nMedia 1000B Home Theater Case Review

More people are trading in their complicated rack of home theater equipment in exchange for an Home Theater PC.  Most HTPCs are all-in-one appliances that can easily replace a DVD player, BluRay player (or burner), DVR, MP3 player, and can do many other entertainment tasks like gaming.

If you’ve made the decision to upgrade your life to include a Home Theater PC, then one of the biggest decisions you can make is the case you choose.  Within the past few years there have been many cases vying for your living room, and their features vary as much as the internal builds.

One case that looks like a worthy contender is nMedia PC’s 1000B HTPC Case.  Not only does this case have a ton of media features, but it has also been selected as the standard case for several HTPC OEMs like AMD’s Maui HTPC.

We appreciate customer’s feedback to help us to launch the new generation of HTPC 1000 Series. Combining silence, style, easy media access convenience, and affordability. The new HTPC 1000 series is a state-of-art media center HTPC case. When we design the case, we think what our end user is thinking. The right size for an AV looking case, build to place in home theater environment, user friendly, expandable data storage space and run quiet and cool. If that weren’t enough, the HTPC 1000 includes all the options for a 20×2 LCD Media Center display, and our award wining HTPCKB wireless Keyboard and Remote set for a complete HTPC solution. HTPC 1000 is superior in functionality, as well as in design.

• Support ATX power supply & Micro ATX motherboard
• 4 X 3.5″ internal bays for media data
• Easy upfront access digital connection interfaces (behind door)
• e-SATA; HD Audio; SDHC 2.0 Card Reader; USB 2.0; IEEE 1394
• Support full height & length PCI cards
• Stylish aluminum panel
• Compact size and feel
• Optional upgrade on 20×2 programmable MCE LCD module
• Innovated chassis architecture design makes your installation easy
• Quiet as always. Not convince by the small case fan, check our 100 model performance report

We did it again to achieve the best balances on size, functions, cost and simple design.

The 1000B case comes in all black, and the front looks almost featureless, but that’s because many of the features are hidden behind an attractive panel.  Once the bottom panel is pulled open, you can see  the headphone and microphone jacks, eSATA port, two USB ports, and a firewire port.  The lower right of the case houses a media card reader and another USB port.

Above the bottom panel is a programmable 2×20 character LCD display, which is a pretty standard feature on today’s HTPC cases.  On the left side of the case is a rather large silver Power button, Reset button, and hard drive activity LED.   The top part of the front panel has the nMedia logo stamped on it, and the upper right portion of the case has a stealthed DVD drive bay, with a stealthed Open/Close button.  The stealthed DVD bay cover is held  upright with a long spring, which in my opinion just looks sloppy and could get bunched up or otherwise caught on any installed drive tray.  A much more professional approach is to use a hinge spring at the bottom of the cover.

The rear of the case shows you how compact the unit really is.  The case will take a standard ATX power supply, which appears to take up a third of the back panel.  To the right of this is a standard motherboard I/O panel, and four slots for option cards.  Because there are only four slots, this means this case can only accept mini-ATX motherboards or smaller.  Above the I/O panel are two 60mm fans.  The case is only as tall as the card slots, so make sure you choose cards whose PCB does not extend beyond the riser.

The right side has a 80mm fan to help circulate air inside, which also blows across the internal hard drives.  The top panel of the case has vents to allow for heat to escape through natural convection, and there is also a stamped grill right above where many CPUs will be positioned, which gives the processor access to outside air.  The bottom of the case has sturdy and attractive feet, which are secured to the case with screws and use no-slip rubber.  The top panel is secured at the rear with two thumb screws, which are easily removed, revealing the creamy goodness inside.

Once we can look inside, we see that the case is almost completely made of standard steel, and only the front panel is aluminum.  The motherboard tray is static, and has several mounting screws already attached.  There is very little holding the rear panel to the case, and the card slots are it’s weak point. The back panel is easily warped by even a slight tug.   The included intake and exhaust fans get their power through standard 4-pin molex connectors rather than the much smaller 3-pin fans.  Most PC enthusiasts are not fans (no pun intended) of this type of fan power connector, and honestly any case with these types of fan connectors are an instant turnoff.  I understand that the fans are meant to be compatible, but in today’s world, there is no reason to use a bulky molex connector.

The front drive cage is one large piece that can be easily removed for drive installation.  Just remove two securing screws, and the cage slides out and up.  The cage has vents on the right side, which allow the included intake fan to blow across any drives here.  The top portion of the cage will accept two 5.25″ drives, but the optical drive can only be accessed using the left panel, so the right side could take a fan bus or another hard drive.  The bottom portion of the cage are two 3.5″ hard drive cages, and the mounting holes have been fitted with rubber grommets to reduce vibration.

Once the cage is removed we can see the other internal goodies that make this case work.  The multi-card reader is pretty standard, and has a standard 9-pin internal USB cable (two rows of 4 pins plus a guide pin).  The right side of the case (on the inside) has connectors for eSATA, USB ports, standard motherboard leads, and USB cable for the front LCD panel.

It appears you have all the room you need for a home theater case.  With the drive cage removed, you have more room to work as you install the motherboard.  Just insert the motherboard’s I/O panel, align the motherboard to the screw mounts, and secure with screws.  Go ahead and attach the motherboard, USB, eSATA leads and route them through your case, because things will get very cramped as soon as you put the drive cage back in.

Installing drives is fairly straightforward.  Just mount the 5.25″ drive of your choice (BluRay drives are starting to come down in price, so why not throw one of those in).  You can fit two 3.5″ drives in the lower part of the cage, which are secured with regular screws.  I mounted two drives with their SATA cables facing towards the middle, so the cables look more attractive and are easier to route.  You can fit another device on the right side of the upper drive cage, but it has to be internal, so perhaps a hard drive (fitted with 3.5-5.25″ adapter) is your best bet, or this could be a great place to stuff extra cables.

Once you slide the drive cage back in, you will notice you have significantly less room, especially if you have a large CPU heatsink installed.  You should have enough room to easily insert some option cards, like a video or sound card, assuming you aren’t using them integrated on the motherboard.  At a minimum, you’ll probably have an MPEG-encoder board.  Depending on your configuration, you may completely crowd up the option card area (2 slots for video card, 1 slot for audio, 1 slot for encoder board).  You would be wise to consolodate any hardware you can by choosing a good motherboard made for home theater, or use a video card that has audio support via HDMI.

Connecting the front LCD is very straightforward, and not as involved as iMon solutions, which clog your case with unnecessary cables.  Just plug the USB lead up to any free motherboard USB pins, and plug in a molex power connector.  Ahhhh…. (deep breath)…. how refreshing.

The last step is installing the power supply.  I would highly recommend a modular-type PSU, so you’re not clogging up unnecessary space with unused cables.  At a minimum you’ll need the motherboard cable, additional power (4 to 8-pin depending on your motherboard), 1 molex connector (for optical drive), and 1 SATA connector (or if you use Western Digital or ATA drives you can use standard 4-pin molex connectors).  You can eliminate the need for PCI-e cables if you choose a video card that’s not so power-hungry… let’s face it, unless you’re gaming then a powerful card will be overkill and will generate unnecessary heat.

The included software works well, and has features very similar to iMon.  The LCD is a greenish color that looks similar to a VFD, but can have an annoying glow unless you’re looking straight at it.  The LCD displays pertinent information while you’re using your Media Center PC, and displays time and title information about your movie or music.  While the LCD isn’t programmable outside its presets, it has just about everything you need to make your new system feel like a home theater appliance.

Cooling performance greatly depends on several factors.  To help keep your HTPC running smoothly, don’t use an overly-powerful video card just to watch movies.  Instead of the latest ATI 4870, why not tone it down to a cooler (and cheaper) 4830?  Once you get all your equipment installed, things can be rather cramped, so minimizing cable mess and routing cables is very important.  Try to use SATA drives (including your optical drive) whenever possible.  Also, don’t place other equipment on top of your HTPC so hot air can escape naturally rather than totally relying on exhaust fans.  If you follow these guidelines, then the nMedia 1000B case can run your home theater reliably.

Overall the nMedia 1000B case is very nice.  It has an attractive anodized aluminum front with many features you’d expect from a good Home Theater PC Case.  The interal design is good, and minimizes hassles that come with compact cases.  The front panel and LCD are easier to install than other HTPC solutions, which tend to use iMon.  The one big feature that is missing is a volume control knob or front navigation buttons, which are starting to become standard on Media Cases.

The build of the case could be better, as the back panel feels like it could be ripped off, the front DVD panel should have used a hinge spring, and the included fans use outdated Molex connectors for their power.  Most users won’t care about these design issues once the case is built, as it is attractive, and looks right at home with the other home theater equipment it will replace.