Thermaltake Case Has PSU On Bottom, Fans on Top
This chassis allows for a power supply and an intake fan to be mounted on the bottom, and two exhaust fans mounted on the "roof."
To be honest, housing the power supply at the top of a desktop chassis has never made any sense, as the electrical cord dangles down over the back ports rather than lie across a flat surface, and would otherwise risk an electrical short if the cable were any thinner.
But in many situations -- especially with the smaller, compact cases -- the optical drive juts out into the negative space, keeping system builders from mounting the motherboard towards the top. And then there's the issue where PCI slots on many motherboards still reside at the bottom, making it hard to cram add-on cards and a power supply into the same tight space. Thus, power supplies have seemingly remained mounted at the top simply because that has been the standard for a long, long time.
With the release of this latest addition to the Thermaltake V series family, the V3 BlacX Edition mid-tower chassis, the company is daring to be different by placing the power supply mount at the bottom. This isn't unusual or anything new, as cases with bottom-based PSU mounts have been available for years, but it's still refreshing to see something seemingly out of the ordinary. Thermaltake claims this case is suitable for all ATX or ITX motherboards, and accommodates for three 5.25-inch and one 3.5-inch bays accessible from the front, and four additional 3.5-inch and one 2.5-inch bays accessible from the inside.
Thermaltake's chassis also features two blue LED-lit fans and mounts for an additional three, one of which can reside at the bottom (optional), pulling air up into the chassis, and two that can be mounted on the chassis "roof" (both optional), pulling hot air up and out of the desktop. Another fan is already mounted at the front under the USB and audio ports, pulling air in, and another fan resides in the back (where a power supply typically resides), pulling the air out. There's also a mesh vent on the removable side.
"The new V3 BlacX Edition chassis is designed with the goal of offering more to the advocates who have excessive data to manage and required more than a stand chassis for daily usage but still keeping it within the means," the company said. "With that initiative in mind, we used the V3 Black Edition chassis by adding our BlacX docking station to accomplish the goal. The BlacX docking station enhanced the original V3 Black Edition chassis data management ability and kept all the great functionality of the V3 Black Edition chassis."
As for other features, the V3 BlacX Edition provides external USB 3.0 ports, a top-mounted HDD docking station for hot-swapping drives, an all-black interior and exterior coating, and a metal mesh front bezel for maximum air intake. The bottom-based power supply mount even has a PSU dust filter to optimize cooling.
Currently pricing and availability here in the States is unknown, so stay tuned. Note: this is not the $50 USD V3 Black Edition chassis currently sold on Thermaltake's website.
- Thermaltake,
- Build Your Own,
- V3-BlacX-Edition ,
- Chassis ,
- USB-3.0 ,
- ATX ,
- ITX
- These Micro-ATX Cases Support Long Cards
- Asus: Ultrabooks Won't Threaten Tablet Market
- Apple Uses Intel's Nehalem Die Shot in A5 CPU Slide
- Diablo 3 Closed Beta Hands-On: Part 4
- Dell XPS 14z Ultra-Thin Laptop Rolls Out in China
- Bethesda Blaming RAGE PC Issues on Drivers
- R.I.P. Steve Jobs, 1955-2011
- Deals Oct 5: 15.6" Dell Vostro & Laser Printer Bundle $739
- HP CEO Will Decide PC Division's Fate This Month
- Deals Oct 6: IdeaPad A1 Tablet (2GB $199 | 16GB $249)
- Rumor: Battlefield 3 May Arrive on Steam After All
- Crytek ''Investigating'' Flash Support in CryEngine
- Micron, Samsung Launch Consortium for HMC Tech
- Apple Patents Illuminated Hardware Cases
- Acer, Asus Using Fiberglass to Keep Ultrabook Cost Low
- Zotac Intros Dual-Core ZBOX Nano VD01 Series
- Deals for October 7: Logitech 720p HD Webcam $24.99
- IBM and NC State Develop Cloud Security Layer
umm.. this is NOT a new feature....
Yo, 2006 called. It wants their breaking news back.
Thermaltake has a case that mounts the PSU on the bottom??? OMG I MUST BUY THERMALTAKE!!
.....but seriously, who are you fooling with this article?
Last time I checked the laws of physics, heat rises.
Its not April 1st, whats the joke here?
That looks almost exactly like the Thermaltake case I bought a couple years ago. It has a bottom-mounted PSU with a 200+mm exhaust fan in the roof. Mine's more advanced, despite its age, then the one in the picture, because in mine, the HDDs' front faces left so there is more room for the graphics card.
There's a reason that virtually no servers or personal computers have filters. They get plugged up quick and restrict air flow.
Did you pull this article out of a time machine?
LOL! Good for Thermaltake to catch up to the other manufacturers.
Ummm had a Antec case back in 2006 that had a psu mounted on the bottom. This is nothing new, sooo what's the deal here? Has Themaltake run out of ideas or something that have to resort to repackaging at least a 5 year old configuration/
Just like Antec was back in 2006 with the 900 case. Seriously, is this a misinformed article or a sales pitch?
This is far from a new feature, but I applaud Thermaltake for doing what more case manufactures should be doing.
Power supply on the bottom is not a new concept..btw, video card in the picture looks like an 8800gtx.
Did we just time warp back to 2004?
The Thermaltake V3 has been out for >18 months, so it's not new, and what makes the BlacX edition different is the addition of the hard drive hot swap dock on the top, which the article barely even mentions, and not until the last paragraph. Instead it spends three paragraphs describing why Thermaltake "dares to be different" by putting the PSU at the bottom of the case.
This is an advertisement masquerading as a news article, and what's worse, it's poorly written, because it doesn't even highlight the thing that puts the "new" in the BlacX edition.
WTF Toms! This is not new and ThermalTake does not deserve to get credit for this. This article needs to be removed so people don't start spreading the word about how great ThermalTake's new inovative cases are. I don't have a problem with the company but others came up with this idea first. They deserve the credit.
I'm going to spread the word that Toms is posting miss leading articles. If this keeps up I won't be coming back and I'll be making it my mission to spread the news that Toms is not a reliable source of tech news.
'Currently pricing and availability is unknown, so stay tuned."
Other than that line, this looks like an ad. tsk tsk.
might not be anything new but damn nice pricing!! $35 shipped from neweggg right now
...from 2006.
err wait that might be for the older model without the hdd dock.
This is actually the new VM600M1W2Z Dokker edition not the Thermaltake V3 and its $64.99. Someone at Tom's should do some research instead of following up on TechPowerUps mistake
http://www.thermaltakeusa.com/Prod [...] =2029#Tab0
article FAIL
Come on Toms, we need new stuff. Feels like a website I stumbled upon and the last article was "Windows 98 coming soon"
And guess I was wrong this is actually something different from the Dokker series. From a quick glance I sure can't tell what the difference is just but definitely not something new and exciting.
http://www.thermaltake.com/product [...] C_00001820
Must be some kind of weird joke or trolling. I wonder why they'd use the name of a real company and a real product if this was just a joke though?
"and would otherwise risk an electrical short if the cable were any thinner" wtf? and
"And then there's the issue where PCI slots on many motherboards still reside at the bottom, making it hard to cram add-on cards and a power supply into the same tight space. " Yes, you can't put the motherboard where your PSU is. If you try breaking the mobo into smaller pieces, that might help.
My Cooler Master Centurion that I bought about 4 years ago is just like this...
Pretty sure my cooler master HAF case has had this setup for years, with bigger fans... FAIL. Sounds like advertising to me...
The bottom PSU layout seemed to start around the BTX time when case designers were paying more attention to airflow.
Thermally it seems like a sound idea to have the fans blowing up, but it's dangerous without a shield of some sort. Who doesn't set a drink or book on their case from time to time. It's much better to vent out the back or the side.
The Thermaltake V3 BlackX Edition is a new model in the V3 series. The first press release was published this morning at numerous hardware review sites. This particular version can accomodate all ITX motherboards. I guess that's why it is considered to be new.
Power supply on the bottom is not a new concept..btw, video card in the picture looks like an 8800gtx.
Did the 8800gtx have two 6pin pci power connections?
Did the 8800gtx have two 6pin pci power connections?
Ya know...I think it did.
Kevin is trolling?