A Closer Look

The side of the case features two air vents. The top is placed right above the CPU area, while the bottom supplies fresh air to the expansion slots. There is a large, 12 cm air duct on the inside of the case, which can be extened. This duct will only fit if you are using a low profile or standard CPU cooler. If something larger like the Scythe Infinity or any other such cooler is used, you are forced to remove the duct. 3RSystem has included a simple air filter to keep the dust out of the case. It would have been nice to see the bottom air vent with a filter as well, as dust can freely enter at this point.


Inside the case you will find the usual layout, with the power supply at the rear top, the mainboard right under it and the drives in the front. The entire case features a black paint job, inside and out. The back of the case does not have anything out of the ordinary, besides the black color.


The rear san is also black and does not feature any form of LEDs. That kind of extra would be misplaced in such a case anyways, as this is a HTPC case. The PCI brackets are secured by normal screws, but do not need to be broken out of the case and can be reused at a later time.


3R System is taking a new approach for hard drive cooling. There are heatsinks on both sides of the hard drive bays. To install a hard drive, the front bay is simply removed and the hard drives are inserted. As you can see, there is another fan cooling all the drives. There is another dust filter on this fan as well. This means that 3RSystem has placed filters on all fans blowing air into the case.


Both heatsinks are made of a single alumium piece each. This is much more expensive than having single pieces molded or cut out and then connected, but also improves performance and stability. There are thermal pads for every hard drive to further improve performance. This should work quite well in combination with the 12 cm fan. Users wanting passive heat sinks on their hard drives had to install them on 5.25 inch drive bays after attaching such heat sinks. The new method from 3R System makes a lot more sense and will certainly perform better.


The front of the case is made of about 6 mm thick aluminum. It is also made of a single piece. The top part features two drive bays. Both utilize aluminum drive covers to keep the look of the case. Just below that is the iMON display. There is a small, flip open door as well, which can be opened with a simple push. There you can find a fully featured card reader built into the alumium front. The usual front I/O in form of audio, firewire & USB 2.0 can also be found here. 3R System has taken all the features of the usual desktop shaped HTPC cases and placed them inside a midi tower.


The bottom of the front has air vents behind a thick aluminum plate. You will also find the 3R Systems logo on this plate. The overall front quality is just as good as any of the high-end HTPC out there and the solid aluminum looks and feels almost indestructable.