Thermaltake's Xaser III Skull Series - A Case For the Tough Guy
by Purav Sanghani on March 11, 2004 4:20 PM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
Design
When we think of Thermaltake, the image that comes to mind is their trademark front bezel design. This particular model has a black front bezel to match the rest of the 0.8 mm SECC shell, with red brushed aluminum trim to give it a sleek look. It also sports a skull designed light with 3 modes, a flashing pattern that complements the VM3000A's strong looks, a constant On mode, as well as an Off mode. The inverter switch used to change between the 3 modes can be detached from the system if the light show is not to be used.The VM3000A features a swinging door, which conceals the drive bays as well as the power and reset buttons and LEDs. The buttons themselves are both flush to the plastic casing to prevent accidental shutdowns or resets. The entire front bezel can be removed easily by grabbing hold of the bottom side and pulling straight forward from the case.
Click to enlarge.
The side panels are also made from the same strong 0.8 mm SECC as the rest of the chassis, so bending is not a problem. The left panel has a plastic window, which is also shielded with its honeycomb design. Both panels are screw-less and can be removed and replaced easily. Both panels are EMI shielded to help protect the installed hardware from magnetic interference.
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KristopherKubicki - Thursday, March 11, 2004 - link
Purav has been with us for a couple years, but this is his pilot review :) Congrats Purav - much better than my pilot ;)Kristopher
CZroe - Thursday, March 11, 2004 - link
"The Thermaltake Xaser III VM3000A's main feature is its completely screw-less design. Though it can be difficult to deal with some screw-less features, such as drive mounting rails, Thermaltake has done a great job with the design and construction of its chassis."Umm, I must know: Is it as "great" a job as the ThermalTake Xaser III chassis? I've already posted in the forums about it (See the URL below), but basically the chassis' screwless slot design prevented full-length PCI cards from being inserted even though the case had special slots to stabilize them (Full length PCI cards have a plastic handle which fits the slots).
There aren't enough pictures to tell if the case even has these slots, so I must ask :) Also, a better description of the "swing bar" is needed as well as an image. I'm still confused as to how it can stabilize a PCI card...
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=...
klah - Thursday, March 11, 2004 - link
Hey Purav, have any pictures of the interior with all of the components installed?sandorski - Thursday, March 11, 2004 - link
I got 1 of these cases 3 weeks ago, I really like it. The flashing light is kinda hokey, but overall the screwless design and appearance of the case really impress me. The case looks and feels solid.The review was entirely correct about installing the power supply, it is very difficult if the mobo, cpu, and cpu hs/fa is installed. I managed to get my old noisy 350watt Enermax in, but only after removing the rear fan shroud first.
tfranzese - Thursday, March 11, 2004 - link
Near identical to this SilverStone I looked at, but I dig the SST's looks far more. Anywho, I just wonder if the design flaws were fixed.Case I'm referring to is here: http://www.soundcardcentral.com/reviews/cases/sst-...