Installation and Operation:

The following system was installed in the Thermaltake Xaser VI for this review:

» Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 processor
» Gigabyte P35C-DS3R ATX motherboard
» eVGA 7900GTO PCI Express graphics card
» OCZ Technology ProXStream 1000W Power Supply
» 1x 80GB Seagate SATA 3Gbps hard drive
» 1x 250GB Seagate SATA 3Gbps hard drive
» 1x 80GB Hitachi SATA 3Gbps hard drive
» 1x 500GB Seagate SATA 3Gbps hard drive
» Pioneer SATA DVD/CDRW
» Killer M1 NIC
» 7-in-1 card reader

Installing a motherboard in the Xaser VI is much like any other case, but here you can install it outside the case on the removable motherboard tray if you want. After the motherboard is in place, you can then install any expansion cards, the processor, cooler, memory, etc.


Of the hard drives I installed into the 3.5" hard drive trays, the Hitachi hard drive installed the easiest. All of the Seagate drives needed to be held in place until I was able to attach the brackets to secure it to the tray. The Hitachi hard drive slid into place and did not need to be held in place in order to attach the brackets.

One thing I have always disliked about cases with doors is that they always seem to open in the wrong direction of a particular installation. The default direction of the door on the Thermaltake Xaser VI case has it opening to the right. With a typical case, if you wanted it to open in the other direction that would be a problem. Thermaltake realizes that one door direction does not meet everybody's needs, and this one has been designed to be reversible.


The above right picture shows the clips that you need to press in so you can remove the door and change the direction. These clips are hard to press in and the user might need to struggle a little to get them to release. After you press them in and down (or up for the bottom clip), you can remove the door. Change the clips to the other side of the door, and reinstall the door.

The area around the power switch has blue LED backlighting. When the machine is powered on, it lights up to match the blue LED interior lights on the fans. Also, the little "eyes" light up with blue LED lighting as well. These are very bright LEDs... almost too bright. You might have problems sleeping if your computer is in your bedroom. They are bright enough that I can see everything in my room at night. There is no easy way to turn them off; you could unplug the power cable inside the case, but that is inconvenient and a power switch would be very helpful.


In this final picture, the motherboard is visible through the side windows. The windows show how important good cable management is to keeping your case looking great, and that I am obviosuly not done yet.