HIPER HMC-2K53A-A0 Micro ATX Media Center / HTPC Case

Pros: Awesome form factor & a true media center design. You'll be hard pressed to find something similar in this size. The shortcomings are easy to overcome for a do-it-your-selfer.

Cons: Not sure if it's the QA at Hiper, or shipping, but mine came dented on the back. No biggie. Just pushed it out as there was no hard bends.

The IR receiver takes up a DIMM slot, even though it doesn't use the slot in any way other than to hold it in place. I''m sure they could of did better here.

No included riser cards.

PSU can get a little loud for my taste.

The remote is meh.

Can't customize the display, and it's slow to update. Movie title may take 10 minutes to change when running media center, or no change at all. Sometimes displays random stuff, like it's recording when it's not. Not sure who to blame, Windows or Hiper.

I think the internal wiring could of been consolidated better, but I guess they have to consider many different mother boards.

Wish the HD mounting bracket used grommets. Head noise resinates A LOT in this case.

Overall Review: I ripped out the included PSU & used a 120W PicoPSU with an external brick. I highly recommend this route. Dead silent. I wish Hiper did this themselves.

Consider the height of your heat-sink. Not many choices out there. You have Hiper's, or a 1U server cooler which don't take noise into consideration. I modified a stock intel cooler and replaced the fan with a 15mm high 80mm fan. Just barely fits. Temps stay around 40-45 with an e7200.

I drilled my own holes and used grommets to mount the HD bracket to the case. Reduce HD noise by 90%. This may not work if you're using a CD-ROM drive (I am not).

I still give it a 4 because the shortcomings are easy to overcome, and it does what it promises well.

Pros: This case includes everything a good htpc case should. So far, it has been able to power my mini-itx board with a 45w AMD processor, 4 gigs of ram, 500gb WD slim ide, and a slot load slim blu-ray. I like the fact that it takes the slim optical drives although i don't recall seeing that anywhere. The VFD is simple enough and I have not noticed the time going out of sync.

Cons: I read all the reviews but still got it. The front cover is glossy and very attractive, but the buttons get stuck. I am not yet sure what is wrong with the power button but it shuts down my pc and refuses to boot until I disconnect the power header. Removing the front cover is necessary during setup but it's not easy and some of the plastic tabs broke. The slot for the blu-ray does not line up and does not have any adjustment. Disc rub or get stuck on eject.

Overall Review: For the high price, you would think quality would be better. Overall it's a good case, very attractive but the problems with the buttons is pathetic. Hiper does not respond to emails and conveniently, has no USA phone numbers. My VFD works so i guess I could be worse off.