Displaying items by tag: cases

CES 2015, Las Vegas NV - Palazzo
Out of all of the people we visited during CES 2015 Thermaltake’s suite was one of the most interesting. When we walked in we found three full suites packed with cases, cooling, power supplies and items aimed right at the gamers out there. I was rather impressed even before Shannon Rob came by to show everything off.

Anyone who’s been involved with PC building and modding for any length of time has seen their share of oddities when it comes to PC cases.  These are the first thing people see after all, and as such they were some of the fist things to start taking different forms as the industry evolved.  It was and still is a dynamic market, and as the designers and PR people put out products that they think we the consumer will appreciate and spend our money on, there inevitably come along some examples that are… out of the ordinary.

I’ve had the privilege of watching the PC industry change over the years, especially from an aesthetic standpoint.  I’ve seen PC cases go from the beige and boring to the neon and gaudy to the sleek and subtle and back again.  Personally I prefer the sleek and subtle, adding in “large” whenever possible.  I recently got my hands on an excellent example with the Urban T81 full-tower case from Thermaltake.

PC enclosure reviews are not exactly the most exciting things on the internet. In far too many cases (no pun intended… ok well maybe) we find that the differences between one company and another is wholly cosmetic and are not much more than fancy side panels and extra plastic to give the case a different shape. This is not to say that there is no innovation in the market, just that really innovative features and designs are not all that common. One company that has recently stood out is In Win. Over the last few months In Win has released some very novel and innovative cases. These have not been your standard “hey I have more HDD bays and fans” type of innovations, but actually new and innovative designs and even materials (like a glass case). Today we are taking a look at one of them, the In Win 901. This is a very interesting SFF case that just might be one of the coolest enclosure designs we have seen in a very long time.

This year SilverStone has prepared another interesting case from the Raven line, whose model RV01 was introduced back in 2008. The new edition carries a simple label Raven Z, and also belongs to the category of SFF cases for compact configuration based on motherboards in mini-ITX form factor and SFX power supplies.

XFX's debut case comes under a name XFX Type 1 Bravo, has dimensions of 518x232x562 mm and a weight of 10.4 kg. The casing is made in modern minimalist design, and materials like steel, aluminum and ABS plastic are used in its creation. It supports mounting of the motherboard in the full ATX format and XFX marked it as Water Cool Ready.

While many of the case manufacturers that we are all familiar with were absent from the showroom at CES this year, I did find my way to the display area for In Win Development.  They have had some excellent chassis out in the past that I’d have the privilege of reviewing, and while it had been a couple of years I wanted to see what their lineup looked like now.  I have to say I’m glad I did.

CES 2014, Las Vegas, Nevada – During our visit to the Thermaltake suite we had the chance to see some of the new products that will be hitting the market and what we saw was pretty impressive. To kick things off Shannon Rob walked us through two new cases that are tailored to the enthusiast on many levels. The first up on the plate was the Urban T81. This roomy enclosure can be setup for use with air cooling or water (even a massive water rig). I know that many of our modding friends will be drooling over this one and its little brother the V71. Shannon does a great job of walking us through the highlights in our video coverage (if you can get past the background noise).

Cooler Master Silencio 652 is a Midi Tower chassis with a total weight of 10.4 kg and dimensions of 220x507x508,6 mm. Inside the enclosure can be installed three 5.25 "devices, as well as nine 3.5" HDD. It is designed for installation of Micro ATX and ATX motherboards.

The computer case has come a long way since its beige-box inception.  Anyone who’s been lucky enough to be around since that time has had the joy of watching it evolve from that mid-sized invisible-by-design box to the incredible array of enclosures we have today.  Granted, the hardware is a lot more varied today, but that doesn’t begin to account for the options we have before us as builders.