December 2004 HTPC Case Roundup
by Purav Sanghani on December 27, 2004 2:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
SilverStone Technology Lascala 10/M
About a year and a half ago, SilverStone Technology opened their doors to the world to introduce a line of products that not only performed well, but looked great doing it. We've reviewed a number of their products since then; the first being the all aluminum monolithic Temjin 3, followed by the curvaceous Temjin 5 and ATX redesigned Temjin 6. Then, a little over a month ago, we gave our readers an exclusive look at our first Lascala desktop/HTPC chassis, the Lascala 10M with multimedia kit. Today, we will compare the LC10/M with the D.Vine 5, Cavelier 2 as well as a few others to see which comes out on top.External Design
SilverStone is known for their bold, yet simple, look in every product that comes off the line. Since their first case, the Temjin 1, many have been more than satisfied by the visual quality of each case. The LC10/M keeps things simple on the front bezel by eliminating doors and moving certain auxiliary ports to the side. At the left of the bezel, we see the Power and Reset buttons. We mentioned in our review of the LC10/M that the buttons are not clearly labeled and could cause some mishaps.
Click to enlarge.
At the bottom left corner, we see a set of four USB ports lined up horizontally. The audio in/out and FireWire ports have been moved to the left side of the case also to visually make it more Home Theater friendly.
At the center of the bezel, we see a rectangular 2x16 character Vacuum Florescent Display, like the one that we saw in the D.Vine 4 and D.Vine 5 by Ahanix. SilverStone, however, uses the iMON from SoundGraph, which enables IrDA and also has a USB interface. The software included is also exceptional in that it provides many of the functions of Windows Media Center in a simple to use interface free of charge with the LC10/M.
Click to enlarge.
The right 1/3 of the bezel is composed of a sliding panel that allows installation of a single 5-1/4" optical drive. Like the D.Vine 5, there is a slot for the drive tray and SilverStone has incuded an aluminum bezel which, in this case, uses a double-sided adhesive pad to secure to the factory bezel of the optical drive.
Click to enlarge.
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matthewfoley - Monday, December 27, 2004 - link
Great article! I'd love to see more on the HTPC area, including a processor article.I agree, benk. How could you choose the SilverStone over the NMedia? It runs hotter, louder, is more expensive and doesn't look as good.
Another thing I'd like to see in all of the cases is more room for hard drives. If you're going to store anything recorded in Media Center 2005, you're going to need tons of space, and the average user isn't going to want to have a separate file server. Then again, your average user isn't going to build a HTPC...
benk - Monday, December 27, 2004 - link
As noted, please fix pics in thermal section.That aside, great review. The pictures are extremely helpful. I would love to see added to them a comparative shot of all of the cases, or failing that a single chart that lists all of their dimensions.
My personal choice would probably go to the NMedia...if the temperatures are within normal operating ranges, and you're not overclocking (overclocking seems unnecessary in the HTPC arena), noise plays a much more defining factor in my purchase than thermal management.
Locut0s - Monday, December 27, 2004 - link
Ahh now these are what I'm talking about when I mean some nicer looking cases, even if I'm not in the market for an HTPC.mcveigh - Monday, December 27, 2004 - link
fix rollover pics on testing section :)great article! I love my htpc but am looking for a newer case I wish you had tested Ahanix D.Vine 5 with 2 siletX fans installed.
actually how about changing testing to include using identical fans for all systems. I know it's more work but this way you could see how casese compared based on design alone.