HEC 7106BB Black 1.0mm Thickness ATX Desktop Computer Case

Pros: I built a PC for a family member with this case as they specifically asked for "Desktop case" Most components installed quickly, fits older desk configurations.

Cons: Air flow is not good for high horse-power video cards and processors. Replace stock fan on CPU and get extra fans. You might want to consider water cooling.

Pros: Solid construction
Easy to assemble

Cons: Putting the mother board in was a bit interesting (I used a full sized atx board). It did fit just getting the stand offs and board in under the horizontal support beam with the cpu and cooler was a bit hairy. Other then that exelent case easy to mannage wireing if you route things smart.

Pros: Sturdy, works ok if your parts fit.

Cons: * 3.5" HDD will not fit if your board is 9.6" deep (which many mATX boards are. ). For a case advertised to fit full size ATX case, I did not expect this to happen.


* Adding/remove drives require a lot of screwing and moving things around. Eg: mounting an optical drive, require removing the 3.5" drive cage to put screws on the other side of the optical drive.

* the bottom 5.25" is not usable for it will hit the motherboard.

Other Thoughts: *The case itself is quite big compare to HTPC cases, but poor design cause the limitation listed above. The HDD cage could have been mounted perpendicular to it's current position.

* for a case this size, can easily find space to put 92mm or 120mm fan mount points. This would help with airflow and low noise builds.

Pros: quality case for your buck

Cons: might need customization

Pros: Solid as a rock. Kids were climbing on this thing after I built it, I shooed them off but found no damage. Good reinforcement for the top.

Cons: Full ATX motherboards may run into issues with the hard drive cages. PCI-e Cards may nearly bump into the hard drive cage and the hard drives may either get in the way of memory, or nearly bump up against it. I tried two motherboards in this, and the smaller "Full ATX" (doesn't use the full motherboard mounts) fit without an issue.

Just be aware.

Other Thoughts: I'd probably drop an additional $8 and get a 50mm fan for the back and likely an 80mm for the front as well. I have been having trouble with overheating video cards since this case is in an enclosed space. Large video cards will "partition" the case and airflow will be a problem ... speaking from experience.

Pros: This case is what I expected.

Cons: I made it one egg for others to reed.

Other Thoughts: I have mounted an ASUS M5 A88-V EVO mother board it mounted ok. I had to modify the case for others. I expected that. The mother board does not have a FDD port that's ok but the HDD blocked the power socket on the board. Could not plug the power supply in. So here is what I did. I removed the FDD-HDD mount. Made a stencle of the bottom of the HDD of the four mouting holes. lade the stencle on the boddom of case with the back tords the power on switch and drilled four holes. Using the four spare MB stand off's I was able to mount the HDD to the boddom of the case. The CPU tunnel did not line up with the CPU fan. So I removed the plastic tunnel and drill four holes and mounted an 80mm case fan. For a top fan. If you are going to go with this case expect to modify it.

Pros: Three 5.25 external drive bays. Sturdy construction. Desktop.

Cons: The bottom 5.25 bay cant be used with drives as they hit the board.

Cant use all the internal 3.5 bays as they hit parts of the board. I had to purchase a drive cage for my SSD so I could remove the face plate.

MB didnt align with some of the stands. Bending them a hair fixed the issue.

Other Thoughts: I know the company says its made w/ old specs for schools but the description doesnt mention this.

Best available though.

Pros: Great no frills HTPC case. Its bigger than I expected. Full ATX MB and plenty of room to run cables. MB stand offs are bigger and hold MB farther away from case...better cooling and excess header wires fit nicely under it. Takes regular PS. No sharp edges, plenty of passive ventilation. Sturdy metal, no flex construction, plastic bezel but good quality. Even the power button makes a health "kuh-kuhn" when pressed...like they did back in the late 80's. Addin cards line up with slots, screw down and fit correctly...slot covers are not permanent "knock outs", but instead can be removed and replaced without screws.

Cons: Wouldn't mind seeing a 120mm fan location

Other Thoughts: You know those retina searing blue LEDs?...well this case doesn't have those...just green and amber. I suppose most of those are now going in LED TVs...probably 2 pair in each 55".

Pros: This is, hands down the easiest build I've ever done. All the drive bays are solidly laid out, all the standoffs are easily accessible, and this thing is a brick - you could probably drop it from a 10 story building and have all the components inside still intact. The idea was to take an old Core 2 Duo T6600 build that I didn't have any use for anymore and turn it into a relatively amazing full 1080p HTPC setup. It's primary use is going to be for movies, internet browsing, maybe some light gaming. And this case will make it perfect for sitting on the shelf next to the high-end Yamaha components it will be accompanying.

Cons: This is also, one of the most frustrating builds I've ever done. The HDD is very difficult to access - I had to remove the RAM in order to wedge the drive, and even then my primary HD isn't completely secure. There's only 3 3.5" drive bays and 3 5.25" bays - so don't buy this case if you plan on expanding your HTPC at all. I had to get a full, standard ATX power supply (I chose the Corsair CX430) and it just barely fit - it almost scraped the label and some of the paint off the PSU in the process. There's also a very awkwardly mounted vent that you have to remove in order to access anything.

Other Thoughts: It'll be interesting to see how this case holds up in the long run, I'm worried about the heat it'll generate due to not having enough (or really any) fans included. And the vents it does have aren't the standard 120, 140, or 200mm size. So hunting for fans on this will be quite the chore. But I hope it will be worth it.

Pros: The details on this case are WRONG, you can in fact install a 80x80x25mm fan (in the front of the case below the 3 1/2 in tray) additionally two 60x60x25mm fans. So you can install 3 fans in this case.

Cons: Too install the 80mm fan you will need to remove the face plate on the case and use standard screws for some reason, the threads are not designed to use standard fan screws. So make sure you got a nice small Screw driver as standard fan screws do not fit. Like mentioned in the other reviews, the screws in the 3 CD Bays seem to be a bit off, I didn't alter the case, I just screw in the 2 furthest screws on each side (so 4 all together) and kind of angled the drive to fit, did not hurt anything and it doesn't look bad, looks normal unless you wanna critique a 1mm additional gap on the bottom of the cd-rom drive.

Other Thoughts: BE CAREFUL when you consider buying this case, the 7 inch width is serious. The standoffs on the board are quite high as well, bigger than normal standoffs (screws that hold the MB off the Platter/tray in the case). If you are running an Nvidia 460 GTX make sure you buy a Mini-HDMI to Hdmi cable, your MINI-Hdmi to HDMI that came with your Vid Card wont fit because of the clearance outside of the case. My Mini-HDMI to HDMI cable was SHOVED in. I luckily did not need to shave off any plastic. I was nervous just shoving it in, that's how tight the fit was, I just know it wont get pulled out easily playing with the cords behind my tv atleast.