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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pastyface - Wednesday, January 14, 2009 - link
I'm not a huge fan of the styling of the new case but I sure do like the effort you have put into the cable management system.strikeback03 - Wednesday, January 14, 2009 - link
err, Mini-Skeleton. Looks a lot smaller than the regular one. Does it fit uATX boards, or only mini-ITX or something proprietary?Christoph Katzer - Thursday, January 15, 2009 - link
Only Mini-ITXgomakeit - Wednesday, January 14, 2009 - link
The white color for the air ducts on the sides look weird. I'd prefer a plain black color. But then again it might be just some prototype mold. And how about adding some sound dampening materials on the sides (since they already put that much thought to noise)?Ryun - Wednesday, January 14, 2009 - link
I question the efficiency of such large case fans mounted on the top of cases nowadays but if you're going to add the 200mm fan -please- add some protection from the environment. I own the Antec 900 and there are a number of different small, metal objects or liquids that could potentially fall into the case and do damage. If you could add something like the optional "spoiler" on the P182 (but without the mesh) that could act as a cover to still allow airflow to be routed out of the case that would be superb.I would also say to get rid of those plastic handles on the top and bottom of the case; they look kinda cheesy.
Lastly I would personally like a window, but I know others don't like them so that's not really too important. Looks pretty cool overall excluding my issues with the case.
Also, when's the P183 supposed to release?
pizan - Wednesday, January 14, 2009 - link
The OCZ case just looks like a Thermaltake re-brand. Xaser VI anyone?tayhimself - Wednesday, January 14, 2009 - link
A whole lot of ugly being sold at CESstrikeback03 - Wednesday, January 14, 2009 - link
I vote that the next decent camera reviewed be sent to Christoph for use after the review is finished. The output of whatever he is using looks similar to my brother's HP from 2002.Was that a passive cooler for i7 in the Silverstone case there?
Christoph Katzer - Wednesday, January 14, 2009 - link
I know. Wanted something handy and that cam served me well in daylight. Didnt know it would end up like that on products. It's a DSC-T70 btw...strikeback03 - Wednesday, January 14, 2009 - link
Wow, that is a modern camera too. Back to the drawing board, Sony.