In Pictures: Five Eight-Slot Cases For CrossFire And SLI

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By Thomas Soderstrom
published

Do you need an eighth slot for a CrossFire or SLI setup? We look at five cases that solve the problem created when motherboard vendors put a PCI Express x16 slot at the bottom of an ATX-based platform and you try to install a double-slot graphics card.

Thermaltake Chaser MK-I

Thermaltake adds a splash of color to its Chaser MK-I with blue grips on four externally-removable drive bay covers. A clear window, fold-out feet, a 200 mm side fan, and a headphone-holding clip complete the MK-I’s gamer-ready theme.

Lights, Ports, Action!

The Chaser MK-I’s front-panel controls are given the busy treatment to thrill your inner geek, with LEDs behind the power switch, fan controls, and reset button. Thermaltake retains the soon-to-be-legacy eSATA jack and adds a port to attach internal SATA drives externally.

A hole in the drive port cover guides the installation of 2.5” devices, and the cover flips down to allow 3.5” drives to fit in the same position.

More Liquid Cooling

Three grommets protect coolant hoses or cables that pass through the rear of the Chaser MK-I, and there’s even enough space between the motherboard and inner chassis top to install a radiator. Fans mount between the inner and outer top panels.

Less Cable Space

Though the Chaser MK-I is designed to allow cable routing behind the motherboard tray, it'll take you a little extra time to make cables fit into the tight space. A grommet behind the motherboard even allows an extra-clean installation with the front-panel audio cable pulled around a motherboard’s bottom edge.

Extra Drive Cooling

There are two ways to evaluate a chassis design with drive trays spaced far apart. First, we could point out that the case supports fewer drives, though we honestly believe six is enough for most users. A second opinion might be that the extra space facilitates better drive cooling, allowing air to pass those drives more easily on its way to other system components.

Fan Flexibility

The Chaser MK-I supports up to two 200 mm top fans, comes with one top fan, and has additional mounting holes for 140 and 120 mm parts. More significant are the odd-looking tabs that appear in the second fan’s holes. These are spaced for an internal dual 120mm-fan radiator. With 1.7” of radiator clearance above the motherboard, these tabs are also offset towards the open side to allow stacked radiators to fit beside the motherboard.

Slide-Out Filter

An extra long slide-out filter covers both the bottom of the power supply and an optional 120 mm intake fan. The intake fan is spaced nine inches from the Chaser MK-I’s rear panel, allowing it to be used in conjunction with extra-long power supplies.

The front intake fans are also protected by a snap-out filter, but accessing it requires front panel removal. Fortunately, that too is connected with snaps.

USB 3.0 Perfection?

Like its Cooler Master competition, the Thermaltake Chaser MK-I supports the internal USB 3.0 interface introduced a year ago in USB 3.0 To The Front Panel: ASRock Leads The Way. Unlike its competitor, Thermaltake does not include an adapter for boards that lack any internal USB 3.0 output. While most mid-priced and better motherboards currently have internal USB 3.0, a few do not.

Fancy Feet

Two of the cases in today’s overview include fold-out feet previously seen on pedestal server cases. These feet give the case a wider footprint to prevent tipping.

The smaller feet seen on the left belong to In Win’s Dragon Rider, and have slightly weaker “ankles” than the wider feet on Thermaltake’s Chaser MK-I. That is to say, the Dragon Rider’s feet pivot a little too easily, while the Chaser MK-I’s feet snap securely into position.

Thomas Soderstrom
Thomas Soderstrom
Thomas Soderstrom is a Senior Staff Editor at Tom's Hardware US. He tests and reviews cases, cooling, memory and motherboards.
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48 Comments Comment from the forums
  • juntaozhu15
    No lian li lancool k-series?
    Reply
  • -Fran-
    I'm using the HAF 932 AMD Edition and it's just marvelous. It's the HAF-X in essence, but with lil' more red, lol.

    Anyway, all of those look like very good cases, but the HAF comes with lil' wheels; It's very practical when you're tweaking in a timely manner and have to move around the case a lot (around the house, that is). It's really heavy once it's fully installed and all. Do the others have lil' wheels as an extra accessory? I'm really grateful to that feature as it's also easier to move it and clean (have it at floor level).

    Cheers!
    Reply
  • clownbaby
    why do case manufacturers insist on styling their cases like chunks of scrap metal off the battlestar galactica. Even Lian Li is trending away from sleek, stylish cases. We don't all want a piece sitting on our desk that tells office visitors we've just come from the comic book store.

    I do appreciate all of the advances in the internals of cases, but for god's sake make nicer looking cases. Not plastic/steel, ostentatious, led light blasting ugly. Do use aluminum, sleek simple lines, minimalist exterior designs and some adult taste.
    Reply
  • bystander
    Who needs that much space? How about anyone with an ATX motherboard featuring a PCIe x16 slot in the seventh-slot position and three or more dual-slot graphics cards?

    It's also useful for those with 2 cards where the first 2 slots only have 1 extra slot between them and you are using 2 slot cards. i.e. Gigabyte ga-x58a-ud3r motherboard.

    I wish more enclosures make it available.
    Reply
  • clonazepam
    Thank you. The format wins this time. It's just done right. :D
    Reply
  • ikyung
    clownbabywhy do case manufacturers insist on styling their cases like chunks of scrap metal off the battlestar galactica. Even Lian Li is trending away from sleek, stylish cases. We don't all want a piece sitting on our desk that tells office visitors we've just come from the comic book store.I do appreciate all of the advances in the internals of cases, but for god's sake make nicer looking cases. Not plastic/steel, ostentatious, led light blasting ugly. Do use aluminum, sleek simple lines, minimalist exterior designs and some adult taste.Nicely said.
    Reply
  • master9716
    LOOK TOMS. WE ALREADY KNOW U HAVE SOME BULLDOZER PROCESSORS TESTING IN YOUR LABS AS WE SPEAK SO STOP STALLING AND ATLEAST LET SOME INTERN LEAK SOME BENCHMARKS>
    Reply
  • renz496
    master9716LOOK TOMS. WE ALREADY KNOW U HAVE SOME BULLDOZER PROCESSORS TESTING IN YOUR LABS AS WE SPEAK SO STOP STALLING AND ATLEAST LET SOME INTERN LEAK SOME BENCHMARKS>
    :lol:

    if you want tom's to release the benchmark ask AMD to release the processor now
    Reply
  • Lewis57
    clownbabywhy do case manufacturers insist on styling their cases like chunks of scrap metal off the battlestar galactica. Even Lian Li is trending away from sleek, stylish cases. We don't all want a piece sitting on our desk that tells office visitors we've just come from the comic book store.I do appreciate all of the advances in the internals of cases, but for god's sake make nicer looking cases. Not plastic/steel, ostentatious, led light blasting ugly. Do use aluminum, sleek simple lines, minimalist exterior designs and some adult taste.
    My thoughts exactly. Although, due to the benefits these cases bring to the table and the fact that they aren't as costly as a Lian Li case, I may actually consider one to stick under my desk. Would love it if the ones with LED fans came with the ability to turn off the LED without turning off the fan.
    Reply
  • hardcore_gamer
    master9716LOOK TOMS. WE ALREADY KNOW U HAVE SOME BULLDOZER PROCESSORS TESTING IN YOUR LABS AS WE SPEAK SO STOP STALLING AND ATLEAST LET SOME INTERN LEAK SOME BENCHMARKS>I asked G man about Bulldozer...He said "prepare for unforeseen consequences"
    Reply