Anyone doing 2-way SLI/XFire will benefit from being able to space the cards out without crowding the CPU socket by having the 1st GPU in the top PCIe slot.
That said, I'm not sure why you'd want to for an HTPC though; and this case seems to've added it as a feature check instead of as a practical option anyway.
Soon a slew of VR headsets will ht the market. Although a card like the fuji nano should do OK in a single card setup even for the larger resolution that requires.
The size of the case does not bother me, as there a mATX cases that are as large in overall volume. This gives options for many hard drives or fans. The real question is why anyone would need a full ATX motherboard, unless they are using 3-way SLI or crossfire.
I have a full ATX motherboard that's well populated. GPU taking up two slots, a WiFi PCIe card, a TV tuner PCIe card, a USB 3.0 PCIe card (LGA775 - onboard USB2.0 only), and a PCIe 8 port external SAS RAID card.
4x or more USB 3.0 ports is common on mATX boards these days and built in wi-fi is common on higher end models. The rest of what you mentioned would fit on a mATX board.
I do. I love home theatre and gaming. I want to build a HTPC/gaming machine for my lounge room. I have an ONKYO TX-NR3030 and I'm absolutely loving the ATMOS surround sound with my projector. Now I want to match that with a lovely large HTPC case. I don't want a tower in my lounge room and I certainly don't want a NUC or tiny square machine sitting awkardly to one side. I LOVE full size components. Surely it's not just me? I would love nothing more than to have a huge, full sized HTPC case to complement my audio equipment. The idea of coming home to watch an atmos film, then play same AAA games on full power from the one big fat machine is a wonderful thought for me. We're not trying to make our pre-amps, power-amps, high-level CD players and what not smaller. Why can't a get a stonking Denon/Marantz/Onkyo-esque looking HTPC??
The only one I've ever found is made by a little company called Steiger Dynamics. They're products however, are extrodinarly overpriced and you can't just buy their cases separately.
Interesting case but the company needs to change its name. What is Strea com?
BTW, I fit in a mATX board, GTX980, 1 wireless PCI-express card, 1 Blu-ray drive, 4 HDD, 1 SSD and 2 120mm fans into a Prodigy M. I can fit 2 more SSD and if I remove the Blu-ray, 1 more 120mm fan or 240mm radiator.
Mini-ITX only has one PCIe slot. Peichen quoted 2 PCIe cards. That said, if their WiFi card was mini-PCIe it would probably work fine, although a 980 might be too long to use with the drive cages.
It looks like a Gateway desktop case from the mid-90s with added ventilation that looks to be arranged a little strangely simply for the sake of symmetry.
If I'm building an HTPC, I want it to be quiet. This design is well too open to offer anything close to silence.
I fully agree. I also looked specifically for a case with a 5 1/4" bay and front ports. Found the lovely Lian Li PC-C50B which is not only cheaper and offers the mentioned features but also comes with two fans installed, has plenty of space for drives and is available in black which is kind of important since my receiver and other equipment is also black and a silver case would really look like an alien in my living room... One big drawback of the Lian Li case: You *really* have to love screwing because that's what you'll be doing a lot for any tiny hardware change...
This case isn't for me (at least at the current MSRP) but I really, REALLY like quite a LOT of what I see on display in this case: - tolerances on joints, & especially the external panel seams, etc; - meticulously precise conical chamfering on external AND internal screw inlets, external AND internal; - the exceptional proportionate balance of radials (fore & aft) expressed in the 1/2 bullnose treatment that weds to the top panel; - similar radial expression on right & left side panels flowing into the base.
Extensive photos & well angled views reveal that every element of this case is EXACTLY where they intended & every aspect flows into the next PRECISELY as envisioned. Streacom demonstrates a masterful blending of excellent engineering to gifted design.
I seriously like where they're going in this case. Design choices & asthetics can (& should) be questioned & debated. But like them or not, their execution appears beyond reproach. The disclaimer of course is: photographs. But these photos give rise to the craving for an up close & personal stroll around the block.
As it stands, I'll look into the Lian Li PC-C50B. Cuz I do *REALLY* love screwing but so rarely get the pleasure!
Fractal Node 605 makes this thing look just plain silly and overpriced. The major problem with attempting to put any GPU's in these horizontal cases, other than blower-style cooler equipped cards, is the airflow. You can either exhaust or supply, a longer GPU blocks nearly the entire airflow path. The size I think was more to match existing theater components rather than to provide functionality for this case. It's like they had 2 designers who never talked to each other, one thinking of interior layout and one hacking holes into the exterior. Those top grilles...why not make it more functional and get actual full sized filtered opening with fan mounts? That movable rail system is kind of an afterthought I'd say, little correlation to the case layout or component positioning on the motherboard.
Like the article says, the exclusion of any front USB ports is such a huge omission, people will just end up having a USB extension coming from the back of the case and mucking up what could be a clean appearance in an theater setup. No sound absorption materials with that high ticket price is crazy too. At least some padding above the main CPU and GPU areas. Then to mount some potential mechanical drives right up against the aluminum with no dampeners or anything? Yes, I'd love to conduct all vibrations through the case please!
Well thing thing certainly does not look like a big storage champion, to be honest. I'd view it more like a network bound machine for HTPC purposes. Just drop in a SSD for the system, a bigger ssd if you plan on gaming (or a second cheaper/GB SSD)
I initially assumed it was a scaled up version of the rest of their cases (presumably checkbox marketing driven design); but while bigger than the remainder of their lineup it has a very different design than the rest.
Almost of their gallery shots are of black cases; so I'm not sure why they send this model for review. The rest of their cases are a lot more reasonable too; slim mATX/mITX models that either support half height cards or use a riser to mount a full size card or two parallel to the mobo, and with heatsinks that use heat pipes to connect the CPU to the chassis to use as a giant heat sink. I suspect the one case with the PCIe riser is intended for a pair of full height tv capture/etc cards because a GPU would broil in the case. Some of the cases have room for a small fan; but in their intended mode most look like they would probably function just fine passively cooled. Maybe the fan's for if you're using an HDD; I didn't look that closely at layouts.
The best I can say about this case that it might've been a failed experiment; but the PHBs insisted on production to try and recover some of the r&d costs. It's a pity they decided to send it out for review; almost all of their other cases look like they'd've gotten a better reception.
It seems to be a common mistake that "sleek, minimalist design" is assumed to mean "remove all the ports".
If the company is really phobic about visible ports they could put a flush door in front of them but TBH in my experience doors are more hassle than they're worth. The USB type-C hole is quite elegant, perhaps we could look forward to a future where you just have a regular array of those on the front of the case...
I think the point was to illustrate the case layout, cable management, and what a finished system will look like inside the box. Since consistently repeatable testing of case thermal and noise properties uses a specifically designed set of hardware component simulators rather than actual computer parts, the parts used to show layout in the photo aren't as important. Besides that, the size and general shape of dual slot, blower-equipped GPUs hasn't significantly changed in quite a few years so a GTX 295 is perfectly reasonable.
"It essentially looks like a typical tower case that has fallen on its side. An aluminum cover shields the expansion card slot screws. Strangely, there are no ventilation or fan openings, even though there is more than enough space of a small exhaust fan."
You can always add an internal USB RF remote receiver (Yaocoo makes one) to any case. The problem is that you're stuck with Yaocoo's remote. IR is important if you want to integrate the HTPC into a home theater system with an IR universal remote.
RF is great, but it's not a solution until there's a universal RF remote
It drives me nuts when I see fan mounts that block 30%+ of the fan area with mounts intended to be compatible with multiple fan sizes. http://images.anandtech.com/doci/9618/manual.jpg The design is intended to be versatile, but in the end it just winds up being wasteful in my mind.
"The noise of a finalized system will solely depend on the parts chosen by the user. We had to skip directly to our advanced noise testing, exploring the noise dampening capabilities of the case."
Not good enough. If you're going to claim its temperature performance is such and such, after adding three fans — and compare that performance with other cases — then you need to post the decibel rating.
Cooling is about decibels per watt... how much noise is generated to cool a specific amount of waste heat. Without the decibel information your review is unfinished.
It's also a contradiction to say the dust filtration sheets have holes that are too large to effectively capture dust and then praise them for being "very practical".
Shouldn't a practical dust filter filter the dust?
And that's why we had its thermal performance posted without the fans - and compared it. A single sentence, "worse even than the BitFenix Neos", is better than five graphs.
You may be right about dB(A)/W (although it does not work quite that way) but it is not useful to
I specifically wrote that the filtration sheets have holes that may be too large to stop small dust particles. That is a lot different than "effectively capture dust". If what you mean by "effectively" is "all of it", then the only filter you should consider is a solid wall.
Also, "practical" and "efficient" are two vastly different things. And stating that something is practical for a very specific reason is a very long shot from "praising".
You may be right about dB(A)/W (although it does not work quite that way) but it is not useful to provide noise graphs for three specific fans that I chose for a test that was done just for illustrative reasons. If I chose two fans, four fans, or any other fans from the hundreds of the available models, the results would differ. There is no point to provide you with a "dB(A)/W" rating when that will change based on your selection.
Caveat. I've used their SFF passive case (8c) in the past. These are rated upto 95W TDP hardware, however, even using 65W TDP, cpu and mobo temperatures crept up to around 60°C, and I wasn't even pushing the hardware very hard. Using a 45W TDP unit in it's current incarnation keeps temps generally around 45°C, every once in a while it goes up to 50.
I also use a SFF an active unit (7C), and, using a 65W TDP unit, it can't keep the unit cool when only the CPU fan is installed. There is not evough room inside the case to use anything but a low profile fan, and it needs help from a small (size limit again) evacuation fan. This works, but the noise at load is quite horrendous.
So far I have NOT been impressed with Streacom efforts.
It doesn't look very attractive to me, but I think a person with some talent doing some slight mods can make it look nice. But default it just looks bad to my eyes.
Interesting, but some very strange decisions here; while I like that there's an option for using the sides as intakes/exhausts, I can't help but feel that the case should still have mounts for a more traditional front to back cooling setup with vents for intake fans at the front, since this is the only side that should be completely clear at all times. The sides and top could easily be obstructed in many HTPC setups, which limits the usefulness of a case that can only be cooled from these sides. While I don't like using the rear panel for exhaust due to the necessarily small fan mounts (once you take up space for PCI slots and I/O), not offering it as an option still seems a glaring mistake.
Likewise the lack of front USB ports; that limits its usefulness for gaming (nowhere to plug in wired controllers or charge wireless ones) and eliminates a useful means of connecting install media or providing media files that you already have.
So yeah, as much as I like well made aluminium cases, there are just too many issues with this one to make it really useful IMO.
I rather think it's a nice htpc case. I currently use a node 605 and if I had silver components id rather have this. All I need in an htpc is a very good looking case about the same width as my amp and space for a full size vide card. Optical drive? I can rip to my nas from the nas itself or my desktop, or my laptop. Tuner? HD homeruns in the garage. USB in the front is an affront to the senses especially with the blue plastic in 3.0 ports. I just run an active USB repeater cable to a pop up panel in the floor and a coupler into the leg of the coffee tabletable to a popup panel. Htpc controls are via a mce receiver in the back with a harmony ir blaster. Some people just want things to look clean. They should offer 19" rack mount ears to go all the way for custom installs.
We’ve updated our terms. By continuing to use the site and/or by logging into your account, you agree to the Site’s updated Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
45 Comments
Back to Article
techxx - Monday, September 14, 2015 - link
Who in the world needs full-sized ATX nowadays? Case looks great, but too big.DanNeely - Monday, September 14, 2015 - link
Anyone doing 2-way SLI/XFire will benefit from being able to space the cards out without crowding the CPU socket by having the 1st GPU in the top PCIe slot.DanNeely - Monday, September 14, 2015 - link
That said, I'm not sure why you'd want to for an HTPC though; and this case seems to've added it as a feature check instead of as a practical option anyway.hpascoa - Monday, September 14, 2015 - link
Replace "HTPC" with "Steam Machine" and it starts making a whole lot more sense.DanNeely - Monday, September 14, 2015 - link
Not really. 4k is mostly pointless at TV viewing distances and a single GPU is more than plenty at 1080p.Bully242 - Friday, September 18, 2015 - link
So is 720p if you sit back far enough.. Don't see how your opinion makes 4k pointlessWwhat - Wednesday, September 23, 2015 - link
Soon a slew of VR headsets will ht the market.Although a card like the fuji nano should do OK in a single card setup even for the larger resolution that requires.
jardows2 - Monday, September 14, 2015 - link
The size of the case does not bother me, as there a mATX cases that are as large in overall volume. This gives options for many hard drives or fans. The real question is why anyone would need a full ATX motherboard, unless they are using 3-way SLI or crossfire.joex4444 - Monday, September 14, 2015 - link
I have a full ATX motherboard that's well populated. GPU taking up two slots, a WiFi PCIe card, a TV tuner PCIe card, a USB 3.0 PCIe card (LGA775 - onboard USB2.0 only), and a PCIe 8 port external SAS RAID card.jardows2 - Tuesday, September 15, 2015 - link
Forgot about the TV Tuner. For an HTPC, that is a big consideration.Wwhat - Wednesday, September 23, 2015 - link
In 2015? I thought nobody watched live-TV anymore.CrimsonFury - Thursday, November 26, 2015 - link
4x or more USB 3.0 ports is common on mATX boards these days and built in wi-fi is common on higher end models. The rest of what you mentioned would fit on a mATX board.CrimsonFury - Thursday, November 26, 2015 - link
Also SAS RAID seems like overkill for HTPCAkrovah - Tuesday, September 15, 2015 - link
I never get anything smaller. More room = more features.Handsome Jack - Wednesday, June 1, 2016 - link
I do. I love home theatre and gaming. I want to build a HTPC/gaming machine for my lounge room. I have an ONKYO TX-NR3030 and I'm absolutely loving the ATMOS surround sound with my projector. Now I want to match that with a lovely large HTPC case. I don't want a tower in my lounge room and I certainly don't want a NUC or tiny square machine sitting awkardly to one side. I LOVE full size components. Surely it's not just me?I would love nothing more than to have a huge, full sized HTPC case to complement my audio equipment. The idea of coming home to watch an atmos film, then play same AAA games on full power from the one big fat machine is a wonderful thought for me. We're not trying to make our pre-amps, power-amps, high-level CD players and what not smaller. Why can't a get a stonking Denon/Marantz/Onkyo-esque looking HTPC??
The only one I've ever found is made by a little company called Steiger Dynamics. They're products however, are extrodinarly overpriced and you can't just buy their cases separately.
Peichen - Monday, September 14, 2015 - link
Interesting case but the company needs to change its name. What is Strea com?BTW, I fit in a mATX board, GTX980, 1 wireless PCI-express card, 1 Blu-ray drive, 4 HDD, 1 SSD and 2 120mm fans into a Prodigy M. I can fit 2 more SSD and if I remove the Blu-ray, 1 more 120mm fan or 240mm radiator.
ImSpartacus - Monday, September 14, 2015 - link
You probably could've fit that in the mitx version as well. The prodigy is a beast.Gigaplex - Monday, September 14, 2015 - link
Mini-ITX only has one PCIe slot. Peichen quoted 2 PCIe cards. That said, if their WiFi card was mini-PCIe it would probably work fine, although a 980 might be too long to use with the drive cages.Ubercake - Monday, September 14, 2015 - link
It looks like a Gateway desktop case from the mid-90s with added ventilation that looks to be arranged a little strangely simply for the sake of symmetry.If I'm building an HTPC, I want it to be quiet. This design is well too open to offer anything close to silence.
YukaKun - Monday, September 14, 2015 - link
For all I like the design, no front bays keeps me away. Also the lack of front USB ports.It might be ugly and a big chunky, but CoolerMasters' Elite 361 is the perfect trade off in size and function.
Cheers!
Daniel Egger - Monday, September 14, 2015 - link
I fully agree. I also looked specifically for a case with a 5 1/4" bay and front ports. Found the lovely Lian Li PC-C50B which is not only cheaper and offers the mentioned features but also comes with two fans installed, has plenty of space for drives and is available in black which is kind of important since my receiver and other equipment is also black and a silver case would really look like an alien in my living room... One big drawback of the Lian Li case: You *really* have to love screwing because that's what you'll be doing a lot for any tiny hardware change...Bobs_Your_Uncle - Monday, September 14, 2015 - link
This case isn't for me (at least at the current MSRP) but I really, REALLY like quite a LOT of what I see on display in this case:- tolerances on joints, & especially the external panel seams, etc;
- meticulously precise conical chamfering on external AND internal screw inlets, external AND internal;
- the exceptional proportionate balance of radials (fore & aft) expressed in the 1/2 bullnose treatment that weds to the top panel;
- similar radial expression on right & left side panels flowing into the base.
Extensive photos & well angled views reveal that every element of this case is EXACTLY where they intended & every aspect flows into the next PRECISELY as envisioned. Streacom demonstrates a masterful blending of excellent engineering to gifted design.
I seriously like where they're going in this case. Design choices & asthetics can (& should) be questioned & debated. But like them or not, their execution appears beyond reproach. The disclaimer of course is: photographs. But these photos give rise to the craving for an up close & personal stroll around the block.
As it stands, I'll look into the Lian Li PC-C50B. Cuz I do *REALLY* love screwing but so rarely get the pleasure!
angrypatm - Monday, September 14, 2015 - link
It looks as though it's targeted at Apple people, plain, no ports (no versatility). Its pretty, but not friendly.dwatterworth - Monday, September 14, 2015 - link
Fractal Node 605 makes this thing look just plain silly and overpriced.The major problem with attempting to put any GPU's in these horizontal cases, other than blower-style cooler equipped cards, is the airflow. You can either exhaust or supply, a longer GPU blocks nearly the entire airflow path.
The size I think was more to match existing theater components rather than to provide functionality for this case. It's like they had 2 designers who never talked to each other, one thinking of interior layout and one hacking holes into the exterior. Those top grilles...why not make it more functional and get actual full sized filtered opening with fan mounts? That movable rail system is kind of an afterthought I'd say, little correlation to the case layout or component positioning on the motherboard.
Like the article says, the exclusion of any front USB ports is such a huge omission, people will just end up having a USB extension coming from the back of the case and mucking up what could be a clean appearance in an theater setup. No sound absorption materials with that high ticket price is crazy too. At least some padding above the main CPU and GPU areas. Then to mount some potential mechanical drives right up against the aluminum with no dampeners or anything? Yes, I'd love to conduct all vibrations through the case please!
nightbringer57 - Monday, September 14, 2015 - link
Well thing thing certainly does not look like a big storage champion, to be honest. I'd view it more like a network bound machine for HTPC purposes. Just drop in a SSD for the system, a bigger ssd if you plan on gaming (or a second cheaper/GB SSD)ImSpartacus - Monday, September 14, 2015 - link
Yeah, it's hard to understand the use case for this one.DanNeely - Monday, September 14, 2015 - link
I initially assumed it was a scaled up version of the rest of their cases (presumably checkbox marketing driven design); but while bigger than the remainder of their lineup it has a very different design than the rest.Almost of their gallery shots are of black cases; so I'm not sure why they send this model for review. The rest of their cases are a lot more reasonable too; slim mATX/mITX models that either support half height cards or use a riser to mount a full size card or two parallel to the mobo, and with heatsinks that use heat pipes to connect the CPU to the chassis to use as a giant heat sink. I suspect the one case with the PCIe riser is intended for a pair of full height tv capture/etc cards because a GPU would broil in the case. Some of the cases have room for a small fan; but in their intended mode most look like they would probably function just fine passively cooled. Maybe the fan's for if you're using an HDD; I didn't look that closely at layouts.
The best I can say about this case that it might've been a failed experiment; but the PHBs insisted on production to try and recover some of the r&d costs. It's a pity they decided to send it out for review; almost all of their other cases look like they'd've gotten a better reception.
stephenbrooks - Monday, September 14, 2015 - link
It seems to be a common mistake that "sleek, minimalist design" is assumed to mean "remove all the ports".If the company is really phobic about visible ports they could put a flush door in front of them but TBH in my experience doors are more hassle than they're worth. The USB type-C hole is quite elegant, perhaps we could look forward to a future where you just have a regular array of those on the front of the case...
Morawka - Monday, September 14, 2015 - link
wtf is that a GTX 295 Graphics card you installed in that pc? kinda old and outdated ya thinkBrokenCrayons - Monday, September 14, 2015 - link
I think the point was to illustrate the case layout, cable management, and what a finished system will look like inside the box. Since consistently repeatable testing of case thermal and noise properties uses a specifically designed set of hardware component simulators rather than actual computer parts, the parts used to show layout in the photo aren't as important. Besides that, the size and general shape of dual slot, blower-equipped GPUs hasn't significantly changed in quite a few years so a GTX 295 is perfectly reasonable.RaistlinZ - Monday, September 14, 2015 - link
A full tower case, put on its side, with ventilation all around...got it.Oxford Guy - Tuesday, September 15, 2015 - link
Not quite."It essentially looks like a typical tower case that has fallen on its side. An aluminum cover shields the expansion card slot screws. Strangely, there are no ventilation or fan openings, even though there is more than enough space of a small exhaust fan."
meacupla - Monday, September 14, 2015 - link
This might have been a decent product, if it were released 10 years ago.These days, it's all about compact mITX systems or compact streaming devices, like nVidia Shield.
Also, IR? really? BT/Wifi remote control is the way to go.
Odeen - Tuesday, September 15, 2015 - link
You can always add an internal USB RF remote receiver (Yaocoo makes one) to any case. The problem is that you're stuck with Yaocoo's remote. IR is important if you want to integrate the HTPC into a home theater system with an IR universal remote.RF is great, but it's not a solution until there's a universal RF remote
nmm - Monday, September 14, 2015 - link
It drives me nuts when I see fan mounts that block 30%+ of the fan area with mounts intended to be compatible with multiple fan sizes.http://images.anandtech.com/doci/9618/manual.jpg
The design is intended to be versatile, but in the end it just winds up being wasteful in my mind.
budabellyx - Tuesday, September 15, 2015 - link
Does it also make toast?Jhlot - Tuesday, September 15, 2015 - link
It looks like a toaster in the first picture.Oxford Guy - Tuesday, September 15, 2015 - link
"The noise of a finalized system will solely depend on the parts chosen by the user. We had to skip directly to our advanced noise testing, exploring the noise dampening capabilities of the case."Not good enough. If you're going to claim its temperature performance is such and such, after adding three fans — and compare that performance with other cases — then you need to post the decibel rating.
Cooling is about decibels per watt... how much noise is generated to cool a specific amount of waste heat. Without the decibel information your review is unfinished.
Oxford Guy - Tuesday, September 15, 2015 - link
It's also a contradiction to say the dust filtration sheets have holes that are too large to effectively capture dust and then praise them for being "very practical".Shouldn't a practical dust filter filter the dust?
E.Fyll - Tuesday, September 15, 2015 - link
And that's why we had its thermal performance posted without the fans - and compared it. A single sentence, "worse even than the BitFenix Neos", is better than five graphs.You may be right about dB(A)/W (although it does not work quite that way) but it is not useful to
I specifically wrote that the filtration sheets have holes that may be too large to stop small dust particles. That is a lot different than "effectively capture dust". If what you mean by "effectively" is "all of it", then the only filter you should consider is a solid wall.
Also, "practical" and "efficient" are two vastly different things. And stating that something is practical for a very specific reason is a very long shot from "praising".
E.Fyll - Tuesday, September 15, 2015 - link
Sorry, lost a sentence there.You may be right about dB(A)/W (although it does not work quite that way) but it is not useful to provide noise graphs for three specific fans that I chose for a test that was done just for illustrative reasons. If I chose two fans, four fans, or any other fans from the hundreds of the available models, the results would differ. There is no point to provide you with a "dB(A)/W" rating when that will change based on your selection.
Landiepete - Wednesday, September 16, 2015 - link
Caveat. I've used their SFF passive case (8c) in the past. These are rated upto 95W TDP hardware, however, even using 65W TDP, cpu and mobo temperatures crept up to around 60°C, and I wasn't even pushing the hardware very hard.Using a 45W TDP unit in it's current incarnation keeps temps generally around 45°C, every once in a while it goes up to 50.
I also use a SFF an active unit (7C), and, using a 65W TDP unit, it can't keep the unit cool when only the CPU fan is installed. There is not evough room inside the case to use anything but a low profile fan, and it needs help from a small (size limit again) evacuation fan. This works, but the noise at load is quite horrendous.
So far I have NOT been impressed with Streacom efforts.
Wwhat - Wednesday, September 23, 2015 - link
It doesn't look very attractive to me, but I think a person with some talent doing some slight mods can make it look nice. But default it just looks bad to my eyes.Haravikk - Monday, September 28, 2015 - link
Interesting, but some very strange decisions here; while I like that there's an option for using the sides as intakes/exhausts, I can't help but feel that the case should still have mounts for a more traditional front to back cooling setup with vents for intake fans at the front, since this is the only side that should be completely clear at all times. The sides and top could easily be obstructed in many HTPC setups, which limits the usefulness of a case that can only be cooled from these sides. While I don't like using the rear panel for exhaust due to the necessarily small fan mounts (once you take up space for PCI slots and I/O), not offering it as an option still seems a glaring mistake.Likewise the lack of front USB ports; that limits its usefulness for gaming (nowhere to plug in wired controllers or charge wireless ones) and eliminates a useful means of connecting install media or providing media files that you already have.
So yeah, as much as I like well made aluminium cases, there are just too many issues with this one to make it really useful IMO.
Sertis - Friday, October 9, 2015 - link
I rather think it's a nice htpc case. I currently use a node 605 and if I had silver components id rather have this. All I need in an htpc is a very good looking case about the same width as my amp and space for a full size vide card. Optical drive? I can rip to my nas from the nas itself or my desktop, or my laptop. Tuner? HD homeruns in the garage. USB in the front is an affront to the senses especially with the blue plastic in 3.0 ports. I just run an active USB repeater cable to a pop up panel in the floor and a coupler into the leg of the coffee tabletable to a popup panel. Htpc controls are via a mce receiver in the back with a harmony ir blaster. Some people just want things to look clean. They should offer 19" rack mount ears to go all the way for custom installs.