At CES 2015, Deepcool (a Chinese manufacturer of cases, cooling components and PSUs) launched a new chassis called the Tristellar, and it features a rather unique design that is truly unlike anything we've seen before.
The chassis is split into three separate compartments, and contrary to what you might expect, it's actually a quite logical arrangement. One of the compartments can house a Mini-ITX motherboard and a 120 mm liquid cooler, while another could contain the power supply, a pair of 3.5-inch hard drives and a slim slot-loading optical drive. Meanwhile, the third compartment can support a full-size dual-slot graphics card and three 2.5-inch hard drives.
All of the cabling is routed through the center piece which holds all three compartments together. What's more, each section also has its own air-flow loop, ensuring that none of the heat from the CPU or motherboard will interfere with the graphics card, or vice versa.
However, the Tristellar isn't the most practical case we've ever seen. It should prove quite difficult to build in, and servicing it is sure to be a pain, as it's built out of heavier-gauge steel than we're used to seeing — about 50 pounds with an assembled system inside — and the three compartment covers are also difficult to remove.
But the idea behind this case isn't practicality; it's meant to be a piece of art, and to show off what Deepcool is capable of designing.
Despite using steel instead of aluminum to save on the build cost, the Tristellar will nevertheless be rather pricy. Deepcool hasn't settled on final pricing yet, but the company has indicated that it won't be cheap, possibly costing upwards of $400 or even $500.
Additionally, system builder CyberPowerPC is using the Tristellar chassis to build a system it calls the Trinity. It was built as a showy prototype, and the company told us that the case it had on display was one of only two in existence. Because the internal hardware configuration wasn't yet finalized, the company also couldn't give an indication on pricing. It did, however, value the case at about $369 by itself. Let's try not to think too hard about how much all the tasty components inside the Trinity might add up to.
One thing we'd like to point out about a case like this is that companies don't build them to make money. They cost too much to design and to build, and they never sell in mass quantities. What they do accomplish, however, is draw attention to a brand. Knowing that a company is capable of designing a statement case does say something about what it does in more sensible spaces. It doesn't say everything, but it certainly says something.
Follow Niels Broekhuijsen @NBroekhuijsen. Follow us @tomshardware, on Facebook and on Google+.
