ThermalTake Xpressar to ship for $799, more advanced version on its way

TG Daily had a hands-on experience with the new ThermalTake Xpressar case which features a refrigeration cooling system. They spoke to Ramsom Koay, Thermaltake's marketing director, and learned a couple of interesting details.

Koay explained the cooling system is a sealed unit, users won't need to refill it and it should last five to ten years. He also added that condensation shouldn't be a problem because the unit never cools to zero degrees Celsius, but that statement doesn't really make sense as you don't need to reach 0°C to get condensation. He said the default setting of the device is approx. 15°C and the software prevents the unit from cooling all the way to zero. However, according to Koay it should be possible to hack the software to reach sub-zero levels with the Xpressar!

The cooling system connects to your power supply and uses approx. 50-60W. TG Daily saw it in action and says a Intel E8400 overclocked to 4.05GHz climbs to around 46-50°C at 100% load .

Inside the system was an Asus motherboard with an Intel Wolfdale processor (Socket 775) overclocked to 4.05 GHz from 3 GHz. The Xpressar is fairly quiet and cool when at no load. The compressor was barely audible and the CPU temperature was pegged at six degrees Celcius, but of course most people want to know how this thing functions at high load so we cranked up the processor to 100% for more than 40 minutes. After approximately 20 minutes the temperature hit 50 degrees and ended up hovering between 46 and 50 degrees. The unit does get quite a bit louder at full load and you can hear that in the video. Note that the panel was off during most of the shoot.

Furthermore, Koay also announced ThermalTake will introduce a more advanced, modular version with flexible tubes at CES 2009. That model will be installed in three 5.25" drive bays and will have support for multiple processors and your video card:

You’re probably thinking to yourself, “I like it, but I have to buy their case and use specific motherboards.” But Koay said an improved modular version with flexible tubes will be shown off at next year’s CES. That model will dock in drive bay area, taking up three 5 and 1/4 –inch bay. The tubes will be able to connect to multiple processors and the graphics card. In contrast, the current model doesn’t allow you to cool the video card and only supports one processor.

You can check it out over here, they even have a video. The Xpressar case will ship within three weeks for $799.