Sunbeamtech Acrylic HTPC Case Review

Conclusions

Sunbeamtech Acrylic HTPC case is a 100% transparent case targeted to the user that wants to build an HTPC with a very different looks. Its looks, however, will not please everyone. Some will find it exciting, while some will find it ugly for an HTPC that will be on the living room. Here is a summary of what we found out about this product.

Strong Points

• Excellent material.
• Excellent cost/benefit ratio.
• Good ventilation with four 80 mm fans.
• Very light.
• A delight for DYI users.
• Impressive number of hard disk drive bays (eight) will please even the most demanding user.

Weak Points

• You have to be very careful to not scratch or crack your case.
• Requires extra time for you to put the case together, increasing the PC building time by around one hour.
• No memory card reader, feature commonly available on HTPC cases (on the other hand this makes this case to be cheaper).
• No screwless mechanisms or thumbscrews for holding daughterboards, optical drives or hard disk drives.
• No anti-vibration mechanisms for the hard disk drives, which is a desirable feature on HTPC cases.
• Could have dust filters for the fans.
• The two USB ports are too close to each other, preventing the installation of two “fat” devices at the same time.