hec Black 0.7mm Thickness SECC Steel 7K09BBA30FNRX Micro ATX Media Center 300W Power Supply / HTPC Case

Pros: Running for a week now 24/7, stress testing the power supply with no problems. Just the right size for a mATX HTPC build. Accepts full size 3.5" and 5.25" drives (see other thoughts). Gives enough room for small miscellaneous items (I have 2 single-fan speed controllers and a USB dongle for the RF remote velcro'd in open areas to the bottom of the case). I removed the stock fan from my Athlon II 260 heatsink and rigged up a 120mm fan to cool the CPU and surrounding mobo. I've worked with hundreds of different cases from Rosewill, Antec, Lian-Li, Silverstone, Thermaltake, etc and I started buying HEC (compucase) cases about 2 years ago and haven't looked back. They are the best bang for the buck for budget builds (90% of what I build). Their plain look is exactly what they want too. Nothing crazy, no sniper, alien, garbage truck cases here. Never had one of their power supplies stop working.

Cons: Not really a con, just a tip on front panel removal: as others stated, it's four tabs, two on each side that you push in and slide the bezel off. Makes it easier to work in the open areas I mentioned above for miscellaneous items, storing extra cables, etc. I was also able to run the front panel USB/Audio cords under my mobo, saving more space. Use some electrical tape to keep them in place before screwing in the mobo. Note that the firewire cable is noticeably thicker and you will not be able to run it under the mobo (without smashing it at least). You should have ~2" inches between the power supply and mobo to pull the cables up and bend them back down to your mobo connectors. Just be generous with the curve you make (use the full height of the case). The power supply fan is still the most quiet fan in my case even after I put in fan-speed controllers on my other 2 fans. Guessing it spins no faster than 1200rpm.

Overall Review: Tips to remember before buying this: Do NOT buy RAM with a fancy heat-spreader if you plan to use an internal optical drive (ie Blu-ray drive). Most mobos have the RAM slots where the optical drive will slide in and it will stick up and block the optical drive. Same goes for the 20/24-pin mobo power connector. This isn't a big deal (as others make it sound) if you take your time and arrange/bend the connector to sit underneath the optical drive. It DOES work and it's not as tight as you might think. I took the cautionary route and bought the case and all components except the blu-ray drive until after I installed everything in the case. From here I measured how much length I had for my blu-ray drive before hitting the heatsink. Came in around 8 inches (max) which is still enough room for power connectors using current blu-ray drives (~7.28 inches long). MSI 880GM-E41 G.SKILL 2x2GB F3-10600CL9D-4GBNT AMD Athlon II X2 260 Regor 3.2GHz LITE-ON ihes108-29 BD Combo

Pros: It's good looking and blends in well with my A/V Receiver as an HTPC. I put in an Intel MOBO with integrated HDMI Video. SSD boot drive, 3.5" Second drive, Standard size Blu-Ray Drive, and a card reader in the floppy bay.

Cons: The only Con is that you have to use low-profile memory. The standard memory with heatsinks touch the bottom of the ODD. Not enough to take an egg away.

Overall Review: Plan your assembly carefully. Everything is a tight fit. Leave the optical drive for last or it will just be in the way. Mount your hard drive(s) first, then the MOBO, run all your cabling, and then mount the optical drive.

Pros: Noise and cooling are excellent, system is just a little bit louder than the Dish Network receiver it replaced. I got 2 SATA power leads on the PSU, not sure about the other people that received this case.

Cons: Cable management is extremely sparse. It takes a lot not to drape a ton of cables right in front of the front intake fan. Expect to do a lot of finger-contorting to get everything to fit and still have reasonable airflow. All in all, I'd buy it again.

Pros: Good case and nice design.

Cons: Power supply has died twice for no reason.

Overall Review: Luckily, HEC is cool about replacing them. Just a pain in the a**. You can get the RMA here: http://hecgroupusa.com/downloads/

Pros: Looks great, has exactly what it said it had.

Cons: I was trying to fit in a console and Newegg happened to have the correct sizes reported for width vs. depth. However, the picture provided for the top-down, if measured, showed clearly that it was wider than it was deep--so i assumed that the specs were swapped. I confirmed this, I THOUGHT, on the manufacturers site. However, turns out neweggs written depth was correct, so i was a bit upset. Please fix that picture so the aspect ratio becomes realistic!

Pros: Nice looking, inexpensive.

Cons: Tight inside, drive installation can be a chore. First power supply failed and was replaced under warranty. Second power supply also failed. Right now I'm running a scavenged PSU from a HP w/ similar form factor. It's not an exact fit, so It's just sitting inside the case.

Overall Review: Don't trust the PSU. Undervolt the front 80mm fan for a quiet ride. Use some black tape over the lights on the front to avoid distractions while watching TV or movies (or just don't connect them). I probably would not buy this case again based on my experience with the PSUs, but it does look nice next to my receiver, and the power light integrated with the power button is dim enough to be non-intrusive even in a dark room.

Pros: great a ton better than i thought i was scared it was going to look cheap but its very clean and small looks good in the media setup. it came with all the screws and ties and has a whisper quiet psu.

Cons: dont understand why the ppl sugest the slim dvd drive that is crazy i have a micro gigabyte mb and a amd a10 and the dvd drive is like 3 inchs aways from anything. i wish i went with my gut and got a normal br drive instead. also the power supply is super quiet also the entire setup is quiet the loudest thing is the dvd drive when it loads.

Overall Review: this will house a micro atx board a amd chip a 1 tb hd and a normal size drive no problem. also it doesnt get over 40 temp in my media cab watching netflixs or lorno in hd. going to get a radeon hd 6670 card and ill update the status.

Pros: This case is the form factor I need to sit under the TV. I've got an setup very similar to the setup descibed on Coding Horror, check it out, it's nice, and low power.

Cons: Even running a 35W processor with two HDDs, 1 BRD, and 1 Hauppauge 2250, a relatively light load, the PSU died after 13 months. I though that I'd be one of the lucky ones. Took apart the supply and the Power Regulation FET was completely cracked on multiple planes. I ordered a SeaSonic TFX supply which is very highly rated here at the Egg. Also, now that I've got a MoBo with Case fan regulation I added a gelid FN- PX08-20 fan which made the case much quieter.

Overall Review: Good luck. Case has a high WAF, Just plan on replacing the fan when you get it and the PSU eventually.