Thermaltake LANFIRE VM2000A

Posted: 2003-11-30 by MikeC

Interior

Taking off the side panel, we see a very nice shiny finish on the inside with no sharp corners to be seen. Everything seems to be rounded off; keeping things nice so there’s barely any chance of you cutting yourself on the inside of your case. The motherboard tray however is not removable, but that’s to be expected from a mid-tower type case. Fitting the motherboard inside proved easy enough. There is sufficient room inside the case provided you remove the hard drive rack. You don’t feel cramped inside while working with it.

Thermaltake made this case as tool free as possible. They provided 5 thumbscrews, which in my opinion, is not enough to secure your drives to the case. This works well in conjunction with the retention holders on the side. They give a nice snug fit to the drives, but not enough to warrant not screwing them in with the provided thumbscrews.

The PCI/AGP cards are held together by a special retention mechanism. This is great for someone like me who swaps cards in and out all the time, making this as quick and painless as need be. Opening the mechanism is easy, however proves a little challenging when there’s a card in the first slot.

The hard drive rack is a nice little feature of this case. With larger video cards on the market now, a removable hard drive rack is a must, allowing for easy removal of the videocard and the power cable. It also adds a couple of extra square inches of room to work with inside the case, adding to the overall comfort level of working inside the LANFIRE.

The connector for the USB ports mounted on the front of the case are to die for. I don’t know why other case makers didn’t think this up earlier. It’s great that you don’t have to figure out which wire goes where when plugging it into your motherboard as it comes in one block. Unfortunately this does not apply for the FireWire connectors.

Problems

There were a few problems while working with this case. One was mentioned above, the PCI/AGP retention clip being hard to replace if there’s a card in the first slot.

The hard drive rack was hard to replace after taking it out. The way it was designed did not make it easy to align the clips so that the cage would be secure.

Lastly, the side panel itself was hard to replace after taking it off. I had a hard time putting it back in after taking it off. Removing it was no problem, however, the way the handle on the case was designed, does not make it easy to replace.

Conclusion

Thermaltake’s LANFIRE case was a great case to work with. It was designed as a LAN case, and does this very well. Even with all the components inside, the case is light enough to carry around without breaking your back. You have the option of purchasing a Xaserbag to lug your case around from LAN to LAN. The minor inconveniences encountered while working with this case are insignificant compared to the overall benefits you get from using this case. This case is loaded with enough features to make your rig look good at the next LAN party. To check out prices for the Lanfire click here.

Pros