HardwareXL

Thermaltake is known for their cool cases and their latest editions will only enforce that fact. The Xaser VI series include aircooled cases with clear side panels and mesh panels as well as watercooled editions. I will be looking at the VG4000BNS, which has red mesh on both sides, although I like the color red it kinda hurt my eyes when looking at it 24/7 so I decided to change the case by giving it a paint job. As you can see it looks a lot better and easier on the eyes. But let”’’s not get to far ahead, read on to check out the full review of the original Xaser VI.

 

 

Thermaltake is known for their cool cases and their latest editions will only enforce that fact. The Xaser VI series include aircooled cases with clear side panels and mesh panels as well as watercooled editions. I will be looking at the VG4000BNS, which has red mesh on both sides, although I like the color red it kinda hurt my eyes when looking at it 24/7 so I decided to change the case by giving it a paint job. But let”’’s not get to far ahead, read on to check out the full review of the original Xaser VI.

Just to give you an idea on how big the box is the Xaser VI came in check the next shot. It”’’s almost as big a s my living room table

Here are some specs

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Onething that Thermaltake does very well is packaging their products, the foam inside keeps the case very comfortable in the cartboardbox. The case is covered in a cloth bag as well, this ensures no scrathes during transport.

I know that a lot of manufactures could learn from this packaging the way Thermaltake does. In the past I have had cases that came damaged due to the lack of propor packaging, that why we at www.hardwarexl.nl only use the the best of the best products. Manufactures that lack the ability to shipp their products without any damage will simply not be sold at www.hardwarexl.nl.

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I am even thinking of shipping our custom build systems in a cloth bag as well, it keeps the case itself scratchless and looking like it came straight from the factory

Here”’’s a shot of the Xaser VI, sadly my camara broke down during this review so I had to use a different cammara for some shots. I have to say the color red is not as bright as seen in this shot. Never the less it is bright and I thought about giving it a paint job, but more on that later on.

Features
- Optimized design for both liquid cooling and air cooling system
- Sliding removable hood with toolbox on top (Upgradable to LCS)
- 10 PCI slots design for quad-graphic card configuration
- Tool free design for 5.25 device and PCI slot
- Sliding motherboard tray
- Independent thermal management for CPU, VGA & HDD
- Cable management system for better cable routing and internal air flow
- Evolutionary adjustable PSU supporting bridge
- MicroATX, ATX, Extend-ATX supported

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Here are some shots of the outside of the case. First up the mesh top

Here is a closeup of one of the mesh side panel.

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The fron is covered by a red mesh grill as well.

The top is removable, it glide towards the back and reveils some nice features.

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One of the nice features is a mechanical push-and- open front I/O cover at the top of the case. The top is tinted but when operational does show some light of the leds.

By simply pushing on the top the cover opens, reveiling four usb connections, one fire wire connection, two e-sata connections, a X shaped power button, a small reset button and last but not least a harddisk activity led. When the system is powered the >X< lights up by using blue leds. Which looks kinda cool

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Like I stated earlier, when the top is removed two features are reveiled. A small compartment can be used for storing sigarets or drugs or whatever.

A 140mm fan is mounted in the top of the case, which can easily be replaced by aither a 140mm or 120mm fan.

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Here is a better look at the unveiled top. The compartment at the front can be removed as well, leaving a 120×120mm gap. This is usefull when installing the Bigwater 760 or 780e from Thermaltake, this feature enables easy access to the refill reservoir.

The next shot shows the front brackets, the bottom 4 brackets are used for cooling the harddrives leaving seven usable 5,25 Inch bays. Which should be enough for entusiastic user.

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The mesh front brackets have dustfilters at the back. Installing hardware is screwless seeing the brackets are very easy to remove.

Just a small shot of the bottom of the case showing the Thermaltake logo.

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Having a look inside, shows a lot of room for hardware.

For the rear exhaust a 120mm silent blue led fan is installed.

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The adjustable PSU supporting bridge is easy to adjust for those that use a bigger PSU than the standard size. I thinking about installing a Thermaltake Toughpower 1500watt so the supporting bridge will have to be adjusted.

Here is a closer look at seven free 5,25 Inch drivebays, which enables easy installing of opticaldrives seeing there is no need for screws. The Xasser VI uses a slot-in to lock device.

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Apart from the removable hdd cage in the front of the case which can hold up to 5 harddisks the Xaser VI also has two hdd cages installed at the bottom of the case each can be used for one harddisk. Together they can hold up to seven harddisks, which should be enough even for torrent freaks

In front of the removable hdd cage a 140mm blue led fan is installed cooling down the hadrdisks installed in the cage.

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One thing I am not to crazy about is the 10 Screwless PCI slots mechanism. When using high-end graphic cards like a 8800GTX, it simply wont hold the card in position when taken the case to a lan party for example. I rather Thermaltake used screws instead of this mechanism.

Her is a closeup of the mechanism, which is not very suitable for high-end graphic cards.

The back of the case is pretty standard, nothing special to report here.

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Another cool feature is the removable motherboard tray, making installing a motherboard including cooler and memory and even a graphic card a piece of cake.

Thermaltake Xaser VI also includes a box filled with all the necessary goods.

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Here is a shot of the removable motherboard tray fitted with a ASUS P5N-T Deluxe 780i Nvidia board.

I shot this with just a motherboard and a graphic card installed but you can even fit a cpu, cpu cooler and memory….

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Cables, cables and some more cables. This shot show you a couple of the cables which will have to be tied down, the package includes enough tie-rips to fasten every cable. Although you do need some imagination to be able to tie away all the cables in a tidy fashion.

In this case I dont have no need for e-sata nor audion connections so these cables are all tied away.

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The next shot shows you the back of the removable hdd cage in the front. Having all the connections out of sight is a nice feature and keeps the inside of the case looking clean whitout having sata and power cables going jungle on you inside the case

Installing optical drives for example is child”’’s play, using the slot-in to lock device mechanism allows you to simply slide in the drive till the mechanism locks.

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Although it might be a bit over the top but the next shot includes three optical drives and the toolbox, just to show you how roomy the Xaser VI is. Still leaving two 5,25 drive bays open for future upgrades.

Like I stated earlier, the 5,25 Inch front brackets are very easy to remove.

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The next shot show yet another way to stash away some usefull stuff, it”’’s a 5,25 Inch toolbox.

If you have you need any slots that dont use any motherboard slots than this feature is the solution. The Thermaltake Xaser VI has room for three brakets that could be used for firewire/usb connections whithout taking up room which could be used for interface cards that need motherboard slots.

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When removing the bottom hdd cages, your left with a easy way to install a 2×120mm water radiator block.

I would suggest using rubber washers between the bottom of the case and the radiator. The grill in the bottom makes sure enough cool air is sucked in the case so there is no need to modify the bottom.

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Here is a shot of the case with the paintjob, whereby all the red mesh parts are painted black.

Here is a shot of the Thermaltake Xaser VI "Black Edïtion", I used a blue/green config.

 

Conclusion

I must say that I am pretty impressed with the Xaser VI from Thermaltake. I got word in October 2007 that Thermaltake got some new cases coming out at the end of 2007, due to some design problems the release got postponed. It got out of the factory in December 2007 and I received the Xaser VI in that same month just before x-mas. Just goes to show how fast the whole progress is from getting it out of the factory and to the consumer.

My overall impression of the Xaser VI is good, except for the 10 Screw less PCI slots mechanism. I would like to see Thermaltake use the same system as Lian-Li does, just add some nice screws. This will deffenatly be a great improvement and for those that visit lan parties on a frequent basis, a good system which is able to keep high-end graphic cards in place even when in transport is in my opinion a must.

The Xaser VI offers great possibilities for upgrades even those that would like to upgrade their system by adding a liquid cooling system like the Bigwater 760 or 780e from Thermaltake or any other LCS brand or DIY LCS setup for that matter. It”’’s capable of housing seven hard disks and has seven 5,25 drive bays to boot. The Xaser VI has a good airflow design keeping all hardware parts cool. The best thing I like about the Xaser VI that it”’’s versatile. It allows you to add numerous hardware parts even adding a liquid cooling system without the need for drastically modifying the case to make everything fit.

Pros:
- Design for both liquid cooling and air cooling systems
- Very easy to install
- Looks slick
- Enough room for upgrades
- Good cooling perfomance

Cons:
- 10 Screwless PCI slots mechanism

First of all, I would like to thank Thermaltake for making this review possible by supplying us with this sample. Secondly, we would like to thank the other sites for linking in, and mostly we would like to thank you, the reader for reading this review. If you wish to support NGOHQ.com, you are all invited to visit our forums. If you wish to see more information about this product click here, make sure to check our home page. Until then, thank you very much.

Rewiewed by Quentin Rademaker.

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