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
Case Fans
Lack of fans is not a problem for the VM3000A. The case comes with four 80mm fans colored in orange, which are strategically placed throughout the chassis. One sits on the swing bar to exhaust warm air from the add-on card section. Even though Thermaltake specifies it as a CPU cooling fan, it basically servers as an exhaust from add-ons like a video card.
Click to enlarge.
Another exhaust has been placed on the right side of the case at mid-height in a fold down module. This fan is mainly used for relieving heat from the hard drives mounted in that area. The last two 80mm fans are placed vertically in the back of the case within a plastic casing, which directs air from the CPU's heat sink outwards by way of properly aimed vents. Though the idea makes complete sense, the vents do not direct all warm air out the back. The case would strongly benefit from a small plastic vent to displace heat directly from the CPU.
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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-...