nMEDIAPC Black Aluminum panel & Steel HTPC 1000B Micro ATX Media Center / HTPC Case - Retail

swell design, not so good build.

Reviewed By: Nicolaz on 10/15/2008

Tech Level: somewhat high - Ownership: 1 day to 1 week

This user purchased this item from Newegg

Pros: The design and layout is great and accomodating for some nice toys.

- The case is under 6 inches tall with feet included. about the same dimensions as a PS3. It fits in nicely with other TV peripherals.
- Horizontally mounted PSU.
- 4 card slots: fits a full length and width vid card, wifi card, and aver capture card in the 1x slot
- Plenty of vents. 1 fan is dedicated for the hd tray, 1 very strategically placed fan for CPU
-panel cables are nicely labled and good length.
-the dvd panel/button work nicely.

competitively priced as well.

Cons: - The molex connectors are the cheapest around. they bend and break with simple usage.
- The front panel is prone to breaking, i Received this case with the front end completely broken off. it was held together with cheap plastic tabs. RMA'd promptly.
- There's a 80mm fan mount on the right hand side under the hd/dvd tray, but no 80mm fans can fit there.

Other Thoughts: Its advisable to remove the tray to install optical/hard disks. they can only be mounted from the bottom.

It does not allow to fit the Diamond ATI 3870 with stock cooler. Any fan that extends beyond the original height of the card with not fit in the case.

The damage mentioned above was partially due to the OEM lackluster packaging. This was shipped from CA to MA with one layer of cardboard and .5" of foam. Just fine for a few hundred miles, but not for cross country. The front panel is way to exposed and prone to breaking with heavy hits.

other notes: I assume the case was a previous RMA, there was evidence of hot glue, bent metal and bent tabs.

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My first HTPC

Reviewed By: koolzero on 8/17/2009

Tech Level: high - Ownership: 1 week to 1 month

This user purchased this item from Newegg

Pros: Nice looking case, good design, room for up to 4 hard drives, nice built-in memory card reader, and usb ports, fans it comes with are quiet

Cons: CF Card Reader had bent pins, that I was able to straighten. I also bought the retail version of the nMediaPC LCD and after reading the instructions it sounded like I had bought the wrong one because I had a hard time getting it to fit behind the window on the case. After finagling with it for awhile I was able to get the lcd in and it fit perfectly, I just had to wedge it in behind a piece metal and was able to route the usb cable without much trouble. The directions also said to remove the black tape, at first I could not tell what they were referring to and I removed a clear piece of tape that was on top of the black tape so I thought maybe they changed mine to clear tape, well it turned out that you have to remove the entire piece of black shiny tape (it was not very easy to pry up) which I thought I was running the case by removing, but it all turned out okay. I wish there were some better instructions that showed the black tape specifically. Fans don't have plugs for mobo.

Other Thoughts: The hard drives don't install with rails but with screws. 2 of the drives get covered up when the drives below are installed, which can't be removed until you remove the lower most drives. The instructions explain this but don't show good pictures on how to install them, it wasn't too difficult to figure out, but again I wish they provided better instructions.

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Best HTPC in the MicroATX Market

Reviewed By: Jaken Veina on 2/3/2010

Tech Level: somewhat high - Ownership: 1 day to 1 week

This user purchased this item from Newegg

Pros: Very sleek, unobtrusive look.

One of the most extensive front-panels I've ever seen, outdoing many tower-style cases.

Great use of space inside to fit 4 3.5" bays and a 5.25" bay, and still have room to keep cables out of the way of the motherboard, although cable management is still difficult.

Pretty sturdy construction when the lid is on.

Front panel is easily removable if need be.

Cons: Only so much you can do for cable management. Even with minimal stuff inside, it'll never look neat, and if you fill up the drive slots, cooling them becomes difficult. Modular power supply helps a bit.

Back panel is pretty flimsy when the lid is not on. Try not to put pressure on it.

The lower two 3.5" slots are nicely grommet mounted, however, the case came with only 4 out of 8 needed. Oddly enough, the 5000 model came with 4 extra.

I personally didn't have problems with the DVD drive flap on either this case or the 5000. The plastic version on the 5000 is perhaps a little easier on more delicate drive trays, but both of them are pretty well designed, exerting minimal stress on the tray.

Factory assemblers made a slight boo-boo by clamping the front panel on with the HDD LED header cable sticking out the bottom, just enough that I couldn't salvage it and had to get a new one.

Other Thoughts: As it happened, I also bought and built a system with the 5000 model in the same week, which is the exact same, save for an acrylic front panel, rather than steel. They seem like they should be the same, but the 5000 had several factory defects.

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Reviewed By: yochi on 2/2/2010

Tech Level: somewhat high - Ownership: 1 day to 1 week

This user purchased this item from Newegg

Pros: Quite roomy inside
3 Fans included
Remove HDD cage
Cables are well labeled
Lots of connectors up front

Cons: Sharp edges inside! Who said they weren't sharp?
Fans are brushless instead of ball bearing (noisier)
Expansion slot of the "bend and break" variety
Expansion slot mount sticks out the back
Top vent grill doesn't quite match up to CPU location
Fans are not motherboard controlled.

Other Thoughts: ASRock H55M Pro, i3 530 with XIGMATEK EP-CD901 cooler. The case is bigger than I thought it would be. It could have been a couple inches shallower since they used a removable HDD cage. Would be nice to use motherboard header fans instead. The case fans are not loud per se, but they are louder than my PS fan and CPU cooler.

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Reviewed By: aj on 1/25/2010

Tech Level: high - Ownership: 1 week to 1 month

This user purchased this item from Newegg

Pros: Fit everything perfectly, the removable disc tray is really nice. I like that the HDD LED isnt very bright, the only bright thing is the blue power LED.

Cons: wish it would have come with the LCD.

Other Thoughts: make sure you get a MICRO atx board for this one, it wont fit a larger board.

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