It's been quite a while since I've actually done anything with Spire's good, but since I was in the vicinity of the booth on my way around the show, I figured it would be a good time to drop in. Meeting up with Rolf, we quickly found common ground, and began an unbooked booth tour. First and foremost, the biggest attraction for me was a new case that was held on display. This case features a full plastic curving shape that runs along its frame, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. Grabbing the left handle will bring down that side panel, while grabbing the right will bring down the entire motherboard tray, a-la the G4 Powermacs. Smooth touch. Underneath a portion of the forward curve, the power buttons and front mounted I/O ports are concealed. Unfortunately, due to design constraints, the case sports a single 80mm fan as an exhaust, with the potential for a squirrel cage fan to pull air out over the videocards in time. Overall, this is an interesting looking case, with potential, though it may end up crippled by the airflow dynamics.
Yet, the curvaceous case wasn't the only thing that could catch your eye at the Spire booth. Also on display were a few of Spire's new heatsinks, which seemed to be quite clearly influenced by the SI series from Thermal right and Thermaltake's Big Typhoon. These coolers essentially form the core and backbone of Spire's upcoming OEM alternate solutions, meaning that we enthusiasts should be in for a nice price reduction in the true beasts of cooling soon.
