Origen X15e HTPC case

Written by Wil Harris

August 2, 2006 | 14:04

Tags: #case #home-cinema #home-theatre-pc #htpc #htpc-case #lcd-screen #origen

We've seen quite a few home cinema cases pass through these pages recently, including the awesome Zalman HD160 and the Silverstone Lascala. We found the Zalman to be a fantastic case, if a little chunky, that did everything required of a HTPC.

Today we're looking at a chassis from a new company, Origen. What makes this a little different is that the X15e has an LCD display in the very front of the case. It's available from SpecialTech for £465.

Looking at the exterior, you can see the standard black brushed aluminium styling. The quality is a little higher than some cases we've seen, with the case feeling a little more solid. You can get the X15 in silver if you really want, depending on the colour of the rest of your equipment. You can see how the LCD screen dominates the front of the machine.

There are a number of buttons under the LCD display. The big one is the power button, which is just attached via the standard pin connector. The others are controls for the screen itself including power on, input select and menu backwards and forwards.

The right hand side of the case has the DVD drive and a fold-out panel that hides a 3.5" drive bay and some front ports including USB and headphones. You could use the drive bay for a floppy disk (if you still hang on to those) or, more usefully, a fan controller or card reader. The front ports have all the pin headers that you'd expect. The DVD drive has a fascia add-on to keep the look and feel of the front. We'll come to that...

The side panels have no ventilation, which you may find to be a problem if you're planning on putting in very hot components. However, the lack of fan grilles does keep the side looking extremely sleek.

Moving around to the back, you can see a vertically oriented PSU mount right next to a full ATX motherboard backplate. There are two 80mm fans mounted over the motherboard, which isn't a great design because we all know that dual 80s can be rather loud. It would be great to have a 120mm back there, but we suspect that this would make the chassis just too high. You can obviously replace the port backplate with whatever one came with your motherboard.

Let's go and poke around inside.
Discuss this in the forums

Posted by pranks7er - Wed Aug 02 2006 13:08

you could prob build your own for a fraction of the price...

Posted by Lord_A - Wed Aug 02 2006 13:15

That's insanely overpriced IMO, also what good is a touch screen tft on a HTPC case which is supposed to be tucked under your TV & operated via infared remote? It's also too big but I guess that's down to personal taste. Good review though.

Posted by HandMadeAndroid - Wed Aug 02 2006 13:52

:clap: A T.V. beneath a T.V...........wow, whatever next?

Posted by woodshop - Wed Aug 02 2006 14:19

HandMadeAndroid
:clap: A T.V. beneath a T.V...........wow, whatever next?
Putting a TV under all that :D
YouTube logo
MSI MPG Velox 100R Chassis Review

October 14 2021 | 15:04

In line with recent changes to data protection legislation in the UK and Europe we would like to direct you to our updated Privacy Policy here.