Our old HTPC for the old TV got damaged during a thunderstorm, so I bought a new one. This time I decided to go with a nice Antec Micro Fusion Remote, since I already had experience with its other sibling, the NSK1480. The difference is, that the Fusion Remote version also comes with a LCD display and a Remote, which would be perfect for a simple MediaPortal client.

The rest of the hardware consists of a Gigabyte GA-MA785GMT-UD2H, a Phenom II X2 550 BE, Kingston ValueRAM, 3 Noctua NF-R8 to replace the stock coolers of the Antec, which are too loud for my taste and making the PC quiet is more important in this case, since the user will not be sitting very far away. Also I have to use a dedicated GPU, an XFX Radeon HD 4550 in this case, since I need an S-Video output for the old TV. Unfortunately due to a mix up on the Geizhals website I ordered the wrong one and I didn't have it yet when I set up the PC.

Unlike the NSK1480, the Micro Fusion Remote has only space for one HDD, due to the LCD, which is of course not a problem in my case, nothing besides Windows will be stored there anyway. Just like with the NSK1480 I decided to route some of the cables (USB, Power LED, HDD LED, Reset, eSATA) under the Mainboard, to reduce the amount of cables cluttering the space within the case.

Installing the Motherboard was not that difficult, but there is not much wiggle room when placing it. I used the U.L.N.A. adapter for the two Noctua exhaust fans on the right, and the L.N.A. adapter for the intake fan (in the HDD chamber) on the left.










The space beneath the optical drive should be used to store all the power cables. The middle bar of the case can also be used to nicely route the Front Audio cable and the additional 12V connector for the Motherboard.




Initially I had some trouble with the optical drive, since I couldn't get the right distance between the front of the case and the drive itself. But it turned out, that I didn't push the cage all the way down and to the front.




I did have a lot of problems with the LCD though. First of all, mine seems to have a defect. The LCD panel itself is put on a sticky, white surface (that reflects the white light of a LED), but it always fell down, probably because of some metal part inside the case at that spot, that pushed against it. The LCD is also very delicate. At one point it only displayed garbage and I had to disassemble and reassemble the LCD in order to get it to work again. At one point Windows was unable to recognize it and I had to disconnect it from the USB connector and reconnect it while windows was running. The iMON software and driver also gave me trouble. I had to reinstall it several times, until I got everything to work the way I want to (with MediaPortal specifically, there is a small tutorial here). Currently I have to use an older version (but not too old) and not the most up to date version of iMON, otherwise it won't work with the MiniDisplay plugin of MediaPortal.

Configuring the Remote for MediaPortal is easy enough. However, with the current releases of iMON, you can't reassign the "Back" and "Menu" button (it is always assigned to "Backspace" and the context menu key). In order to use these buttons in MediaPortal, you have to reassign the commands to Backspace instead of Esc for example, which works fine. However, currently there is no possibility to use the Context Menu key command in MediaPortal.

What's really cool is, that you can use the Remote to turn on the PC. The LCD is directly connected to the power supply and the power button of the case is connected to that LCD which is in turn connected to the power switch connectors on the Motherboard.


I really like the Antec NSK1480 and NSK2480 cases (and the Fusion counterparts). They are nicely designed and very well thought through. It's too bad that mine had some quality issues with the LCD.

Pictures of Kathi's Birthday Party just went online. Enjoy!

Pictures of moving into my new apartment and Christmas 2008 are online.

Pictures of Bobo's & Romana's Birthday Party are online.