Accessories:
In the little box that was sitting on top of the case is where you will find all of the accessories that will makes this a very well rounded home theater case. In the below left image we have a bag of screws and thumbscrews, an IR Blaster, optical drive cover (along with double sided foam tape), and a standard Microsoft Media Center remote. The below right image shows the components of the IR Blaster assembled.
If you are not aware, an IR Blaster allows your computer to control other IR devices such as a cable box or satellite receiver; virtually any device that is controlled by an IR remote. This particular unit attaches to your motherboard by a USB cable, and can control two IR devices, although only one IR transmitter is included.
Installation:
Installation was fairly straight forward with the Altair A380. However, there are some issues I ran into worth discussing.
For this install, I am using a new Abit AN-M2HD Micro ATX motherboard that is designed to be the centerpiece of a digital home. The first issue I ran into was with the power supply cables. The 20-pin motherboard cable is barely long enough to reach the socket on the motherboard, and there is no slack in the cable when connected. The next issue with the power supply cables is that the four pin auxiliary power connector would not reach at all.
The front drive cages are removable by removing a few thumbscrews and then by sliding the cages off of a couple clips. Installing drives is no more difficult than installing them in any other case.
Once the drives are installed in the cages, putting the cages back into the case lead to a few more issues. The optical drive cage was not able to install correctly because it was always uneven, and the tray would not open. Upon closer inspection I found the drive cage was resting on a capacitor on the motherboard.
The hard drive cage did not have a critical issue like the optical drive cage, but it was close. With a Micro ATX motherboard the first USB header connector was under the bottom hard drive. Had this been a standard ATX motherboard, things like SATA connections, front panel headers, or other important connections might be unusable.
Once the system was up and running, I noticed that the side fans are both set to exhaust. They are very quiet as I expected, and they provide a nice blue glow from LEDs onboard. LED lighting may not be desirable in an HTPC setup, so if you don't like it, you have to source your own fans!
