OrigenAE S21T HTPC Chassis with its massive 12" Touchscreen LCD is impressive enough to attract even the true home theatre enthusiasts

OrigenAE specialises in high-end HTPC chassis. The original company was established in 2000 with head offices in Korea. In 2005, they re-branded themselves as OrigenAE. They not only make the HTPC chassis, but also all the accessories too. Things like optional IR modules, VFD units and remote control units. Here's a little blurb from their website.

"We were established as Uneed International in 2000 and in mid 2005 we re-branded as OrigenAE technology and have rapidly grown into the worlds leading HTPC enclosure producer. We are led by a team of engineers that are driven by design and quality midset.We were one of the first companies with the vision of producing high end HTPC chassis that aesthetically recreate the look of high end audio visual equipment, allowing the pc to leave the office and fit effortlessly into the living room environment.

OrigenAE is a specialized ultra high end Computer Component manufacturer. We are innovative and consistently push the boundaries of both technology and design. Our products are finely engineered to the highest of standards and the quality is the finest you can find in the Computer Component field. Our products are focused around high end gaming and Home Theater PC systems, we develop new products that provide added experience, usability and flexibility is core to our success."

Home theatre systems have been on the rise in recent months. It's one of those areas that's still relatively unexplored. So what does home theatre PC (HTPC) really mean? ... Is it an offcial standard or platform? ... Are there specific rules that categorise, whether a system is HTPC ready? Well, right now ... there's no real standard as such. You can literally turn any PC into a home theatre system. But what really makes HTPC systems different from a PC, is the chassis that's being used. Most HTPC chassis don't look like your usual PC desktop or tower.

They're usually desktop is shape and size, but look and feel like a high-end audio visual equipment, which can be placed within a living room environment. What's good about this whole HTPC concept is that, you can build your own HTPC system depending on your budget. Just imagine, a fairly high-spec'd HTPC system in your living room, controlled by a wireless keyboard/mouse ... streaming video and audio files. You can surf the net, check your emails or even play the latest DX10 games through your 40" LCD TV.

In this review, we'llbe taking a look at the OrigenAE S21T HTPC chassis. It features a massive motorised 12" Touchscreen LCD, with resolution upto 1920x1080 (native res. 1280x800). Inside, there's enough room for 10 hard drives, a DVD-RW/Blu-ray rom drive, a full size ATX motherboard and a full size power supply. For cooling there's  1 x 120mm fan at the rear and an extra 2 x 92mm exhaust fans.

The chassis itself is fairly large with dimensions of 435 x 220 x 390mm (*inc feet). It's much larger than I thought, and it weighs in at almost 10kg! Build quality of the chassis is very good, which is made from high quality, extra think Aluminum. Other features include an integrated multi-card reader, a sliding motherboard tray and easy hard drive installtion process.

OK, let's not waste any more time and take a closer look at the OrigenAE S21T HTPC chassis.