Well, it’s another new design from Thermaltake and it looks like they’re carrying on with the rather understated design language – perfect! Thermaltake last made a few people go “Ooooh!” when they announced the Chaser A31 family which looked like it had hopped straight off the Grid from the Tron universe. The Urban S71 tones it down even more and the brushed alumnium front looks like a stab other premium brands like Lian Li or Fractal Design.
I’ve always looked forward to what Cooler Master does because very often the industry tends to follow their trend. The best-selling CPU cooler on the forums just so happens to be a variant of the Hyper 212. For those who can’t afford a Fractal chassis, there’s the Elite 344. Even I went with an Elite 310 chassis, after looking at all the other crummy options in the same price range. Like Volkswagen, they seem to have something for everyone, from the slightly understated Elite family through to the Cosmos and the Stryker, with all the bits and bobs in between. Its been a long time coming, but it looks like they’re finally changing their design language to something a bit more modern and mature.
Left to right: the N200, N400 and N600
If you’ve ever watched Tron, you’ll be familiar with the awesome lighting they have on those bikes and suits. Well, it looks like someone at Thermaltake may have been watching Tron while staring at an old Armor Revo and thinking about a new design because that’s just what the A31 looks like – something out of the cool-hued Grid. This might actually be the second time I’ve liked a chassis design from Thermaltake, apart from the very rad Level 10 GT.
Cooler Master has had chassis that support dual or even triple radiators for some time and its a very high priority on the discerning enthusiast’s list of requirements. Water cooling has seen a surge in uptake thanks to the all-in-one designs that take away the complexity of choosing an air cooler that fits your motherboard without blocking any other vital component. But there are very few chassi that can hold more than one radiator inside and that makes it especially difficult if you’d like to do as little work as possible to get everything running. Enter the Force 500.
Sleeper looks, but inside its a different story.
Welcome to the System Builders guide once again, boys and girls. We’re well into 2013 and four months away from June. June is going to be all abut Computex and the new announcements hardware vendors are going to make and the new promises they’re going to hope to keep. For now, prices are dropping on a few items and making it a very good time to pick up that PC you were thinking about. Follow our advice after the jump!
UPDATE: With the arrival of PowerColor back in the country thanks to Wootware, I’ve had to adjust my recommendations a bit. Its just too good a deal to pass up!
I’ll be straight with you, dear reader: I don’t like many of Aerocool’s chassis designs. Often they seem to be duking it out with Thermaltake to see who can add in the most snazzy lights or the weirdest design choices. Lately, however, the market has been moving to handsome, well-defined and understated designs that pretty much tick all the boxes and, surprisingly, one of those that I like is Aerocool’s Ferrum and Telum, two chassis from the Templarius family.
Hello NAGlings! Just thought I’d drop this by you. You remember that Alienware X51 I previewed a while ago, right? Well, since the local portal launch, we’ve had an official outlet to buy the X51 from, but at R11,000 many felt it was overpriced. Its recently taken a cut to R10,000 and looks much better as a result. While you may feel that the entry-level model using a Core i3-2120, Nvidia’s GT545, 4GB RAM and a 1TB hard drive isn’t worth the cost, you’re paying more for the brilliant engineering that went into the console-like chassis, barely bigger than Microsoft’s Xbox 360 Slim. If you were looking for something more beefy, Alienware also offers a Core i5 quad-core and Nvidia’s GTX660 for R3000 more.
Discuss this in the forums: Linky
Or some may call it garish – that’s their opinion, but I also haven’t had much love for the rugged looks of modern chassis lately. The HAF family started things off with a rugged military look and a high cooling capability, but it didn’t win over many modernists who insisted on a blank face or brushed aluminium. Gradually, its begun to stuck and over the years the design has worn its way into a few hearts and minds. With that, Cooler Master has released the HAF XB, another assault on the way chassis are designed. Its arguably their most interesting effort to date.
And for the first time, a chassis manufacturer names its product properly, because the design elements do look like a cobra’s hood (unlike the Cougar Challenger, which looks like an orangutan). Raidmax’s last release was the Seiran which, to be honest, doesn’t get a lot of oohs and aahs from the gaming crowd. This, however, looks more like it.
Honestly, I’m growing tired of having less colours to choose from – for chassis its limited to black, white or red. With phones its silver or black. Its like the designers don’t see the world in technicolour like normal people do. Thankfully BitFenix disagrees and now offers the Prodigy in two more colours in addition to the white and black versions. You can now order the little critter in orange and red and honestly, both look great. BitFenix now also offers multi-coloured side panels and custom badges for the modders to go crazy with. Hit the source link for the entire range.
Source: TechpowerUp!
Discuss this in the forums: Linky (and more pics!)
