Thermaltake TR100 - Honey I Shrunk the Mid-Tower?

ThermalTake TR100 Mr Matt Lee Ryzen 7 7800X3D Radeon RX9070

Portable PC’s, we love the look of them, but there is always compromise. Perhaps the chassis has limited graphics card support, only room for a tiny air cooler, or worse still, there isn’t enough space to fit in any real noteworthy hardware. It sounds pretty familiar right? They’re issues we’ve come across time and time again, it’s why, as much as we love ITX, M-ATX has become our go-to for small form factor, it's just easier. Does this have to be the case, can a smaller ITX chassis give us everything we need? Or at least get close? ThermalTake feel they have the answer with the TR100, and we’ve managed to get one in the studio to have a look at, so let’s get into it.

Case Overview

The Thermaltake TR100 is referred to by the manufacturer as a ‘mini tower chassis’, which seems to refer more to it being of a shrunken ATX aesthetic. It’s got a mesh panel at the front, with a solid panel above, which sort of mimics a blanking panel under which you could mount an optical drive. Sadly there is no support for an optical drive, though most wouldn’t use it, we’d love to see it! Both side panels are the same, a fairly wide grille on the bottom with a solid top, under the grille’s there are magnetic dust filters. The top panel has a matching grille/dust filter combination. Overall it the look of the chassis gives us a slightly retro feel, circa 2014 (or there abouts), which certainly works for it.

Once the sides are off we get a look inside, we have the typical ITX split case configuration. One side set for motherboard and power supply mounting, with the other reserved for the graphics card. There looks to be space for fan or radiator mounting up top too, which is nice to see in a smaller case.

As for what makes the chassis itself unique, it boasts support for larger graphics cards. The way it manages it is also well thought out. The mounting tray containing the PCIe covers is removable allowing the user to mount the graphics card, slide it through the case and then screw it in. It will allow larger graphics cards which would ordinarily be blocked by the side rails of the chassis to fit snugly. It also has solid support for liquid coolers, seemingly up to 280mm, which should allow for use of some quite thermally demanding CPU’s. Though there is no mounting for case fans so the fans on the graphics card and radiator cannot rely on additional airflow to aid in their operation.

As for hardware support specifics, here’s a rundown of the headlines:

Case dimensions: (h)294 x (w)179 x (d)391mm

Graphics Card: up to 3 slots, maximum 380mm long

Motherboard: Mini-ITX

Air Cooler: 68mm

Radiator: 120mm/240mm/140mm/280mm

Power Supply: SFX/SFX-L (up to 130mm)

Quirks and Features

The TR100 is looking to make waves with the SFF community by offering a package that is a little different. Though we’re here to focus on the chassis, it is worth mentioning that on the manufacturers website, they are offering a suitcase with cutouts to slot in the finished build plus peripherals. It’s an interesting stance for a portable rig, and we like the creative thinking behind it. If I was to offer one touch it would be to get rid of the space for a VR headset and instead find a way to include space for a monitor to make it truly LAN event worthy! It is worth noting that at the time of writing I can’t find stock of the TT Travel Trunk for TR100.

Pre-installed in the case there is a graphics card anti-sag bracket which slides into place, there is a further piece in the accessory box designed to help the bracket wrap around the front and keep it in place - useful if the TR100 is being moved around often.

The front top panel of the chassis can be unscrewed and removed. Included in the accessory box is a mount for a small screen which can be mounted for temp readouts, gifs or similar. Interestingly the screen used seems to be pretty universal between ThermalTake chassis, we couldn’t find a TR100 specific screen, but we bought one for the Thermal Take Ceres series which fits and functions as intended.

Build Notes

Our vision for the TR100 was to build a mid-range system, to handle 1440p gaming at a high frame rate without issue. The inclusion of support for a radiator up to 280mm should allow for a CPU with a good level of performance, so we chose the Ryzen 7 7800X 3D, which should balance well with AMD’s recently released Radeon RX 9070. I suppose we could have gone higher and we did consider pushing the hardware support further, but realistically SFF PC’s are best when geared to a maximum of 1440p. Given the performance expectation we backed up with 32gb of Kingston Fury DDR5 RAM. Full build hardware below:

The build itself was remarkably smooth considering the SFF nature. We usually get problems making things fit correctly as space is at a premium. Everything slotted together as it should. There were a couple of build quirks though:

The motherboard is mounted upside-down in this case, which is common with chassis like this, which threw up an unusual orientation requirement for the AIO and the tubes coming off it. We decided to mount in a manner which felt unusual, with the tubes coming out toward the rear of the case and then going up and over the pump. It shouldn't cause issue as the radiator is still above the pump.

The power supply is mounted with the power input at the bottom and internal cables coming from the top. It’s an unusual setup, which takes a little extra cable management - it’s easier to manage cables when they immediately route to the bottom of the case. Not a deal breaker by any stretch.

Overall the build process was pretty enjoyable, the little additions like the sliding graphics card support shelf with the ease of the process. One unique feature that came in handy was being able to remove the bottom panel on the chassis, allowing for much greater access to cable management. Talking of cable management, it wasn’t too bad, space was a little cramped but there are a few useful anchor points along the inside of the chassis which helped.

Noise Test

As we're testing the full build the results are indicative of that, changing out components would alter results. We use a decibel meter at a distance of 50cm from the PC - which is approx normal seating position in a set-up where the PC is on the desk. The lowest reading available from the device is 30db.

Ambient noise: <30db

Fans at idle (400rpm): <30db

Fans at 50% (900rpm) GPU Fans 30%: 31.3db

Fans at 100% (1800rpm) GPU Fans 75%: 49.6db

Thermal Performance

Each week we put our build through some basic performance tests. The intention is to gauge how it would fare in real world scenarios as well as to see how it performs at a safe thermal limit in standard configuration. Our results:

Ambient Temp 21.7°C

Cyberpunk 2077

2560x1440

Location: Ghost Town

Quick Preset: Ray Tracing Medium

AMD Fluid Motion Frames 2.1: Disabled

Vsync: Off

91-109 FPS

72°C CPU

49°C GPU

Location: Dog Town

Quick Preset: Ray Tracing Ultra

AMD Fluid Motion Frames 2.1: Enabled

Vsync: Off

78-97 FPS

70°C CPU

49°C GPU

Marvel Rivals

2560x1440

AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution 4: Off

Anti Aliasing and Super Resolution Type: Off

Super Resolution Mode: Off

Super Resolution Sharpening: Off

V-Sync: Off

Graphics Quality: Medium

131-159 FPS

71°C CPU

51°C GPU

AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution 4: On

Anti Aliasing and Super Resolution Type: Off

Super Resolution Mode: Native

Super Resolution Sharpening: 80

V-Sync: Off

Graphics Quality: Ultra

AMD Fluid Motion Frames 2.1: Enabled

110-152 FPS

65°C CPU

53°C GPU

Furmark 2

2560 x 1440

208 FPS average

48°C Temp

69°C Hotspot

CPU-Z

Max Temp 68°C

Fan Speed ~ 2200 rpm

Overall we’re very pleased with the thermal performance of the build. For a small chassis with no case fans everything stayed pretty cool under load.

Airflow Performance

Going into airflow testing we had a feeling that there may be a few hiccups. With a top mounted radiator close to a vertical graphics card there was always the possibility of turbulence as the graphics card ejects air both up and down. During testing we concluded that this was in practice relatively minor, there was a small amount of blow back from the graphics card but not enough to stop enough cool air entering at a satisfactory level. Overall the build performed well considering its airflow limitations and we’re quite keen to see how it might perform with a 280mm radiator next time.

Roundup

Building with the ThermalTake TR100 has been a positive experience. They seem to have got the sizing right for small form factor; there is enough space to house and cool a relatively powerful system, but without much (if any) wasted space. The clever little additions, like the removable tray to mount the graphics card and the removable bottom panel are little touches that show how much thought has gone into the chassis. Overall the case has been designed impeccably and built to a high standard.

The PC we put together inside the TR100 is a powerhouse, with some serious 1440p chops. It seems like the cooling on offer was up to the task of keeping up, and we dare to say you could push further still, with a more powerful CPU/GPU combo: though if you go this route, do yourself a favor and go for a 280mm radiator.

Blog post written by Sam Thwaytes

Full Video Below:

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