Finding the perfect home theater PC case can be an easy or troublesome task depending on your requirements. It’s pretty easy to find a case that’ll house everything if you aren’t too concerned with the aesthetic appearance. Finding a case that’ll house all your hardware components and match your home theater is another case. Case manufacturers such as Silverstone have attempted to make home theater PC cases that blend in well with a home theater. Silverstone has been quite successful with the aesthetic appearance, for the most part. While Silverstone has some attractive designs there are size and component selection limitations. Take for instance the LC11M we reviewed last year, it’s a stylish case but requires risers for expansion cards.

Antec is taking another stab at the home theater PC case market. Its previous Antec Overture was far from an aesthetically pleasing home theater PC case. There’s also the Antec NSK2400 that was released earlier this year that was somewhat attractive but lacked the home theater PC aesthetic touch. Enter the Antec Fusion.

The Antec Fusion has had a rough development cycle. It was originally expected two years ago but was later cancelled due to thermal issues. Antec released the Overture as a home theater PC case instead. Fast-forward two years later and Antec has recycled the Fusion name for use with a new home theater PC case. Unlike the Antec Overture which was a brand new case, the Antec Fusion is based upon the previously released Antec NSK2400 with a few aesthetic differences.

The Fusion

At first glance the Antec Fusion sports a simplistic design that somewhat resembles a high end amplifier. The front bezel is composed of plastic with a chunk of aluminum attached. Cut outs for an integrated VFD, hidden optical drive door and volume control knob are on the aluminum front bezel. Two USB 2.0, one Firewire, headphone and microphone ports are also on the front bezel too. The hidden optical drive door is similar to the front bezel. It’s composed of plastic with a piece of aluminum attached to match the rest of the case. Unlike some cases which use flimsy plastic drive doors the Antec Fusion drive door is very solid.

Measuring in at 5.5” (H) x 17.5” (W) x 16.3” (L) the Antec Fusion is the perfect size for most entertainment centers. It’s composed of steel and weighs in at 17.4lbs which isn’t too heavy consider high end receivers will weigh around 40lbs+. Black paint accompanies the aluminum front bezel for a simplistic look.

While most manufacturers of consumer electronics and computer cases are jumping on the blue LED bandwagon, Antec has installed white LED’s for the power and hard drive activity LED lights. This is a nice change as white isn’t as obnoxiously annoying as blue.

Removing the top cover reveals an elaborate internal layout. Antec has divided the case into three individual cooling chambers. The chambers separate the hard drives, power supply and motherboard. Isolating the individual components prevents dissipated heat from heating up the other components. This keeps the hot running power supply from raising the case temperature in the motherboard region.

Only one 5.25” drive bay is available for an optical drive. While the NSK2400 has two 5.25” drive bays available the inclusion of the VFD display eliminates the use of the top most 5.25” drive bay. This is perfectly fine as a single DVD-RW drive is sufficient for most home theater PC systems. The optical drive cage is fully screw-less and held into place with four pegs that allow the drive cage to slide in and out easily. Antec has equipped the Fusion with the same Soundgrab iMon USB VFD and volume control knob. The factory software allows weather, system specifications, equalizer and other displays. It’s fully compatible with the Windows XP Media Centere Edition 2005 FrontView VFD plugin. Linux drivers are also available too.

Two 120MM Antec TriCool fans are installed as exhausts. The two fans have three adjustable speeds—1, 2 and 3 with 1 being the slowest and quietest. At speed 1 the fan spins at 1200 RPM, pushes 39 CFM of air and produces 25 dBA of noise which is quite quiet. At speeds 2 and 3 the TriCool 120MM fans rotate at 1600 RPM, push 56 CFM of air, produce 28 dBA of noise and rotate at 2000 RPM, push 79 CFM of air and produces 30 dBA of noise respectively.

Power is provided by a 430 watt Antec ATX12V 2.0 power supply. While it doesn’t have the power to push two GeForce 7900GTX’s in SLI or two X1900XT’s in CrossFire it has plenty of power for a high end home theater PC with a fairly high end video card.

Due to its size the Antec Fusion only accommodates microATX motherboards. However, thanks to the recent boom of quality home theater PC-centric microATX motherboards this isn’t too big of a problem anymore.


The Antec Fusion can accommodate two 3.5” hard drives. There’s great emphasis on noise reduction with the hard drive mounts. Hard drives are screwed into the bottom of the case and a metal bracket that sits on top. The screw holes have silicon grommets installed to reduce vibration noise. Antec has installed four plastic padded dampers inside the case to ease hard drive installation and reduce vibration too.

Introduction

Finding the perfect home theater PC case can be an easy or troublesome task depending on your requirements. It’s pretty easy to find a case that’ll house everything if you aren’t too concerned with the aesthetic appearance. Finding a case that’ll house all your hardware components and match your home theater is another case. Case manufacturers such as Silverstone have attempted to make home theater PC cases that blend in well with a home theater. Silverstone has been quite successful with the aesthetic appearance, for the most part. While Silverstone has some attractive designs there are size and component selection limitations. Take for instance the LC11M we reviewed last year, it’s a stylish case but requires risers for expansion cards.

Antec is taking another stab at the home theater PC case market. Its previous Antec Overture was far from an aesthetically pleasing home theater PC case. There’s also the Antec NSK2400 that was released earlier this year that was somewhat attractive but lacked the home theater PC aesthetic touch. Enter the Antec Fusion.

The Antec Fusion has had a rough development cycle. It was originally expected two years ago but was later cancelled due to thermal issues. Antec released the Overture as a home theater PC case instead. Fast-forward two years later and Antec has recycled the Fusion name for use with a new home theater PC case. Unlike the Antec Overture which was a brand new case, the Antec Fusion is based upon the previously released Antec NSK2400 with a few aesthetic differences.

The Fusion

At first glance the Antec Fusion sports a simplistic design that somewhat resembles a high end amplifier. The front bezel is composed of plastic with a chunk of aluminum attached. Cut outs for an integrated VFD, hidden optical drive door and volume control knob are on the aluminum front bezel. Two USB 2.0, one Firewire, headphone and microphone ports are also on the front bezel too. The hidden optical drive door is similar to the front bezel. It’s composed of plastic with a piece of aluminum attached to match the rest of the case. Unlike some cases which use flimsy plastic drive doors the Antec Fusion drive door is very solid.

Measuring in at 5.5” (H) x 17.5” (W) x 16.3” (L) the Antec Fusion is the perfect size for most entertainment centers. It’s composed of steel and weighs in at 17.4lbs which isn’t too heavy consider high end receivers will weigh around 40lbs+. Black paint accompanies the aluminum front bezel for a simplistic look.

While most manufacturers of consumer electronics and computer cases are jumping on the blue LED bandwagon, Antec has installed white LED’s for the power and hard drive activity LED lights. This is a nice change as white isn’t as obnoxiously annoying as blue.


Removing the top cover reveals an elaborate internal layout. Antec has divided the case into three individual cooling chambers. The chambers separate the hard drives, power supply and motherboard. Isolating the individual components prevents dissipated heat from heating up the other components. This keeps the hot running power supply from raising the case temperature in the motherboard region.

One 5.25” drive bay is available for an optical drive only. While the NSK2400 has two 5.25” drive bays available the inclusion of the VFD display eliminates the use of the top most 5.25” drive bay. This is perfectly fine as a single DVD-RW drive is sufficient for most home theater PC systems. The optical drive cage is fully screw-less and held into place with four pegs that allow the drive cage to slide in and out easily. Antec has equipped the Fusion with the same Soundgrab iMon USB VFD and volume control knob. The factory software allows weather, system specifications, equalizer and other displays. It's fully compatible with the Windows XP Media Centere Edition 2005 FrontView VFD plugin. Linux drivers are also available too.

Two 120MM Antec TriCool fans are installed as exhausts. The two fans have three adjustable speeds—1, 2 and 3 with 1 being the slowest and quietest. At speed 1 the fan spins at 1200 RPM, pushes 39 CFM of air and produces 25 dBA of noise which is quite quiet. At speeds 2 and 3 the TriCool 120MM fans rotate at 1600 RPM, push 56 CFM of air, produce 28 dBA of noise and rotate at 2000 RPM, push 79 CFM of air and produces 30 dBA of noise respectively.

Power is provided by a 430 watt Antec ATX12V 2.0 power supply. While it doesn’t have the power to push two GeForce 7900GTX’s in SLI or two X1900XT’s in CrossFire it has plenty of power for a high end home theater PC with a fairly high end video card.

Due to its size the Antec Fusion only accommodates microATX motherboards. However, thanks to the recent boom of quality home theater PC-centric microATX motherboards this isn’t too big of a problem anymore.


The Antec Fusion can accommodate two 3.5” hard drives. There’s great emphasis on noise reduction with the hard drive mounts. Hard drives are screwed into the bottom of the case and a metal bracket that sits on top. The screw holes have silicon grommets installed to reduce vibration noise. Antec has installed four plastic padded dampers inside the case to ease hard drive installation and reduce vibration too.

(1 of 4) - next >

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• Introduction (1 of 4)
• Assembly (2 of 4)
• Temperatures (3 of 4)
• Noise & Conclusion (4 of 4)