I’ve just bought a new computer case, bit tired of the cream box ;)
What do you guys think of Thermaltake’s xaser III cases and extras like the colour matching keyboards??

[ 11-25-2003, 09:25 AM: Message edited by: Target ]

Looks is up to yourself. I personaly like the look of my dismembered generic case. As for color matching - bare steel/beige case, white monitor, mouse and speakers, silver and black keyboard. I just don't give a damn. The xaser does look nice though.

As for performance on the case, once you cut out the fan grids in the Xaser, it will be much quieter and you will get much better airflow, which means better cooling, which equals better stability and easier overclocking. (stick wire fanguards on any exposed fans though, elsewise someone will go "is that fan running?" and lose a finger. Or at least get sliced. Pets can get hurt as well).

And make sure you get the wiring sorted properly, theres no point in getting a case with a window (I think the Xaser III has a window) and having a cats cradle of cabling looking amateurish in it. Dosent do you airflow much good either.

I love it i would purchase one if i could so go for it!
BTW here is a pick of it for you who dont know how it looks like!

http://www.cooltechzone.com/images/r.../v1000a_29.jpg

[ 11-21-2003, 11:46 AM: Message edited by: Megabot ]

I personally lean towards the Chieftek server cases and the Lian Li's. The Thermaltake's look a little over the top IMHO.

What I wouldn't do to get my hands on the new Alienware Predator cases though...

http://www.alienware.com/Images/Prod...borg_green.jpg

I like the xaser but i dont really like the Alienware, but thats just my opinion.

Well, I like mine, but I'm not sure if the "extras" are really worth it. Maybe if you had the black one (black is so far from the normal computer colors), but even then I'm not sure.

Some ideas for cases here www.pccasegear.com


Also if you are going to go over the top and want maximum distraction from the moniter you could go all out and get UV lights in a clear case:
http://www.pccasegear.com/images/acrylics.jpg
intresting if nothing else
another thing, watercooled computers are great especially with a clear UV case as the water itself can have UV dies added to it so it too glows. Look pretty good but personally i would rather spend my money "under the bonnet" instead of the case, but that is up to you.

I use both the blue and black thermaltake cases (picking up the VM3000A Skull Case on Monday) and I'd rocommend thermaltake anyday. Basically everything in my comps is thermaltake unless there's a very good reason not to be. Fans, Coolmods, Ramsinks, VGA Coolers, you name it!
My blue one running an AMD XP2200+ with the thermaltake Aquarius II Liquid cooler runs at roughly 24c at idle and at around 30c on a 35c day with heavy gaming. Although the Aquarius II coolers aren't supposed to be the best way to go in liquid cooling, I find that mine has worked more than well for myself and would give it my full recommendation for anyone that heard otherwise.

The fans that come with the case are (all 7) so quiet that I can seriously say that any one of your cpu fans out there, regardless of how quiet they may be, are a lot louder than all these seven combined. Throw in a Thermaltake 480W power supply with an adjustable fan and your pc gets quieter still.
I used to run the Volcano 9 in mine but the volcano on it's own is loud enough to wake the dead and send them to their grave once more so the liquid cooler is great at keeping the noise down, not to mention a good 15c or so off the temperature. Basically I'm running the 7 fans that came with the case, ramsink and fan, 3 separate hard drive fans for each of the hard drives, 480W power supply with an adjustable second fan (always set to maximum), and the aquarius II liquid cooler and I can barely hear the thing during the day.

Anyway, all in all, there are a lot of amazing brands out there but all I know is Thermaltake myself as I use just about everything they make. Heck if you want to know anything about their products just drop me a line and I can't most likely give you a perfect review on it based on my own experiences.

btw be also sure to check out the Aquarius III which was put up on the Thermaltake site recently. A new liquid cooler which sadly enough I have to wait til next year to get a hold of :(

btw I'll post back in the morning after I've uploaded some links of my thermaltake cases. Also if you ever need any advice with thermaltake gear or how to work them (the instructions can sometimes be a pain in the butt to understand) don't hesitate to ask!

Edit: Oh yeah if you get the Black case (VM1000) and want a clear side be sure to ask for the VM1000A instead. It means that you get the black case with the clear side rather than having to buy the clear side separately at an additional cost. I'm not sure if the Blue and Silver cases also have that option but I wasn't aware of it when I got the blue one.

There's also the new Lanfire case but I find that to be more like a cheap toy and would have to say that Thermaltake kinda went backwards in producing that one. Either they had some cut-backs or they decided that a plastic door is cool! *LOL*

As for the keyboards and mice, personally I wouldn't bother with them. They aren't too bad looking and would match the case but could never bring myself to buy them as they looked a bit too weird to me. More like something Thermaltake tried a bit too hard to make impressive but failed miserably. I went for the Logitech MX700 Cordless Keyboard and Mouse combo instead and would say that unless the Thermaltake combo really take your fancy to just stick with any other keyboard and mouse because you won't be getting much more.

[ 11-22-2003, 09:47 AM: Message edited by: Bokken ]

I know someone who used the dark blue case, and built his own computer using it, I thought it was nice, but not to fond of the light display it had in it. but that is just because every time the light flashed, it also had sound effects, like a timer for music, a steady click clack that would drive me nuts if I heard it to much, lol, but the case them selves would look cool if you did a contrasting color, but that is just my opinion

Cant say i like the "UV lights" in a computer case i like it dark when i play games and things not an "disco" thingy lol anyway i my self have a Chifteck Dragon Bigtower and it is pretty nice black it is too [img]smile.gif[/img]
But i would like one of their big server cases too! sheesh :D