A First Look at the HTPC Case Genre with the Ahanix D.Vine 4

Extra Features

Many manufacturers will add uneccessary features that take away from the home theater experience more than add to it. As we mentioned before, we should try to stay away from excessive modding such as lighting to help keep the HTPC low key in our home theater setup.

One feature that Ahanix has done an extremely good job with in their design is their Vacuum Florescent Display (VFD). Since the D.Vine 3, they have included this 2 line x 16 character display to help the media center experience. With Ahanix's downloadable software, the VFD can be programmed to display various pieces of information such as component temperatures (using MBM 5.1) as well as ID3 tags from Winamp, and even an email notification. This full-featured display offers much more than any other product on the market, which sets it apart from the rest.

Click to enlarge.

Click to enlarge.

Another feature that Ahanix has managed to implement, and others should follow suit, is the IrDA transceiver. No HTPC is complete without the ability to control the system remotely, especially if media center software is to be installed.

As we continue our search for the best HTPC cases, we will look at each product's features to find the most significant features that make each case stand out.