Streacom FC5 Series Fanless Home Theatre Aluminium Chassis

The shot-blasted FC5 makes its presence known in the HTPC market with its low profile look, fanless cooling and 100% aluminium construction! Looking for a new HTPC case? You just might have found it!

Introducing Streacom’s latest fanless home theatre chassis, the FC5! It boasts 100% fanless cooling of CPUs with a TDP of up to 65 watts and is constructed solely of aluminium. It has a super low profile look with a slot-loading optical drive bay slot and is able to accommodate a range of different hard drives.

Many home theatre chassis are finished with the brushed aluminium effect, but the FC5 is not like other home theatre chassis. Streacom have finished the FC5 in a shot-blasted finish which gives a pitted look to the aluminium rather than a lined look which brushing produces. It is all down to personal preference as to which looks better but one advantage that a shot blasted finish has over a brushed finish is that it does not leave visible fingerprints behind as brushed aluminium finishes often does.

FC5OD Black Fanless HTPC Aluminium Chassis

FC5OD Silver Fanless HTPC Aluminium Chassis

Compatible components

Motherboards - As already mentioned the, FC5 is compatible with both Micro ATX and Mini ITX motherboards. The only issue to be aware of when choosing a motherboard is to check that there are no tall objects on the motherboard that will prevent the CPU heatpipes from reaching the side of the chassis. All components in this area need to be smaller than 11mm. The Gigabyte Micro ATX motherboards available from this page are known to fit without any issues.

CPU - The cooling solution supplied with the FC5 has been designed to dissipate heat generated by a CPU that does not exceed 65W TDP (Thermal Design Power). The following is a list of recent processors which produce 65W or less: AMD Socket FM1 A4-3300, A4-3400, A6-3500, A6-3600, A6-3800 and all AMD Mobile Fusion APUs. Intel Socket 1155 - All i3 CPUs, i5 2390T, 2400S, 2404S, 2500S, 2500T, i7 2600S and virtually all Intel Mobile Core i3, i5 and i7 CPUs.

Power Supply - We recommend using a fanless picoPSU which can provide up to 160W of power. This is more than enough to power a CPU that has a TDP of 65W along with suitable peripherals. It is recommended not to overload the number of peripherals; two HDDs (or one SSD and one HDD), one optical drive, a TV tuner and obviously a motherboard should not be a problem for this miniature PSU.

Hard Drives / SSDs - Depending on which motherboard is being used determines how many and which type of hard drives will fit in the chassis. By taking a look at this PDF you’ll notice that the Mini ITX motherboard allows for one 3.5” and one 2.5” hard drive to be installed. A Micro ATX (as well as Mini ITX) motherboard allows for three 2.5” hard drives to be installed but no 3.5” HDD.

Optical Drive - The FC5OD is compatible only with optical drives that have the eject button on the left hand side. Luckily, Streacom have sourced the perfect drives, whether you require a Blu-Ray or a DVD player. The FC5WS does not support any optical drives.

Remote Control - If you are looking to take control of the PC with the use of a remote control, then look no further than Streacom’s solution. It is supplied with a PCB that fits neatly behind a small circular window in the FC5. This means there are no unsightly boxes or wires running out from ports - there is just the remote!

PCI-E Card - A single PCI Express card can be added to the case by installing a riser card. We recommend the mCubed HFX 554 Flexible Riser Card PCI-E x1.