The Thermaltake SwordM is one of the most sophisticated cases at the show. While the case is being manufactured by automated equipment, they are fine-tuned by hand. Due to the complexity in manufacturing, the SwordM will only be produced in limited numbers. The top, back and sides of the case can be opened up to give direct access to the components. It can either be used without additional cooling, but the side door features space for four 12 cm fans or a very large radiator which is powered by two fans. Heat sink plates can be found all over the enclosure, these aid in cooling everything. The front of the case even features an eSATA port and eSATA power port in addition to the usual USB 2.0, Firewire and audio connectors. The very bottom of the front houses a compartment to store tools in.


The side of the case has air vents and also acts as a heat sink. Thermaltake used the new V1 CPU cooler in this setup. As you can see, the rear fan aids the airflow of the CPU cooler.


An addition to the Soprano line-up can be viewed as well. Thermaltake combined the chassis of the Armor with all the drive bays with the front of the Soprano DX to create the Soprano FX. The two modded cases are just display models and will not be available for sale.


There a few additions to existing cases. The Mozart TX is now available in black. Thermaltake has taken the LanBox (read our review here) chassis and created two new cases: the Lanbox HT which is an HTPC case and features a flat aluminum front and iMON VFD as well as the Lanbox Lite, which is available in two colors. Expect the review of the Lanbox Lite here on techPowerUp! soon.


Every case manufacturer is concentrating more and more on HTPC cases and Thermaltake is no exception. They are displaying a very small ITX based case, which should go great with Albatron's R690 ITX board. The other case is the Mozart IP. It features an iPOD dock so that you can listen to your music from the Apple device in your living room without any additional hardware. The Mozart IP also has a VFD to display song information among other things.


Thermaltake does not stop there. They have two additional HTPC cases in different variants. These cases are meant for everyone wanting to put the newest hardware like SLI and Crossfire with a lot of hard drives inside their HTPC. The DH-102 and DH-101 are roughly the size of a mid tower, placed on its side. The main difference between the two lies in the display used. The DH-102 features an LCD, while the DH-101 utilizes a VFD. The DH-104 and DH-103 can only be described as huge. Thermaltake has basically taken a big tower and created an HTPC case. The same differentiation applies with these two. The DH-104 features the iMON Touch LCD while the DH-103 has a Soundgraph VFD.


One obstacle which Thermaltake is trying to overcome is the association of a high price to the brand. They have realized that a large percentage of people would like to walk into a large retailer and acquire a high quality case of a well known manufacturer, but with price as most important factor. The Soprano RS series delivers the quality we are used to getting from Thermaltake, while replacing the expensive parts like aluminum front with solid plastic. The Soprano RS will be available as a large or mid tower, called Soprano RS 100 and RS 101 respectively. The variant without the front door will go as the Swing RS 100.


In addition, Thermaltake has decided to offer simple case series with a flat front. This enclosure is called the Wing RS 100 in black/silver and RS 100 for the black case with a slightly different front. To round things up, a 400W power supply, called Litepower, will also be available to offer low cost, but high quality to customers.