Thermaltake Xaser VI Case Review :: External

The front door is a normal looking door with one exception. There are two metal U shapes carved into the grills. There is a grill on the top of the door and a grill on the bottom of the door. This allows better airflow than a normal case door without it. The door has he Thermaltake logo in a red crescent on top of a X.

The X serves two purposes: signifying the name of the case Xaser, and being the power button. To the left of the X are the HDD activity light LED and the right of the X holds the System Reset button. The front of the case behind the door has 7 5.25" drive bays. Each drive bay has supports that hold the 5.25" drives into place. This provides plenty of space for drive expansion on covers swing open to install a 5.25" drive. There is no floppy slot which requires an adapter to install. This is a great feature as the floppy drive has become ubiquitous and legacy.

The left side door has a mesh construction like the top and front door to give the maximum airflow in the case. The side door has a lockable side panel which helps keep your computer hardware from being stolen or moved without your knowledge. The top of the case has a sliding door that reveals a accessories storage area that also functions as an area to put the reservoir for your water-cooling system.

The Xaser VI Front IO ports are on the top of the case above the case door. They are located behind a little door on top and are the most impressive collection of IO ports found on a case yet. The ports include two e-SATA ports, a Firewire port four USB 2.0 ports, a microphone jack and a headphone jack covering every major connection found on the front panel IO.

The rear of the case has 10 yes 10 openings for PCI devices. If you've ever had a hankering for four dual slot video cards, the only way to do it properly is to have 10 PCI slots available. There are a few motherboards with proper spacing for the four cards, but fewer cases that have enough expansion room to fit four of the cards. Next to the PSU area is two tubing holes for a water cooling system.

The top of the case exterior has an interesting label: Not a Handle. Many people would naturally use the top of the case as a handle to carry the case. Due to the top area of the case being a storage area or a reservoir area for the water cooling, the case needs to be lifted from the bottom to carry it. I'm glad Thermaltake provided the warning.