These days the HTPC market is attracting a lot of attention.  The appeal of making a custom PC the center of your home media experience has a lot of appeal.  Kingwin has been making quality custom PC cases since 1992.  This week we will take a closer look at their first HTPC offering; the Supernova. 

     Our Kingwin Supernova arrived in typical UPS fashion.  Its always nice when the parcel carrier gets in on the packaging testing!  Fortunately our case arrived unharmed.

     The Supernova case comes in the black SN-213HTBK and the silver SN-213HTS.  Today we will be taking a closer look at the silver.  Kingwin has provided a closer look at the major features right on the packaging.  No surprises here.

     Once out of the box the classy home theater style is immediately apparent.  Everything is manufactured from a brushed aluminum and shines like new chrome.  The front is dominated on the left by a back lit control console and all of the other drives and ports are nicely hidden from view.  More on those in a minute. The case even sits on component style gold plated feet.

     Both sides of the Supernova are designed to integrate a heat sink style fin system.  This system helps to keep the Supernova cool even in a typical cramped home theater install.  Our install did not produce enough heat to notice, but a higher end system may find the addition more effective.  These sides are thicker than most HTPC cases but the trade off is well worth it if it reduces the need for more fans and increased noise.

     From the back, the Supernova looks like a typical Micro-ATX case.  The addition of two 60 mm fans is an excellent choice.  The case weighs in at a trim 20 lbs.

     Six screws must be removed to gain access to the inside.  Looking towards the front reveals two different removable drive cages and the first look at the back of the display/control panel setup.  The cages are both set off from the other components which not only helps us get to them during the install, it also helps with airflow and heat dissipation.

     Looking towards the back reveals the two 60 mm fans and the inverted power supply mounting location.  HTPC installs tend to get more creative with the power supply installs and this is a pretty common style.  The rear fans have power adapters included for a 12 V plug.  Since the front panel includes a three fan controller, we chose to control these fans from the front panel.

     The case comes with the usual quality instruction manual, screws and mounting hardware, and extra slot plates.  In addition, the control panel software is provided along with USB extensions for using the Control panel with an exterior USB port.  In this case our software was provided on a DVD-R.  This may be a stumbling block for those of you without a DVD unit in your install.  The software is also provided on the web for download.

Specifications:

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