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.
