Lian Li ....

Although looks are important, that was not the selling point of this case.  For me it was the unique features... hot swappable drives; lockable case; a carry handle.... features not present in Antec or FD cases I've seen.

As for the Thermaltake Level 10 Full Tower being a monstrosity... er, ugly... most people here have commented positively regarding its appearance and have said how nice/sexy it is.  So it would seem you're the minority of one/the odd man out, and maybe it's not a tinge of dislike but rather a tinge of jealousy.  Hehe!  I mean, if you had this case and I didn't, I'd be green with envy, too.

Thanks Ernie.   Yeah, I researched everything before I thought about buying, and then I the compared prices of the parts I wanted on a site called shopbot.com.au.  From there I was able to assess the best buys and formulate a tentative budget to work with.  Luckily, all that I wanted was available at very competitive prices at the online store I already did business with, and being they're locally situated I was able to go pick up some of the parts myself... thankfully, my daughter now lives locally and she drives me around for such things and shopping, etc

Paul's right .... again. My Lian-Li has them

No, my niece came over because she was moving in downstairs... my old man cave... and I dropped everything to help her get set up, etc... was still at it gone 3.30 am, by which time the opportunity to sleep had long passed me by.... insomnia had kicked in, and showing off my 'uber' PC was the last thing on anyone's mind.

Yes, various manufacturers have cases with external hot swap docking bays, and yes, there are cases with hot swappable internal drive bays once you've opened the case; however, I've not seen any apart from Thermaltake's that has internal drive bays which can be hot swapped at just the push of a button.... no need to open the case, they pop out the left side.  That is the unique feature I wanted.

Vantec EZ Swap 4 SATA hotswap...fits standard 5.25...lockable...variable fan speed and temp monitor ...trayless ....just push the drive in....groovy lcd display to 'trick your rig'....got those on mine now...and the next one will too.....with or without hotswap racks inside the pop-off sidepanel....

Hmm, I just made a discovery... and a disappointing one at that.

I cannot pilfer the 1200w Silverstone PSU out of the AMD machine to go in the new one, not unless I want to put the AMD rig out of action for a while... which I don't particularly want to do if I can avoid it.  The ASUS motherboard in it has two 8 pin ATX sockets and the AcBel 800w I was going to put in it only has one available 8 pin plug... meaning I can't just swap them over... which is a PITA.

Had I been able to just swap them I would have been able to close up the cases and leave them as they were, but now I will temporarily have to put the AcBel in the new build until I can afford to purchase more suitable PSU.  and if I get a Silverstone 850w, modular, I'll be able to put that in the AMD machine, leaving the cables in place, and put the 1200w in the new build.  The AcBel isn't modular so I'm not going to overly worry about cable management in the new rig until the swap over.

Yeah, I know, somebody's gonna say: "Why go to all that trouble, leave the 800w in the new machine."  Frankly, I don't think the 800w will be man enough for it indefinitely, and while it may suffice until I can purchase a replacement for the AMD machine, I would rather a higher rated PSU that allows for power intensive hardware and work.

Yes, I did investigate Lian-Li cases, and I saw the hot swap feature, but as I said above, I saw nothing that suggested the 'hot swap' function was possible without having to open the case.... and I wanted that convenience.  Point is I got what I was looking for, plus a few bonus bells and whistles, and I don't give a tinker's cuss whether anyone else likes it or not.  I build PCs for me, right!

Yeah, I have a 4 bay Vantec external hot swap, connects via USB 3 or eSATA... a bloody great investment, too.  However, while looking for storage options, I did look at the Vantec EZ Swap bays and considered them for a while.  The thing was room... being there wasn't enough of it with all the other drives ROMs and my sound card's front panel.  To install a Vantec Ez Swap I would have had to sacrifice one of my other components, and I wasn't prepared to do that... hence the Vantec HX4R with its superlative appearance and sexy black exterior.

As for the hot swap racks inside the pop-off side panel... still not convenient enough.  Up until this new build, I've always kept my PCs in the allotted pigeon hole in the desk, so hot swaps inside a pop-off side panel [inside a desk] would have been as useless as tits on a bull, to me.  That's why these revolutionary and totally unique Thermaltake 'hot swaps' are so absolutely bleedin' marvelous

I know its a moat point, but the Cosair 800D has 'hot swaps' in the front with a push open door......

Ah yes, took a look on their site, and so it does... and no having to open the case to access it.  I must admit, I missed this one, and it's not a bad looking case, either, so thanks for the heads up.  It may not be of much use to me now, being I have what I have, but I'm sure there are other folk who will appreciate the info... especially if they want/need to keep their PC in a tower recess and must have frontal access.  That didn't really matter to me because I had a setup in mind and side access actually suits me better.  Not only that, the Thermaltake Level 10 costs me less... $265.00. where as the Corsair 800D would have cost me $299.00 [best price] or upwards.

Admittedly, the 800D is a nice looking case, and it could have been a major contender had I not seen the Level 10 up close and personal in a PC store one day.  After being given the royal tour, I was hooked, absolutely.

No...no...no... EZ Swap 4 ....it's built-into a 5.25 bay.  My current machine has 2 along with 2 DVDs ....superior to some side-access thing which ultimately is no real advantiage to a pop-off side access to all the others...particularly when you aren't sticking the tower into a cubby hole.

Tool-less access to all of them vs tool-less access to one at a time....not worth the debate...and the Vantecs onboard are where you 'expect' them to be...in the front...whether on a bench or under it...same difference.

Some external thing attached to cables bears no comparison....totally different animal...

Yes, I know, as I looked at that option to begin with [or did you miss that bit ] but decided instead to go with the external bay as I would have had to remove my sound card's front panel to accommodate it... and that front panel is soooooo useful it's not worth losing over a removable drive bay.  However, there'd be room in this new build for an EZ Swap 4... but there's no need, is there!

I really like the hot swap being on the left side as it will be so convenient as to where the tower will be situated and where I'll be sitting.  Ah yes, I did ponder ahead to visualise what I wanted/needed before purchasing the Level 10... and it suits all my needs and expectations exactly.

Ah, but I'm a tidy freak and those cables are not visible... all neatly tucked away behind the desk with cable management dodads... and eSATA or USB3 means high speed transfers, losing precious little or no time at all.

Anyway, I'm going to finish building it today... gonna bite the bullet, pilfer what I need out of this rig and get stuck into it... after a cuppa tea... or was that a shandy.

Purty.

After years of building my own PCs I splurged on a really functional high end case for the first time the last go round and wow, what a difference.

Just keep it away from kryptonite.

is that rig built yet? where are the pics? come on, ya old pirate, get busy! the entire world (well, those of us who have read this thread) await.

Hehe, kryptonite doesn't stand an earthly [chance] against my Level 10GT.  Nope, nothing compares... er, damn and bugger it, got that darned Sinead O'Connor song going through my head again, though I think Prince wrote it.  Either way, they both have alot to answer for.

Dammit, real life intervened again... family needing help, stuff that couldn't wait. 

I did get a start, and there is some progress, like I'm further ahead than yesterday, but I need to take my time if it's going to be done properly/be up to my usual standard.