Thermaltake Mozart iP Media Case

The iPod area looks and functions a lot like a cassette deck.  Resting over the requisite mic, speaker out, Firewire and USB 2.0 ports, the front bezel’s aesthetics blend this all together nicely.  A manual pull opens the dock allowing you to plug in or withdraw your iPod Classic.  Sorry, iPod Nanos and Shuffles aren’t compatible.  Apple’s iPod player has a small data connection on its base.  Looking down in the dock we see a corresponding post allowing for a data connection. 

As we said, only the iPod Classic in 30GB, 60GB and 80GB are compatible.  Below is an 80GB iPod plugged into the charging dock.  We'll come back to this in a bit.  Before we move on, note the power, reset buttons with power and activity lamps to the left of the charging dock.

The right side of the front bezel is a flush mounted aluminum plate with a stealth cover for any optical drive installed.  Underneath this is a smaller reflective area.  The iMon powered Thermaltake Media Lab is installed behind this window and is visible through it afterwards.  This right side of the bezel actually folds down for direct access to any 5.25" drives if you like.

Talking a look at the rear of the Mozart iP we see what begins to resemble the basic Tt Bach HTPC Chassis.  Two 60mm cooling fans are responsible for exhausting any warm air out of the case that the PSU does not.  Two vent areas are visible on the case's top.  The hexagon shaped one is directly over where a CPU cooler would be on an installed system whereas the rectangular area is over where installed VGA cards would reside.  Fresh air is always a plus at keeping hot components cool.  One word enters my mind here... dust.

Removing the outer cover requires minimal effort as it is held in place by three thumb screws.  Taking these out allows us access to what is obviously a Tt Bach Chassis.  Two cross braces provide stability to avoid any case flex while strengthen the case's top should someone rest a monitor on top.  Each brace folds back out of the way for easy system access.  Notice how the rightmost cross bar has an integrated 3.5" drive rack capable of holding up to two drives in it.  In case you're wondering, yes these crossbars are removed very easily.

Here's an inside shot of the seven expansion slots and two 60mm exhaust fans. 

BACK                    NEXT