APEVIA Black X-MASTER-BK/500 ATX Media Center / HTPC Case

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low-cost, low noise, power provide, functions good and very happy with the obtain. Scant documentation may create issues for new Pc builders.

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None now. I just wrote a decent evaluation soon after stuffing my computer into this situation and immediately after having it on a whole day I've changed my mind. It is the worst situation in the globe for airflow. In my old case cpu core in no way got above 45c at 60%, now running at 59c (and that's with the prime off!) The front design for the psu I feel is the culprit. I sat on it also extended to do something, so I'm junking it. It already fried my audio, rather not fry my whole system.

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-Fits ATX mb's.-A lot of expansion room-Sufficient ventilation-Looks good in cabinet, + it fits!-Includes power provide* (see cons) 1. As noted numerous times, the blue led is freakin' bright! This is no understatement. I'm wondering if Apevia doesn't make flashlights as nicely, and basically mismatched the led's in them for the led in this case. It is literally a flashlight, not kidding. Taped mine off, then noticed a couple weeks later it had burnt out. No wonder there. Not really any other negatives I can believe of. Most of the other negatives I have seen in the evaluations are simply from men and women expecting also a lot out of this case. It's like writing a assessment on a Geo Metro and complaining that it is not fast sufficient, or doesn't carry enough men and women. For the money, which was wonderful with the MiR, u just can't go incorrect. If you are on a budget like I was, and u are ordering this situation, let me say I believe you are generating a wise selection. I originally was going to stick a mATX board in this, but had compatibility problems with a tuner card and the motherboard. I only had one particular motherboard laying around and it was an ATX. Good enough! Of course it tends to make items tighter, but I EXPECTED that. Even though with a matx you will have more room than u know what to do with! When I had the matx board in, I had created a bracket to hold a different harddrive on the south side of it, mounted to the motherboard standoffs. Anyways, this is a seriously decent case. I have not had any issues with the PSU, but like other people who know a top quality PSU, I can tell u this is not one particular. Testing with a multi showed, I assume it was the 5v rail, was a bit out of spec. Regarded as rma'ing it, but will just let it fail and get me one thing top quality when it does. If I was employing all new hardware, I would definitely defend it with a new PSU.

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Value Could not fit Radeon 4850 or Geforce 8600GTX (both passively cooled). The cooling pipes were also tall. This is 1 of the handful of HTPC instances I liked that were in my price tag range. Extremely couple of other individuals that will fit massive vid cards at a sensible value. So, should I downgrade to a 4650 to accommodate the situation or keep searching for a bigger case that will lay horizontially.

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Fits an ATX case devoid of issues. Decent airflow with at least one 120mm fan installed. Nice shiny finish. Blue power light of death. The power supply fan doesn't light up like the box shows, I have no notion how to turn the lights on. PSU cables coming out of the PSU in the worst feasible spot. Two rear fans are junk. Fits my HIS 4670 with out problems. Also a massive plus is that it fits an cheap Kingwin XT-964 tower cooler perfectly, like the case was created for it, so take note.

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I like the reality that it is significant adequate for a complete ATX board which is what I was determined to use. I am tired of acquiring pre-produced Pc's with no space for expansion. It has every thing I need and then some. I in fact wanted the silver and black case but the black Friday cost with rebate was too very good to pass up. The energy provide and rear fans are whisper quiet. The energy provide has significantly far more than any HTPC (that I could ever imagine) could ever need to have. I had almost everything together and I could not get it to commence. Then I remembered from the critiques read that for some cause the energy switch on the energy provide is shipped in the off position so I had to take off the front panel and surenuff that was it. It has a front firewire port so I guess I'll have to add a card only mainly because I do not like to have anything that will not function---even although I have no want (at this time) for a firewire port for ŭ.99 I'll make it operate. Program on working with sata devices if at all attainable since of limited space in between the five-1ǚ and 3-1ǘ bays and the 24 wire energy harness. I am making use of up ide devices initial to get this operating before I put a lot of funds into the new sata challenging drives I am going to get following Christmas. I have a laptop, a desktop, and now two HTPC's. It is tight so if you are preparing on working with any IDE devices with the way the tricky drive is beneath the two dvd burners and the wiring from all butts up against the 24 wire energy harness it created it impossible to use any round ide cables mainly because they had been to stiff and place pressure against the 24 pin energy wiring. I was trying to use up the old ide dvd burners I had on hand but I ended up receiving sata adapters for 2 of the ide devices so I could use sata wiring which is so substantially simpler to manage. I am constructing this very first to see exactly what it can do and then I am obtaining a 1 or 1.five TB hd for the media I will record.

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Cheap. Made me really feel proud of myself for discovering such a good deal for the couple of days amongst ordering and opening the box. Arrived broken. six out of the 7 clips holding the front panel on broken off. The box was in excellent shape - broken product inside.The silly blue lights in the fans. I can tell currently it is going to be too irritating for a media center in my living space. I was hoping to either break the LED or cut the wire goingto the LED. No such luck - the blue LEDs are integrated into the power supply and case fanns with no seperate wires.Front energy provide with a wire going to the rear power inlet. I was excited. I was going to solder an in-line resistor to take care of the blinding power light everyone talks about. I open the box and inside is a piece of trash that is already broken...But it is built so poorly I don't think I even want yet another one particular. I don't want to place the time into performing my create only to uncover the next problem.

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Good searching case for a good price Tighter internally than expected I bought this case to use for a HTPC I built a month or so ago. I bought the red faced case to add a little color to my stereo setup. I have to say that for a case with a power provide and at this cost it is a quite good case. It is effectively created and the included fans run very quietly. The specs say that it has 2 internal three.5" drive bays and two external five.25" bays. In addition there are places on the side of the case that can accommodate two added fans or alternatively two tough drives. 1 of the two internal three.5" drive bays can also be utilised as a external three.five" bay. This all tends to make this case fairly flexible and accommodates very a bit of hardware. My only complaint is that every thing is fairly tight in there. Don't get me incorrect, I have two external drives, a card reader, two HDD's, a full ATX Mobo, and a Video card, and it all fits. It's just that it's a pretty tight squeeze and accessing the SATA plugs is on the MOBO is difficult. General a very nice case for if you need to have a non-tower case.

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Good layout for HTPC. Wonderful box and high value for the price tag IMO. This is the 3rd one I have employed and under no circumstances thought to check th PSU on the fist. They are still working and I have had no complaints. Checked the PSU on this 1 (same type as first) and really was not happy with the excellent of the power offered or the internal construction.....modest capacitors, not enough copper on the coils and only one particular coil which I bet is why the energy was not stable enough for me.....But for ๕ who cares!! nonetheless a wonderful obtain!..the box is worth that...I wish APEVIA would either A: put a very good PSU and raise the value (we would spend a few bucks) or B: Get rid of the PSU from this box and lower the cost....Come on, this PSU sucks and is a throw away....give us the บ-ฟ off that it cost to place it in! Will buy again from APEVIA for positive.

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Good form element, narrow sufficient to fit my audio rack with sufficient clearance for great ventilation on every single side. Seems sturdy enough for it's intended use (sitting on a shelf) Best & bottom pieces add stiffness & strength when fastened. Rear fans supplied are quiet . All needed hardware to mount my MATX had been included. Instruction booklet was nicely written & clear in explanations. Case arrived properly packed inside it's carton, no harm to report Two issues:The front LED is INSANELY too vibrant. Why would Apevia think that having this vibrant blue eye staring into your media space as a good factor? And yes I place a piece of black tape more than it , but why should we have to do it at all? An straightforward repair, if they are listening to their consumers (since I see this reported over & more than in critiques).The second - do away with the supplied PSU altogether & charge much less for it. I by no means used it, due to the fact it felt so light & flimsy I just did not trust it. I had a Thermatake 500watt PSU that I employed instead. I would Extremely recommend acquiring a modular type PSU to use with this case. I have an IDE dvd drive, a single 80 GB SATA hdd, and a low power Athlon II sitting on a low finish MSI mobo, and I had TONS of unused power connections I had to find room somehow inside the case. Also the front panel power & USB wires seem rather a bit too lengthy & stiff, so once again anything else to have to come across space for.The front panel came off effortlessly ,as soon as you read the manual & understand how to do it correctly. I added a 120mm Silenx fan on one particular side for a bit far more airflowVery happy with the finish outcomes!

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Looks good, straightforward to assemble, lots of space inside. properly built. Like quite a few mentioned the LED is reaaaally bright. But a tape more than or a resistor in series will fix that. My DVD did not fit the cover on the face plate and I had to use the second bay for it. Possibly simply because it is old. Will acquire new one.

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Great seeking case, fits mATX boards rather properly. Some sharp edges. one internal HDD bay useless.PSU was junk from the day I got it. >>> This was earlier response to my critique from manufacturer. Manufacturer Response:It is a possibility that the power provide was switched off at factory. In order to check the unit to make certain that it is on, you would have to initial get rid of the front panel and make confident that the switch is set to the "on" (vertical line) position. If it is off, then that is most most likely why you had troubles with powering your method.Apevia folks you are joke. Please re-read ahead of you reply to some consumer complaints. Persons who obtain cases to rigup their systems are smart enough to identify no matter whether PSU is turned or not. Atleast try to reply a thing related.

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Affordable - in particular during the Black Friday sale. Nice gloss black finish matched other AV equipment, a lot of space inside for your standard HTPC build. Straightforward access, a lot of screws, plenty of PSU connectors. Individuals laugh nervously when I mention that I am working with the power provide that came with it. Practically too massive for those working with onboard HDMI for their HTPC, could be shorter and shallower. Could the power light be any brighter? Still haven't received my rebate from Black Friday... At this point, I am nonetheless hoping to see my rebate. If it doesn't show up, this would be a two star rating.

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-Heavy-Material feels sturdier than it looks-Comes with 2 80mm fans on the back-Two substantial fan ports on either side for adding larger fans-Didn't come broken (like some men and women have seasoned)-Nice screwless DVD mount-Reasonable space to upgrade CPU heatsink-Power supply appears competent adequate-Non obtrusive aesthetic (so long as you don't have to see how long it is from back to front) Minor Cons:-Side panels are flimsy (wouldn't feel comfy stacking something on it)-Front panel is plastic, not extremely sturdy (a lot of persons have received theirs with broken front panel)-Not positive why the tough drives don't slide in like the DVD (on a track, screwless mount... needs removing the back of the case to secure each tough drives)-Difficult drives appear really, quite encapsulated and not well ventedImportant Cons:-Wouldn't fit either of my rigs inside of it-Straight up lied to by product capabilitiesItem is advertised as being in a position to fit the 8800GTS, ATX motherboard, and a typical powersupply. This is a joke.If you are working with smaller components, you can probably skip this subsequent part. If you are trying to use common sized components please read on:Fits ATX motherboard fine, albeit the board's proper edge will be ridiculously close to, if not below, the drive/powersupply housing. Really annoying for hooking factors up to the mobo, but doable....but the P Scenario 1: x1900aiw / included 500w PSUGraphics card is impossible to fit in the case with the power supply mounted. The card is a tiny long, but it says it supports an 8800gts, so I mean... come on...Scenario 2: 5770 / 600w Xion PSU"Standard" sized PSU, shorter graphics card... ought to operate... incorrect. This power supply is no more than .5 inches longer than the included 500w, but the position of the PSU in relation to the video card is so close that, even with the shorter GPU, it nevertheless won't fit in the case with the PSU mounted.Scenario 3: 5770 / included 500w PSUI'm attempting to make lemonade out of lemons right here. Utilizing my shorter GPU, and my (shorter than) normal PSU, I nonetheless have problems. Yes, the GPU fits with the PSU mounted. What's incorrect, although, is where the power cables come out of the PSU, right on the edge of the GPU. Not liking the sight of my GPU's PCB bending from the power wires stuck up against it, I gave up.False marketing on the box, plain and

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shiny Poor layout. I am worried about the heat generated from the tough drives. there is no exactly where for it to go. You have to eliminate the front cover to access the drive bays. This is the 1st case i have ever owned where that is mandatory. I don't like it. The power light/switch wires barely reach the MOBO. they didn't leave any slack for routing the wires neatly. Low-cost. shiny. Get what you spend for I guess.

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Case is quite sleek, sufficient ventilation with fans that are included. Energy light is vibrant, I mean vivid blue. Not confident if the voltage can be adjusted on it. In a dark room it will distract from what you are viewing. I had to cover mine with masking tape to tone it down. Watch your energy connectors for the MB board. I had to get adapter 1ST Computer CORP. 12" 6-pin PCI-Express male to fourƲ-pin EPS female cable Model CB-6M-44F to make function with the MB I purchased, Gigabyte GA-H55-USB3.

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Reasonably priced case specifically with integrated PSU. The is my initial HTPC develop so maybe this is common for these instances but the only dedicated spot for a HDD was in the 3.5" drive which I was considering reserving for a card reader. The only other spot(s) for HDD is mounted to the side of the case against the optional fan opening. All in all it was a tight fit with my mico ATX board. Not the ideal searching case for a media cabinet in particular with the glowing blue LED cooling fan -- my wife didn't approve. I consider any future builds will be with a greater finish case.PSU was switched off -- seems to be common and worth mentioning.

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I am trying to think of some. I'll be obtaining a rebate hopefully. Shipping was cheap I wonder why. Power provide only has 1 12v connector, not enough sata connectors either. I'm making use of a thermaltake 500w not a excellent selection for this case.The rails used to hold any optical drive in place are low-cost and do not click into the case nicely, there is some wobble. I'm employing a card reader in the external three.5 slot, there is one a lot more for the HD. If you want to use a 2nd HD you want to get a five.25 to 3.5 minimizing bracket for one of the 2 optical slots. Not a expensive deal and I new that going in. I'm not employing a optical drive for this HTPC create.I'm utilizing a Arock Extreme three MOB I wanted the expandability its a complete ATX. Be seriously cautious if your going full ATX. The sata ports are at appropriate angles (bad style generally poor arock) the ports sit suitable below the PW. There is maybe a 1ǚ" to feed the sata cable among the PW and port then the cable bends up into the MOB. Right after finding it threeǚ built I had to get rid of the PW plug the sata cables in then put the PW back in price me time. The Iǖ panel does not sit flush with the Iǖ shield I hope this is not a issue. Trying to get it to sit flush the holes in the MOB does not line up with the offsets.There is not significantly space for cable mgt. If your going to use a 3rd party PW make confident the wires are not sleeved, uncover one that has the connections you want but not a lot of rails you'll have difficulties with cable mgt. you also have to fit the ubs firewire and audio. Fans- come on now so tight in there to begin with why use molex connectors when everything is sata, should of used 3-four pin to the MOB sheesh. I ended up turning the fans so the wires were facing up and applied a molex to four pin adapter.bad cooling for the HDOnce again if you have proper angel facing sata ports make positive you attach the cables prior to you mount the PW you ain't gonna get them in there following thats foresure.I didn't cut myself thats deserves an eggnewegg rocks that deserves an eggMay well be superior for a micro ATX but genuinely tight for a ATX

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This is a nice case with lots of space inside. Ventilation is superior. Finish and look are nice, with a moderate front profile (the case is deep). The price is excellent if you get it on sale. The power provide is generally a paper weight. The case is a bargain (on sale) even with the throwaway power supply, but it would be even greater with out it at a few bucks much less. The LED is a flamethrower but it is easily fixed by adding a resistor in line (or with a marking pen if you don't solder so well). Buy the case if you like it and swap out the power provide for the duration of the initial construct or you will in all probability be undertaking it in a couple of months anyway. The provide in the unit I built for a friend lasted six months.

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Looks pretty, really should be nice as a media accessory bad internal layout - drive bay is really uncomfy and it looks like you have to unistall the MB if you will determine 1 day to swap drives, accessibility is horriible, READ THE INSTRUCTION when assembling or you may possibly finish undertaking your job twice.Hard Drive tray did not match the HD !! I got a Seagate barracuda 750 and the screw holes were mis-allined by about 1 millimiter or much less, sufficient anyway to have the screws not operating. Resolution "bending" the tray to acquire the small diifference on both sides and screw the driver in, which is UNACCEPTABLE AND LOOKS LIKE ****.The blu led IS vibrant, but honestly I do not know if is that poor, didn t test in my livingroom environment but I built a rather affordable Media Center with this Case. I assume it will be OK for my project. Despite the unfortunate assembly mess, I believe is a great compromise cost high quality. Keep in mind, you get what you pay for, if you want Additional, pay more.My Media center has 1 HD 750 GB, AMD Sempron two.7, 2GB ddr2, HD 5450, Blu-Ray reader, wireless net and wireless Keyboard (Adesso media key, amazing thing!), so I do not believe suuch a low level technique will tension the "underestimated" 500W PSU coming with the case, time will tell.For such a basic confiig, the case works excellent and "should" have adequate airflow.If you plan to have a huge Media Center, large CPU, three HD (hot) and so on, forget about this case, is not for you.On the side, I can t realize ppl complaining here because they were building a "big" media center and this case was not proper for it. You wanna be low cost while undertaking major projects, you deserve the troubles you got.

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Following reading a lot of of the prior critiques, I took a chance and picked up this case from Newegg on a ศ.99-right after-rebate deal. I'm so glad I did.I'm not positive what men and women are griping about. For the income, I'd be difficult pressed to envision a far better HTPC case. I experienced none of the sharp edges (must have some Nancy-boys writing evaluations about here), the develop top quality on the case seems very good, and it's incredibly properly laid out. The two included fans are very quiet, as was the power supply...but I replaced that with an Antec Green 380 just for safety and economy. I will agree that the PSU is a little light and inexpensive feeling, but I bought with the intention of replacing it from the get-go. I will say that it powered my E3400/ATI 5450 setup for a couple of days with no balking. The light. It's vibrant. Extremely vibrant. I'm going to search for some opaque tape or some thing to dim it a bit. No complaints. Tough to go incorrect for the price tag, good searching case, I can't even hear the factor running with a passive video card.

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Amazing case for the price tag! a small snug but not bad.I put a full size video card in it without a challenge and a decent size soon after industry heat sink also.. The only con so far to me is that it only has 1 tough drive bay.. Manufacturer Response:The X-Master model case can truly hold up to 3 tough drives (four if you count the external three.5" bay). Aside from the cage, you can also install a hard drive on either of the two side vents if you don't use case fans in those spots.

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Tough to beat for the price tag. Used in a HTPC develop. 500W PSU seems stable and quiet. Rear fans move air properly and are practically silent. Looks fine next to other AV equipment. Lots of space inside... used a full size ATX mobo. Develop quality a lot more than sufficient. A genuine bargain! Two issues, one huge and one particular fixable... 1) The case is not the width of common AV components. It is a couple inches narrower. I decided to use the case vertically subsequent to my other AV gear to reduce this problem. 2) As previously noted, the power light is Extremely bright! See beneath for an easy fix. The power LED is simply dimmed by putting a 1ǚ watt 33K ohm resistor in line on the + lead. The result is perfect for me. Other people may like it a little brighter in which case a 27K ohm resistor may be preferable. A Ū fix!

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Exceptional price tag for what you get. Included a very good power supply. My XFX 9800 GTX+ fit into the case. Stylish fits with my Television and other video equipment. Has plastic door for the major DVD drive that can "if not careful" be broken effortless small form factor so space will be limited. power supply at bottom front so does not present hardly any airflow for case with it's internal fan therefore two 80mm fans are provided. Modest form element so space will be limited.

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The case was what I wanted. A straightforward case with sufficient space for every little thing I already had in my old case. The place to put disks was a little limited. For the cost, this was a good case.