Best Value S001 Micro ATX Desktop / Tower Combo 450W

Well priced and with a reasonably quiet power supply. Has cooling vents above the CPU and PCI/GPU spaces giving it excellent air flow potential. I instantly removed the 60mm fan that the case came with and replaced it with a 80mm on the top side to keep the AMD Athlon II X2 250 processor running cool. No apparent vibrations from the hard drive or optical drive.

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• Ease of use
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For the price this case is fantastic. It looks small and tidy for a htpc and there is room for full hight GPU's which is great!

At the moment I have just 1 HDD installed but by the look of it you could fit another (some-how)

All in all a decent case for the price.

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• Ease of use
• Value for money

I bought this because I wanted a small PC. This case is substantially smaller than a typical tower, so it gets a big thumbs up from me. The price is also excellent.

Downsides? Well, as ever with budget cases, it's made of thin metal. Mine has a few slightly warped bits from transit, but they're not hard to straighten out. The front panel looks good but it's a bit plasticky. The layout inside has plenty of versatility (3 HDD slots, for example) but the lack of any instructions or manufacturer support can mean you end up not making the best of it, so plan carefully. Finally, the removable caddies for the HDD and the CD-ROM are not adequately braced. Given the thin metal and the tendancy of the screw threads to strip, two screws for each caddy is not enough. I've made mine a bit more sturdy with some rubber strip and larger screws. Not a biggie, but worth being prepared for.

Overall a slightly compromised case, but worth living with the downsides for the small size and price.

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• Ease of use
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I would rate this case higher had it arrived in better condition. The plastic front panel was damaged in three places. One standoff had to be glued back into place, the square piece next to the cd drawer also, and one part if the "hinge" that hold the door to the floppy drive at the right hand side. The metal is a very light gauge. The psu is disappointing as it has only one SATA power and the rest are molex. You can purchase adapter cables to overcome this limitation. Good points - it's neat, light weight, compact, and easy to use as the cd bay is removable giving full access for motherboard installation.

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Well it's generally an OK case, but has one major problem - noise. I bought this to use as a server in the hall, and you can hear it from any room in the (large!) house, despite not using the case fan. Since there is only one after-market micro-ATX power supply available (Be Quiet, not sure if it is quiet though!), I decided to use a standard ATX case instead, so gave this case away.

Oh I couldn't install the CD ROM in it either, as there is no tolerance in the case and the cheapo DVD drive I bought had a front plate a mm or so too wide.

Ultimately the CoolerMaster case I bought, with a cheapo PSU that has a 12cm fan, is *much* quieter and not much bigger, so it's well worth the extra £20.

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• Ease of use
• Value for money