Introduction

It has been well over a year since I have reviewed a computer case, and was pretty happy when Bob let me know that I would be receiving the Bach. I have to admit, it is quite a change from the mid-towers I have been using for a decade. This horizontally oriented case takes me full circle, I guess.in the time of my first PC, pretty much all PC cases, including the Tandy 1000 I bought in 1986, were designed to sit on your desktop. To be honest, when towers started becoming popular, I really didn't like the idea of them, why would you want to place that expensive toy on or near the floor, to collect dirt, dust, pet hair, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, or whatever. But, the tower won out, and I had assumed that the horizontal design died with the 286 CPU and 5.25" floppy.

Actually, I still feel the same way. Of the three rigs that are in my house, two of them reside on the desktop, and the third probably would, but the desk is a little small, and would be pretty cramped with a tower on top. I am constantly inside and behind my personal rig, and there is no way I would cram it in the cubby hole in my desk designed for it.

The Bach is intended to be an HTPC case. The idea of using a PC as an integral part of a total home entertainment system has been around for quite a while, but only now has it really become practical.as the quality of consumer sound cards goes up, and the prices of digital HDTVs come down.

Looking at the attractive packaging graphics of the Bach, it is obvious that Thermaltake isn't marketing this case towards the gamer, overclocker, or modder. No dragons, sniper rifles, or plasma rockets here. The person buying this case will sip S. Pellegrino rather than guzzle Full Throttle.

The case is well protected by typical Styrofoam ends.

The Bach is an attractive case, in anodized black and white graphics. It would look nice sitting among various other home theater components, sitting on a stand, in a wall unit, etc. It will also look quite nice on my desk.

At 170mm x 430mm x 450mm, it is slightly smaller than a typical mid-tower, for example, the Thermaltake Tsunami is 495mm x 210mm x 478mm.

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