The Armor Jr. enclosure is one of the newest additions to Thermaltake's series of mid-tower enclosures.  As you might guess, the Armor Jr. is a smaller, lighter, and less expensive version of the popular Thermaltake Armor full-tower case and it retains much of the same great styling and functionality of the original.

The Thermaltake Armor Jr. is available in either a silver or black finish and can be purchased with or without a side window.  Several different power supply options are available pre-installed (none, 400W, 430W) but if you want one of the new Thermaltake Toughpower units, it must be purchased separately.

Thermaltake Armor Jr. Key Features

·         Mid-tower, aluminum case design with optional side window

·         ATX/BTX compatible (BTX upgrade kit is optional)

·         Dual silent, front and rear 120mm cooling fans

·         Lockable front door design with aluminum armor panels

·         Aluminum mesh front for added cooling

·         Retractable feet

·         Compatible with most water-cooling systems

Armor Jr. Specifications (from theThermaltake website)

First Impressions

One of the first things I noticed was just how light-weight the Thermaltake Armor Jr. enclosure is.  While the PR literature claims the enclosure is all-aluminum, it's fairer to say the enclosure is mostly aluminum (several pieces are plastic, including the front door, feet, and top I/O panel cover, which are all nicely painted to give the case a uniform look).

The Armor Jr. mid-tower case arrived securely packaged between Styrofoam inserts and double-bagged inside a colorfully printed cardboard box.  Included with the enclosure is a power cord, mounting screws and hardware, plastic drive rails, I/O shield, cleaning cloth, and printed User's Manual.

The build quality is good and there is a lot of flexibility when it comes to configuring drive bay layouts and cooling options.  While there are notable differences, the Armor Jr. is also quite similar to previous Thermaltake mid-tower designs — like the popular Thermaltake Tsunami mid-tower enclosure from about two years ago.

The Armor Jr. comes configured for ATX style motherboards but can easily be converted to support the new BTX layout by purchasing the optional BTX upgrade kit (P/N A2339).