External Design (cont’d)
Typical of all home theater components, there’s nothing of real interest on the right or left sides of the MCE601. Worthy of mentioning, however, is that the case has well-designed feet on the bottom.
Click to enlarge.
The rear two feet are rubber cones approximately 3/4” high, and the front two feet are those rather familiar-looking silver and black circular affairs.
Click to enlarge.
Taking this into consideration, one could realize just how nice a computer built with this case would look mixed in with your already-existing home theater equipment. Since there are not too many differences between various HTPC cases, it is definitely the attention to details like this that one has to take note when deciding in which case to build their HTPC.
On the back of the MCE601, we found several familiar items, but also some other rather unconventional ones that piqued our interest.
First off, the included SilentX power supply does not have standard ATX-sized dimensions. Including the feet, the entire case is only 5.8 inches tall, while standard ATX power supplies are 5.9 inches wide (or in this case, tall), so it was necessary for Ahanix to use a proprietary power supply in this chassis.
Click to enlarge.
We can also see from the back the screws that hold the side panels to the back panel - always a nice choice in our opinion, since rivets are irremovable. There is a pair of 60mm fans situated above the motherboard port cluster to handle the bulk of the system’s cooling, and a cable coming from the display in the front bezel of the case out of a PCI slot. It is designed simply to plug into the motherboard’s parallel port, which while normally would not cause any problems might begin to as more motherboard manufacturers decide to leave out a parallel port altogether.
Click to enlarge.
Looking straight down at the top of the MCE601, one can see the CPU intake vents and the additional passive cooling vents situated over the video card area. Without additional fans, however, we are a bit curious as to how cool the MCE601 will keep the internal components and ambient air.
Next up, internal layout.
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Dmitheon - Thursday, May 5, 2005 - link
Couple of quick additions. Not to sound like an advertisement, but pcalchemy is offering a customized version of this case (in addition to the standard one), where they remove the PSU and add an adapter which allows any MicroATX PSU to be used. It's a bit cheaper than the normal version. Also, a thanks to the site for review HTPC cases. Many of the regular HTPC sites don't actually do thermal & sound measurements, and this stuff is useful. My only other hopes that you guys can take a look at some of the newer offerings from Uneed and Silverstone, particularly Uneeds X11 and X15e, and Silverstone's LC14M.yelo333 - Thursday, May 5, 2005 - link
Same issue as #3.FF 1.0.3, and Gentoo stable.
Netopia - Thursday, May 5, 2005 - link
I don't think that there are any other graphics on that page. There SHOULD be (it does say click to see full sized) but there aren't.Photography also needs to be better. In an all black environment like inside a case, one should use some sort of bounce flash to fill the shadows and give some contrast so that people can tell what they are looking at.
Other than that, nice review.
Aquila76 - Thursday, May 5, 2005 - link
#3 - Same deal on XP and FireFox, too. Maybe the link got wiped when the article was posted?sideshow23bob - Thursday, May 5, 2005 - link
Hey I had trouble viewing the thermal data. I assume there was something more than an picture of the internal case +mobo, b/c that's all I saw when I scrolled over it. I'm currently on a friend's Mac and using safari as a browser, so let me know if it's my issue or on all computers. Thanks.Googer - Thursday, May 5, 2005 - link
Zepper - Thursday, May 5, 2005 - link
Guys are slipping... Typical Ahanix - all show, no go. I have never seen one yet where even half the attention paid to the external appearance was paid to internal details and modern conveniences. No vibe dampers for the drives or fans. Less than 1/4" of added height would accomodata a stanard PSU. And it goes on and on....bh.