Conclusion: Interesting Approaches, No Standards

Our first test of home theater cases proved that the term "HTPC" is by no means standard yet. Manufacturers have taken to defining it very broadly, so products are highly variable. Basically, everybody's putting their own package together and sticking an HTPC label on it.

The diverse products available run the gamut from classic desktop PC varieties to sleek DVD player cases and everything in between. Marketers and corporate strategists have seized the term "home theater PC", tacking it onto models that really have no business being dubbed as such. We saw this trend back at CeBIT 2005 in Hanover.

Try as they did to stand out, in the end we were unable to decide on a winner among our field of test candidates. For us, HTPC has to offer more than just a decent desktop case. The two slimline Hiper Media Center chassis have the right idea: they're both compact, good-looking and perfect for the living room. The drawback is that neither model offers multimedia functionality.

Only three of the cases come with such functions as standard, but their ponderous bulk and weight mean you have to have a pretty big living room to accommodate them.

It's a start, at least; now let's sit back and see what comes next.

David vs. Goliath