Gadgetory

welcome to the hardware connect product showcase in this pilot episode we're gonna be taking a spin around a case designed by manufacturer in media the HD PC 1000 B the 1000 B is designed for home theater use and has a great set of features that really help it to stand out it comes in both silver and black however for today we're only going to be demoing the black model the case is available at a number of online Canadian retailers for roughly 125 dollars so let's take a look first off we're gonna take a quick look at the dimensions and we see that this case is well suited for a media environment it's gonna fit in really nicely with your other home theater equipment it is 17 inches wide stands 5.4 inches tall with the optional feet and is sixteen point three inches in length zooming down to the front panel we see it's constructed of a very clean-looking anodized aluminum this gives it a modern brushed appearance the clean look is continued by hiding both the dvd-rom and front ports behind hinge doors the lettering and logos used subtle colors and texturing and only the reflective silver reset and power buttons appear to stand out the 1000 B looks great it's got class but it doesn't steal the show the front panel also has a 20 by 2 inch area which is used to display the optional LCD a feature we're going to take a look at later as we check out the front ports we have a full assortment in the first cluster audio and microphone jacks eSATA USB and firewire and to the right a seven and one card reader and another USB port rotating now to the back we see that there has been effort in ensuring decent ventilation in the case something that's often overlooked on most media cases we have well ventilated side panels as well as vents on the top and over the CPU one of the best features about the 1000 d is that has support for full ATX power supplies as you can see here by the mounting area on the back there's also the i/o space and 260 millimeter exhaust fans as the case is intended for M ATX motherboards there are only four expansion Bay slots however these are full height expansion slots and not nearly half fight so no adapters required and as we pull away the top panel is held down by two thumb screws which makes it really easy to get into and mess around on the left side panel another example of the efforts put into ventilation an air intake port with a 92 millimeter fan opening things up to the interior of the case we have our M ATX motherboard tray with mounting screws already in place an up top there's plenty of room for a regular ATX power supply this isn't gonna fit any thousand watt behemoths but it is gonna work for most reasonably sized power supplies and for those who haven't yet invested in a modular power supply there's plenty of room underneath the drive bays to stow cables and keep things clean again we see our 60 millimeter exhaust fans which are described as silent a little interesting note and media decided to go with a molex connector instead of a typical three pin fan connector that plugs directly into the motherboard this means that the hardware installer is gonna have to run the cable across the face of the motherboard or up and around to plug it into the power supply instead of just being able to put it straight into a motherboard fan header the drive tray is a solid unit for all the drives so it easily slides out but it takes all the drives with it there is a single five and a quarter inch bay and for three and a half inch bays the two on the top and the two sitting sideways underneath now strangely the two bottom trays both have rubber grommets so as to reduce vibration from the hard drive however you don't see them on either of the top two next we take a look at air flow a critical component of any case especially media cases with their smaller form factors and often cramped interiors the 1000 B has a simple concept it pulls fresh air through the front and expels the warm air of the back as we saw earlier the case is well ventilated and with some clean wiring each should not be a problem as we've touched a few times on the ability to cleanly wire the case let's take a look at things when fully assembled all the cables fit nicely underneath the drive bays which keeps the area over the components clean and clutter-free and while adding drives to the bottom two trays will decrease the amount of room there still should be plenty of space another important issue with many media cases is the options available for aftermarket coolers and video cards unfortunately the 1000 B was not all that friendly with aftermarket coolers in testing with an average-sized aftermarket cooler that stood 5 inches tall there was still a little more than an inch that stood above the top coolers are going to have to be less than 4 inches tall in order to make the cut and while it appears that our 4 inch tall 4870 video card is a bit too tall for the case and the top panel is slid on there's a hairsbreadth of space between there's also enough length for 9 inch video cards with 10 inches of space enough for the video card and rear position power plugs finally we jump back to the front panel and the LCD one thing to keep in mind is that the LCD is not included with the case it is an optional feature that must be purchased separately and while it is a bit of a gimmick it is definitely a fun gadget the coloration makes it perfect to work in both light and dark situations it has a dark green or black background with light green lettering the LCD in software integrate with just about everything it supports both Vista and XP media centers and monitors a whole host of other features from system to networking and even email updates and for those feeling a little adventurous or just bored you can even design your own screen so as we wrap up our product showcase on the N media HD PC 1000 B there are a few notes that we'd like to quickly recap the 1000 B is a great case for a home theater it has the size and the style to fit perfectly the base unit also rings in at a very reasonable price point making it even more of an attractive option and the interior is simple but well designed on the flip side while it is nice to have the choice of an optional LCD it does increase cost and hassle in having to track it down as well the case is limited in aftermarket cooling solutions and with that thank you for watching this episode of the hardware connects product showcase