Casetronic 2699R MiniITX Case Review
Date : Friday, 31 October 2003
Author : Wolfman
Provided by : Directron
Introduction
More and more PC users are building a Home Theater PC, or better known as HTPC. As the name implies, the rig is mainly used for DVD movie playbacks, Divx or XVid movies, MP3 jukebox and since it's connected to a TV set, it could also be used as a PC for the living room where couch surfing usually takes place. And the Mini-ITX motherboards, the brainchild of VIA, was the perfect candidate for the applications. Being so tiny in size (17cm by 17cm), the resulting chassis that you'll need will definitely have a small footprint and will blend in nicely with any current home entertainment system setups. There's quite a number of Mini-ITX cases available right now in the market and one of them is the Casetronic 2699R MiniITX Case which Directron was kind enough to provide us with a sample.
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In building a HTPC, you probably want your end result to fit in nicely with your existing audio/video setups and not look out of place and the 2699R Case will do just that. It's slim so you'll know it will fit in tight spaces and with it's flat black appearance, it will go well with most Hifi or home entertainment setups. Coupled with a remote and wireless keyboard/mouse setup, it'll look at home amongst the amplifiers or other components you might have. Enough about that.. let's check out the specs, direct from Casetronics.
Features
As you already know, the case only supports the VIA Mini-ITX Form Factor motherboards and this particular model supports only the M-model of the motherboards due to the Front USB 2.0 and Firewire ports. You can check the motherboard compatibility right here.
Specification
Looking at the specs, you'll find that the case do not have the normal bulky Power Supply Unit like most case. It ultilizes a PCB-mounted DC power supply and it churns out just 60Watts! That's right folks! The Mini-ITX boards requires much less power than your typical board, an average of 50Watts during normal usage. This not only cuts down on the amount of space required for the PSU, it also helps to cut down the noise since there's no fan in the PSU. Here's a quick look at the PSU specs for those interested.
OK, let's take a closer look at the case shall we?
External
With a slim built, the 2699R Case only accepts slim type CD-ROM drives or some of you would call it the laptop CD-ROM drive. You'll also need a converter to use the slim drive with the MIni-ITX motherboard but since the case did not come with one, I made a quick trip to Mini-ITX.Com and grabbed one. I also got a second hand 8X Slim TEAC DVD drive for the case. The floppy bay on the case also corresponds to the slim type but who needs a floppy? Hehe!
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You'll also find the usual Power, Reset and LEDs on the front of the case and right in the middle of the case front, 2 x USB 2.0, Firewire and Audio Ports are hidden behind a latch door. Push on the door to release it from the catch and it'll reveal the ports.
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At the rear, you'll find 2 x 40mm fans for cooling.. not like the Mini-ITX needs any... and also the opening for the PCI expansion card which BTW will be installed sideways with the supplied adapter. On the other side of the cases' rear is the opening for the I/O backplate that comes with the motherboard.
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Accessories
The case comes with an external DC power supply, much like a scanner's or printer's power unit. It auto selects between 110VAC and 240VAC so you can rest assure it'll work in your area. Apart from the power unit, the case also came with a set of mounting screws, a PCI card adapter and mounting bracket, a pair of plastic feet just in case you wanna mount the case vertically and also instruction manual.
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Getting Inside
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Removing 3 screws at the rear, you'll be able to pop the top cover open and reveal the case interior. As you can see, there's really not much space in the case with everything so close together but that's the purpose.. to get everything in as little space as possible. Here you'll also see the 2 x 40mm fan at the rear of the case. Even with them running, the case is very quiet, you can hardly hear the system among the components in my home setup.
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While the case structure is made of steel, the front bezel is made from plastic and you can remove it by releasing a plastic catch the top and rear of the bezel. Once released, pull the front bezel away from the case structure.
More on the Interior
At each side of the CD-ROM bay, you'll find two screws holding the bay secure to the case structure. Removing these screws, you'll find the DC power unit and also the PCB that houses the front ports. As you can see, the power unit PCB is very small, about the width and height of a standard CD-ROM faceplate. The various components on the PCB converts the 12VDC to the various voltage lines required by the sytem to run, etc 3.3V, 5V and 12V.
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The power unit has the standard 20-pin ATX power connector, 2 x floppy power connector and a single 4 pin Molex connector. That's more than enough since you can't really connect up much devices to the case.
To the right side of the power unit you'll find the drive bay for your hard drive and slim floppy. It's secured to the case by a single screw and you can remove it when installing your hard drive. Once removed, you'll find a black shielded wire running along the side of the case. This is actually the power cable that's connected to the power unit in the case and you'll find the 12VDC connector at the rear of the case where the external 12VDC power supply connects to.
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Installation
Installing the motherboard into the case is pretty similar to any other motherboard installation. I'm using the EPIA M10000 Mini-ITX mobo for the case. It's the 1GHz version of the Mini-ITX motherboard and utilizes PC2100 DDR memory. The motherboard came with it's own I/O backplate so after snapping it into place at the rear of the case, the motherboard was installed. I highly recommend you connect the IDE cables first and route it under the mobo as there's really not much space left to work with once you have the drive installed, especially for those with big hands! Next, route the ATX power connector along the side of the case and connect it to the slot on the motherboard. Oh yeah, don't forget to install the memory too before installing you optical drive.
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Here's the 8X Teac Slim DVD drive and the CD-IDE converter connected to the back of it. The mounting holes on the drive are really tiny but luckily, Casetronics provided the screws, albeit just 3 of it so you better not lose it. Once you got the drive on the bay, slot the bay back in to position and secure it to the case. One thing you'll have to beware here is that the drive bay actually touches the installed memory stick which could lead to a short. I just stick a piece of foam under the drive bay to prevent direct contact with the memory but if you're not willing to take the risk, then you'll need to find a low profile memory stick.
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Here you see the IDE cable routed under the motherboard and coming out of the other side to the position of the hard drive. Secure your hard drive to the bay and then secure the bay into the case. If you have a slim type floppy drive, you can also install it above the hard drive.
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Once all the hardwares are installed, connect the varius data and power cables and also the 2 x 40mm fans in the case. You'll see in the pictures below that there's really not much space left with all the hardwares installed. This keeps the case compact and also near silent. Next, let's see how you go about installing a PCI expansion card.
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Installation - Cont'd
First thing you'll need to do in install the PCI card adapter onto the motherboard. This will enable you to install your card sideways since there's really no way for you to install your card upright. Then using the PCI card bracket, secure your card to the bracket.
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Then slide your card from the rear of the case and secure it to the PCI slot on the adpater. Secure the whole thing with two screws at the back of the case and you're done!
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Cover up the case and you're ready to enjoy PC on your TV! Heheh! You can also mount it vertically with the case feet provided.
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Connecting her up!
First thing I did was to install Windows XP to make sure everything was OK hardware wise. Even with just the system running, it is suprisingly very quiet.. near silent in fact with just a faint sound from the 40mm fans in the case. It does get a little warm though during normal operation and it's understandable with everything cramped into such a tiny space but when the rig's stressed out like when playing DVDs or Divx movies, both the underside and top of the case gets really warm, not hot but really just warm and that could be an issue to some. But after some time using the rig, it's still chugging along with no problems whatsoever.
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I don't have a high end hifi setup or anything but I do have a TV, a Yamaha TSS-10 5.1 speaker setup and a Pioneer DVD player in my room for my personal use and the Casetronic 2699R Case really goes well with the setup, albeit it's sitting on a stool now until I get off my lazy butt and put it somewhere in the cabinet... heheh! Input device wise, I have a Logitech Cordless Freedom Optical Keyboard/Mouse setup in addition to the StreamZap Remote for PC. Here's some shots of the rig in action.
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It's a little hard to get a good shot with the lights on... here's the rig with Windows just started up and also with Winamp running...
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A little couch.. or rather bed browsing and also watching Divx with Global Divx Player...
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Conclusion
No doubt, the modder in us would definitely like to put the Mini-ITX form factor boards in our very own custom-made case or maybe even salvage some retro stuff like an old radio or clock and stuff the boards inside. But for the more conservative users, they probably would like to get a ready made case for their Mini-ITX rig and the Casetronics 2699R Case is one that they should really consider. With it's slim design, it will go well with users planning to incorporate the system into their home entertainment setups or if you're just looking at saving space on your desk. You can even have it stand vertically next to your TV to save some space. Another great feature is it's DC power supply where you not only save space inside the case, but also helps the case to be virtually silent as there's no need for a PSU fan. Of course, with a case this slim, you'll only get to use the more expensive slim-type CD-ROM and not forgetting, you'll have to get the adapter for it as well. The rig does run a little warm but so far, it has been running fine all this while without any issues.
All in all, if you have a Mini-ITX board and looking at a case for it, the Casetronic 2699R Case deserves your attention. You'll appreciate it's well built and slim structure and more importantly, it's virtually silent operations. Thanks to Directron for the review sample and to you too for reading! Cheers!