Bgears b-Envi is an all-aluminum HTPC (Home Theater PC) case, target to media PCs (i.e., computers to be hooked to your home theater system for playing movies and songs) or to users that want a very small case to carry your PC around (LAN parties, for example). It comes with a memory card reader, a touch panel and a 2 ½” hard disk drive aluminum enclosure that allows you to easily carry your data around. Let’s take an in-depth look at this case.

This case is available in two versions: with transparent side panels and blue rear fan (b-Envi) or with solid side panels and black rear fan (b-Envi-nw). We reviewed the b-Envi model.

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Figure 1: Bgears b-Envi case.

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Figure 2: Bgears b-Envi case.

As you can see, this case is very small, measuring only 9" x 11.2" x 14.7" (22.8 x 28.4 x 37.3 cm) (H x W x D), which means that you can only use microATX motherboards with it. The two transparent side panels are an interesting feature if you like the effect of the blue light coming from its rear fan.

This case has two external 5 ½” bays, one external 2 ½” for its hard disk drive enclosure (more about this later) and two internal 3 ½” bays. On the front panel you have access to the three external bays, to a memory card reader, to three USB ports and to the traditional microphone and headphone jacks. The two lower USB ports are too close to each other, preventing you from installing two “fat” USB devices at the same time. The top USB port is too close to the headphone jack, preventing you from installing a “fat” USB device and a headphone at the same time. The rectangular object that you see in Figure 3 written “bgears” is the 2 ½” hard disk drive enclosure.

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Figure 3: Front panel.

The highlight of this product is its touch panel. The buttons are only lighted up when the PC is turned on. Then you have available the traditional power and HDD lights and power and reset switch, plus a switch called lock, which locks the front panel, i.e., you need to press it again to re-enable the reset and power switches. This is very useful to prevent resetting or shutting down your PC by accident.

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Figure 4: Touch panel.

In Figure 5 we have the rear panel. Due to its reduced size, it only has four expansion slots (microATX standard). It also features a rear 120 mm fan that glows blue when the PC is turned on. Also because of its reduced size your power supply can only be up to 6 19/64” (160 mm) in depth (this size is reduced to 5 29/32” or 15 cm if a unit with modular cabling system is used).

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Figure 5: Rear panel.

Now let’s see how b-Envi looks like inside.