A Closer Look:
The Xaser III Lanfire VM2000A right out of the box is a sight to look at. The front casing and bezel are very well put together with an extremely clean and flashy look.

Now lets take a look at different sections of the front of this case, personally my favorite item is the LCD display with temperature display and alarm. This unit is the control center for all cooling in this case along with any feedback about temperature problems. On the outer most eft and right sides of the panel are the dials to raise and lower the voltage for the fans or lights that you hook up to the unit. Directly next to the LCD display on each side are the buttons that make it all happen. Adjustments made with the buttons allow temperatures to be presented in Celsius or Fahrenheit and the alarms for minimum and maximum temperatures can be set.

Traveling down the front of the case, the next feature to mention is the lock for the bezel, an important feature for keeping prying hands out of your PC. The USB and Firewire ports are located just below and to the left. I especially like the design of the door because it folds into the case making it harder for it to get accidentally broken.

Now for the glitz and glamour of the Lanfire, the Thermaltake fireball with alternating background lights. Just for an example of how the fireball looks, the fireball to the left is when the background lights are off and the right is when it is fully lit.

After getting over the initial coolness of the front of the case it’s time for the giant signature style X window on the side the case with center intake fan. On the side panel next to the window there is a handle that releases the side of the case.

I had to point this item out to everyone that saw the TT Lanfire - the nice added geekdom that Thermaltake included on the window.

The back end of the case is pretty much a standard design with a nice aluminum gleam to it.

For the final rotation around the Xaser III Lanfire VM2000A, an intake fan is located at the same level of your hard drives and other 3.5” devices drawing cool air in over the hard drives mounted in the system.

Diving into the guts of the Xaser III Lanfire VM2000A, the case is a bit tight and somewhat tedious to work with do to lack of drive space, amount of cabling and just being a feature packed mid-tower overall.

Starting with the drive bays, there are only two 5.25” bays directly located below the fan and temperature controller. When both bays are filled and the power supply is put in place, space to work with cables disappears very quickly.

The 3.5” bays are a bit easier to deal with since there is a 3.5” drive cage that comes right out of the case. This was a feature I really liked since it saves the hassle of having to swing the PC around to get all the screws in the caged devices.

Moving into the center of the case there are quite a few things to look at and shall I say one thing that is missing for a case like this. From the picture below and I’m sure everyone will pick it up, the mother board mounts are on that case and it’s one solid piece. This means, yep, I hate to say it, but there is no removable motherboard tray the Xaser III Lanfire VM2000A.

The other thing I wanted to take note of is the amount of cables for this case, but you have to remember you have a fan controller with LCD, fireball on/off switch, the cables from the front with backlighting of the fireball, normal motherboard cables, and the USB and Firewire cables.

Last but not least we get to the internal rear of the case. One of my favorite things I found on the Xaser III Lanfire Case is the quick release PCI mounts for fast access. This quick release is a bit different from the slide lock design that many other cases use to hold your PCI cards into place, this is more of a clip on fashion so either the cards are all locked or unlocked.

Conclusion:
The Xaser III Lanfire Case is a feature packed, light weight case with everything from back lit fireballs to an LCD fan controller. It has many ease of use features from the front mounted USB and Fire Wire ports to the removable 3.5” cage and the quick release PCI clip. Although the case does have some flaws such as no removable motherboard tray and the Lanfire can be a bit tight to work with in some areas. Overall, for the features that you get in the Xaser III Lanfire Case is one of the top cases that I have had the pleasure of reviewing.

Pros
Ultra-Light, at only 8.8lbs.
Fan controller with LCD display.
Removable 3.5” cage.

Cons
No motherboard tray.
Can run out of room quickly.

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