December 2004 HTPC Case Roundup
by Purav Sanghani on December 27, 2004 2:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
SilverStone Technology Lascala 10M (cont'd)
To remove the case's shell, we need to unscrew four screws at the back of the case, slide the cover back about an inch, then pull up.Internal Design
The internal layout of the LC10/M is, again, similar to the Cavalier 2 and the D.Vine 4 in terms of drive bay placement. The LC10/M supports installation of two 5-1/4" drives, one being external, and a maximum of four 3-1/2" drives, if the internal 5-1/4" bay is converted using an optional extension bracket from SilverStone. The 3-1/2" drive cage can be taken off by removing the two screws, which we see in the picture.To the left of the drive bays is the front intake fan. This fan will help circulate air better in the system as we will see in our benchmarks.
Click to enlarge.
The motherboard tray supports both ATX and uATX and uses standard screw-in stand-offs to secure the motherboard in place. There are plenty of holes to support various AMD and Intel motherboards.
We have yet to see one of these models that use thumbscrews in any area. The expansion slots use standard screws to secure expansion cards to the case.
Cooling
Like the Cavalier 2, the LC10/M has an 80mm intake fan mounted at the front of the case. It is meant to be hidden so air is pulled in through vents on the underside of the bezel. This 80mm intake is rated at 21dBA, which should help keep things quiet.
Click to enlarge.
In addition, there are twin 60mm fans rated at 25dBA each at the back of the chassis behind the CPU area as we have seen in the Cavalier 2 and the D.Vine 4/5.
Construction
SilverStone takes the multi-metal approach of case construction by using aluminum for the front bezel, while keeping costs down by using steel for the body of the case. In the end, this will help lower the selling price, since the cost of manufacturing will also be lower than if aluminum was used.Sharp edges were no problem in the LC10/M. We felt around when installing our HDD, but none were found.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
34 Comments
View All Comments
matthewfoley - Monday, December 27, 2004 - link
Great article! I'd love to see more on the HTPC area, including a processor article.I agree, benk. How could you choose the SilverStone over the NMedia? It runs hotter, louder, is more expensive and doesn't look as good.
Another thing I'd like to see in all of the cases is more room for hard drives. If you're going to store anything recorded in Media Center 2005, you're going to need tons of space, and the average user isn't going to want to have a separate file server. Then again, your average user isn't going to build a HTPC...
benk - Monday, December 27, 2004 - link
As noted, please fix pics in thermal section.That aside, great review. The pictures are extremely helpful. I would love to see added to them a comparative shot of all of the cases, or failing that a single chart that lists all of their dimensions.
My personal choice would probably go to the NMedia...if the temperatures are within normal operating ranges, and you're not overclocking (overclocking seems unnecessary in the HTPC arena), noise plays a much more defining factor in my purchase than thermal management.
Locut0s - Monday, December 27, 2004 - link
Ahh now these are what I'm talking about when I mean some nicer looking cases, even if I'm not in the market for an HTPC.mcveigh - Monday, December 27, 2004 - link
fix rollover pics on testing section :)great article! I love my htpc but am looking for a newer case I wish you had tested Ahanix D.Vine 5 with 2 siletX fans installed.
actually how about changing testing to include using identical fans for all systems. I know it's more work but this way you could see how casese compared based on design alone.