The interior of MozartTX is divided in the middle, one side houses the five hard drive + two 3.5" bays as well as the main PowerUser system. This can be either ATX or BTX style (Optional BTX kit P/N:A2421 required). This setup puts all the high heat components on the same side as the nine 120mm fans (or Liquid Cooling). Only one 120mm and one 80mm fans will be on mini-ITX side which is ideal for quiet computing, playing movies and music. All the metal sheets inside are rounded smoothly and reduces the chance of getting skin cuts. It is not an all-Aluminum construction however, the main chassis is made of cheaper & stronger SECC steel which has more weight for better strength.

On the front I/O panel, MozartTX comes with Four USB 2.0, One Firewire, Two mini-audio jacks and one e-SATA connector and power outlet. The panel is positioned up on the top of the MozartTX so it's easily accessible and the e-SATA hard drive (or USB 2.0) can be put on top of the case. While firewire can transfer data almost two times that of USB 2.0 in real-world situations e-SATA can give the same performance as internal hard drives depending on the enclosure used. This helps a lot when large amount of video are sent for backup. Compared to USB not only will there be difference in speed of transfer there will be less overhead on the process. The cables for I/O panel will reach all the way to the bottom of the chassis, this ensures compatiablity with a wide range of motherboards.

The removable 3.5" drive cage of Mozart TX is held in by screws on the side and press-release clip in the back and has rubber mounts for Five hard drives. One of the two slots on top are intended for floppy (do people still use them?) or flash card reader. Extra long IDE cables and SATA cables which came with the box can reach the drives from the bottom of the case. One issue with this set up is while the hard drives are closer to the PSU and connectors on the board, the flash card reader with 24" cable I had on hand was too far to reach the USB connectors at the bottom of the motherboard. ThermalTake also has the optional Media Lab VFD (P/N:A2331) that can be fitted above of the 3.5" bay for Infra-Red remote control and LCD panel to read out the information of the media currently playing. Compared to a seperate USB IR remote, this option integrates neatly into the chassis.

On the mini-ITX side of the chassis there are Five 5.25" bays with tool-free mounts for DVD drives as well as the PSU for mini-ITX (P/N:A2422) and one 7" bay for optional Flip-out wide LCD touch-screen with IR remote that is similar to LCD units found in cars. The 7" LCD from ThermalTake supports 1280x768 resolution but the drivers for VIA mini-ITX built-in graphics couldn't support 16:9 aspect ratio, so be sure to look out for that if you're going to get a mini-ITX board. Alternatively, you can skip the entire mini-ITX concept and use the 7" touch screen or its remote for controlling the main ATX/BTX system in a dual-monitor setup. One minor eye-sore with the flip-out design of the 7" LCD touch-screen is that it protrudes a little less than an inch from the case to support the LCD.

Inside the MozartTX the chassis has plenty of room for a full size ATX or BTX motherboard, largely due to the fact that both the PSU and IDE drive cages were moved to the side and top. It can easily accomodate two long graphic cards such as GeForce 8800 Ultra or large motherboards with Dual-CPU sockets. This is the first time I've seen so much room w/o the hassle of bumping with the hard drive ends or power supplies. The ATX/BTX side has tool-free clips to hold down the expansion cards instead of screws.

In the other side of the chassis is the mini-ITX board. This underpowered tiny board was made for industrial computing but home users can also take advantage of its size, silence and minimal power-draw to run 24/7 computing without breaking the bank on electric bill. An ideal setup for BitTorrenting media files over days and weeks. Personally I prefer Intel Pentium M over VIA CPU for more powersaving, higher performance and better chipsets. The mini-ITX side also has punch holes in the back to tidy up the keyboard/mouse, ethernet, VGA, etc cables.

Overall this case is a very good setup for HTPC + Power-User + P2P + Energy-Saver computer. It may have additional cost from having to install a mini-ITX machine but the energy savings from not having to run the Power-User side 24/7 will more than make up for it. Although Intel Core-2 Duo are known for using less electricity than ever the rest of the system and powerful graphic cards such as GeForce 8800GTX or Radeon 2200XTX still draw hundreds of watts. Plus having TV recordings or P2P on a seperate system frees up the resources of the primary computer meant to perform the best it can, making a more efficient setup that won't be bogged down by multiple applications running at once. If there is vertical room on the floor or table, ThermalTake MozartTX is a very good setup to consider for fast energy-efficient computing.

ThermalTake USA gives 3 Years warranty on their products so the MozartTX case (and its optional accessories) will be covered for the average computer life. To their credit, ThermalTake USA actually has call centers here in North America, not 6,000 miles away.

Page 1 - Specs, Cooling Page 2 - Internal Drive Bays, Board Layout, Conclusion Reviews