Construction
Apparently, the MCE601 has been designed to withstand quite a bit of weight, as the side and front panels are made of 1/8” thick steel. The case can be unscrewed into its various segments, which is nice for anyone who wants to do any custom installations or modding to the unit. The decision not to use any thumb screws is a bit of a shame, especially since given that it takes the removal of six screws (three from either side) to remove the top panel, but considering the main location and use of a system like this, it is doubtful that after the initial installation, one would have to access the interior of the case on a regular basis.The front bezel is arguably the most important aspect of any HTPC case in regards to its construction, and the front brushed aluminum panel and its associated hinging door not only looks sturdy, but is also quite thick and should withstand many years of use.
The top removable panel is made of steel as well, most likely to help support the weight of additional units that might be sitting on top of the HTPC. Yet surprisingly, even with all the steel, the MCE610 weighs only 12.2 pounds without anything installed.
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ImJacksAmygdala - Friday, May 6, 2005 - link
Show me a single HTPC case that has two 120mm fans and a ATX power supply and I'll buy it. The first company that takes the Antec Sonata or SLK3700BQE design and flips it on its side with a horizontal DVD drive, HT component damper feet, and a clean HTPC face plate gets my money. Currently no such case exists on the market. Antec tried and failed with the Overture design due to the heat enthusiast systems now create, and for some reason they haven't thought about using the popular design of the Sonata and SLK3700BQE. If you go to the silentpcreview forums you can find tons of threads on these cases, and I am surprised no one has tried to mod one horizontal yet.araczynski - Friday, May 6, 2005 - link
cheap, retro wannabe, thin aluminum crap. probably made in vietnam for $0.50.but all the more power to them if they can sell this pile of sh*t to idiots.
Tamale - Friday, May 6, 2005 - link
It was a tad akward perhaps, but that is what I meant to say.. the hard drive's local air isn't really getting pushed or pulled anywhere thus keeping that area warmer than it should be..as far as the power supply, yes it offers the 20 or 24 pin connections, but no i didn't notice any 6-pin VGA connectors.
Spacecomber - Friday, May 6, 2005 - link
While these cases (Ahanix) are nice to look at, I have to agree with the consensus that there just doesn't seem to be enough good about them to justify a $300 price tag.I thought that the review was well done. I'll add just one small suggestion: more information on the vpower supply would be helpful. Maybe a shot of the label, so the power capacity on the different rails would be available. Also, perhaps add a mention of whether it is a 20 or a 24 pin ATX power connector and whether it provides the new 6 pin PCI video card connectors.
Finally, I think this sentence is mis-written, "It is a bit discouraging to see that the hard drive itself is not really any hotter than what we are used to seeing, but the warm air created from that component must not be moving much, as that area of the case is still quite warm. "
Still, a good start and I look forward to other reviews.
Space
Tamale - Friday, May 6, 2005 - link
Sorry about the broken images when the review first went up.. they should all be fixed now. This is my first review so things didn't all go quite as smoothly as I had hoped. I'm still trying to find the best ways to illuminate the cases before I shoot, but I feel the only real problem I had with most of these shots was a failure to manually set my white balance. Your feed back is highly valued though everyone.. thanks!-Joshua Buss
Tamale - Friday, May 6, 2005 - link
Zirconium - Thursday, May 5, 2005 - link
I don't care how good this case is - for the almost $300 that it costs, I can get a Shuttle cube.ncage - Thursday, May 5, 2005 - link
Cool looking case. Would definitly look like a piece for your home theater and wouldn't stick out like a normal case would but the cost is WAY WAY WAY WAY to high. If it was in the $100 range i would think about it but at this price no way. Im just going to get a super mini case from antec.Houdani - Thursday, May 5, 2005 - link
Ditto the troubles with the thermal images. Win2K, IE6.The missing images are the ones which display the temperature readings -- the ones we really care about. The mouse-over images will disply fine when you put your mouse on the placeholders, but those are just the pictures of the case innards less the thermal scores. Zoinks.
piasabird - Thursday, May 5, 2005 - link
I think a slot loading notebook drive would be better for a case like this. Might help with the air flow. I think possibly the intel chipset for the mobile desktop motherboard might be better. A centrino setup might be nice. I cant see many designs that can cool off multiple hard drives in a case this size in an efficient manner. If you have a vent on the bottom where the hard drive rack goes a low rpm fan might help. If the hard drives sat verticle they might cool better. Sitting horizontal they block the air flow.