We stopped by Thermaltake’s suite at CES last week to check out the company’s wares, including a collection of new cases both big and small. In addition to showing its outlandish Level 10, the company had a number of decidedly more traditional cases on display.
Mini-ITX fans will be pleased to know that Thermaltake is getting into that market with the Element Q. This small-form-factor design measures 330 x 220 x 130 mm and packs a 200W power supply with a 60-mm fan. External 5.25" and 3.5" drive bays are included alongside an internal 3.5" bay for hard drives.
For those who prefer portable full-sized systems, the V5 Black Edition puts a beefy handle on top of a mid-tower enclosure. The V5 can accommodate ATX motherboards and offers eSATA connectivity in its front-panel port cluster. You also get a massive 200-mm fan up top and a 120-mm exhaust fan at the rear.
While the V5 is a largely simplistic design, the Element V has a little more enthusiast flair, including five fans ranging in size between 120 and 230 mm. A nifty knob on the top panel gives users a measure of manual fan speed control alongside the usual complement of expansion ports. You can configure the bay stack to accommodate either 11 5.25" drives or five 5.25" drives alongside six 3.5" ones. This tower also supports Extended ATX motherboards, and the Nvidia edition has ducting designed specifically for upcoming Fermi-based graphics cards.
Although not an official model just yet, the Element chassis also played host to a novel cooling solution fueled by Freon. The system doesn’t use thermoelectric cooling or otherwise exotic heat exchangers—it’s just circulating Freon as a heat transfer medium. Thermaltake says the design is quite robust, and while it’s displayed Freon-powered prototypes in the past, this is easily the most polished incarnation we’ve seen.
Thermaltake had plenty of PSUs on display, as well. The most interesting model was the Toughpower Grand 750W, which boasts 80 Plus Gold certification and an impressive seven-year warranty. The Grand uses a single 12V rail and features a 140-mm fan of Thermaltake’s own design. Interestingly, the casing has neatly curved edges—a treatment the company says will trickle down to other ToughPower models over time.
No visit to Thermaltake would be complete without pictures of crazy looking coolers, and the SpinQ VT (pictured above) didn’t disappoint. This cylindrical design uses a blower-style fan and can dissipate up to 160W. Thermaltake also showcased the Frio, which sports dual 120-mm fans and is meant primarily for overclocking. The Frio weighs just over a kilogram, with all that aluminum apparently capable of dissipating up to 220W.
Not content to let the buzz surrounding USB 3.0 pass it by, Thermaltake also showed a SuperSpeed version of its popular BlacX docking station. Little has changed apart from the faster interface, and Thermaltake expects the new model to command about a $20 price premium over USB 2.0 flavors, at least initially. I want one already.
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