BIOS: Technology Means Business

Antec is ready and excited with its new baby, a home theatre PC (HTPC) enclosure going by the name of Fusion.

The latest addition to the company’s LifeStyle series of PC enclosures, Fusion promises quiet computing to home users and eye-catching visuals to boot. We think it still looks a little geeky and is not exactly what we’d call stylish, but it’s defo better than a tower in your living room.

This HTPC case is pitched at users who want to integrate PCs into their daily lives. Fusion was designed to resemble other consumer electronics equipment in order to seamlessly blend into any home entertainment centre. The case features a unique triple chamber design that isolates the power supply, hard disk drives and motherboard into separate cooling zones. This should result in a quieter and cooler system well suited for media centre applications.

Supporting Micro ATX form factor motherboards, the motherboard chamber features dual three-speed adjustable 120mm TriCool fans, allowing you to adjust the fan speed to your desired cooling level and quietness. To further ensure silent operations, the removable HDD brackets in the power supply chamber feature extra soft silicone grommets to minimise hard disk drive vibrations.

Fusion comes equipped with Antec’s custom SU430 HT power supply unit (PSU). The efficient PSU features an 80mm fan and universal input with active Power Factor Correction. Fusion also provides four expansion slots and three drive bays - one 5.25-inch front-accessible and two 3.5-inch internal - to allow maximum expandability. The case promises to be extremely reliable and durable due to its 0.8mm cold rolled steel construction.

For convenience and to work with media centre applications, the case includes two external USB 2.0 ports, one FireWire port, audio connectors and a volume control mounted on the aluminium plate front bezel with a Vacuum Fluorescent Display (VFD). The VFD lets you view vital information such as volume level, sound settings and which track of a CD/DVD is playing. This unique feature makes the HTPC media centre more like an A/V component.

People are integrating computers into their home multimedia centres at increasing rates. As the computer has become essential to the living room, users want an attractive, quiet and reliable case that won’t disrupt their daily environment. Fusion has been designed with those needs in mind.

It will be available March 1, 2006, through major retailers, e-tailers and distributors. Street price depends upon final feature set. The case is backed by Antec’s Quality 3-Year Warranty.

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