CES 2009 - Cases, Coolers, and Power Supplies
by Christoph Katzer on January 14, 2009 3:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Trade Shows
Thermaltake
Thermaltake had the most products on display out of all the companies we visited. Let's get started with the Xpressar, which is nothing new but Thermaltake now brings the cooling unit in the convenient format of a small box that fits into four 5.25" drive bays. You can get two units and cool your CPU and GPU with it, and if you have a larger chassis why not trying to fit three of them inside?
The Element S chassis is a new adventure for Thermaltake. It looks very sleek which is a new move for the company, since most other previous chassis were… let's just say different. The hard drive cage is removable and you can even turn it 90° so that the front of the hard drives faces the fans at the front of the case. We were shocked to see two 60mm fans at the back of the case, but Thermaltake won't actually ship the case with these fans; they only wanted to show what is possible. The company also thought a step ahead and the user will be possible to install 2.5" hard drives in this chassis, which is a very cool idea considering the number of 2.5" SSDs currently available.
Over the last year, Thermaltake has had quite a mess with its lineup of power supplies, and they want to straighten things up now. We saw many power supplies again, but nothing really new other than the Evo Blue - a funny looking product with blue LED lights. We also saw the TR2 QFan series that we have recommended more than once, and it seems that it's finally making its way to the market. Thermaltake claims the delays have been due to the high production costs and a "very small market" - which we find rather difficult to believe, considering the interest expressed by our readers in "reasonable" wattage PSUs. There are also a couple of higher wattage power supplies for some series to fill in gaps.
There were many cases on display as well but nothing particularly noteworthy. The HTPC section was interesting though. Thermaltake has two HTPC cases, the DH 103 and DH 104, and they're so big that you can fit in any kind of graphics card setup with an almost limitless number of hard drives. According to Thermaltake, there is a market where people want an HTPC with the latest high-end components for playing the latest high-end games in addition to other HTPC duties.
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KaosFaction - Sunday, January 18, 2009 - link
In the pictures for the Zalman CNPS9900 LED (first cooler), can anyone identify the case that was being used?Thanks!
Christoph Katzer - Sunday, January 18, 2009 - link
You mean the picture in which the cooler is actually running? That's a GS1000 chassis.Casper42 - Friday, January 16, 2009 - link
Surprised no one commented on the P1000 having 8 PCI Slots.I think this is a great move on their part as it allows your bottom most Mobo slot on a standard ATX mobo to contain a double wide card like most decent Video Cards.
Alot of the x58 boards on the market seem to have an x16 slot on the bottom because they give up slots towards the CPU due to the CPU and NB being so big on 1366.
I think they intended for that to only be a PhysX card, but now you could sneak Triple SLI in there as well.
So Kudos to Antec for releasing an 8 slot'er and not forcing people to buy a monstrous 10 slot chassis to fix this problem.
Average Joe - Friday, January 16, 2009 - link
It's a decent review. The case looks alright. I agree with WillR in a lot of respects. I'm not 14 years old any more. I don't really want a case like the Antec Skeleton. If I was 14 I would definitely buy some extreme case like the skeleton. If I was selling cases I would certainly go after the gaming market with radical designs and lighting effects. I'm not trying to be critical.I want a case that's above all small and quiet. My ideal case would have 1 slimline external bay for a DVD and room for 1 or 2 Hard drives inside. I would like it to hold a power supply that can run a decent graphics card like a GTX280. I don't want a slim line case because I want to use a full size cards in it. I just want a shorter tower. I keep my tower on my desk. I have 2 dogs and a cat. My tower would choke on hairballs if I set it on the floor.
I know heat is an issue but why not have 2 huge slow fans instead of 6 little fast ones? This case looks like it does that but so many other cases out there don't. I own a RaidMax case that has at least 6 fans in it. It sounds like a leaf blower and the LED's glow so brightly that I can't read the Hard Drive indicator lights unless I get out of my chair and cup my hands over them. I bought it because it was and Editor choice award winner.
I looked at the Antec Mini P180 but I dislike the door that covers all the bays. Why does every after market case have a door covering the drive bays. Why is that door always the cheapest plastic door they can find. We don't even want the door.
A protective cover for your 20 dollar DVD drive and a window showing the burglar your 500 dollar graphics card.
I'll probably just end up buying a Sonata 550 Plus. I'll leave you with a few requests.
Make me a Sonatta 550 plus with 2 or 3 fewer drive bays and the same PSU.
Make me a Micro-ATX case that doesn't have any unnecessary doors and a decent power supply.
Make me a Mini-ITX case with a decent power supply that I can buy a standardized replacement for someday.
Don't you dare start making not standard form factor PSU's for your cases.
Look at the ITX market. The PSU blows out and you basically have to buy a new case. Every vendor has some non standard psu. No one can find replacement parts. The quality of the parts is terrible.
I've been trying to upgrade all my WRAP boards with Atoms or some cheap core 2's. Everything I find has terrible customer reviews due to poor quality.
TBSN - Friday, January 16, 2009 - link
As usual, nice article, but the PHOTOS! Get a BETTER CAMERA, guys!!!Netcraazzy - Friday, January 16, 2009 - link
I had to laugh at the Antec "gaming" case. I can almost guarantee that whenever a company puts the "gaming" label on something it is ugly and overpriced. I think the Silverstone case takes the cake though for the ugliest case I have ever seen. What is that thing? Did the designer have a fascination with the Jawa Sandcrawler from Star Wars or something?WillR - Thursday, January 15, 2009 - link
Since you say the mfgs and designers are wanting feedback I'll chip in my 2 cents as well. Maybe a few more than 2. :)I have never had a need for 4 5.25" bays. 1 is all I need and very few even need 2. Sure you can put a hard drive with cooler in there but why not instead design better 3.5" cages that actually allow good air flow? Typically I only feel safe using the top and bottom spaces in a 3 drive cage. They're just too close together and heat builds up.
The closest to perfect case for me is the Antec Atlas 550. I prefer to buy a case that comes with an efficient PSU already installed. I don't need a window. It already has the better spacing between the 3.5" drives. It's not flashy, gaudy, and cheap looking. It's not obtrusively huge making it inherently ugly. What would I change? Possibly bundle it with an even more efficient power supply. Aren't the NeoPower series newer and a bit better than the Trio's? Also I'd want whichever is most silent. I'd turn the hard drives 90 degrees and install a backplane to put the cables completely out of the way along the case's side. Cut off the top 2 5.25" bays and possibly turn the bottom with built in adapter into a regular 3.5" bay for a flash card reader. Install a recessed CF card reader into the front and you could do away with 3 of the 5.25" bays completely. I'd leave the front I/O like it is. Headphones, mic, 1 firewire, and 2 USB ports spaced far enough to handle bulky usb plugs. We can all but ignore eSATA for another year until SATA rev 3.0 is finalized and able to power small devices. Until then you're just not going to see a need for it because the devices won't exist. Would there be any way to allow mounting of either 92 or 120mm fans in front of the drives? The more air the better imho. The less noise the better as well. Big, low rpm ones for me.
Oh, as for why I don't really like the True Power Trio (And the Neo doesn't solve it)? Only 4 SATA connectors. I'd like to see 6 or even 8. I will never need 6 molex plugs again. 2 would suffice. Whether to put them on the same cable, with a SATA cable, or individual cables is a hard call. I'd like to see a better fan connector developed from scratch. 3 wire for monitoring and speed control, small, but also beefy enough where we never run into the problem of a fan pulling too much amperage for it.
I'd also like to see more modular options in the lower wattage, high efficiency PSUs. The price premium to get it now is just too much.
If you must install annoying, blindingly bright LEDs, make them easy to change, turn off, or at least cover up. And never use LED fans. I feel the same about flimsy plastic. If you can't make it out of thick durable plastic, use metal. I don't care if my case weighs 50lbs. I move it twice a year, if that. I want it to look good and last.
On the door issue, I can't stress how many times I've wanted to rip the annoying thing off my last case and just throw it in the trash. Because it only opened one way, and I did not have room to move my PC to the other side of my desk. I was constantly hitting and closing it by accident whenever I reached without looking to press a power/reset button or use the optical drive. If it had opened the other direction or wasn't there are all, I wouldn't have had that problem.
Thanks for your time.
th3pwn3r - Thursday, January 15, 2009 - link
A few things I would do would be changing the silver side trim to black, I think the silver makes it look terrible, the handles on the top are a nice feature but in present state they make the case look cheap in my opinion and if you're going to put a door on a case just make sure it's durable. Other than that, looks decent. I don't see anything that really makes this case stand out and steers me into a purchase though.elerick - Thursday, January 15, 2009 - link
I really liked the Silverstone Falcon. The idea that you use gravity to take the retension out of your cables is nice, I wish they showed the cable management with all the hard drives and the likes installed.anandtech02148 - Thursday, January 15, 2009 - link
Gaudy, god awful gaudy. what is this, reshaped cases from 1990s?take cue from Apple at least, the only winner in 2009 is HP/Voodoo Firebird. At least they show you they are trying.