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This is a "professional multimedia kit?" Mmkay. Regardless of what the boastful marketing copy says, I think not, haha.

No, this is a cheaply-made 5.25" drive bay device that plugs into a PC's sound card output. It packs some interesting features: stereo VU meters, LED peak indicators, and even an integrated chrome speaker!

But does any of it work? Well. It's a chintzy Thermaltake case mod from 2004 that's decorated like a Guy Fieri shirt, so the deck truly was stacked against it from the beginning.

Files

Thermaltake CircleFire: PC VU Meters from 2004!

Thermaltake's Circle Fire 5.25” Professional Multimedia Kit is from the “anything goes” era of PC case mods. It’s got backlit VU meters, an integrated speaker, LED peak indicators, and a fiery hot rod paint job. Ahh, 2004. ● LGR links: https://www.patreon.com/LazyGameReviews https://www.twitter.com/lazygamereviews https://www.facebook.com/LazyGameReviews ● Music courtesy of: http://www.epidemicsound.com #LGR #Computer #Audio

Comments

Joon Choi

Coming up on Drivers, Displays and Drives!

Anonymous

I love things like this, I always use to drool over crazy meters and dials on the front of pc cases. I’d love to see more of these useless drive bay add-ons, they are always a trip. That could be a whole series of its own.

Gergely Varju

Looks like last week you made a video about something that was garbage and we knew that part before the video started. And this week you found some hardware you could use a machine dedicated to Sims 4, and Sim City (2013)... Garbage hardware to work with garbage software, to get the "more authentic experience" :)

avfusion

For the people who can't watch, he said it's a remarkable device that's a wonderful addition to any gaming rig, past and present.

Anonymous

Man that new stuff pack came with some weird gizmos.

Anonymous

Ahhh, cringy early 2000's tech. This is what we cut our teeth on. Reminds me of LAN parties, the smell of B.O., Saturn cars, Bawls energy drinks, translucent cases... the list goes on and on.

Anonymous

Looks like rubbish really 😂😂😁

Anonymous

That's pretty bitchin' - I have the fan/temp one they show right above it in the picture - I wish I knew it was supposed to be a set because I would have totally bought this in 2004.

Anonymous

I had a very puzzling moment when I thought the email notification out of the corner of my eye said a circlefire 5.25" KILT. I was picturing something a bit more floppy disk and flowing. Good real video though!

Anonymous

I love all the different content on this channel. You are muti talented.

Anonymous

I haven't used traditional home-made towers since probably the year 2000.... I have tended to go with more purpose-built systems with no spare drive bays. That being said, back when I DID have traditional towers, something like this would have been very nice (assuming it sounded worth a crap.) Mainly, because I have always found the need for "computer speakers" to be a nuisance due to the wasted space on my desk and extra tangle of wires. And it is still to this day sort of hard to find a monitor with decent sounding built-in speakers. So yeah, if I had seen a product like this back then I would have probably bought it, but I'm glad I didn't buy the circlefire because it sounds terrible! Thanks for sharing!

Anonymous

This looks so cheap, it makes me think you got a knock off one or something.

Anonymous

Too bad it wouldn't fit in the Hot Wheels PC. Seems like it would be a perfect combo, both with the flames and the low build quality.

Anonymous

Man, I know useless PC accessories were basically the norm back then, but at least they didn't try to pass themselves off as useful and didn't cost ridiculous prices. Oh, wait, no, they did. They all did. We were a gullible crowd.

BastetFurry

Glad that i never got into case-murdering. o.o For giggles, you could send this abnomination to Techmoan, tough. xD

Anonymous

Oooh, with a letter attached instructing to record the reaction of him opening it for the first time, trying to refrain from vomiting. LOL

Anonymous

Great vid!

Anonymous

Man as useless as it is, I love these gizmos anyway,...I bought a all digital front panel fan controller thingy like that on Wish, it just looks cool, not retro or anything, but it's something to fill the empty bay space, just a challenge to see how it works...thanks for the great video !

Anonymous

Why is this not oddware?

Anonymous

I would have loved this crap when it came out, I must admit. Glad I could not afford it, haha.

LazyGameReviews

It certainly could. I ended up finding dozens of similar devices I didn't know existed while researching this one.

LazyGameReviews

True that! Though I suppose one could just bolt it onto the side somewhere, like a set of gauges on a hot rod.

LazyGameReviews

Likewise, I was all about extraneous drive bay addons! I mean, I still am, but for differing reasons :P

LazyGameReviews

Heh, I was looking through the selection on Wish recently. Almost got a thing or two, but found out it can actually be even cheaper to go straight to the source: alibaba. Chinese electronics are just fascinating.

LazyGameReviews

True that! I'd always take headphones instead of speakers to LAN parties, what an annoyance. Makes me wonder if there are any custom cases with decent integrated speakers.

Riley W. Andersen

What song did you use in the end credits for this video? It's awesome!

Anonymous

"The problem is that everything sucks." I wish that didn't seem to apply to more than just silly mid-aughts PC add-ons!

Anonymous

Did you try adjusting the volume out control on the Sound Blaster itself? That might work better than adjusting the volume in the OS or player app.

LazyGameReviews

Yes. I tried all the available volume options at my disposal. Also tried my laptop and cell phone out of curiosity. Doesn't make much difference unfortunately, there's just a tiny segment of volume that it likes without distorting or sounding too quiet.

Anonymous

Might be an interesting project to try getting this to work as a pc speaker. I think I have seen some special cables to connect the mainboard pc speaker output to microphone input of a soundcard. Maybe with one of those that could work.

Evan B

And yet, I bet there's a pallette of these new old-stock buried somewhere in Computer Reset

Anonymous

They were trying to warn us -- "Muti" media