Antec Veris Fusion 430

The bottom of the case is not usually discussed, but in this case, it's worth mentioning. Instead of making all four feet the same, Antec opted to make the back feed out of pure silicone instead of making them look like stereo equipment feet. This was likely done for vibration dampening or other acoustic purposes.

The interior design of the Antec Fusion 430 Black is reminiscent of the P180's design. It features a similar triple chamber design that separates the power supply, hard drives, and motherboard. The P180 seemed to benefit from this sort of design because it created a straighter air path in the case. Whether or not it will help, the Fusion is yet to be seen. The power supply and 5.25" drive bay make up one chamber; the hard drives take up another chamber; and the motherboard and other components take up the third chamber.

The case has one 5.25" drive bay that allows you to install a DVD drive, which is hidden by the masked bay. The power supply included is the Earthwatts 430W unit (as implied by Fusion 430). The hard drive chamber holds two hard drives and the bracket are dampened with rubber grommets to reduce noises caused by drive vibration. We have a rather large complaint with this chamber. There is no active ventilation whatsoever. Hard drives don't cool themselves! Many times when people complain about hard drives failing or being unreliable, it's simply because people do not cool them. Especially in a HTPC where the system is acting as a TIVO, the hard drive should be actively cooled because there is a constant stream of data being written and read from the hard drive. The motherboard chamber is just big enough to hold a microATX board. The choice of using the microATX form factor may seem like a disadvantage, because it often requires purchasing a new motherboard. It was a necessary optimization, however in order to keep the width and depth of the Fusion reasonable.