Interior
The interior of the chassis is very large for a HTPC ATX chassis and even though the PSU is sideways there is still just enough space to fit a general sized PSU. Anything larger then the normal would possibly not fit into this chassis, sorry no room for your 1.5KW PSU’s in here.
The chassis has a large bridging support between the back and the 5¼” Drive bays. This support runs across the CPU so your large passive coolers may have problems fitting, if so you can remove this bridge and have the chassis without it. Working forward from the rear, there is quick PCI release tools, very simple and easy to use, they hold quite well. But as always I suggest you remove them if you plan to install any expensive hardware in the slots, and screw the hardware in.
The chassis is fitted with a chassis intrusion switch on the rear. Although I see no point in it being there, considering this is a chassis for the home and not for LAN’s.
Removing the bridge, we enter the chassis itself. The Rear fans of the chassis are small, according to the specifications they are 60mm fans, and both running at 1800 rpm, however there is no noise specifications. During my use of the chassis the fans noise was minimal however my HTPC is located inside a small cupboard with a window and thus the noise is dampened.
The front drives bays are both quick hold tools, in my opinion these quick hold things are quick useless, and HDD’s should be screwed in to prevent damage, however the racks for the HDD and 5¼” Drives are very strong, the HDD rack is removable.
The Front IO consists of USB’s, Audio Connectors and Fire wire. If you don’t need one or two of them then you can hide the cables on the interior of the front panel above the LCD, as I did because my HTPC will not need front audio or fire wire. (The Front Panel audio connectors have support for both HD Audio and AC’97 connections)
The Media Kit is connected to the PC via a USB, the use is made very oddly, Thermaltake has produced the USB with a standard USB-A connector however also supplied is an A-Header adaptor. Because of the design of the Media Kit the Power Button is not a standard power button it is run through the Media Kit and when ether the Power Button on the Remote or the Power Button on the Chassis is pressed the case will power up. But you ask where is the power coming from to power the receiver? Simple +5VSB from the ATX 20/24 Connector, the adaptor is included in the chassis, the adaptor is a 20+4 Pin Adaptor on the side that Is plugged into the motherboard, and 24 pin plug on the side you plug your power supply.
