I have recently upgraded my MCE case from a Silverstone LC10M to a Silverstone LC20. The LC20 is the latest in the LaScala range from Silverstone and is, in my opinion, one of the best they have done so far. While not feature rich, it is a well thought out and attractive case.
It is available in either silver or black, and I bought the black version. The front is clean and presentable, easily integrating with the rest of your AV equipment, and featuring a rounded top edge and a drop-down door covering the dual optical disc bays.
Located behind a thin lower drop-down door are a number of front accesible ports. A fire-wire port, four USB ports, an audio in socket and a headphone socket are nicely hidden from view when not in use along with a 3.5" drive bay. I found the 3.5" bay was perfect to add a multi-card reader (cheap these days at around $20) to give added functionality. Now when the relatives say "here's the latest pics of..." I can just plug their CF card, SD card, memory stick or whtever straight into the Media Center and view it straight on the TV. No more squinting at the camera LCD display.
The reset button is also hidden behind the lower drop-down door and is a mirco-button that requires a pen to press. A nice thought as it is now safe from little fingers and accidental presses.
Extra ports are nicely hidden when not in use and are ample. A 3.5" bay is ideal for your card reader and the reset button (right of the card reader) is nicely out of the way.
Inside the case really shows some of it's well thought out attributes. Along the front edge is a removeable HDD rack that will take up to six drives. The rack has a ruberised coating on the mounting surfaces that insulate the drive to reduce noise. A nice touch. The front of the drive rack has provision to mount two 80mm or 92mm fans. These draw air in from a concealed vent at the front of the case and blows it directly across the drives.
The HDD rack. Holds up to 6 HDDs and is noise insulated. Fans at the front draw cool air in and over the drives.
At the rear is provision for two 80 mm fans. There is also a grill on the right hand side if you want to place an 80 mm fan blowing out to the side.
Interior: Rear fans and provision for side fan. Note the brace-bar which is removable.
A big change from the LC10 layout is the relocation of the PSU from the right to the left side. This places the PSU fan up against an ample grill on the rear left had side, so the Antec TruePower no longer blows it's warm air into the case and across the motherboard, but straight out the side of the case.
PSU has change sides allowing the PSU fan to exhaust via a side grill.
Being a good size case with the cooling so well thought out, it runs cool and quiet. I have two HDDs, so I am running one 80mm fan at the front and I have installed two 80mm fans at the rear. The standard AMD fan cools the CPU. The rear fans are set to come on at 35C and 40C. Since putting this in I have not seen the CPU climb above about 45C and the System temperature has been below 40, even when recording three programs and playing back a fourth. I have never seen both rear fans kick in. It runs very quiet, none of the fans ever rising to full speed.
It is a rigid case with a firm brace-bar running from front to back down the middle. The bar is easily unscrewed for access when installing hardware, and once it is removed you quicly see how much strength this gives the case.
The case only accepts either an ATX or a micro ATX motherboard, but who would want smaller than an ATX in a case this size? After all, you need the extra slots for those extra tuner cards.
Downsides?
The blue power and HDD LEDs are attractive but far too bright in a darkened room. Where my case sits they were at eye level when seated and VERY distracting. I cured that by putting a sliver of dark plastic between the front panel and the plastic bezel that holds the LEDS. This dimmed them down nicely.
I found I had to re-route the cabling to the front ports as they did not quite reach the headers on my particular Motherboard. Fortunately this was fairly easy as the front panel unscrews from the case with minimal difficulty and there are a number of cable access points provided in the chassis.
Finally, unlike the LC10M, this case does not come with fans. You have to buy them seperately.
I am very impressed and happy with this purchase. It looks understated and dignified in the lounge and has improved the WAF, it runs quietly and provides good access to those extra ports that, while not used frequently, are a real boon when you need them.
As a plus, the supplier accidentally sent me an LC20M rather than the plain LC20. It looks exactly the same externally, but has the iMon VFD and remote receiver built in. With a bit of subltle modding inside the case I have been able to take the Microsoft remote receiver out of it's plastic case and mount it inside the LC20 so it is ncely hidden from view. You could probably do similar with an LC20 as they are the same case - but best check first.
At $155 this case is good value. Highly recommended.
The LC20 in-situ in my AV rack area. It blends discreetly with the rest of the AV gear.
Yes, that's a VCR underneath - I still haven't weaned the wife off the VCR safety net 
Silverstone LC20 HTPC case
I've updated the review accordingly. 
