The Origen AE M10 continues to offer insane build quality with the thickest aluminum I have seen in any HTPC chassis. The general design, basically consisting of two identical, bent aluminum plates looks incredibly nice. On top of that Origen AE has made installation simple and painless. It can be done in three easy steps. Once assembled, the M10 scored big with silent operation, mainly due to the 150W power brick included along with the well chosen single fan within the chassis itself. Considering the price tag of close to 400 Euros the consumer is allowed to be extremely picky, thus we were sorely disappointed by the lack of a card reader or front USB connectivity. There is plenty of space within the chassis to make room for a basic SD/CF reader on one side by simply moving the power button to the other side. Origen AE could have also placed two USB 2.0 connectors somewhere within the front of the case easily.
Nonetheless, the Origen AE M10 may not set the bar in overall features for such a small chassis, but provides invaluable aspects like the notebook style power brick with more than enough juice under the hood to feed even more demanding ITX solutions along with an unsurpassed and certainly uncompromising construction quality. The only thing holding it back from an Editor's Choice award are the few but essential features and contents - especially for the well above five Benjamins you have to drop to get your hands on one.