I’ve had the opportunity to review the new Lascala LC13B from SilverStone Technology. SilverStone is a relatively new company and only been on the scene for around 2 years. In those two years they’ve become known for a number of good looking home theatre PC enclosures such as the LC03 and LC10M. They also produce other equipment including power supplies, fans and cooling systems.
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
I’m looking at the LC13B which like the other enclosures in the Lascala series is a purpose built chassis designed for your HTPC. The LC13B I received is an all black steel desktop enclosure with a conclave shaped brushed aluminium front panel. For those not interested in black there is an all silver version as well.
The front facia is very minimalist which is just the look I wanted for the lounge. The only features that stand out are the two blue LED’s one is the power light and the other is the HD activity light. There is also an edge polished power button. The case also features silver foot stands which fits right into any home theatre cabinet just nicely.
The front door which runs the length of the chassis folds down to reveal a number of drive bays and ports for optical drives and connecting USB and firewire devices. This is a great feature because I really appreciate all my gear hidden away from little fingers, plus it gives the LC13 a better look because there are no unsightly connectors or optical drives ruining the clean lines.
The inside of the case is quite roomy allowing the installation of ATX and Micro-ATX motherboards, which allows for greater flexibility for installing your motherboard of choice. Another feature that impressed me was the inclusion of fitted cooling fans comprising of a 92mm intake and dual 60mm output fans in the chassis. The 92mm intake fan was located at the front left of the case, the dual 60mm fans were above the ports panel. One common complaint of a HTPC chassis is they don’t adequately cater for the high heat output of modern CPU’s, video cards and multiple hard drives.
The LC13B seems to be on the right track by including the fans as they do seem to move a bit of air without causing major headaches because of the noise they’re generating.
SPECIFICATIONS
INSTALLATION
Installing any component is fun as you’ve generally just handed over some hard earned cash and you’re minutes away from checking out your new purchase, the urge is to get it working ASAP so you can enjoy the new found benefits. The LC13B was no exception. The case was well packaged, it arrived in its shipping box direct from Taiwan, the case was enclosed within plastic and protected by foam ends as you would expect any case to be. Included was a brief manual, a bag of various screws and motherboard standoffs. I simply followed the manual and installed the following components as directed.
COMPONENTS INSTALLED
Installation was straight forward; I’m not the most delicate in tight spaces, but managed quite well attaching cables and the like in those hard to reach places. There were no sharp edges to be found in the case, I’m notorious for finding them and often seem to cut myself on some unseen edge, but not this baby!
The LC13B comes with internal cables to connect the front mounted USB, Firewire and audio ports to the onboard ports on your motherboard. Additionally a shielding ring was included to cut down on any potential interference to the cables. The front mounted ports are a necessity for quickly downloading camera photos or copying media to a portable device.
There is a support bar running the length of the case, which did make the motherboard installation a little tricky; the inclusion of a removable motherboard tray would have negated this issue. It’s a shame not more desktop case manufacturers include a removable tray as standard as it certainly makes the installation of a motherboard with CPU and heat sink a lot easier especially considering the mounting mechanisms now required for the latest Pentium 4 and Athlon 64 CPU’s.
The 3.5” devices are mounted in a removable drive cage which certainly makes installation easier. There’s a fair amount of room in the case so adding or changing components is not a huge chore.
I consider myself old school and prefer to screw in hard drives, CD-ROM’s and expansion cards because you have direct control on how secure they are and how many screws you use. I’m pleased to say the LC13B doesn’t have any of those fandango drive retention systems or clip down brackets for the expansion card slots. I’ve not a great fan of these as once they’ve broken you unable to reliably use that slot again because you can’t secure the device. Plus I don’t believe they can secure a fast spinning hard drive adequately to prevent vibration noises which is the last thing you want in a home theatre chassis.
During the installation the workmanship was quite apparent; the manufacturing process used by Silverstone is well developed as the product doesn’t have any visible flaws.
DAY TO DAY USAGE
Although I don’t have equipment to measure the noise this system makes, I would consider it to be on the quiet side of the scale. With the TV on you won’t hear it at all, without any other noises in the room I can faintly here the fans but it’s not intrusive. However I will be exploring the possibility of replacing the two rear 60mm fans which are rated at 25dBA with something quieter, but this is just a matter of personal taste. The cooling appears to be well designed as there seems to be a good mix of performance and quietness as you don’t have to endure cyclonic fans buzzing away. In my experience during testing the motherboard temperature was reading 29 degrees and the Semperon 3100 was reading 46 degrees. This was after a days up time and solid DVB-T recording to disk. The ambient temperature of my lounge was 21 degrees. I’ve also utilised AMD’s Cool and Quiet technology to help keep noise down from the CPU fan to a minimum.
I found a couple of small niggles one appeared to be a slight manufacturing flaw that I didn't pick up on for a couple of days, the power button does not sit straight in the enclosure on the sample being reviewed, a minor annoyance and only noticeable when looking at the case up close and personal. I wouldn’t expect this to be the norm and it’s not noticeable unless pointed out.
My other main point of contention is the lack of a reset button which has been a pain to say the least. I’ve located the LC13B within shelves sitting within a low line TV cabinet. The past couple of weeks I’ve had to endure a crash or two of Media Centre which has forced me to slide the case forward to reach around the back and flick the power switch on the Antec power supply to regain control of the system. Not the most ideal situation and something you don’t want to be doing all the time.
The fold down front panel has proven to be a winner as I’ve a few small children who end up putting fingers and other bits and pieces where ever they can find a suitable hidey hole. They have left the LC13B completely alone; besides the 15 month old pressing her fingers against the recessed blue LEDs which she can’t actually touch. So this is a definite win!
The blue LED status lights for both power and hard disk activity are bright blue and do look rather cool, they could however be duller as they could potentially destract some people from there TV viewing. When my Media Centre system is in S3 standby mode the power LED will steadily blink which would definately be annoying if I was watching normal TV, however because MCE has become an integral ingredient to the households TV viewing habits this is never going to happen as the MCE box is always on when we're in front of the TV.
CONCLUSION
I’ve been looking for a well priced, nice looking, expandable HTPC chassis for a while and I’m pleased to say I’ve found it!
For me the expandability, build quality and cooling performance of the LC13B really stands out. It’s not often you’ll find a HTPC enclosure which covers these areas so well. Unfortunately for all manufacturers the desktop case orientation leads to compromises and in this case it seems Silverstone has done there homework well because they’ve addressed issues others haven’t quite mastered and this is namely cooling performance.
What I’d like to see in future is a removable motherboard tray and slightly quieter rear fans; perhaps even the inclusion of slow moving 80mm fans instead of the faster 60mm variety, however doing this is going to raise the height of the case.
A quick look on static ice reveals a price range of approximately $152.20 to $190 without a power supply.
GOOD POINTS
Blends really well with my audio gear in the lounge room
Stylish case, without going over the top
Well priced
Ugly drives and connectors are all hidden by the fold down front panel
Good cooling performance
Good expandability
BAD POINTS
Rear fans could be quieter
No reset button
No removable motherboard tray
