Exterior



One of the first things that you see is the incredible amount of venting holes that decorate the entire top panel. While this will help a good deal to keep things cool in your HTPC unit, they are not filtered at all so you’ll want to make sure to remember to clean out the case every now and then. This will help you keep everything running smoothly as it should.

The overall look reminds me of a stereo receiver with the flat black exterior finish and the semi-sheen of the brushed aluminum front bezel. For those with a big entertainment center that houses their HDTV and stereo components, this enclosure should fit right in and not be an eyesore. Overall construction is very sturdy with a steel chassis, so you will have no problems with stability of the enclosure.



Taking a closer look at the front panel shows a simple and efficient design. While some may fear the close proximity of the power and reset buttons, the power button has a LED lighting effect behind it that makes it easy to tell them apart.

The center panel handles all the externally accessible I/O ports as well as having a hide-away front cover for your DVD drive. This gives a much cleaner look to your system since the color of the drive doesn’t matter. Sitting tucked between these two features you will find the optional display, but we’ll cover that in a bit.



Moving to the back of the enclosure shows a pretty standard configuration for a system compatible with the mATX standard. The hole for the power supply allows you to use your choice of ATX models. It is an industry standard design so you have a wide variety of choices in this area.



Flipping the enclosure over shows the rubber fitted standoffs on the base of the unit. This will ensure that you do not damage the piece of furniture you use for storing your new HTPC system. It also works to keep the case off the decking to help with airflow.



Above shows another angle and the venting that has gone into the enclosure. It also shows the ventilation for the processor. While the top panel comes standard with a plastic funnel to help get cool air to the processor area of the mainboard, you can remove this and replace it with a fan if this suits your needs better.