Silverstone LC20 Case

I’ve been tinkering with the idea of building an HTPC (Home Theater PC) for a while now. So when we received the Silverstone LC20, I leaped at the chance to write a review on it. Read on to find out how this HTPC case fared.

The idea of an HTPC is not brand new.  Since video cards were created with TV output, people have been interfacing with their television sets. With the advent of TV Tuner cards, people have actually been able to use their computers as televisions directly.
But things change, and the area of computer and television integration has been no exception.  New hardware and software allowed us to crawl out of the Stone Age and put one more foot into the Digital Age. Computers can now be used not only to display output on a television, but to act as a complete entertainment platform.  You can watch movies, listen to Internet radio, and play PC games, all on your TV.  In addition, your computer can act as a PVR (Personal Video Recorder), recording your favorite shows to hard drive for you to play back at a later time.  All this is just touching the surface; there is much more you can do with your HTPC.  You may even find yourself replacing some of your existing home entertainment components altogether.

The Silverstone LC20 is a computer case, designed to be used as the home for an HTPC computer.  The case is sleek and attractive, so it won't look too out of place among all of your other home entertainment products.  Before opening the box, I took a quick trip to Silverstone's website to grab the specs on the LC20:

Material	Aluminum front panel, 0.8 mm SECC body
Color	Black
	Silver
Motherboard	Standard ATX, Micro ATX
Model	LC20B(Black)
	LC20S(Silver)
Drive Bay	External	5.25¨ x 2
	External	3.5" x 1
	Internal	3.5" x 6
Cooling System	Front	2 x 92mm or 80mm fan slots
	Rear	2 x 80mm fan slots
	Side	1 x 80mm fan slot
Expansion Slot	7
Front I/O Port	USB2.0 x 4 IEEE1394 x 1 audio x 1 MIC x 1
Power Supply	Optional standard PS2 (ATX)
Net Weight	7 kg
Dimension	430 mm (W) x 170mm (H) x 430 mm (D)

As always, Silverstone has created an attractive package for the LC20 case. The box shows the case both in silver and black (we got the black one).  They say that patience is a virtue, but I don't have any, so I opened the box up to see what we had.

  

 

Once I opened the box, I could see that the LC20 was held securely in place, and hence safe from most injury, by some thick foam spacers. I could already see the dark aluminum chassis, so I wasted no more time and ripped the case unceremoniously from the box (gently, of course).
Here's a pic of the case as it was when it came out of the box.  Take note of how this case looks more like a stereo component than an actual computer case.

Let's take a tour of the case, shall we?I can tell you that this case, in black, is indeed beautiful. It has the same basic look as your typical stereo component, and should fit in nicely. I prefer black stereo components, so I'm quite happy that the model we received was black.  Let's take a look at the case from the outside.

On the front right of the case are two doors. You open these doors by pressing them on the top. The larger door on top houses up to two optical drives.  Here's a pic of the door open.

The other door is much slimmer, and on the bottom.  It contains four USB ports, a Firewire port, and jacks for headphones and a microphone. Here's a pic to illustrate.

On the left side of the case, on the front, is an attractive power button.  Not your normal PC case, that's for sure.

Moving on with our tour, along the side we find an exhaust port that can hold an 80mm fan.  It's these small things that make a case a joy to work with.

And this brings us to the back of the case.  Let's take a look at it, and then discuss it.

Looking at the above pic, you can see that the motherboard sits all the way to the left.  Directly above the motherboard socket opening, there is room for two 80mm fans, for further ventilation of the case. The one thing that's kind of odd about this case is the placement of the PSU, over to the right.  But we will discuss that a bit later.The inside of the case is nearly as impressive as the outside.  Here's a pic of it as soon as I opened it.

Notice how wide open the case is inside?  It's almost a completely empty shell, and there is PLENTY of room to work.  In addition, there is a stabilizer bar running across the top of the enclosure, to add stability from front to back.  Let's take a close look at those cages.

These are the hard drive cages.  As you can see, there are enough slots for six internal 3.5" hard drives.  Better yet, by removing the two small screws at the top of each cage, the cage is removed completely for securing the hard drives.  This makes it pretty simple to work on them.

This picture shows the optical drive cage. This is where you would install your CD and DVD drives. There is room for two of these drives inside the cage. You can also easily remove this cage with the two screws seen at the top of the picture.  When you do so, you are left with the floppy drive cage. It's hidden from view in the above pic, but trust me, it's down there.

Here's the area where the motherboard goes from a different vantage point.  Again, I stress that this case has a TON of room inside to work with, so let's go ahead and install some hardware!Now that we are all intimate and familiar with the case, let's add some components and see how it all comes together.  For this machine, here are the components I'll be installing:

• EPoX 8U1697 Motherboard with AMD 64 3000+ CPU and 1GB OCZ RAM
• PowerColor X1300 video card with 512MB RAM
• XG Magnum EX 600w External PSU
• Pioneer DVD +/-R Reader/Writer
• Samsung 120GB IDE HD

The first thing I did was install the motherboard into the case.  The board is a full-size ATX board, and it fastened in securely.

Once I had this in, I decided to do a test-fit of the wires, to make sure they could reach where they needed to on the motherboard.  Well, the good news is that they fit.  The bad news is they only fit if I stretched them tight, and did not re-install the optical drive cage.  Nah, that wasn't going to work.

After examining the problem, it suddenly became apparent what the issue was.  The wires, namely the USB leads for the front panel, were fed through the wrong hole in the front of the case.  If I was able to re-route them through a different hole, I should be able to get an additional 10-12 inches of slack.  Being that I was only short by two or three inches, this would be plenty. The yellow arrows point to the USB headers on the board.
So I disassembled more of the case, and spent the next 20 minutes meticulously re-running the wires through the closer hole.  It was a little difficult, but I finally managed to get them all successfully in place.  Here's a couple shots of the progress:

One thing I'd like to point out is the placement of the PSU mount.  In this case, it is on the opposite side of where you would normally expect to see it.  This puts the PCI slots in a direct path between the PSU and the PSU power connectors on the motherboard, in many cases.  On this particular board, it couldn't have been any worse.  I had to install the video card, and then run the power leads over the top of the video card, to plug into the motherboard behind it.

Notice how I'm not actually installing a full PSU inside the case, but instead this adapting harness? That's because the PSU I'm using is external, and does not sit within the computer's case itself.  This will be beneficial, since it will mean less heat generated inside the case.

With the board and PSU hooked up, it was time to install the DVD and hard drive.  Installing them into the drive cages was no big deal.  Here are some pics of the drives in the cages, and then the cages installed into the machine.

 

And finally, all that was left to do was hook up all the miscellaneous wires and power cables.  Here's a final pic of all the components hooked up and ready to run.  Notice the blue USB cables, and how much extra length I have, now that I moved them to a different access hole in the case.

And of course, a few shots of the case closed up, and even resting comfortably in its new home in my wall unit.

I've got to tell you, this case has PLENTY of room for hardware and drives and STILL looks plenty sexy sitting in your entertainment center with your other home theatre components.

In addition to everything we installed, there were three additional fan slots on the back and side of the case, as well as two fan brackets on the front of the two hard drive caddies. There is also a grill on the side of the case where a normal PSU would be mounted, to allow better ventilation for the PSU itself. Basically, this case is not only roomy, but provides many options for enhancing the cooling of the case.
It is worth noting that this case did not come with a remote control or any kind of readout on the front of the case. Those additional bells and whistles are available in the LC20's big brother, the LC20M.
Here are the highs and lows for this case:
Highs:

• Looks very sleek
• Takes a standard ATX motherboard
• Tons of drive bays
• Excellent fan options
• Front Panel USB, Firewire, and Audio jacks

Lows:

• Had to re-run cables so they would reach sockets on the board
• Power supply placement can be inconvenient for some boards
• Somewhat pricey ($120 at the time of this writing)

Overall, the biggest problem with this case was the wiring.  It was easily remedied with a little work, but I'm quite surprised it left the factory wired that way. Most of the motherboards I've worked with feature USB headers in a similar location on the board, so none of them would have fit in this case.
As far as price, if you want a sleek HTPC case, then this is the price you have to pay.  Sure, you could pay less than half the price for a computer case that would do the trick, but it wouldn't look as good with your entertainment center.
Overall, I give this case an 8 out of 10, and the Dev Hardware recommended award.  If you are looking for a sleek case to use as a base for a HTPC, then this might just be what the doctor ordered.

I'd like to thank Silverstone for sending us the LC20 to review.  If you would like more information about this case, or any of Silverstone's other products, please visit their website at 

Thermaltake Tenor VB2000

Thermaltake is known for producing some of the best computer cases, power supplies, and enthusiast accessories available on the market. The Taiwan-based manufacturer is particularly well-known for producing aesthetically conscious computer cases. The Tenor VB2000 series is a prime example of some of their superior design skills.
The Tenor series is a desktop tower available in either a brushed aluminum finish or in black and either one is a truly satisfying sight. The Tenor package also contains some surprising and interesting features:
Model Tenor                VB2000SNS
Case Type                    Desktop
Net Weight                   8.5 kg
Dimension                    170 x 430 x 460 mm (H*W*D)
Cooling System            Front (intake): 80 x 80 x 25 mm silent fan, 2000 rpm, 19dBA

Rear (exhaust): Dual 60 x 60 x 25 mm silent fan, 2500 rpm, 19dBA

Drive Bays                   Total - 8

Front - 3 x 5.25", 2 x 3.5"

                                    Internal - 3 x 3.5"
Material                        Chassis: 1.0 mm SECC
                                    Front bezel: Aluminum made
Expansion slots 7
Motherboards              ATX, Micro ATX
Power Supply Unit       Standard ATX PSII
Front Access                Dual USB 2.0, IEEE 1394 Firewire, Audio and Speaker ports
Container Load            20'-452, 40'-934, 40' HQ - 1062
The Tenor case is truly a fantastic looking case. Its styling cues clearly come from the burgeoning living room multimedia PC as it mimics any number of pieces of stereo equipment. Its design is meant to eliminate any connections to it being a PC and further reinforces its core audience as the multimedia enthusiast market.

The front of the case features a bezel similar to (though rotated 90 degrees) a number of other Thermaltake cases (i.e. Mambo) but its design is a significant step up. The front bezel is produced out of aluminum and features a very innovative dual front door system over the optical and floppy drives. In most cases it would be a single door that would swing open on a simple hinge system, but the Tenor takes it a step farther with an innovative wheel and cog method to allow the door to rotate open at a stately and respectable pace on its own. Once the upper catch is released the drive door will rotate open under its own weight until it reaches a ninety degree angle parallel with the lines of the case and completely stop. It's certainly an eye-catching feature.

What really is impressive about the front bezel is the presence of the secondary door nearer the bottom of the drive door. This door does utilize the simpler hinge method to open and close and is meant to house the Thermaltake VFD Media Kit.
The Thermaltake VFD Media Kit is an optional component but certainly seems like a worthwhile addition to the Tenor case, and is worth picking up. With the lower lid open the VFD is visible and displays a very pleasing graphic equalizer effect. It also provides you with the ability to use a very convenient infrared remote control to manage all of your digital media content. Additionally, when you're done the panel can be closed and the quiet ambiance the case exudes is returned to your environment.
That is probably the greatest aesthetic strength of this particular case: its ability to be both striking and inconspicuous. When powered up two tiny blue LEDs illuminate the front of the unit from inside the curves of the bezel and the flip down drive door opens with quiet grace to allow you to insert your DVD movie or audio CD. It closes just as smoothly, allowing you to leave only the IR sensor and digital equalizer visible.  In an effort to continue this aesthetic simplicity and design the case does not shirk its requirements as a PC enclosure as much as it is a home theater unit. The usual front panel connections exist on this case, including a pair of USB 2.0 ports, an IEEE 1394 port, and headphone and microphone jacks. The connectors are mounted on the left hand side of the bezel and provide easy accessibility from the front. However, access is not as easy as it could be.

The to-the-side placement of the front ports is not necessarily a bad idea, but considering all the time and effort put into the optical drive door and the lower VFD door on the front bezel, the placement of the front ports could have as easily been placed inside the drive door. Since so much thought was put into the development of such a great drive door, it seems like the front ports were added to the case as a late development rather than as a part of the original design.
Additionally, I continue to question the logic and reasoning behind the inclusion of front audio jacks when the attachment of these devices to the motherboard causes the onboard audio ports to be disabled. Considering the marketing of this case as a home theater enclosure, why would any serious audiophile (or anyone who likes to have more than two channels on their audio) ever connect these?

Putting aside these issues with the front panel ports, the case still continues to impress. The bottom of the case features four very stylish and very well done non-slip foot stands plated in gold. The foot stands raise the case a good half inch off the desk (or stereo stand) surface. Considering the number of cases that use the quarter inch thick plastic feet shoved through the bottom of the chassis, the addition of these small pieces increases the aesthetic quality of this case exponentially.

The top panel of the case, however, still seems to be one of the weakest areas of case designers. The top panel includes a square of perforated steel over the area where you would roughly find the majority of PCI expansion cards and a hexagon of perforated steel roughly over the location of the CPU. Considering so many design cues that were borrowed from various pieces of stereo equipment a further "borrowing" could have occurred in the design of the passive ventilation for the case.

Ventilation, however, remains fairly effective for the case. The case comes with three preinstalled fans including an 80 mm front intake fan and dual -- that's right, dual -- rear exhaust fans. The front intake does draw from a slotted opening in the bottom of the front bezel, and the presence of the half inch foot pads improves the effectiveness of this ventilation method, but it does not ease this obvious deficiency found in any number of computer cases. However, the presence of dual rear 60 mm fans does provide a great deal of effective cooling for the system, as well as a slight thrill seeing that double-barreled exhaust system staring at you like loaded weapons. The interior of the case is exceptionally well-designed. It sports two solid swing arms: one attached to the internal drive cage and another located just above and across where the CPU would be positioned.

The swing arm located above the CPU has an opening that lines up with the perforated hexagon on the top of the case to allow the processor fan to draw air directly from the outside of the case to cool it. The swing arm, otherwise, is a solid piece of steel and provides the case with additional reinforcement to support the weight of a monitor, even a CRT monitor, placed on top of it without buckling. This is an excellent design feature that provides both excellent function and form to the case but, at the same time, detracts from the presence of the ventilation hole in the top panel and the hole drilled through this brace.
The swing arm attached to the drive cage, however, is without fault. With the removal of one screw the swing arm will rotate up and out of the chassis, taking the hard drive cage with it. This is a much better method of dealing with properly mounting the hard drive to the chassis than is often found in desktop cases. It gives you the ability to remove the drive cage without having to be careful of dropping the cage as you attempt to carefully line up the grooves of the 3.5 inch drive cage with the hard drive cage. This is a wonderful feature and certainly deserves to be recognized for its integration into this case.
A feature of this case that should be noted for worthwhile examination isn't even in the case itself: it's the manual. The Thermaltake manual included with the Tenor case is well designed with very clear pictures and diagrams. The English in the manual is not necessarily the best, and on occasion the wrong words are used to describe various actions, but overall it is a well done guide to complement a well designed case. The manual is not short, either; it tops out at a decent fifteen pages that describe in detail the various front panel connectors with large diagrams and detailed technical drawings of the connectors.

There are a few drawbacks to this case and the most noticeable of these is the absence of a Thermaltake power supply included with the case. It is not often that a Thermaltake power supply unit is included with any Thermaltake case, but when it is it certainly improves the quality of the case you are purchasing. This drawback is hardly worth noting, but its absence is noticeable.
Additionally, it is worth noting that the manual and Thermaltake's own website advocate caution if you are planning to install an optical drive in the lowest 5.25 inch bay because it may have issues with the motherboard you have installed. This is an important detail to be aware of, but since likely very few people would be installing three 5.25 inch devices that would reach that deep into the case, it is not going to be considered a weakness in the design of the case.


The overall cooling of the system is good but not great. The front intake fan, while drawing cool air in through a better than average opening in the bottom of the bezel, is under-utilized and not capable of drawing a significant amount of air through it. The rear fans do an admirable job of pulling the warm air out of the case, but their presence is also positioned very close to where the CPU fan would be located and in very close proximity to the opening on the top of the case meant to feed cool air to the processor. These top openings also diminish the "wind tunnel" effect that can be generated by a front intake fan and rear exhaust fans. The positioning of the front intake fan right on top of the hard drive cage is great but it could be improved with better front to rear flow without other openings disrupting the movement of the cool air.
Pros:

• Excellent aesthetic design.
• Gold plated foot pads.
• Excellent drive optical drive door.
• Thorough and detailed manual.
• Removable swing arm and cage for 3.5 inch drives.

Cons:

• Front to rear airflow is satisfactory but not exceptional.
• No Thermaltake power supply included.
• Panel perforations do not improve airflow.

Conclusion
The case is certainly worth buying if you're looking for a good and solid home theater PC case. With the number of subtle features this case possesses and slightly stealthy surprises this is certainly a good buy.

Thermaltake VC2000 Series Mambo Review

Thermaltake is a well-known Taiwan-based company that specializes in power supply units and cooling products. Thermaltake also produces high-end cases for the do-it-yourself computer market such as the Armor, Tsunami, and Xaser. They also produce a case for the more budget-minded computer builder: the Mambo.
The first thing that struck me about the Mambo case is the wavy front that draws a lot of stylistic elements from the more expensive Soprano series and is seen on the Coolermaster Wavemaster. The case is finished in a decent matte black powder that is seen on any number of other budget cases available off the shelf at any retailer.
The case features a very nice opening front panel that lets you tuck away your exposed optical drives, fan controllers, and floppy drives. A really nice touch on this front panel is the use of a push clip that pops open with a slight push to the door rather than making you pinch the plastic or force your nails into the seam of the door to open it. A further feature of this door is the ability to remove it completely from the case.

This is done exceptionally well and allows you to quickly and easily remove the door completely from the bezel without the need for any tools or concern over damaging the plastic. This is often a significant issue with cases with front panels similar to this. It is not uncommon to inadvertently break the case door when opening it too far or bumping against it while it is open. The quick release method for removing the front panel is also handy when working on the system; you can remove it while installing or removing components and when finished, reattach it. This is exceptionally useful when installing optical drives so that you can use both hands to guide the drive rather than one while the other one is holding open the door.
The bezel also has the usual front USB and audio ports available. This is an exceptional feature for ease of use, especially with the growing number of on-the-go USB devices that tend to travel with people everywhere. The front audio ports, though, remain a mystery to me. A large number of manufacturers include front audio connectors but frankly I would gladly do away with this feature in favor of two more USB ports. The problem with this is that by connecting the internal wiring for these jacks to the motherboard, you typically disable the motherboard's ability to provide 5.1 or better audio support to the rear jacks. Since very few people are employing separate sound cards on their systems anymore, and the quality of integrated audio components is significant enough for all but the most rabid of audiophiles, this loss of the rear audio support is not a suitable trade-off for headphone jacks on the front.

The front is also tastefully decorated with chrome plated plastic pieces depicting the Thermaltake logo with a pair of wings behind it. Considering Thermaltake's compulsive behavior to plaster their name and logo on nearly every available surface of any case they produce, this small touch is rather remarkable and their restraint should be admired. While it is certainly their product and they are entitled to put their name on every part of it, there comes a point where it becomes excessive and Thermaltake has taken some criticism in the past for their almost extraordinary commitment to marking every possible surface on their systems with their name and brand.


The side panel of the system reveals two more features showing up more and more often in a number of different budget towers: the CPU punched fan hole and the grated air intake near the bottom of the case. It is very difficult to find any cases anymore with a solid side panel that has nothing but paint on it. Low end towers feature these punched or cut air intake openings, while their higher end cousins feature the ever present case window. The concept of the fan hole and grated intake is sound, but it is often done as a replacement for the ability to pull air in from the front or top of the system. With more and more video cards possessing significant cooling requirements, the presence of the grated air intake on the side does provide these more powerful video cards the ability to hopefully draw cooler outside air rather than reusing internal pre-warmed air. The same concept goes for the fan hole mounted roughly over the area where the CPU would be found.
The inherent problem with these features is that it invites the computer builder to splurge on every component in his system while ignoring the practicalities of a more advanced case design for air flow in favor of an inferior case to house all the goodies. These features provide nominal performance at best, and would be better suited to not being used on the case in favor of more thought being given to air flow considerations from the top or front, which are typically not as obstructed by either a computer cabinet or piles of paperwork. 



Internally I was pleasantly surprised to find a pre-installed 120 mm Thermaltake exhaust fan. The fan mounts are set up to accommodate either a 120 mm, 92 mm or 80 mm fan for rear exhaust. This will prove to be very beneficial in removing the built up warm air inside the case during regular use and contribute to the system's overall extended lifespan. Too many systems don't even include this minor addition to move the warm air out of the case and quickly suffer from performance loss due to heat buildup.

The motherboard tray is also quite interesting. In most computer cases you will use small brass standoffs to which you mount your motherboard in order to allow the underside of the circuit to cool and to remove it from direct contact with the motherboard tray. When the tray was manufactured, the ATX standoffs were tooled upwards so that they form natural raised screw points for the motherboard. It's an interesting feature of the motherboard tray, that regrettably only provides six standoffs instead of the customary nine; on these you will still have to use the traditional brass standoffs. Furthermore, if you are using anything other than a standard ATX motherboard, you will not be very happy seeing your Mini-ITX board sitting on top of these preformed metal nipples.

The case also features a unique screwless drive installation method. A large number of cases feature this to varying degrees, using either detachable drive rails or pressure clips that hold your optical drive in place. This case features a plastic track set into the outside of the drive bays, through which you push a metal pin to secure the drive. The plastic track is fitted with five holes to accommodate any size drive that may be inserted into the drive cage. The 3.5 inch drive cage also features this on the top two bays where you would normally install a floppy drive or fan control unit, but not on the rest of the descending bays. Looking closely it is clear to see why this was done and why the screwless drive installation is not all that it is cracked up to be.
The screwless drive installation tracks only secure the drive from one side, not two. This leaves your optical drive attached to the drive cage on only one side, which can result in more noise and possibly drive damage over time as it rattles against the cage. Personally, I would still install the screws on the other side of the case to secure my drives, so the addition of these screwless clips is rather redundant. Clearly I'm not alone; their lack of presence on the descending hard drive cage will still require you to install the drives with screws on both sides to properly secure them. Screwless mounting systems always amaze me because if a main feature of the case is the ability to install and uninstall optical drives without a screw driver, why do you still need one on nearly every other component in the system (especially those that are more likely to be upgraded or need replacing like expansion cards)?
Deja Vu?
Looking inside the case it is clear to see that this chassis has been used on other designs, or at least parts of it have been. There is clearly the presence of both the perforated steel and the mounting holes for another 120 mm on the lower portion of the front of the chassis. Regrettably installing a front intake fan on this case would prove incredibly ineffectual as a) the front of the case is solid plastic and b) even the tiny opening on the bottom of the bezel is only .5 inches x 3 inches and is only raised off the surface of the table by less than quarter of an inch. The airflow available for this front intake fan would be so negligible it would in no way justify the cost of the fan.

The other side panel has a grated opening at the bottom of the panel. I am completely uncertain as to its purpose. The opening is positioned to be blocked almost completely by the motherboard tray, so in no way is this meant to provide any means of ventilation. Its lack of purpose confounds me and its presence is completely unnecessary and superfluous.
This case would have earned higher marks had it also included a Thermaltake Power Supply. At its price, you can buy other cases of similar design that include a power supply unit. It may be a generic one, but
his is a decent budget case that should be considered more for its aesthetic looks than its function. The inclusion of the 120 mm case fan is an excellent touch that begins to outweigh some of the case's flaws.
The screwless drive mounting system is rather unnecessary and certainly not a feature on which to base buying this case. The materials and time used to develop this method would have been better spent on improving the inherent air flow of the case.
The pre-cut openings in both side panels could have been avoided and made for a case that at least would have received high marks for being an excellent modding opportunity.
The case is aesthetically pleasing and the curving front bezel with the tasteful faux chrome does make a very nice looking case.
I would gladly use this case for a standard workstation or low-powered system, but not for any of my prized hardware.
Pros:

• Removable front panel
• Nicely curving bezel design
• 120 mm factory installed exhaust fan
• Aesthetically pleasing

Cons:

• Poor airflow that relies on brute strength over improved design
• Screwless drive mounting system not very effective
• Motherboard tray's "nipples" a problem for anything but ATX motherboard
• No Thermaltake Power Supply included with tower

Final Grade: C