Home theater PC?s are becoming quite popular. There was a time when home theater PC?s were only used by the hardcore enthusiasts, in its earlier days. Nowadays home theater PC?s are available from HP, Gateway, etc? While they?re becoming commercial, there are still enthusiasts that like building their own home theater PC?s. A problem with building your own home theater PC system is finding the right case?the case that?ll sit in your entertainment center and blend in with your receiver, TV, cable box, etc? Case manufacturers have realized this problem and everyone from Silverstone to Thermaltake produces at least one HTPC case. While some cases more or less still look like a computer, Silverstone has developed some of the more consumer electronic looking cases.

Our last encounter with Silverstone was with their slim LC11M home theater PC case. We were impressed with the looks and performance but weren?t too pleased with the price and use of expansion card risers. The slim form factor of the LC11M limited its motherboard choices to mATX motherboards. Feature-rich mATX motherboards are relatively hard to find, especially enthusiast-level boards. High-end ATX motherboards are a lot easier to come by and often find their ways into home theater PC?s as a hand-me-down when the main rig needs upgrading?much like most HTPC components.

Since Silverstone has a large lineup of home theater PC cases, we figured it was time we took a look at one of their full ATX offerings. Today we?ll be taking a look at Silverstone?s LC16M ATX home theater PC case, complete with a VFD, wireless remote and front mounted multimedia buttons.

At first glance the LC16M looks big, and it is big. The LC16M is roughly the same size as a Pioneer Elite series receiver coming in at 16.7? wide, 6.7? high, and 16.7 inches deep. It features the same black paint as the LC11M we looked at previously and doesn?t attract too many fingerprints. The whole front bezel is constructed of aluminum and is anodized black to give it a high end look.

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• A closer look... (1 of 6)
• An inside look... (2 of 6)
• Assembly... (3 of 6)
• Test setup... (4 of 6)
• Testing... (5 of 6)
• Conclusion (6 of 6)