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DESIGN
The La Scala LC-04 has an aluminum alloy body, which makes the case very lightweight.
It measures 16.5" wide, 5" tall, and 12.25" deep,
right in line with the size of most home Audio/Video components such as receivers
and VCRs. It's size and beautiful black finish make it a perfect
addition to most Home Theater setups.
The front bezel features a fold down aluminum door that covers the one external
5.25" drive bay as well as the front I/O ports. There is a "push-click to open, push-click to close"
latching system and the door opens with a smooth, damped motion. Below this single
door is a decorative black acrylic panel that extends the width of the case.
This panel holds the On/Off switch and a translucent section of it covers the
Power and HDD activity LEDs. The LEDs show up as a muted purple color which
looks quite nice.
The elegant looking front panel of the LC-04.
Front panel with door opened up. Note the 5.25" drive bay and I/O ports.
The LC-04 includes more ventilation holes than the typical desktop or HTPC
case. There are vents on both sides and the rear of the case, with
the provision to mount an 80mm fan on the left side of the case. There is also
a roughly 80mm-size vent grill on the lid of the case, positioned near
the CPU socket. This can provide a nice source of cool intake air to the CPU,
or perhaps an exhaust vent if used with the a "blow-up" type of heatsink like the recently reviewed Alpha
8952 or Scythe
Samurai.
The LC-04 stands on four elegant aluminum / rubber feet. These feet
will blend in nicely with most of today's A/V cabinets.
Right side of the case showing the ventilation holes.
Left side of the case showing the mounting position
for the optional 80mm case fan.
Rear of case. Note the small PSU, grills and AGP/PCI
slots for riser cards.
The interior is accessed by removing the screwed-on top panel. The
first things that capture your attention are the large tray sitting over the
motherboard area and the small power supply at the right rear.
The tray is removable and it holds the 5.25" optical drive of your choice.
The PSU is called a "TFX" by Silverstone, is rated at 240W and has
PFC. 240W may not seem like a lot but it should easily handle the load of the hardware that this case is limited to: One optical drive,
one HDD, and a maximum of one AGP card and one PCI card. The PSU has no rear
fan but does have an 80mm x 15mm intake fan next to where
the CPU would be positioned on the motherboard.
Inside of case. Optical drive tray removed for clarity.
As noted above, the LC-04 takes a full sized ATX mother board,
although an m-ATX board will also fit. A case this small that fits a full-size
ATX board is a rarity. This gives the customer many more hardware
options than a typical small desktop/HTPC case that is limited to just an
m-ATX board. There is a large selection of full-featured ATX motherboards
available and by comparison, not a particularly good selection of m-ATX boards.
Threaded steel inserts are pressed into the floor of the case for the supplied motherboard standoffs to be screwed into. These same steel inserts are used throughout the case wherever a threaded
fastener is meant to be screwed into any case panel.
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