A Closer Look - Outside

Taking a quick look at the untouched chassis, it sports the exact same design found on all the other Fusion cases from Antec. The design is simple and centers around a thick slab of silver Aluminum in the front. This gives the case that hifi look and should fit well within your home theater environment. Sadly, the MicroFusion is only available in silver. It would have been nice to have an all black version as well.


Antec has kept the MicroFusion in a two color theme as well. While the Aluminum stands out, the rest of the front is black. Taking a look at the rear, we can see, that the frame of the case is grey. While this is just a personal preference, a black interior would have been a nice touch. Both sides of the chassis have circular openings to allow air to enter the chassis. There are a total of four such openings, two on each side. Three of these are used by the included 80 mm fans, while the forth allows for cool air to be pulled in by the power supply.


Taking a closer look at the front, it can be divided into two visual areas. To the left we have the Soundgraph VFD screen, which has proven to be a very potent solution for home theater systems. This is also a reason why many different manufacturers use it in their enclosures. I would have loved to see a card reader in the area below the display, but as we will later see, there is simply no space for such an addition. To the right, is the full size optical drive bay. An aluminum drop down cover has been incorporated into the design, so that you can freely install the drive of your choice regardless of looks and color. An eSATA, two USB 2.0, a pair of audio plug along with a reset and power button have been placed below the drive bay. This set of I/O may be the only telltale that the MicroFusion has been out on the market for some time, as there is no USB 3.0 for example.


In the rear, the left side is taken by the opening for the mainboard backplate, while the right half allows for four low profile expansion cards to be installed within the chassis. Next to that is the 350W 80Plus certified power supply.