Review: Hiper HMC-2K53A-A3 computer case

If you are thinking about putting together a home theatre PC and want a slimline chassis to build it into, Hiper’s classy-looking HMC-2K53A-A3 is well worth looking at.

With its glossy piano-black finish and measuring just 430x53x310mm (wxhxd), the HMC-2K53A-A3 certainly looks good and will fit nicely into a living room environment.

It’s so thin that some compromises will have to be made when choosing components such as TV cards, but it’s nothing that can’t be worked around.

Since this is a barebones chassis, some of the components you need are already included.

Hiper has somehow managed to squeeze in an MSI K9AGM2 MicroATX motherboard, which is based around AMD’s 690G/SB600 chipset and an AM2 CPU socket ­ perfect for one of AMD’s energy-efficient, and currently very cheap, Athlon CPUs. The integrated AMD Radeon X1250 graphics chip also drives an HDMI (HDCP-compliant) port on the rear panel.

Other features include a Flash card reader and an XP/Vista-compatible VFD (vacuum fluorescent display) module. You also get Wifi networking built in.

You will, however, have to purchase your own processor along with a suitable cooler; Hiper coolers are available separately for approximately £20. You’ll also most likely want to purchase a TV card, which will require a riser card to fit into the small case, along with some 800MHz DDR2 memory, a 2.5in hard drive and a slimline optical drive.

Two small screws secure the top of the chassis, and once the lid is removed there is plenty of room to work in the case. However, one of the two Dimm slots is already filled, somewhat surprisingly by the infra-red receiver; this limits you to using a single module of memory and, if you are running Vista, that needs to be a single 2GB module for best results.

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