[jpishgar]

Tom's Hardware Ask Me Anything - Thermaltake
Ever wanted to ask one of the big hardware or software giants something directly? Why’d they do that? Where’d the idea come from for that last product? What’s in store next? Well, now you have the chance!

Tom’s Hardware is proud to announce a follow-up of our brand new community features – ASK ME ANYTHING.

On Wednesday, August 21st, we’ll be hosting the next in a series of Tom’s Hardware Ask Me Anythings, and our guests will be official representatives from Thermaltake!

This thread will be unlocked, open and live for 24 hours starting at 1:00 p.m. eastern on August 21st, and questions will be moderated and supervised by Tom’s Community Manager, Joe Pishgar, and a full team of Senior Moderators.

Ask Me Anything Rules
• No tech support questions, as these require in-depth personal follow-up and diagnostics.
• All Rules of Conduct apply.
• Keep questions direct and to the point.
• Avoid opinion bias - ie: "Why are all your products awesome/bad/smelly?"
• Be respectful of our guests, no insults, no leading questions.
• Do not post duplicate questions, or repost your question multiple times.
• Not all questions may be answered. Questions may not be answered in the order in which they are received or posted.

Only registered users will be able to ask questions, so if you haven’t yet, be sure to register now for your chance to participate!

The official representatives will reply periodically over the time the AMA is active using a recognized and verified account.

Please join us on this date to throw your questions into the mix and ask Thermaltake what you've always wanted to ask!

What: Ask Me Anything – Thermaltake
When: Wednesday, August 21st 1 p.m. EDT
Where: This thread itself!
Who: Shannon Robb, Marketing Manager

Our Guests from Thermaltake are-

Name: Shannon Robb
Username:
Title: Marketing Manager
Bio: Shannon Robb has been in the technology industry for many years and with Thermaltake for more than 2 years. He is the Marketing Manager for Thermaltake for North and South America and works directly with design and product teams to ensure that performance and functionality are always improving to better meet customers needs in the always-changing PC landscape.

The thread is now unlocked and the AMA is active and live!

 

[deadmaufive]

Why do you guys not make custom threaded cables, something sort of like corsair does, to be bought separately for your PSU's?

 

[jpishgar]

Here's one from social media channels as they filter in:

Q. Thermaltake turned a lot of heads when it partnered with BMW Designworks and showed the world that gaming mouse. Any other partnerships on the horizon with BMW Designworks or others for products coming out that you can clue us in on?

 

[Tt-Shannon]

Why do you guys not make custom threaded cables, something sort of like corsair does, to be bought separately for your PSU's?

Hi,

The idea for custom Sleeved Cables has been brought up and considered at length. The decision has not been finalized as to whether they would be full length or extensions, but with the announcement of our Digital or DPS series PSU's the possibility of custom sleeved cable options are alot more likely.

 

[iFaymous]

I have both the Thermaltake Challenger and the Thermaltake Theron mouse. Would there ever be an update for the software to run better/have more options? It just doesn't feel smooth and takes a little for things to load up. It gets the job done but having more options would be nice as well.

 

[Tt-Shannon]

Here's one from social media channels as they filter in:

Q. Thermaltake turned a lot of heads when it partnered with BMW Designworks and showed the world that gaming mouse. Any other partnerships on the horizon with BMW Designworks or others for products coming out that you can clue us in on?

That is a good question and thank you for asking. The BMW Designworks USA partnership has been very important to allow us to show we are willing to do things with designs most others would not dare.

As you know the Level 10 M Headset is coming quickly and should be here anytime.

As for the future you never know, the wheels are always turning for our designers so, I guess I would say "Stay Tuned" as there are many cool things which have not been announced yet but unfortunately as them being unannounced I cant really give clues to them...... Yet

 

[Genzo]

I know you guys have been in the market for a long time.

Ive seen alot of cases that has fantastic watercooling capabilities.

Like NZXT that gives us modularity of the drive cages and alot of people remove those drives for watercooling.

Do you plan the modular drive cages in your future case? And also the sdd mounts on the back of the mobo tray?

 

[Tt-Shannon]

I know you guys have been in the market for a long time.

Ive seen alot of cases that has fantastic watercooling capabilities.

Like NZXT that gives us modularity of the drive cages and alot of people remove those drives for watercooling.

Do you plan the modular drive cages in your future case? And also the sdd mounts on the mobo tray?

Hi Genzo, Another great question. As I myself am a more Extreme enthusiasts (I have not had an air cooled rig in probably 7 years, normally benching on LN2 when I have time) I definitely have been pushing our design team for better and better in terms of liquid cooling.

Our design team is an awesome and very talented group and i think for those looking for the higher level of modularity and Liquid cooling fitment, they will be happy to see some of our new designs in the future. Unfortunately once again nothing that's announced but rest assured the capabilities of Thermaltake Chassis offerings will only get better going forward.

 

[pml706]

I have always wanted to ask; If i want to buy and sell ThermalTake merchandise in the UK, who is the best person to discuss this with at TT?

Kind regards,

Rob Wood

 

[GTMistral]

I am one of those guys that do not like the Level 10 design at all, so I got myself something more conventional : Element V Full Tower Black Edition. This case is awesome, but the lack of spare parts (fans) makes it hard to match other things you put in that case (can't really put static color fan). Would be great to see some more stuff with colorshift led just like the 3 big fans in that case and a 5" extension bay to accomodate more fans. I know it's a custom built feature for that case only, but why not trying to extend that to other cases with a 5" extension bay with a series of fan, from 80mm to 220mm?

Anything on the way on that side?

 

[Tt-Shannon]

I have always wanted to ask; If i want to buy and sell ThermalTake merchandise in the UK, who is the best person to discuss this with at TT?

Kind regards,

Rob Wood

Hi Rob,

Normally that's a little out of my scope but depending upon volume normally you would work directly with one of our many Distribution partners, or if you deal in a substantial volume and we have an office close enough to service you maybe we can get you a direct contact to work with, but normally a Distributor is the quickest and easiest for purchasing at volume for resale.

 

[knowom]

Thermaltake Tai-Chi is a neat passive notebook cooler. The whole system works on the tunnel effect apparently. Is this tunnel effect going to be incorporated into GPU/CPU/Chipset coolers eventually or built into cases themselves.

What type of innovation can PC enthusiasts expect if any from Thermaltake in the passive convection based cooling sector?

 

[Tt-Shannon]

I am one of those guys that do not like the Level 10 design at all, so I got myself something more conventional : Element V Full Tower Black Edition. This case is awesome, but the lack of spare parts (fans) makes it hard to match other things you put in that case (can't really put static color fan). Would be great to see some more stuff with colorshift led just like the 3 big fans in that case and a 5" extension bay to accomodate more fans. I know it's a custom built feature for that case only, but why not trying to extend that to other cases with a 5" extension bay with a series of fan, from 80mm to 220mm?

Anything on the way on that side?

Hi, and thank you as this is a very awesome question and statement...

The Level 10 is one of those "Like it or hate it" designs. I dont really think there is an in between but in reality like any design you see out there its the same thing. The Level 10 is simply more extreme than most. Just recently me and my Marketing Assistant stripped one completely and powder coated the whole thing Black and white. honestly it looked amazing (If you check out facebook there were some pics up of it)

As for your other question, The short answer is YES.... Yes we are definitely working on more chassis accessories to be able to better customize the case or make it work for you. This is also why you will notice we are trying to offer a more universal feature set across our chassis line so that these accessories will work with most models and allows everyone to enjoy adding extra performance or even customizations to their case as needed.

 

[Tt-Shannon]

Thermaltake Tai-Chi is a neat passive notebook cooler. The whole system works on the tunnel effect apparently. Is this tunnel effect going to be incorporated into GPU/CPU/Chipset coolers eventually or built into cases themselves.

What type of innovation can PC enthusiasts expect if any from Thermaltake in the passive convection based cooling sector?

wow thats going a bit back now.... gotta be 5 years since Ive heard about that one.

There is always interest in passive silent cooling however as CPU's (Both AMD and Intel) and GPUs are hitting TDP's higher than they ever have it becomes more necessary for us to move to more extreme or efficient cooling. This is why we felt it so necessary to join the AIO liquid cooling market as now stock CPUs can push over 200 Watt TDP's (AMD FX 9590 - 219W TDP)

however if we are talking ULP like NUC series or something I could possibly see it, but for most desktop usages the sheer size needed for a passive cooler is prohibitive to a design.

 

[Genzo]

I know TtEsports is popular to gamers.

Mechanical Keyboards are so popular to gamers nowadays.

And i notice Rosewill was the 1st companies introduce DUAL Backlit keys for mechanical keyboards. BUT im disappointed because the modes are just limited. Alot of gamers like to play in the dark.

And not all gamers are FPS gamers. And im a huge MOBA gamer.
And i would like the QWER keys to be also in the illumination mode.

And Roccat and Corsair introduce the Per Key Backlit. Like you can turn on or off the backlit of each key on the keyboard without the others to be turnoff.

From this two ideas. Alot of people expect this kind of keyboard

Dual Backlit Keys + Per Key Backlit
Instead of turning off the keys. You can use the 2nd color for the chosen key/s.

This is the ideal keyboard for alot of gamers. It would be nice if you are the first one to do this "Ideal Keyboard" for us

 

[Tt-Shannon]

I know TtEsports is popular to gamers.

Mechanical Keyboards are so popular to gamers nowadays.

And i notice Rosewill was the 1st companies introduce DUAL Backlit keys for mechanical keyboards. BUT im disappointed because the modes are just limited. Alot of gamers like to play in the dark.

And not all gamers are FPS gamers. And im a huge MOBA gamer.
And i would like the QWER keys to be also in the illumination mode.

And Roccat and Corsair introduce the Per Key Backlit. Like you can turn on or off the backlit of each key on the keyboard without the others to be turnoff.

From this two ideas. Alot of people expect this kind of keyboard

Dual Backlit Keys + Per Key Backlit
Instead of turning off the keys. You can use the 2nd color for the chosen key/s.

This is the ideal keyboard for alot of gamers. It would be nice if you are the first one to do this "Ideal Keyboard" for us

Hi Genzo,

We seem to think alike on many things here... I have thought about RGB LEDs in key switches for awhile but there simply is modification to the switch body necessary to facilitate the RGB application along with some extensive controller work to allow not just RGB function but per key RGB as that is alot of channels. not just a on and off but a mix to allow different color.

This may be possible in a future application but there are some things that would definitely have to be figured out first

 

[Jason Zhang]

Mechanical keyboards have came a long way over the past years and now there are many different options on the market to chose from. However i noticed that there aren't many wireless mechanical keyboards available. Would Wireless mechanical keyboards be a possibility in the future for thermaltake?

 

[Genzo]

I know TtEsports is popular to gamers.

Mechanical Keyboards are so popular to gamers nowadays.

And i notice Rosewill was the 1st companies introduce DUAL Backlit keys for mechanical keyboards. BUT im disappointed because the modes are just limited. Alot of gamers like to play in the dark.

And not all gamers are FPS gamers. And im a huge MOBA gamer.
And i would like the QWER keys to be also in the illumination mode.

And Roccat and Corsair introduce the Per Key Backlit. Like you can turn on or off the backlit of each key on the keyboard without the others to be turnoff.

From this two ideas. Alot of people expect this kind of keyboard

Dual Backlit Keys + Per Key Backlit
Instead of turning off the keys. You can use the 2nd color for the chosen key/s.

This is the ideal keyboard for alot of gamers. It would be nice if you are the first one to do this "Ideal Keyboard" for us

Hi Genzo,

We seem to think alike on many things here... I have thought about RGB LEDs in key switches for awhile but there simply is modification to the switch body necessary to facilitate the RGB application along with some extensive controller work to allow not just RGB function but per key RGB as that is alot of channels. not just a on and off but a mix to allow different color.

This may be possible in a future application but there are some things that would definitely have to be figured out first

Well i know its alot of work. And im glad to hear that TtEsports have considered is idea. Alot of us gamers can wait for this.

Well goodluck on your future plans.

 

[Tt-Shannon]

Mechanical keyboards have came a long way over the past years and now there are many different options on the market to chose from. However i noticed that there aren't many wireless mechanical keyboards available. Would Wireless mechanical keyboards be a possibility in the future for thermaltake?

Hi there,

Wireless is always "Possible" however due to the inherent latency it is not ideal for gaming..

you never know if there is enough demand for this we may try it

 

[Tt-Shannon]

I know TtEsports is popular to gamers.

Mechanical Keyboards are so popular to gamers nowadays.

And i notice Rosewill was the 1st companies introduce DUAL Backlit keys for mechanical keyboards. BUT im disappointed because the modes are just limited. Alot of gamers like to play in the dark.

And not all gamers are FPS gamers. And im a huge MOBA gamer.
And i would like the QWER keys to be also in the illumination mode.

And Roccat and Corsair introduce the Per Key Backlit. Like you can turn on or off the backlit of each key on the keyboard without the others to be turnoff.

From this two ideas. Alot of people expect this kind of keyboard

Dual Backlit Keys + Per Key Backlit
Instead of turning off the keys. You can use the 2nd color for the chosen key/s.

This is the ideal keyboard for alot of gamers. It would be nice if you are the first one to do this "Ideal Keyboard" for us

Hi Genzo,

We seem to think alike on many things here... I have thought about RGB LEDs in key switches for awhile but there simply is modification to the switch body necessary to facilitate the RGB application along with some extensive controller work to allow not just RGB function but per key RGB as that is alot of channels. not just a on and off but a mix to allow different color.

This may be possible in a future application but there are some things that would definitely have to be figured out first

Well i know its alot of work. And im glad to hear that TtEsports have considered is idea. Alot of us gamers can wait for this.

Well goodluck on your future plans.

Thank you, and I really do hope we can deliver more unique technologies like this in the future.

 

[Calculatron]

Any plans in the cooling department? (Fans and thermal compounds?)

 

[ubercake]

What sets your self-contained liquid-cooling CPU coolers (ie Water 3.0 series) apart from the rest?

What about the Frio air cooler? What makes it better than the competition?

What are plans for future CPU cooling solution designs?

Why was the Thermaltake Spedo tower case discontinued? It was very practical with all of it's fan configuration options and the size made it easy to build in. It was one of two cases I know of that had two 120mm rear fan mounts.

Any plans for a new case (ie Urban S91) with two rear 120s?

 

[Tt-Shannon]

Any plans in the cooling department? (Fans and thermal compounds?)

Hi There,

Yes we have some new ideas on fans and ill be working on revamping our fan offering soon.

as for Thermal material that si something we are always working on improving as new formulations are tried to attain even better performance.

 

[Tt-Shannon]

What sets your self-contained liquid-cooling CPU coolers (ie Water 3.0 series) apart from the rest?

What about the Frio air cooler? What makes it better than the competition?

What are plans for future CPU cooling solution designs?

Why was the Thermaltake Spedo tower case discontinued? It was very practical with all of it's fan configuration options and the size made it easy to build in. It was one of two cases I know of that had two 120mm rear fan mounts.

Any plans for a new case (ie Urban S91) with two rear 120s?

Hi there,

I will try to answer all of these questions for you in order.

1) The Water3.0 series was a work from our team and OEM to improve performance over previous gen while also optimization on the Fan side from our team to improve acoustics while also optimizing the fan design to best match the raditor design for the best possible performance.
I'm sure you know most AIO coolers are similar and it asll comes down to the small tweaks that make the difference that is the margin we work in, and just like Water2.0 series you will see very strong performance from 3.0

2) There are multiple FRIO coolers so its hard to say what exactly you are referencing as to make it "better" than the competitor. At a certain point you reach a region of diminishing returns which is why we now moved to the NiC Series of coolers which allow for full ram compatibility on any board while still keeping an optimized fin array for great performance.
I guess ii would say that Thermaltake does not target to be "Better" than everyone we just aim to make the best possible solution for any issue users may face. Yes you may get 1-2C better from a certain cooler but what good is that if you cannot use half of your memory slots?

3) Future planned for CPU cooling - Well there are many.... many have not been announced but we will be looking into expanding our reach into the cooling market as a whole from fans, coolers and even out Liquid cooling offerings.

4)Speedo was a Case I personally loved but it simply got long in the tooth and eventually newer models were brought in and it was replaced. ex. I love the 57 Chevy but eventually that design went away as well, and who knows maybe a version like the speedo will come out some day but its all up to what we see from the market demand.

5) I cannot unfortunately confirm or deny existence or planning of unreleased products.

 

[n8a]

Sophisticated Traveler here.

I'm interested in your Luxa2 product line. Could you please direct me to the the best place to purchase your Metro Leather Laptop bag and the Swarovski Crystal Laptop Cooler.

Followup question. Is the cooler really made with Swarovski Crystals?