Antec Veris Fusion Black HTPC Case Review

The Antec Veris Fusion

Since the wave of affordable laptops hit the mainstream market, desktop PC sales have been on the decline. Many consumers have found that their obsolete desktop PC is just sitting there collecting dust aside from occasional gaming. One option to revive the desktop PC is to convert it to a Home Theater PC (HTPC). Armed with an HD Tuner card and an HDMI capable video card, we are well on our way to moving our old desktop PC to the Home Theater. With the last item to make the HTPC complete being a sleek case, today we are taking a look at Antec’s Veris Fusion Black Quiet Media Center Case.

The Veris Fusion Black arrived well packed with no signs of physical damage. The case itself was well packed with styrofoam, including a special block of styrofoam protecting the more delicate volume knob. The drivers CD and manual were securely placed within the case so they were not loose in the box. All of the cables inside the case were also bound in zip ties or rubber bands to prevent them from rattling around in the case.

Features:

The exterior of the Veris Fusion Black consists of 0.8 mm cold rolled steel with an aluminum front bezel. The LCD display also has a built in IR sensor that should be compatible with most media center remotes. The volume knob worked great in controlling the application volume. Our optical drive tray did fit through the built in optical drive door on the Veris Fusion Black without a problem. The simple and elegant front bezel also includes 1 firewire, 2 usb, 1 headphone and 1 mic ports.

Here is Antec’s complete list of features:

• Aluminum plate front bezel with Liquid Crystal Display (LCD), built-in IR receiver and volume control to work with media center applications
• IR receiver compatible with Windows MCE and Vista
• Triple chamber structure to separate heat and noise of power supply, hard drives and motherboard for cooler and quieter operation
• Removable HDD brackets with extra soft silicone grommets to reduce vibration noise
• Advanced cooling system:
  
  – 2 x side-mounted 120mm TriCool 3-speed fans
• Low profile desktop height to fit any environment
• 3 Drive Bays
  
  – Front accessible: 1 x 5.25″

  – Internal: 2 x 3.5″

• 4 Expansion slots
• Motherboard: Micro ATX form factor (9.6″x 9.6″)
• Front-mounted ports for easy multimedia connections
  
  – 2 x USB 2.0

  – 1 x IEEE 1394 (FireWire, i.Link)

  – Audio In and Out

• Durable 0.8mm cold rolled steel construction
• Dimensions: 5.5″(H) x 17.5″ (W) x 16.3″ (D)
• Net Weight: 18.7lbs / 8.5kg
• Gross Weight: 21.6lbs / 9.8kg