Thermaltake LanBox
- Details
- Category: PC Cases
- Published: Tuesday, 05 May 2009 02:17
Packing up your entire rig to take it to a lan party is a pain in the butt. So much so in fact that at our lan parties we normally see 3 or 4 laptops show up. Of course with laptops you don't have the ability to run the same level of components in most cases. Because of this there has been a demand for small form factor systems that are powerful but easy to transport. The smaller cases also are ideal for HTPC use. In my case I have been looking for the perfect HTPC case for our living room without any luck. I decided to talk to Thermaltake about their LanBox series of cases to see if it would fit the bill.
If you were to compare the PC case market to motorcycles In Win would be similar to Orange County Choppers. Each case they make is designed around a central theme. In the past we have seen cases designed after the B2 Bomber and race cars. Today I will be looking at the X-Fighter, I'm sure you can guess what the theme of this case is all about. I'm going to run the case through its paces to see if it would be a good fit for today's high end gaming PC's. 
Thermalright is the top dog in the heatsink world. Their TRUE heatsink is still outperforming most efforts from their competition long after it was released. When you are on top it's sometimes hard to figure out where to go next. Apparently they saw room for growth in the market for HTPC heatsinks. Because of that I'm here today ready to test their newest heatsink the AXP-140. Similar in looks to the 
When shopping for a hard drive, most people don't consider anything more than the amount of space you're going to get for the lowest price. I will admit I've been guilty of this in the past. Of course as with anything else, there is a lot more to consider if you are looking to get a fast and reliable hard drive for your high end rig. Seagate is well known in the business and personal hard drive market. We happened to come upon two of Seagate's ES-2 1 terabyte hard drives. Being a business class hard drive I was curious to see what differentiates the ES-2 compared to the Barracuda line.
Nintendo may have struck an untapped gold-mine with their latest console, but it seems to come at a high price for those of us who were once devoted and loyal fans. The casual crowd is the company's target this go around, much to the dismay of the rest of us. So for a lot of people, the Wii sits as a very expensive white paperweight in their home. I, for one, often go months at a time without powering on the console. Occasional flukes serve to breathe some life into the system, with first-party Nintendo titles being the most obvious. However, what I've found to be a hidden gem on the Wii is the light-gun game remakes, as well as the new ones developed specifically for the Wii. These games take the one advantage Wii controls have, ie pointing the controller at the screen, and utilize it in a very natural way. Of course, when you play a light-gun style game, you are missing a critical component of the equation: the light-gun. Simply pointing a Wiimote at a screen and imagining that you're shooting bullets out of it is kind of lame, so quite a few companies have developed light-gun shells for your Wiimote. 
Last week I looked at both Microsoft's Sidewinder X5 mouse and Sidewinder X6 keyboard. Both surprised me with their near perfect windows integration along with quality construction. To cap off our coverage of the current sidewinder lineup Microsoft provided us with their most recent mouse the X8. The Sidewinder X8 is Microsoft's first attempt at a wireless gaming mouse available just in time to battle it out with the Razer Mamba that is also wireless. With their new blue optical technology first seen in the new explorer mouse called BlueTrack along with learning from feedback from the X5 they hope to turn a lot of heads and finally garner attention from gamers the way Logitech, Steel Series, and Razer have been able too.
Not every PC build needs to be a full size case with 15 fans. Sometimes you are just looking for a simple case that will keep your rig cool enough and most importantly keep the noise to a minimum. At CES this past January we had a chance to take a look at Cooler Master's upcoming silent rig the Sileo 500. The Sileo 500 is finally released and we have the chance to take a closer look at the case. The timing was perfect with the upcoming rebuild of my wifes computer, and considering the focus on keeping everything quite I hope it will balance out some of the noise my computer makes ;).
Earlier this week I looked at Microsoft's Sidewinder X5 Gaming Mouse, as it turns out they make more than just mice with the Sidewinder name. The Sidewinder X6 is the first gaming keyboard created from the ground up by Microsoft, there previous keyboard the 
For years before I got into gaming I used my trusty ol mouse and keyboard, both being Microsoft products. The Intellimouse itself held up to multiple beatings without a hiccup. I know a lot of people who have stood by their Microsoft peripherals for everyday computing. It's no shock that with the gaming market growing that Microsoft followed suit with their Sidewinder Series. With their original sidewinder mouse it was always a love or hate reaction. Personally, I was never a fan, but keeping an open mind today I will be taking a closer look at their Sidewinder X5 mouse. Who knows they may win me over!
It doesn't matter what your interest or hobbies are there will always be a group of people who aren't happy with having the same thing as everyone else. Because of that people "mod" or modify just about anything you can think of. There are large industries just about creating parts specifically in the automobile industry and more recently the computer industry. You will find those same people in the console gaming community, people like Ben Heck have made a name for themselves doing just that. Because of that popularity there are company's now that make parts to help you along if this is your thing. XCM is one if not the biggest company that does this. Today I will be looking at a replacement case with led lighting for your Xbox 360 controller. This is very interesting for me both because I love to mod everything and because I hate how I can't ever tell the difference between my Xbox 360 controllers. I'm hoping that this case will satisfy both of those issues. 
Everyone hates cords. They're messy, tangle easy, and are simply an unwanted restriction. With the next generation gaming consoles putting some much emphasis on wireless controllers and accessories, companies have begun to eliminate wires that do still exist. One of the more obvious is the cord that connects the Nintendo Wii's remote the the nunchuck controller, and ThrustMaster generously sent us their solution to test.
There are quite a few reasons why a person would need a new 360 hard drive shell, which is essentially an enclosure in the console gaming world. One may be simply that the factory shell has broke, another may be that you simply don't like the color of your current shell. But the third, and perhaps the instance where XCM holds value, is for system mods; no where on this shell do you see the company's name, advertisements, numbers, or writing of any kind. It is simply a blank shell, ready to serve whatever your purpose may be.
For the past two years, Antec's Nine Hundred has dominated the field at lan parties and in the hearts of gamers. The high airflow and slick looks made the case very popular. Two years later there are numerous competitors who have brought out products to tap into that same market. Recently, Antec brought out the Twelve Hundred with a similar design to the Nine Hundred but with some much-needed changes. They have decided to add some of those changes to the Nine Hundred along with a few new ideas. The new product is called the Nine Hundred Two, today we are going to take a closer look. 
Some time ago we reviewed Tritton's quality headset, the AX51 5.1 Headset. At that point I was thoroughly impressed with the set, so much so in fact, I took them to our last local party LanOC V.3. I decided that even with the power brick as an anchor, the superior quality warranted the hassle. It seems that Tritton was dissatisfied with their previous attempt at chaining me to my desk with just one adapter because they just released a new top of the line model: the Tritton AXPro. As you may have guessed, this device's number of earthly tethers are greater than the last, possessing a staggering two power adapters for one single headset. Tritton sent us one of these beastly headsets to see if they live up to their status as well as their power consumption. This means that, once again, as we review this headset, I can no longer move from my workstation. My name is Thomas Gilligan, and if you are reading this, I am being held against my will by the Tritton AXPro.
Last July i had the chance to take a look at Kensington's 
The big news from Cooler Master at CES this year was the upcoming release of the long awaited V10 heatsink. Last year they showed off the V10 design at CES similar to what eventually released but without the TEC cooling that was included in the final product. Speaking of the TEC cooling, the idea of a hybrid cooling solution isn't new, but has been far from perfected. Cooler Master believes they have the top dog in cooling performance with the V10. Today we will be comparing the V10 to Cooler Master's V8 to see how much of an improvement the step up in price and size gets you. 
Today we are looking at the Noctua NH-U9B. This of course is far from the first product from Noctua that we have tested; in fact, we have looked at just about everything from their current product lineup. The NH-U9B is similar to the NH-U12p but smaller. Replacing the 120mm fan with a 92mm the NH-U9B is the perfect size for smaller more compact setups. If it's anything like my past experiences I'm sure I won't be disappointed.
With it being tax time and computer upgrade season we have been seeing a lot of our members upgrading to new i7 setups. I was even lucky enough to win a setup while in Vegas thanks to our friends at Coolermaster. With DDR3 ram becoming more prevalent, especially when run in Tri Channel with the new i7 setups its no surprise that every ram manufacture is bringing out their new kits. While at CES we did get to take a look at Crucial's new Ballistix Tracer color series. Well knows for their led lighting that flashes to the speed of ram access, I was really happy to see they are producing a line using only one color to help match today's high end rigs. Today I will be taking a look at a Blue set of TriChannel 3 x 2 GB RAM from Crucial with a color matched LED, heatspreader, and PCB running at 1600Mhz.
At CES this past January and more recently at 
Steelseries is well known for being a quality gaming peripheral company. Their headsets and mouse pads are seen all over any just about any lanpartys or tournament that you go to. Up until last year their mouse line was basically a Microsoft mouse with a paint job. Designing a mouse takes time, and designing a mouse of the caliber of their other products takes a lot of time, fifteen months in fact. A year later we finally have a chance to take a look at the Ikari Laser to see if the time they invested was worth it.
