Customer Reviews

Antec Fusion Remote Black Micro ATX Media Center / HTPC Case

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Pros:

Two 120mm fans that when replaced with 800 RPM Scythe Slipstreams creates a silent and high airflow case.

Looks like AV equipment

Well built and laid out

Cons:

Display, IR, and Volume knob are useless - don't buy the case based on these features.

The remote software is crummy/buggy and the IR won't work with native WMC IR commands and my Harmony remote.

I'm not sure I'd spend the money on it again... hard to say. I think I'd look a little closer at the Silverstone cases and buy a windows IR. Antec does a really good job building and laying their cases out, so maybe, but I expected more out of the IR and display.

The 120mm fans really are the way to go in a HTPC to keep noise down. That plus a fanless PSU and it is as quiet as a Tivo.

The case is great. It has a lot of nice details such as rubber pads to absorb vibration and a mounting system for hard drives that isolates them on soft bushings to minimize drive noise. Ventalation

The power supplu is mounted upside down in a separate compartment from the motherboard. There is an extension for the 24 pin power cable, but the P4 cable might be a problem. I would buy a p4 cable extension or Molex to p4 cable with this case, unless you are sure that your cables will reach.

The VFD loks kind of cheap and the remote looks and feels cheap. The Soundgraph iMon software that drives it is limited. I would consider buying the non-VFD version and a different VFD.

Found this to be a decent & solidly designed case that was easy to setup in most areas. the enclosure has great cooling with a nice built-in display and remote control functionality. A little disappointed in the limited disk drive capacity (2 Max) The instruction provided were rather slim, instalation of the CD/DVD drive was not clear at all. The entite plastic face has to be removed from your CD/DVD drive. Overall very satified for the price paid. The software provided with the unit to interface its remote etc. is not very intuitive to use. Overall Better instructions would go a long way to improve my ratings of the hardware and supplied software!

This is a great high quality case the size of a stereo receiver. 2x 120mm included fans keep the case cool enough that I didn't need fans on the graphics card or the CPU (Core2Duo), but you should use a very good heat sink. The power supply is in a separate chamber, which keeps the heat isolated from the mainboard. PCI(e) slots are normal height, so a low profile video card is not needed. Fans vent to the side, so make sure you have space for the air to flow out.

LCD display shows some basic information, but is mostly not used by me for anything useful. The included iMon software isn't as good as the Windows Media Center software, so I don't use it except to control the system with the included remote. Although the remote can control the mouse and input text, I recommend a good wireless keyboard with built-in trackball mouse for this system as the remote is only good for basic tasks and not for typing. I'm also getting a fingerprint reader for quick logons vs. having to type in a password.

Lots of sound dampening pads are used, such as under the power supply, for the hard drives, the case feet and a strip along the top where the lid fits on the case.

Instructions were vague and could be confusing on a few minor points. The front of the case (wires to display, etc) were pre-installed, which is a plus since the instructions were confusing if you have to do it yourself.

Overall, I love this case and it looks good in my living room. Just wish Amazon would support APO addresses more as I couldn't get them to ship this directly.

This is a great case for my main HTPC. Nicely laid out. Great ventilation. I don't understand what other reviewers were complaining about, as I like the LED screen font and the way it functions. The case looks great in my Salamander Designs ventilated AV stand. Looks just like an AV receiver. The only thing I did not like was the Antec 3-speed 80mm fans that came with the case. Instead of having a 3-pin sysfan connector, they have a 4 pin molex that you connect to the PSU. The fans are then controlled by a small inline switch on the fan wires (low, med, high). For those of you who do not have sysfan connections on the mobo, I guess this is a good solution. However, my Mobo has sysfan connectors, and I would much rather have the mobo control the fan speed. I remedied this by coughing up another $15 for different fans with a 3-pin connector. Other than that, couldnt be happier. The HTPC runs like a champ, and it looks/fits great with my other AV equipment. For those who are building an HTPC, here are my specs if it helps:

Mobo - MSI H67MA-E45

CPU: Intel i5-2400

PSU - OCZ ModXStream Pro 500W Modular High-Performance PSU

RAM - Corsair Memory 8 Dual Channel Kit DDR3 1600

HD - Western Digital Caviar Black 2 TB SATA III 7200 RP

Case - Antec Fusion Remote Black Micro ATX Media Center / HTPC Case

Tuner - Ceton InfiniTV 4 Digital Cable Quad-tuner Card PCIe

Overall, a good HTPC case. The biggest plus is its design as it looks very clean and at home in a cabinet of home theater components. It is very sturdy and was incredibly easy to assemble/build, even without looking at the instructions. Lots of details in the design mean it is very quiet and manages air flow efficiently. The power supply, hard drives, and optical drive are housed in separate compartments leaving the motherboard area with ample room and great volume for air flow. As well, the case fans are extremely quiet at low and medium settings and the case includes silicone mounting feet to keep hard drive vibration to a minimum. My only complaint with the overall product is the LCD display. During operation of the computer, it works fine as you can pretty much configure everything from the information it displays, scrolling speed, and font, etc. The main problem I had is that when the PC is turned off and if you'd like to use the LCD as a clock (as most home theater components are able) the default font is quite ugly- bordering on illegible. Unfortunately, this is impossible to change, according to the manufacturer, as it is not possible to flash the LCD to update the font. The remote is adequate, but I'm still considering a Logitech replacement remote or wireless keyboard. Overall, I'm very happy with the case and it perfectly suits my needs.

I have had this case for 2 months now, bought this after some serious research on HTPC cases on the internet as well as in stores! My main considerations were Quiet Cooling, Dimensions, Build Quality, Front LCD & IR Reciever/Remote, Room for Expansion and Finally Looks/Aesthetics (I wanted this to blend in well with the other items on the console)!

The others I considered were these:

SilverStone Aluminum/Steel Micro ATX HTPC Computer Case GD05B (Black)

Antec NSK2480 Desktop case 380W PS

SilverStone Grandia Series HTPC Case with Aluminum FP Micro-ATX, 2x Hot-Swap Drive Bay, 3x120mm Golf Bladed Fan, USB 3.0 x2 and 11-Inch Expansion Card GD06B (Black)

nMediaPC 6000B Black HTPC case - on Newegg

The closest contenders were the Silverstone GD05 and the nMediaPC 6000B, all of them excelled in one aspect or the other! Went with this because this one had "most of" what I wanted in an HTPC case and was within my budget, also the looked the best among the others !

So evaluating this case based on all these above factors and on performance so far here is the review:

PROS:

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1) Cooling: One of the best cases as far as cooling goes, especially if you don't want a lot of noisy fans, the case comes with 2x120mm fans and they are very quiet and does not disturb our movies or shows! The only other better cooling case from the above list would be the GD05 which has excellent cooling (3x120mm fans)!

2) Build Quality: This is pretty impressive even though cable management is a nightmare (that is the case with most of the other cases as well), but the fact that it has 3 segregated compartments for all the components inside makes it much more easier to build in work with and I liked it! So there is enough room for everything that the case supports and also provided accessories and cables are pretty good! Also it supports full length video cards if you plan on installing it, and has 4 expansion slots, which in my opinion is more than enough for an HTPC! Installing an SSD can be tricky though, make sure you do that before you install the optical drive!

3) Remote & iMon Software: Contrary to many reviews here and on Newegg this is the best feature about the case! Once you update the software tot he latest available version and set the remote right this is a great tool! I love this because of 2 reasons:

a) This case/remote lets me switch on and off the case using it just like any other media equipment and I don't have to leave the couch, which is a pretty handy option to have if yours is a "Switched ON only when needed HTPC" like mine, and you would like to save some energy!

b) This remote (which I do not use) works like a dream with the Logitech Harmony One Universal Remote with Color Touchscreen. I don't use the remote that came with the case, even though that is also pretty good, but instead I use the Harmony and it works very well!

4) Looks/Asthetics: This case looks just like an AV receiver just bigger and it is all black, which is great for my media center as evrything else on there is black as well and the Blue LCD (more on this below) and indicator lights look good as well!

CONS:

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1) Dimensions: This is where this case looses out to the Silverstone cases or even the newer nMediaPC 7000B (which was recently launched)! These cases are only 12-13" deep while the Antec is 17.5" deep, add another 2" for cables sticking out and we have a 20" of depth to fit! In my case this was to be placed on this stand - 67" DLP TV Stand and while this is not the narrowest surface to keep media equipment on, this is also not the widest. I measured it and it was around 17.7" wide and hence I assumed this would fit even with cables! But the front feet of the case is barely on the stand where it lives now!

If this is your first time building an HTPC then understand that the dimension of an HTPC case is a major concern depending on where you plan to place it, especially the depth of the case, the length from the front to the back of the case is going to be crucial! So I took 1/2 star for this aspect, the fact that others have managed to build equally good cases (with all the same features) which has a much smaller footprint is something Antec should consider!

2) Front LCD: As many of the reviews on the other sites suggested this is not a great LCD panel, first of all this is not a polarized panel and hence the lettering and the appearance is shabby and difficult to read sometimes! This does not look like the other LCD's on the media equipment on your console! This can be easily rectified by the manufacturer but it is not done, WHY NOT Antec? I've read on forums that there is a quick fix for this and the issue is the angle at which the outer polarizing film is placed, you can replace that at the right angle and it is solved! Why can't they pay attention to this before shipping the product!

3)Room for Expansion: This is the other place where this case looses out, a little more attention to detail by the designers and this could have been a great case with much better room for expansion, and I'm not talking about slots at the back, I'm talking about storage, it has room for 2 x 3.5" HDD's, it could have easily had room for at least 5-7 drive bays with this large a footprint! Check the nMediaPC 6000B case and you will see what I mean! But if you have a media server/NAS for your storage then it doesn't matter but if you use local storage for your media then this would become a problem pretty soon! I will have to build a NAS pretty soon as I'm running out of storage space for my media!

So overall I would have given it 3.5 stars, but since that is not possible here it is 3 stars! Even though the CONS are not show stoppers or deal breakers it is definitely something that could have been fixed with a little more attention to detail, and I hope that Antec notices and fixes these soon! I almost returned this and bought the nMediaPC 7000B and the LCD module but then decided that it would be too much trouble to disassemble everything and build it again, and hence held on to it! I'm not really unhappy about most of the CONS, except for the depth, which is something I cannot solve without investing in another TV stand!

So for anyone looking for a buy recommendation, carefully measure your space and estimate your storage needs, if this doesn't match then there are equally good/better products for this price but if it does then the case itself is not a bad HTPC case, you will love the looks and the remote module!

I had the option of buying a similar Antec case which had a silver face and came w/ power supply, but instead I opted for a more powerful power supply and a better all black case. I have never built a computer from the ground up and with that being said anyone would be able to assemble a pc using this case. I like the three chambered design (for controlled cooling) and also like the fact that there was absolutely no assembling needed out of the box (meaning I pulled the case out and was ready to assemble the computer). The instructions were confusing at times but I also attribute that to my lack of experience. For my build the power supply/cd rom bay was cramped due to my 650w power supply and it's many cables... I believe those of you who have done builds before won't have this problem. I find the LCD is quite blinding and the only way to turn off the bright blue display is to flip the switch on the p/s. The remote functions well but I also haven't had much time to play around with it. I opted for a mouse-less system and have been using the remote for cursor control... needless to say I will be purchasing a mouse in the future. There is plenty of room for expansion in this case but I suppose that also depends on which motherboard you chose to put into the case. I haven't found use for the volume knob in front yet but I do think the knob adds a little style to the case which allows it to blend in with the rest of the home theater equipment. I purchased a blu ray dvd/cd rom and found that the "open" button on the front of the case which pushes the actual button on the rom drive was a few centimeters lower and failed to allow me to insert/eject discs. I fashioned an extension in order to solve the problem but I figure this could have just been due to the low profile button supplied with my Samsung drive. This is a solid well built case and I would purchase this in a heartbeat! If I would change anything I would perhaps have another expansion slot so that I could place a removable hard drive bay in there.

This case was the only case that would:

Fit into my entertainment center

Fit a full sized video card

Support 2 hard drives and a dvddrive.

It was quite a tight fit but I managed to get everything in. This took about an hour but I was going slow and planning my route. Be patient when you are building this computer, especially if you are using a full sized video card. Order to install:

Motherboard -> connect all case wires to the motherboard

Power supply -> connect case power and motherboard power

dvd/hard drives -> cabling

any PCI slots -> cabling

Video Card and its power.

You may need a third hand when installing a video card to help hold the power cables back.

ASUS p5EVM-HDMI

INTEL core2 Quad

standard CPU fan

1tb and 2tb drives

1 dvd burner

600W power supply

1 PCI ethernet card

1 9800GT

This set up runs everything necessary for an HTPC, and doesn't do awful at gaming either.

Cooling is very good in this case. I installed some fans into my entertainment center, but I think that may have been overkill. The case separates the power supply/motherboard/hard drives and moves the air around them via the 2 side fans and the power supply fan.

When building a HTPC, you start with a case. This one has it all. I built mine using Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit.

All the features of this case work nicely. The LCD works fine but is not as useful or nice looking as I had hoped. I ditched the remote control for a Lenovo mini multimedia wireless keyboard /trackball for $25. Much easier to use and has all the multimedia functions are on it.

Pros:

- Top quality case.

- Volume Control knob. I actually use this a lot.

- Lots of room.

- LED Display: - Will tell you what your watching, time, volume level , channel Ect.

- Very classy clean look

- Silent. I also added a nearly silent CPU fan and power supply. I can not hear this at all.

Cons

- Documentation could be better.

- LED display: Could be better, but is useful. Will tell you what your watching, time, volume level , channel Ect.

- Remote functional but confusing and is not very intuitive. I think they could have done much better on this. Plus there an annoying slight delay when you press a button.

- Power indicator is a little bight, but as other have posted , this can be changed, does nto bother me enough to do so.

I would certainly recommend this case but would advise that the remote and the LCD should not be determining factors.