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
Motherboard Tray
The motherboard is held in place by clips on the removable motherboard tray. This provides for quick installations or replacements and again, the need for no other tools but human hands. Removable motherboard trays have become standard in most, if not all, new well-constructed enclosures. This case, in particular, comes off completely as a separate part. A much more efficient design would have been to manufacture the motherboard tray as well as the entire back side of the case as one piece, keeping add-on cards on the motherboard itself when removing the tray. In this situation, the add-on cards would need to be removed prior to detaching the motherboard tray, which is very time consuming.
Click to enlarge.
The add-on cards are held by sliding clips that snap in place, locking the card in its slot on the motherboard. There is room for a total of 7 add-on cards, each with one of these black plastic clips to hold them in position.
Click to enlarge.
Problems may arise when replacing the power supply while a motherboard is already in place. There is just enough room to install a power supply when the case is empty, let alone with the CPU heat sink along with wires and cables in the way. Swapping a power supply may require removal of the motherboard tray for easier access. Once installed though, the power supply is held in place by the machined out mounts on the right and backside of the case as well as a rubber stopper at the top.
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JKing76 - Friday, March 12, 2004 - link
Cheese. 100% cheese.Orchid1 - Friday, March 12, 2004 - link
Looks terrible, pc case design has come a long way since the beige box, but in this case I'd rather have a beige box any day.Skulls? is his being marketed at 15 year old Goth Rock fans?
nastyemu25 - Friday, March 12, 2004 - link
guess i wasn't the only one who thought this thing was incredibly uglyaraczynski - Friday, March 12, 2004 - link
that has got to be the single most butch ugly implementation of a side window in a case i've ever seen, obviously a last second throw in with no thought or planning. disgusting.CtK - Friday, March 12, 2004 - link
why dont you show pics with the case fully installed with parts??BenSkywalker - Friday, March 12, 2004 - link
Reading through everything in the review it seems like this is a lower end case then the original XIII line, was that your impression Purav?Less fans, less space and sharp edges- sounds like a step back for TT here.
diehlr - Friday, March 12, 2004 - link
This case is the most hideous thing I have seen in a long time. What is the deal with PC case designs? Nearly every one of them is tacky and looks flat out cheap.clarkmo - Thursday, March 11, 2004 - link
This is the same as the Enermax Titanium case. I don't know who the oem is. Mobo attaches with studs vey easily. Hopefully a new trend.Just pop it right in. It's only noisy if you have noisy fans. I have a 120 mm in the lower area. The psu is very tight buy my slk900a on my 8rda manages to fit. http://www.case-mod.com/store/product_info.php?pro...Adul - Thursday, March 11, 2004 - link
congrats Purv :)mostlyprudent - Thursday, March 11, 2004 - link
You mention the inconvenience of having to remove add in cards to remove the motherboard tray, but why bother completely removing the tray unless I'm replacing the motherboard - hence removing the cards anyway? Of course, I've never had a removable tray that was easy enough to remove to justify taking it out for memory or even CPU changes.