Antec Fusion Black 430

Author: Rhys
Published: May 3rd, 2008
Category: Cases, Reviews

Introduction

The Home Theatre market has grown rapidly in the past couple of years. Nowadays, Companies are shifting better HTPC cases that can handle the high temperatures of current hardware. One of the companies among these is Antec. Antec’s former HTPC case, the ‘Fusion’, lived up to its name and delivered outstanding performance and scored high on various top reviews websites. Antec’s latest addition to their Home Media Centre range is the ‘Antec Fusion Black 430’, which i will now be reviewing…

Features:

Black aluminum plate front bezel with LCD display and Volume Control to work with media center applications
Windows MCE & VISTA® compatible IR receiver included for use with remote control
Triple chamber structure to separate heat and noise of power supply, hard drives and motherboard for cooler and quieter operation
Quiet high-efficiency 430 Watt ATX12V v2.01 power supply with universal input and active PFC
Removable HDD brackets with extra soft silicone grommets to reduce vibrational noise
Advanced cooling system:
- 2 x sidemounted 120mm TriCool 3-speed fans
Low profile desktop height to fit in any environment
3 Drive Bays:
- Front Accessible: 1 x 5.25 + Internal 2 x 3.5″
4 Expansion Slots
Motherboard: Up to Micro ATX form factor (9.6″ x 9.6″)
- 2 x USB 2.0
- 1 x IEEE 1394 (FireWire® i.Link®
- Audio In and Out (HDA & AC’ 97)
Durable 0.8mm cold rolled steel construction
Dimensions: 140 (H) x 444(W) x 414(D) mm
Net Weight: 18.7lbs / 8.5kg
Gross Weight: 21.6lbs / 9.8kg

Packaging

The Fusion 430 arrived in a standard case size cardboard box with product graphics and information plastered all over in three different languages. The case was protected inside with some very thick Styrofoam which the case slotted into. Antec thought carefully about this and even added a dedicated piece of Styrofoam protecting the volume knob. Overall I was impressed with the quality and security of the packaging.

External Impressions

Included with the case is a manual, warrantee booklet, driver cd, screws, power cord and two little plastic gadgets. The largest of the plastic gadgets is a 12cm square which can be used to replace one of the 120mm fans, the other plastic gadget is used to direct the air around the case and can be adjusted to fit your motherboard and heatsink.

Here is the case in all its glory, the front is made out of a thick anodized piece of brushed aluminium whilst the rest of the case is made from steel that has been painted black.

The front of the case has 2x USB, 1x Firewire, 1x Audio and 1x Mic connection. Also, there is a large aluminium volume knob, a 5.25” blue LCD display and a 5.25” aluminium drive facia.

On the right side of the Fusion are dual 120mm exhaust fans- an unusual feature for a HTPC case. 120mm fans are much more effective and quieter than the more common 80mm fans, so this is a great feature. On the left side of the case are vent holes for the PSU section.

As you can see from the back of the Fusion, the case is designed for Micro ATX boards (MATX). The back of the case also has vent holes for hot air to exhaust out of. The top of the case has ventilation holes which are located around the card area so these should help to keep all your add on cards and graphics card running cool. The top of the case can be removed by unscrewing one thumb screw on the back.

The bottom of the case has even more vent holes, but more importantly has some feet. The front feet are made of plastic with an aluminium surround and have felt on the bottom- this should help to reduce noise from the case vibrating. The back feet are made out of very soft rubber which should definitely reduce noise and also keep the case from sliding about.

Internal Impressions

The top of the Fusion slides off by unscrewing just one thumbscrew. I noticed there is a hole on the back which could be used to lock the top of the case to stop people from opening the case up if needed.

This is the internal works of the Fusion, there are three compartments, I’m not going to bother naming them as it’s pretty obvious what goes where! The three compartments help for better cooling inside the Fusion. All of the edges of the Fusion are rolled, so no cutting your hands in this case.

Antec Fusion 430 Case Review

Here’s the 5 ½ bay which you can install one 5 ½ drive in. The bay can be removed very easily without any tools. On top of the bay you should notice two little black rubber stops which are designed to dampen the vibrations between the bay and the top of the case.

Here are the dual 120mm fans, both these fans have individual 3-way fan controllers and can be connected using Molex.

In the Hard Drive compartment is space to install two Hard Disks. Below is an image showing the sound proofing for the hard disks. There is rubber grommets for the screws and also rubber holders for the drives- quite extreme but does the job.

This little black plastic slider hides a large hole where most of the cables run through, this slider can adjust the size of the hole to neaten things up.

What’s this? This is one of the rubber strip which are all over the edges of the Fusion, the idea of these rubber strips is again to reduce sound. It’s obvious Antec really are trying hard to reduce sound as much as possible.

Beneath the PSU rests these black rubber stops, these are the same as the ones on the 5 ½ bay and are designed to reduce vibrations from the PSU.

Installation

The Installation of the hardware in this case was probably one of the easiest installations I’ve ever done. All I used for the installation was a cross head screw driver and a socket set for the motherboard mounts. The installation took a mere 15 minutes as I was a bit rushed so my wiring probably isn’t as good as it could of been.

The front LCD can be connected by external USB or by the USB pins on the motherboard. We installed ours externally since our motherboard didn’t have enough USB pins. The LCD is powered by a small connecter that plugs into a lead coming off the PSU.The system booted flawlessly into Windows and installing the driver for the LCD was as simple as popping the CD into the drive and hitting install! I was surprised at how quiet it was, the PSU was virtually silent while the two 120mm fans were also very quiet.

Here’s some quick shots of the LCD in action. You can customize the LCD using its own software to display practically anything!

Conclusion

The Antec Fusion is definitely a case I’d recommend. The Fusion’s sleek black aluminium front with blue lighting really looks the part. I can tell Antec have really tried to make a nice looking HTPC whilst taking all the factors such as noise, size and style into account. After all, this is probably one of the quietest cases I’ve ever used and that was with using a stock Intel CPU heatsink!I honestly could hardly find any faults with the Fusion. The main fault with the Fusion was the PSU, which has masses of cables which aren’t the easiest to tidy away in the Fusion, so therefore a modular PSU should’ve been used. The only other fault was that there was no space for a Card Reader, so if you’d like to view your family photos on your HTPC you’re going to have to opt for using USB.The Antec Fusion 430 retails for around £110 in the shops which is a very good price considering the quality of this case. So if I was building a HTPC on a budget, this is certainly the case I would use.

Pro’s

Very Quiet
Good Quality
Looks Good
Reasonable Price

Con’s

No space for card reader
Lots of cabling from PSU and front of case.
Quite Bulky

Award