Misc. Ramblings

Antec announced last week what sounded like a replacement for their popular Aria case. The press release states the new "Fusion" case will be available on March 1st at a price dependent "upon final feature set." I don't know if that means you can add optional features or whether the press release was written before the design was finalized.

In either case [pun intended - ed.], there isn't much else known except for what's in the press release:

• 430 watt power supply (PSU).

• Dual 120mm cooling fans.

• Vacuum Fluorescent Display (VFD).

The VFD will probably get most of the attention but what's important to me is the power supply. What with the higher energy consumption/heat output of modern CPUs and the need for multiple hard drives and at least two TV tuners (for regular and high definition), a high power PSU is required. So I am very glad I had not yet purchased a case for the media PC I am putting together.

But all may not be better in the new case. It is unclear whether the addition of the VFD means Antec sacrificed the Aria's 8-in-one card reader. If so, you'll have decide how important that was. For me, I don't think it much matters since I would be using mine to view/record video, not still images. That said, if you need to transfer still images to the drive you could always use an USB-based reader.

All-in-all, unless th Fusion is more expensive than the Aria (about $129USD), I'll probably buy the Fusion.

Lunch time update: I've been able to find a picture of the case and I'm very disappointed that it appears to be a variation of the Overture II case rather than the Aria. That is, rather than being a small form factor type case, it appears to be the similar in size to many horizontal desktop cases (i.e., larger than what I want). Sigh. I guess I'm back to looking for a small form factor case that takes standard micro-ATX motherboards and has a PSU rated at higher than 300 watts. I hope Antec will update their Aria but I guess I'll just have to wait and see.