Xaser III Aluminum: ThermalTake drops Chenming

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Moving on to the underbelly of the case, we saw similar feet to the Xaser II and other Chenming variant cases.  However, these feet mechanically differ from the feet we saw on other Chenming variants.  Before jumping to conclusions about how little a foot can differ, consider that the Chenming feet slide open only 90 degrees.  The difference with the Xaser III design appears to be that we can open the feet all the way, to mimic the stand of an existing Chenming variant, or flip them around to consume approximately an inch less footprint on each side.  Whether ThermalTake intended this unmentioned feature, we are unsure.  More importantly, if the center of gravity on the case is low enough, this method works.   If you plan on loading your Xaser III up with hard drives and skimping by with one DVD drive, the mentioned base modification may work great for you.

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As long as ThermalTake keeps adding features we have never seen before, why not add one more.  The top of the case has recently become an ideal place for a lot of manufacturers to place additional exhaust fans.  The idea remains that warm air rises, so an additional exhaust on the top will pull warm rising air out of the case and increase circulation inside the chassis. 

 

ThermalTake goes one step farther and places the USB2, headphone, line in and 1394 inputs on the top as well, right next to the top exhaust.  This makes a lot of sense as most people typically do not place a case with a 205mm x 520mm footprint on their desk.  A small plastic cover will keep dust out of the ports if you intend not to use them.  Additionally, the connectors for the unit all connect on the motherboard/sound card.  Unlike the Kingwin 463-WM case, no connectors need to be fed out the back and plugged in.  We were very pleased to see ThermalTake upgrade their connectors to USB2.  (The connectors on the Xaser II only provided provisions for USB1).