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A Closer Look (Interior):
As with most HTPC cases, there isn't much room once everything is installed. The motherboard, video card, heat sink, and the remainder of our components fit together rather snug. The case comes with a 270 watt power supply, so don't expect to run high end video cards. As we stated earlier the focus of this design and product is the output of multimedia such as movies and music not the playing of high end games. For this purpose the 270 watt included power supply should be adequate to run an average powered machine.
While on the subject of power, one major drawback of the Altair 381 is that it doesn't have a standard form factor power supply. The form factor is different from normal PSU's in that it is much smaller. It is possible to find replacements, but none that are available are very high wattage either. Power supplies falling into this size are all primarily designed for multi-media stations and low power consumption machines. You should take this into account when you decide to build with this case. You must consider what kind of components you want in it before hand. The good news is that power supplies in this range are traditionally very quiet.
The included hard drive tray is designed to accommodate up to 2 (two) drives which should give you more than enough storage to meet the needs of 99% of consumers. Unfortunately, you have to remove the front of the case in order to remove the hard drive tray. The worst part is that it requires an allen wrench. We shouldn't have to use an allen wrench to remove a hard drive tray, we feel the use of a standard phillips or flat head screw driver or even thumbscrew mechanism would have made installation easier. The recessed allen wrench holes do help add to the aesthetics where the aforementioned phillips or thumbscrew would stand out. While not a deal breaker it was a nuisance we weren't anticipating.
The Altair A381 has a single spot for an optical drive and the case comes with an adhesive aluminum cover that makes the optical drive look like part of the case. Its little added extras such as this that really complete the package and help the Altair 381 to blend in with your TV and media entertainment center.
Once everything is put in place, you will be working in close quarters. This is somewhat of a necessary evil to keep the size of the case down and make it blend better with existing multimedia equipment. I respect GlacialTech's decision to engineer it this way and think it was the probably the best they could do given the specifications of the hardware that is found in PC's today. A look at the populated Altair 381 is below:
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