Thermaltake V1000A Xaser III

-Intro-
Thermaltake is a company that most computer enthusiasts are very familiar with. Thermaltake makes some very impressive cases, they look good, they are very durable, and they are loaded with features. The case we are reviewing today is part of its popular series, the Xaser III series, it is the Thermaltake V1000A. This case is loaded with features such as, a hardcano fan controller, 7 fans (that's no typo, that's 7 fans stock!), it also has a tool free design for the drives and for the pci, which means no screw driver needed! Lets look at the basic specs:



Specifications



      Dimensions: 531 x 206 x 521mm


      Weight:  17kg (steel chassis) / 8.5kg (aluminum chassis)


      Drive Bays:  (4) exposed 5.25", (2) exposed 3.5", (6) hidden 3.5"


      Expansion slots:  (7)


      M/B Type:  Standard ATX main board


      Power Supply:  Not included


      Top mounted Firewire, USB 2.0 (x2), headphone and mic jack.


      Cooling: (7) 80mm case fans (2400 RPM / 38 CFM / 21 dBA each)



This case comes in 3 colors; black, silver, and blue. We are going to be reviewing the black case.


 -The Case-

 
The front of the case looks just like something that only Thermaltake would make, It has the Thermaltake logo written in ywo places on it, and a big X followed by "aserIII" . The front bezel is very sturdy, and it looks very good overall. On the top of the case there are 2 USB ports, a firewire port, and a mic and head phones ports. The little door/cover on these ports is very flimsy, you have to press twice to open it.

 
The hardcano fan controller fits in very well with the style of the case. The fan controller can monitor the temperature of only one part of your computer. It controls up to 4 fans, and there is the alarm function also available.

 
When you open the front bezel you can see the removable fan slots and the removable 3.5" drive bay. There is also a small knob which you can turn to lock and unlock the side panel.


  (All over the case you will find these little stickers that help guide you on how to install some of the items in the case, these are very useful for people building a computer there first time.)


You may have noticed that in my pictures I have the floppy drive cage/bay removed and one hard drive bay removed, I do this because I do not use them and they jsut take up space. When I remove them it increases the air flow and it provides good places to his your wires.


 
 The inside of the case is built very nice; most of it doesn't require tools to remove something. The pci slots do not require a screw driver to get your cards out. You can see in the diagram below how they are operated.

 

The fans are all 80mm Orange Thermaltake fans, they push 38cfm each, but when I tested with other 38cfm fans it turns out these fans do not push as much as they are advertised at. You install the fans by putting them into the brackets; again you do not need a screw driver. You just push the fan into it.

 

One of the best features of this case is the hard drive bays, they are removable and they hard drives are loaded in from the side of the case, so none of the ram, power supply, or anything else interferes when you are installing hard drives, this is especially good for those who swap hard drives a lot. The hard drives are put into place by rails that you mount onto the drive; again these also do not require a screw driver. Then you just slide the drive into place.

Installing the 5.25" drives is pretty much the same thing as the 3.5" drives except you go in from the front by opening the front bezel. The floppy drive also goes in from the front bezel, but the floppy requires a screw driver, yes… I don't know why they made it like this.

 


 The fans in this case, plus the USB on the top, the front lighting, the fan controller, and the power buttons make for a lot of wires. It is a mess, but Thermaltake did a good job of organizing the wires by sleeving some of them and guiding them through special clip units.

 

The 7 fans on this case can cause a lot of dust to enter the pc, that's why Thermaltake included 4 filters with the case; I removed these filters because I rather have better air flow than dust inside my case because I clean my computer very often. The side fans that are over the CPU and VGA are not mounted on the side panel. Thermaltake did this very good in my opinion. They put the fans on a bracket that opens and closes; you can remove the bracket as shown in the pictures below.

 
-Testing the tower-

 

Well enough talk about the case it self, lets see how it performs. We are going to look at the temps and the noise level.

 
Well the case temperature is 25*C (77*F) and the room temperature is 22*C (72*F), the noise level is very low for 7 fans, I do not have a way of measuring it, but it is very suitable, I thought 7 fans would be a lot more louder.

 
-Conclusion-

 
Well, the case is awesome. It has a lot of features, it is very sturdy, and it looks very nice. My only complaints are the weight issue, but I guess with good, sturdy, metal comes a lot of weight and the other issue is that there is no removable motherboard tray… It is not the important but for a case that costs about $150 I think there should be a removable tray.

 

Pros:

Tool Free PCI slots

Tool Free drive mounts

Tool Free Fan design

Opening front bezel

Great build quality

Comes with many extra items (hardcano, fans, etc)

Excellent wire management

Removable 3.5" drive bays

 
Cons:

No removable motherboard tray

Really heavy


-Comrad