Exterior Impressions


You can never judge a book by its cover, except with HTPC cases! I would consider this category the most important for many cases, especially with their home theatre incarnations. At first glance, the nMedia appears to have what it takes to stand proudly next to an HDTV but let’s take a closer look to see if it can hold up to our expectations.


The case is about the size of a large home theatre receiver and almost the same size as a regular ATX case with the only difference being that it’s thinner and about an inch or two deeper. To stay consistent with the look of a receiver, there are four classy brass coloured circular feet on the bottom of the case. These feet are padded in order to absorb any vibrations from the 600BAR


The front panel’s brushed metal is solid and withstands the wrath of greasy fingerprints. The optical drive panel also has a high quality feel to it. The buttons look good visually but physically, they feel flimsy and pivot around their centre points and when using them, there’s a sense of impending doom as if they will break at any moment. The optical drive button threatens to become stuck behind the front panel but there’s not enough room for that to happen once a drive is behind it.


The card slots are convenient but are left exposed and don’t look like they belong in a high end piece of electronics like an HTPC. Their text labels are slightly too large and the top two look off kilter since they are not vertically aligned. The nMedia logo is a little large compared to other home electronics but at least is in what appears to be the best place for it; in the top left over the power button. The front IR port is large and almost HAL-like but stays mostly unnoticed since it glows a dark red.


The traditional case ports like firewire, microphone, speakers and two USBs are located on the front left side of the case. This location can lead to problematic access if you have to fit the case into a narrow home theatre shelf but the ports do remain hidden if they are not in use. If you do find this to be an issue during setup, you could always transfer media over a network or with the card reader slots.
The back of the case looks like a traditional computer but no one sees that anyway. Overall, the exterior of the nMedia HTPC 600BAR comes very close to mimicking the design of an actual receiver.


Interior Impressions

Getting to view the innards of the case is a piece of cake (no lie!) thanks to a large curved handle on the top panel and two thumb screws. Upon opening the case, drab grey metal is revealed! Of course, this only matters to the person installing the hardware since no one else sees it and the price is kept down like Arby’s with Pepto Bismol. The inside has been blended with a traditional case design to accommodate a home theatre profile while retaining almost ATX-sized interior dimensions.


Thanks to the size of the case, a regular ATX motherboard will fit. There is only one optical drive bay, which is a downer but really all that is needed. The plug on the back is not for some built-in power supply that nMedia marketing forgot to mention but rather an extension to connect to a power supply at the front of the case. The HDD rack has room for three hard drives that may dampen the dreams of RAID 5 with five drives but is adequate. Also, the HDD rack’s rubber grommets are a welcome inclusion to keep the noise level down. All in all, there is a fair bit of room in here for a HTPC case.