The Inside

     Gaining access to the inside is just one thumb screw away.  Everything is compartmentalized, optical drives and power supply are separated by a dividing wall and the hard drives and case wiring is separated in another compartment.

     Antec has recently started equipping the Fusion case with their popular Earthwatts power supply.  It's very nice to see them upgrading the power supply, but they also let a little mistake slip by quality control.  The old power supply had a wire coming off of the main power plug to power the LCD display.  The new Earthwatts does not.  When I started assembling the computer I found there was no way to power the LCD.  A quick email to customer service and the below cable was in the mail.  For a complete review on an Earthwatts power supply click here.

     Customer service assured me that if your case does not have the cable included to call them and they would send one.

     There is only room for two hard drives, but that's alright.  With today's drive sizes, that could still get you 2TB of storage. Use the supplied special screws that match up with the anti-vibration mounts.

     The optical drive cage slides up and out for easy access to the mounting screws.  There is only room for one drive so you might want to think about a new blu-ray/HD-DVD combo drive for the ultimate home theater PC.

     The Fusion accepts Micro-ATX motherboards.  I was not able to find a board that size that supported SLI or Crossfire.  However, you still can fit one large video card in here without problem.

     The LCD can be connected directly to the motherboard using an onboard USB header.  It can also be separated and connected externally to a regular USB port.  The other connectors are the standard cables you would find in a case, Audio/HD audio, USB and Firewire.  The last wire is one that is not in the owners manual.  It's labeled M/B PWR and GND.  This cable needs to be connected to the motherboard if you want to be able to turn your computer on with a remote control.

The LCD isn't that bad.  You can adjust the scroll speed font and font size along with the brightness.

     Looking at the VFD window you can see that you can display the currently playing media information, check for new email, display daily news headlines, current weather for any major city that you choose, a graphical equalizer or your system information, choosing the parameters that are most important to you.  There truly are more options than you will want to use.  The system window lets you configure your sound card so the remote and the volume control knob will actually control the sound.

Conclusion

     I was very impressed with the Fusion case.  Even with two 120mm fans going on high the system was very quiet.  The complaints I have are fairly minor.  First being delivered without a LCD power plug.  I expect this issue to be resolved soon and if you don't get one, Antec will send you one without charge.  Second, I really like the fact that it has a remote control sensor.  However, Antec did not include a remote control.  For $200+ for the case, I think Antec could have thrown in a remote.  Overall, I'm very pleased with the case.  It's a very nice construction and has a brushed aluminum black finish that will look good in any home theater.  I'm excited about the opportunity to have a blu-ray / HD-DVD combo drive in my home theater.  Club Overclocker recommended!

Note: Club Overclocker is now using a new rating system based on a score of 1 to 5.
Please go to our rating system page for more information.

Performance:	4 out of 5
Innovation:	4 out of 5
Quality:	5 out of 5
Stability:	N/A
Aesthetics:	5 out of 5
Software/Drivers Pack:	N/A
Overclocking:	N/A
Value:	3 out of 5
Project Skill Level (5 being most difficult)	3 out of 5