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

Exploring the Chaser MK-I

Here we see the Thermaltake Chaser MK-I with the left side panel off. The inside of the case is very nicely painted black. Not painting the case’s interior is a major cost-saving feature for the manufacturer and it often differentiates a midrange case from a high-end one. Inside the Thermaltake Chaser MK-I is sufficient room for three over-sized video cards like the 12″ HD 6990 and ten and one-half inch reference HD 5000/6000 series and large CPU coolers. Here we see the case after we unpack it for our build and we remove the parts inside.

A full tower can be any size.  The secret of a successful case is to have it large enough for most enthusiasts without making it overkill. In this regard, the Chaser MK-II delivers.  There is a huge cutout for the motherboard so that you don’t have to remove it just to install a CPU cooler or to upgrade a CPU.

There are rubber covered pass-through holes for cable management and for watercooling.  The hard drive bays are fixed to the chassis and cannot be removed without a cutting tool; we miss the removable cage of the Element G.  Perhaps one might want a second PSU inside the case as we would have liked.  Technically there is already room for a second PSU on the floor of the case, but the cables make it too tight of a fit and we installed our second PSU outside of the case for a total of 1625W to power our overclocked FX-8150 and HD 69×0-X4 QuadFire extreme system.

The front has dust filters over the optical drive bays and over the front intake fan. At the top of the case there are filters, but at the back there are no dust filters as the air mostly moves out of the case. The metal mesh of the drive bay covers and the dust traps behind it do a superb job of trapping dust. Even the metal mesh is designed to keep your case interior dust-free.

The Thermaltake Chaser MK-I comes with the standard internal connectors which are USB, headphone/microphone inputs, and LED and switch connectors. The special one is the USB 3.0 header which makes for some really fast transfers as well as the connector for an external USB 3.0 HDD/SDD dock right on top of the case.  We grew to love the effortless convenience of rapidly transferring data from one PC’s HDD to ours.

The instructions come inside the case in a cardboard box and the accessories are also packaged in a plastic bag. You will also get the necessary screws and zip ties. It is mostly a “tool free” build although a Philips screw driver is always useful and probably necessary to loosen the thumbscrews.  You will also get an instruction manual which is quite generic and also printed in several languages.

Here is the Thermaltake Chaser MK-I from the right. The motherboard tray is not removable but the large cutout makes it completely unnecessary for all of the usual situations. You can easily remove and replace a CPU in just a few minutes – without the irritating need to remove the motherboard just to remove a heatsink or to replace a CPU. There are also several cutouts for cable management.

The back panel is visible from this shot:

The Chaser MK-I case comes set up stock for air-cooling but also has convenient cutouts for water cooling tubes to pass through at the top above the back cooling fan’s grill. There are no ready options for installing smaller fans on the back grille for more extreme cooling needs, but it is not necessary and small fans generally add to noise. To the left of the 140 mm fan is where the standard motherboard I/O shield plate is installed.

Below that are standard eight expansion slots. Both left and right side panels are secured with three black thumb screws each. The panels install into the chassis with ease and they swing open and shut like doors on a hinge; a welcome and convenient change from most smaller cases where you must carefully slide tabs into rails.

The front is constructed of plastic and metal mesh. With the front bezel removed, one can see through the front drive bays all the way to the back of the chassis. The removable metal mesh covers act as an effective dust filter to cover the 200 mm fan cooling the drive bays and the optical bay covers have the type of foam plastic used in air conditioners to protect the inside of your case from dust.

Here is the front of the Thermaltake Chaser MK-I:

We see the front I/O panel with 1-eSATA, 4 USB ports including 2 USB 3.0 ports, along with the headphone and microphone jacks. Also on this panel, you will find the on/off button for the system’s power and reset button. There is also the power to the fan’s LED and a high-low switch to control the fan’s speed.  The power button is illuminated along with the “lightning” LED which illuminates off and on to its own mysterious beat.  The top slot is used for a HDD or SSD that connects to the motherboard via USB 3.0 for convenient hot-swapping.

We like the layout and the fans’ speed can also be adjusted for “performance”.  During gaming one will never notice the fans’ extra noise (over your video card, anyway). The right side panel has no opening nor window although it sports a raised section which adds to the Chaser’s “look”.

Here is a feature worth repeating that this editor is absolutely in love with. The side panels swing open and shut like a door on hinges and there is no more need to carefully align slots and tabs to open and close your case.  Three thumbscrews secure each side case panel.

Let’s install our system in the Thermaltake Chaser MK-I