Assembling The HTPC, Continued

Two times lucky: There is only a little bit of space between the TV tuner and the power supply.

TV tuner card for analog and digital TV in a low-profile format. In Europe and Asia, it is the latest trend; in North America people make do with analog TV unless they get a set-top box

Before installing the drives, a small installation slot must be taken out of the Hiper case. This is fastened to the bottom of the case with a screw. This allows the 3.5" hard drive and the optical drive to be mounted more easily in the slot. The whole thing is then returned to the Hiper chassis in one piece. It's cramped work, because there is not much room between the power supply and the rest of the hardware. Things get critical when the drives have to be connected to their corresponding cables. Even the power connector for the hard drive needs force to plug it in. It's even more dramatic with the Serial ATA cable. The connector is definitely too long, which makes an installation practically impossible. Even pushing and pulling won't help. A standard cable will definitely not work.

The bay can be taken out to mount the hard drive and the DVD burner.

A special adapter makes the slimline drive compatible with the IDE interface.

This is no problem, but only if you use special connector cables.