PC chassis enthusiasts (yeah, there is such a thing) will surely know that
Thermaltake's V9 Black Edition has been out for a couple of years now, but there's evidently quite a bit of difference in the V9 BlacX Edition. Aside from that awkward letter change, of course. The otherwise ho hum mid-tower enclosure -- complete with a black outer shell, seven PCI expansion slots and a grand total of ten drive bays -- spruces things up by offering a pair of SATA HDD docks right on the front panel. Basically, the company took
one of these right here and smashed it into the front of its newest enclosure. With it, you'll able to shove any spare 2.5- or 3.5-inch SATA hard drive right into your system for quick access, all without needing an external peripheral to do it. In fact, we just made a promise to ourselves to never buy another case
without this kind of magnificent integration. Check it this August for $99.
posted June 20th 2010 1:41AM
now if there only was a better way and not have that cable there..
@mbg19 Coolermaster got it right the first time
http://www.coolermaster.com/product.php?product_id=6638
@mbg19 That cable is for putting a USB 3.0 port on the front of the case as boards only have the ports on the back panel.
@mbg19
I'd use one of the internal USB headers with a conversion cable.
@Jimbob
do those exist?
@TehSilentWolf If you want it for USB 3.0, then only for some upcoming ASRock and ECS boards, but no case have those connectors, yet...
@Jimbob You can't just convert USB 2.0 to USB 3.0. Aside from the technological constraints 3.0 has 5 more pins.
This sounds pretty useful. That's a terrible looking case though. At least it has decent ventilation.
Why is that cable coming out of the back and then plugging back in? It couldn't go inside?
@Dafrety
i think its for a charging station on top of your tower?
@corylulu
It's the eSATA cable (one usually goes to the external BlacX drive).
Seeing as how you can install any motherboard into the case, a solid mounted plug might not find the eSATA port on different models, hence having to use the eSATA cable, going back into the BlacX ports.
@RoyalWitCheese
Actually, that's a USB3 cable. Since motherboard manufacturers haven't gotten around to putting USB3 headers on motherboards yet (intel's fault), we're unfortunately stuck with this rather ugly solution.
My awesome Coolermaster CM 690 II Advanced case has a sata dock like that, but it slides in on an angle not standing up straight like that, that looks stupid.
Seems like it would both easier and nicer to have a hotswappable drive, like in the 800D right in the front.
I rather want internal speed that way.
This rocks, especially when you work on computers, having it build in, DO WANT
I know this is kinda off topic, but by now I would expect there to be computers with xbox's built right in. Not ten drive bays...
@Mr iPhone
Hm... that would be an interesting project: put an Xbox 360 inside a PC case. The 360's optical drive would be integrated into the drive bay and the connectors would be seamless with the rest of the PC connectors on the back.
Ya and maybe the processor would be used to, but then you wouldn't be able to use windows and xbox at the same time.... Oh well it's just an idea
@Mr iPhone I do believe that it's called Games for Windows live and it's not really as big as XBL but hey it's a start. Much less hardware tweeking than trying to combine the 360 into the computer...
@MrFluffyThing Ya, but it would be so you could play your existing games, and your not using your computer when playing (have your computer doing something else)
@Mr iPhone Extremely pointless, if you're going to be building a computer, it's usually for performance. If you have a performance computer, you can install demanding games. Usually, these games are cheaper on the PC (For example, I bought Just Cause 2 for $49 on Steam rather than $59 for the Xbox). You also get a better experience graphically. Unless you have such a huge case that an Xbox would fit into, building an Xbox into a computer case would be a waste of space, money and cooling.
@Mr iPhone I can't believe people actually replied to this comment..
Useful
this stuffs been out for a while, get with the times yo
www.newegg.com
there i just linked you to a bunch of better more revolutionary cases (take alook at that 800 dollar thermaltake.
@huskie fluff
Nice links... lol
@huskie fluff $800!?! Bah humbug! Thats money that could be spent on better hardware or more frequent tech refreshes.
Also, IMO, get a windows home server box for power efficient and more practical data centralization, then you only need to fit a single SSD and platter drive in your other rigs.
Then you don't need a tall tower and can still fit VERY powerful GPUs, PSUs, and CPU heatsinks in a shoebox chassis like the Lian Li V352. Nice quite dual 120mms up front, brushed aluminum (love the red), w/ updates like hte mb tray, removable harddrive cage, PSU over expansion slots, and 5.25 bay cages! =)
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=247592
@Ducman69 I like my rig. An abs el diablo case 360 side fan, 250 front fan (whisper. Quiet) a 90 rear (don't have money for a 120)
Intel e8500 wolfdale processor 4 ghz
4 gigs of ocz fatality 840 mhz ddr2 ram
an 800w xion madular psu (I love the thing)
Creative x_fi extreme gamer sound card
And my lovly looovly 4870x2 loove the thing, under it is a gtx 260 I use for physx but all other times its off (nvidia driver crashes ahoy) 6 hard drives (3 250 hitacho 1.5 gbs 2 in raid) 1 hitachi 320 1 seagate 500 and old faithfull my ide 250 wd woth 2 broken power pins.
Granted some of these parts were free for me and my case is blue (I hate blue) it cost me 1300 dollars even after blowing my first mobo because of heavy oc. In 2008. She still kicks everyones ass.
Too bad the V9 is and has always been just a very bad case to build with. The toolless kit on the expansion bays doesn't even hold a WiFi adapter, much less a high end GPU in place. Let's not mention the over all build quality is just bad in general. Really, you're better off by spending another $30 for the Armor MX+ from ThermalTake and putting in a SATA swap bay for this functionality.
@Sable Drakon True, Thermaltake screwless expansion bays FTL as they use craptacular plastic lugs. I have a LanCool DragonLord K-58 and it has metal plates that push down onto the card, works really well and even supports heavy cards easily.
I had a Thermaltake Soprano once... *shudder*
@richb93 As far as I know, it's only true when applied to the V9 series cases. I'm a happy owner of a TT Armor MX+ and the toolless expansion bay for that case works like a dream. More than capable of holding in whatever you want to throw at it.
@Sable Drakon
Engadget shouldn't do it at all if they don't know what they're on about. Looks like they just found this somehwere and said "Cool, built in disk docks, lets do a crappy article about a crappy case".
Crap case, one of the worst I've layed my hands on for that price. Get a Coolermaster Centruion for that money.
Come on Engadget, lift your game.
@Sable Drakon
big side intake fans = win, you dont see them much in this price range.
@fel If you've actually built a machine with this case, then you'd know that's it's not even worth it's asking price.
That's actually pretty cool.
I've seen a few chassis like this. The top docks are very practical. Whats up with the ghetto cable routing from outside back into the case, lol!
There should be plenty of internal SATA connections if thats what that is.
To the author, seems like Engadget just doesn't understand that there are people that like desktop rigs. I think the last Engadget article said something like "for those STILL USING desktops", ROFL! Makes me picture a guy typing that up on his Macbook while sitting at Starbucks using up a table all damn morning. xD
@Ducman69 I agree. I prefer desktop over laptop anyday. I have a droid that can remote rdp my desktop so why need a laptop?
I looove tinkering with parts too, can't do that on a laptop
@huskie fluff Well, you can a little bit, its just a PITA most of the time.
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/177/367980094_567373d545.jpg
This is my old laptop where I replaced my CPU and did the pin mod to overclock it, upgraded ram, swapped drives, replaced the 6800GT w/ a 7800GTX GPU (take off from a damaged Alienware donor), polished sinks, applied some nice AS5, blew out all the junk, and snapped it all back together, heh! :D
@Ducman69 on my droid when zoomed out it looks like you said you applied some nice ass to it rofl.made my morning. Also noice!
did you not even bother to check the source article?
'Dual Bay Docking Station on Top'
-the caption to your image
Wow, am I the only one thinking that this case screams CM690 II ripoff? I have one, and the design and features (including the HDD hot swap bay) are almost identical. The only difference is that the aforementioned hot swap bay looks a lot uglier.
@doyleman7
Probably.
Looks beast!
Why the hell is there a network cable running INTO the case???
@Bratyr
Read above.. its a USB 3.0 cable.
Basically it's same type of case with a fresh coat of paint and new skin. The ideas of hardware placement never changes much since the 90's. Now where's that rocket launcher attachment that I eagerly wanted so much in a PC case?
The rig, the rig, the rig is on fire
The rig, the rig, the rig is on fire
The rig, the rig, the rig is on fire
We don't need no watercooling let the motherfucker burn
Burn motherfucker burn
'Fraid you need to leave the side panel off permanently and aim an industrial Papst blower on them drives to keep'em happy.
Wouldn't want to stack this puppy with 10 cookin' 10k rpm whizzing SATA coalfires until I've upgraded my house insurance. Even if it's Thermaltake we're talking about...
Make you own
http://bestofferbuy.com/Serial-SATA-Comax-7+15-Pin-Power-Single-Data-Cable-Adapter-p-30158.html?currency=GBP&utm_source=gbase&utm_medium=cse&utm_campaign=gbase
I've got a Icy Box 168SK SATA hot swap enclosure in my HTPC that works in the same way. If I run out of space then I just swap my harddrive like an old fashioned video tape
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Trayless-Mobile-Rack-Drive-Interface/dp/B000FSBVNC/
@lakeuk
I have similar trays in two of my towers. They work great, with the exception of not handling 2.5" SATA drives.
While trayless bays exist for 2.5" SATA drives, that would be an extra expense, an extra bay, and would take up an extra SATA connector, and not every motherboard has an abundance of these.
Completely over the top and unnecessary...I mean, really, who would need such a case?
Only kidding...I just found the perfect case to go along with the hexacore AMD build I'm looking at. Is uber-awesome!!!