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ThermalTake Xaser III V1000A Case, Page 2
Review Date: August 16, 2003
Reviewed by: Dwayne Sessom
Sponsored by: SVC.com
What's on the outside?
I said earlier that I would touch on the "hidden panel" some more, and here it is. Many cases now days do have some sort of USB/Firewire/Audio ports on the front or side to make these ports more accessible. ThermalTake has decided to put these ports on the top of the case. Whether it is better or worse to have the ports on the top of the case as opposed to the side or front is something only you can decide. I depends on where you keep your tower. If you decide to have the case on top of a desk, for example, the top ports will be hard to reach. I think most people will probably keep a tower of this size sitting on the floor, and in that case the top ports are pretty handy.
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Retail Package. Click for larger view.
The front bezel:
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Click for larger view.
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Click for larger view.Moving down the front of the solid cast aluminum bezel, in the ThermalTake XASER III logo with a big "X". I like the X, but I am biased there...
Finally, near the bottom is the ThermalTake logo that is nicely backlit in blue. As I mentioned earlier, you can replace this with your own custom design if you want.
Two doors are better than one!
Most cases don't have doors the open and close to conceal your drives. A few, like the Chieftec Dragon and Matrix, but ThermalTake has decided to take it one step further and have TWO doors. The first door covers the 5 1/4" and 3 1/2" bays. The second door opens to reveal the entire inner case front. There are a few reasons for this extra door. It allows you to access that cool backlit sign, so you can switch it out if you want to. It also gives you easy access to the front fan dust filters.
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Click for larger view.
One other thing I nearly forgot to mention that deserves some attention is the Xasers' drive mounting system. These brackets come neatly arranged in the top-most of the lower drive bays. They make mounting your drives a completly screwless endevour - just snap the bracket on, and slide it into the bay and it locks into place! It can't get much easier than that to be sure. Kudos on this little arrangement, ThermalTake!
Click for larger view.
Lighting it all up!
To top off the Xaser IIIs' already dominating looks, you will definitely want to add some cathode lighting of your own. We chose red to match the red highlights in the case front bezel. This in combination with the backlit ThermalTake logo on the front is sure to attract the attention of your fragging buddies!
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Click for larger view.
Conclusion:
The Xaser III from ThermalTake is certainly one of kind, and has some outstanding features. The top USB/Firewire/Audio ports are unique and is certainly appealing for most people. The case has no shortage of fans for sure. Getting 7 fans already installed is a good thing in my book any day even though they are a bright orange color, and the dust filters are an invaluable feature especially here in Oklahoma where the dust bowl actually took place back in the 1920's. The overall constuction is top notch, but there are a few features that are missing or lacking. As mentioned earlier, the rheobus just plain sucks. The steel constuction makes this case extremely heavy, so I wouldn't advise using it for a LAN rig. There is no removable motherboard tray, which I personally could care less about, but many people like to have that functionality. This particular case didn't come with a power supply at all, which takes away from its' overall value in my opinion, especially when you consider that this case retails for about $200.00 USD at the time of writing. With all things considered, I am giving the ThermalTake Xaser III V1000A three X's. While it is a very nice case, it could still be improved considerably.
SVC.com currently has the Xaser III V1000A on sale for $149.99!
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