Thermaltake’s full tower Chaser MK-I takes the heat from QuadFire and Bulldozer

Thermaltake Chaser MK-I

We hold the belief that one of the most beautiful things about a case is when it is filled with hot-running hardware and it is still cool inside. Here we see one 12″ reference HD 6990 and two 10.5″ HD 6970s fitting easily inside and although there isn’t much room between the cards, there is plenty of room inside the case for QuadFire-X4.

Of course, the important thing is keeping these cards cool despite the fact that we are only using the three stock Chaser MK-I fans without a side case fan.  We had to actually use a spacer to give the top HD 6990 a little air although it cut down on the middle card’s airflow.

We used to believe it is absolutely mandatory to have a side case fan if you are running performance graphics and especially with an overclocked FX-8150 CPU and HD-69×0 QuadFire-X4.  Have we changed our minds? No, not at all.  But that does not make this extreme test any less valid.

The “Look”

The first thing we note about the Thermaltake Chaser MK-I is its aggressive look. This is not a kid’s PC nor is it conservative-looking. It has four USB ports and sound inputs and outputs, and the top metal and plastic grills does double duty as aesthetics and as a dust filter, which is especially important if they are used for intake fans. You can put in a total of 4 optical drives into the bays as well as six hard drives into the cages. Running the 2 largest fans’ variable tri-colored LEDs is attractive, day or night.

The chassis sports a plastic front with a metal mesh and at the top front has a very basic front I/O panel with four USB ports. Two of the ports have connections directly to the motherboard’s USB 3.0, so you have a very fast external connection conveniently available.  This editor had only one irritation with the case – the front and top panels come off much too easily when you move your case and you must be very careful where you grab or your case may end up on the floor.  It’s not ideal for LAN parties even assuming that the enthusiast can handle such a large case filled with hardware, anyway.

The paint job of the  Chaser MK-I chassis is outstanding – inside and out – and there are no imperfections that we could find. Neither the paint nor the clear plastic of the side panel are easy to scratch. Hand prints wipe off easily and we give very high marks to its exterior and interior and we like its look.

The Features:

Features of the case Thermaltake  Chaser MK-I include:

• Excellent airflow with 3 large, dual-speed fans with dust filters covering every intake that counts
• An aggressive looking gamer’s case with a variable LED lightshow
• Well-finished black interior and exterior
• Superior cooling performance including retaining holes for watercooling
• Well-managed interior space for extra long video cards
• Excellent cable management system
• Easy customization for adding additional cooling fans
• Tool-free design
• User friendly
• Three year warranty