Motherboards.org at Computex Taipei 2006: Day 3 :: Thermaltake at Computex 2006

In terms of innovations, both practical and insane, Thermaltake has always had a certain reputation as that company that will try anything, make anything, and proving that it performs well, costs little, and is popular with the enthusiast, will continue to manufacture it. On display in Thermaltake's trio of suites was a wide array of liquid cooling solutions, casings, power supplies, gamer's accessories, and generally wacky stuff. On that note, I would deem it appropriate to start on the most insane of the insane - Thermaltake's soon to be production "Swordsman" case.

What started with the Tai Chi - a true beast of thick aluminum, and hydraulic works has turned into somewhat of a monument, or perhaps that of a monster. The main side door, as well as the top "hatch" is opened via fairly strong hydraulics, while the forward and rear doors open via your hand. To those thinking "Forward and rear?" we've got news. Rather than installing a back to the case, as is custom, Thermaltake has chosen to leave this area open, so your expansion cards and the motherboard's I/O area are out in plain sight. Behind this, a thick though curvaceous aluminum door with a pair of 120mm fan holes placed in them sucks air out of the case, pulling it over everything in the path of the open holes. As to your machine's umbilical cord, that comes out of the bottom of that rear door. Unfortunately, this solution for elegance is more than likely to kill reception of your internally mounted WiFi cards. As to the front door, it is a simple sheet of rolled aluminum, made to match the top panel. As to the side panels, the ridged form of the TaiChi still exists, albeit in anodized black this time. Apart from this, there were only two more styles of case on display that turned out to be of interest, while the remainder of the chassis ended up being simple modifications of the age old design.

The next item of interest was a prototype case on display from Thermaltake. The molded plastic bezel was formed out to be in the appearance of some sort of sports car, with a small flow gauge embedded. This vastly jutting bezel of course doubled as a coolant tank for the liquid cooling system, but at a price. If this case was placed at desk's edge, the weight of its forward end would likely drag it to the floor, face first, sending water everywhere inside the case. The second case of interest, of course, is something far, far larger than the Swordsman. Power users of the scene for the last few years will remember the Yeon Yang cube, and it's eventually successor from a different lineage - Mountain Mods' ubiquitous cube. Now, I bet many of you have contemplated stacking two of these cases atop each other, either for hilarity, or out of a sheer need of space, albeit, only in passing, as such an idea would be lunacy. Leave it to Thermaltake to produce a cube tower case - one with 5 120MM fans pulling air out of it, two bringing air in, support for umpteen drives, and two systems, along with a 7" bay for one hell of a cool LCD that we'll show you later. Touted as a media case that can fit anywhere in the living room, I'm not quite so sure who this beast will appeal to, but I am sure that it will have a home eventually.

The second main area into which Thermaltake has, as always, expanded was in their range of heatsinks. Joining the ranks of the miniature typhoon, the miniature sonic tower promises performance similar to that of its bigger brother, albeit without the same silent operation, or atrocious size. With it on display stood a few additional, new heatsinks, such as a Blue orb with one of Thermaltake's new thermal sensing fans installed in it. On the whole, though, Thermaltake's air cooling offering didn't grow as much as I would have liked, especially as it paled in comparison to the water lineup.

In the water cooling lineup, Thermaltake has introduced quite a few heatsinks, as well as number of HTPC centric external water cooling solutions, which seemed to draw their inspiration from the skyscrapers which surrounded us in Taiwan. More and more, it seemed that these coolers are being constructed for image, rather than functionality, as so very few of us have room in the living room for an end table, with a model skyscraper on its top.

The final area of expansion (one which we will review a foray into so very soon) is external enclosures. As a gift for taking the time to actually meet with them, rather than wonder the suites and pester the employees, I was given a nice, fully aluminum hard drive cage. This will, of course, be pitted against the cheapest hard drive cage I've ever seen - one which uses the magic of friction to hold your drive in place. With Thermaltake's approach to casing covered, let's take a look at some of the designs which will be in just about every PC shop across the globe in just under six months.