Antec NSK2400 or Antec Fusion...

[sschkade]

Considering getting one of these cases. Is it really worth the $100 price difference for the Fusion? The only difference I see is a stealth drive bay, and a built-in VFD.

IMO both of these could be done to the NSK2400. What's a good 5.25" VFD LCD display that will work with the NSK2400?

If you could get the NSK2400 case for $48 shipped to your door, would you?

 

[Tcalp]

I guess it all depends if you plan to add a VFD if you got the NSK2400, if Yes then I would get a Fusion V2.0 -- it also has a built-in IR receiver (v1.0 didn't) The VFD itself is a iMon series. *shrugs*

If you look at it in the sense that you'd be buying a NSK2400/NSK2480 and a VFD then the price difference isn't that much and with the Fusion you also get teh hidden optical drive bay.

 

[CrimandEvil]

Considering getting one of these cases. Is it really worth the $100 price difference for the Fusion? The only difference I see is a stealth drive bay, and a built-in VFD.

Any Fusion you get now comes with an Imon built LCD and it (like all iMon built LCD/VFDs) has issues and doesn't work with anything other then MCE. I think it works with Vista but I'm not totally sure on that.

While I love the Fusion (I'm using the V1 Fusion but not it's VFD or volume knob) the only reason I would get it is for the stealth drive bay (thank god for combo HD/BR drives now) and it's pretty looks but looking past it's looks I loved the 2400 more (I had both a 2400 and a Fusion) due to it's flexability (dual 5.25 bays and cheap price).

If Antec had included one of their NeoHE modular PSUs with the Fusion then that would have made it an even better buy IMO then the NSK.

IMO both of these could be done to the NSK2400. What's a good 5.25" VFD LCD display that will work with the NSK2400?

If I was going to buy a VFD/LCD then I would wait for the one that Omaura is using in their cases. Chris Morley
has said that they will be selling it seperately so I'm planning on picking one up to replace the useless VFD in my old Fusion.

http://www.missingremote.com/index.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=198&topic=1129.msg7580#msg7580

If you could get the NSK2400 case for $48 shipped to your door, would you?

Yes.

 

[ilikecake]

Any Fusion you get now comes with an Imon built LCD and it (like all iMon built LCD/VFDs) has issues and doesn't work with anything other then MCE. I think it works with Vista but I'm not totally sure on that.

FYI, I have the fusion (V1) running fedora 7 (Linux) and both the volume knob and the VFD work fine. It is a bit tricky to setup, but it will work.

 

[w1retap]

I just went with the NSK2400 and stuck a VL System VFD in it. I love their VFD's and they'll do about anything. It's super easy to customize and I've never had a problem in it using XP, XP MCE, or Vista 32/64 bit.

Pics for reference on how it looks if you are interested...

 

[CrimandEvil]

FYI, I have the fusion (V1) running fedora 7 (Linux) and both the volume knob and the VFD work fine. It is a bit tricky to setup, but it will work.

The V1 VFDs are able to interact with other apps (and Linux) while V2 LCD is not because it's a "custom" design for Antec by Imon.

 

[sschkade]

Wow, thanks for all of the info guys.

CrimandEvil: Sounds good! The only reason I'm really steering away from the Fusion is because I already have a copy of XP Pro that's not being used... and I don't think the Fusion VFD will work with it. I'd like to use it instead of buying MCE... what do you think about using XP Pro for the HTPC OS? Thanks!


w1retap: that's pretty hot! I like the VFD. I'm guessing it doesn't have an IR receiver? If not, how did you handle that, and what OS do you run? Thanks for the pictures!

 

[CrimandEvil]

Wow, thanks for all of the info guys.

CrimandEvil: Sounds good! The only reason I'm really steering away from the Fusion is because I already have a copy of XP Pro that's not being used... and I don't think the Fusion VFD will work with it. I'd like to use it instead of buying MCE... what do you think about using XP Pro for the HTPC OS? Thanks!

MCE2k5 is XP Pro. Under XP the Fusion's VFD app runs in the background so that it can grab things like media info to display. This isn't how it works with the new V2 Fusions since they use a (crappy) Imon based LCD. For a V2 the Imon app needs to directly support the HTPC software for it to work like that and as per Antec's request the only app that has support is MCE.

Even though I do have the (better) V1 Fusion I'm waiting for the Omaura OLED to come out and I'm going to replace the useless volume knob with a Griffen Powermate so that it can actually be of some use.

 

[sschkade]

MCE2k5 is XP Pro. Under XP the Fusion's VFD app runs in the background so that it can grab things like media info to display. This isn't how it works with the new V2 Fusions since they use a (crappy) Imon based LCD. For a V2 the Imon app needs to directly support the HTPC software for it to work like that and as per Antec's request the only app that has support is MCE.

Even though I do have the (better) V1 Fusion I'm waiting for the Omaura OLED to come out and I'm going to replace the useless volume knob with a Griffen Powermate so that it can actually be of some use.

Cool, I never realized that XP Pro is MCE2005, just with the add-ons. I guess I'm going to get the NSK2400 and wait for a Omaura (thanks for pointing them out) or get a VLSystem's VFD. I'd rather not spend $100 more right away, and get stuck with junk

Thanks for the help

 

[lone wolf]

I bought the fusion first, thinking that the LCD that was in there was a good thing. the case arrived with the LCD doa, It was a nightmare to have it replaced, finally I gave up and bought the NSK2400 and bought a VFD to go in it. Antec sent me the faceplate only, not a replacement LCD. Go with the NSK2400.

 

[kleptophobiac]

I got a silver bezel DVD drive and the color match is pretty good. A real aluminum panel would not match so nicely. Also, I feel VFD's do nothing useful on computers and are just bling.

I really love my NSK-2400, but I had to get rid of the horrible blue leds on the power button. I replaced them with red ones and dimmed them down to the point that they're just barely visible in a dark room.