Most mini towers such as the Lian Li Mini Q PC-V354 claim to be designed with both gaming and HTPC use in mind, but the Thermaltake Armor A30 makes no such promise. Instead, it is strictly a gaming chassis designed for LAN party goers.
Unless your home theater setup looks something out of the batcave, then the Armor A30 is going to stick out like a sore thumb. The case features a unique “bulletproof” armor design which uses a lot of straight edges mixed with metal mesh elements. The end result is a bold-looking small chassis. Thermaltake believes this design speaks to gamers and enthusiasts. Personally, I prefer the Mini Q PC-V354’s subtle lines, but then again I’m not a hardcore gamer. Going beyond looks, we feel gamers will be attracted to the Armor A30’s near shoebox-sized design that can accommodate high-end hardware such as the AMD Radeon HD 5970, today’s largest consumer graphics card.
The chassis weight also plays a factor in making this a convenient case to move your PC around. While the Armor A30 is a bit heavier than we were expecting at 14.7 pounds, it’s still much lighter than most mid and full tower chassis. The Armor A90 for example weighs 22% more, while the Armor+ is two and a half times heavier. The Armor A30’s proposition is made even more compelling when you consider the number of powerful microATX motherboards available these days that support high-end Core i5, Core i7 and Phenom II X6 processors. Read on.
