The PC-C37 Muse is a multi-media HTPC chassis from Lian Li... one that I've had my eye on for a little while now. You see, I've been planning on building a new LinuxMCE Media Director for a little while now (hence my 35 watt dual-core Athlon 64 blog plost back in May!), but have not found many appropriate PC chassis.

Ideally, I want a HTPC chassis that meets the following criteria:

• good looking (naturally);
• mostly silver font panel - to match my AV gear;
• not more than 135mm high - to fit inside my AV gear cabinet;
• accept at least micro-ATX motherboards - full ATX a bonus;
• accept full-sized ATX power supply; or a the very least, a non-proprietary PSU.

The vast majority of HTPC chassis are easily discounted by the third point - not more than 135mm high. Indeed, most HTPC chassis currently available are a lot taller than that - even the so-called "compact" ones.

But, I have found two that seem to meet all of those requirements:

Antec Micro Fusion Remote 350
(there was no "Remote" this product's name back in May...)

Lian Li PC-C37 Muse
(the specifications page indicates that it's also available in silver).

I've all but given up on the Antec Micro Fusion Remote 350... it seems that it was released more than one year ago, and has since ceased being available. The Antec website does not link to it anywhere (the above deep-links came from a site-based Google advanced search). Now all the retailers I can see that carry the Micro Fusion, list it's availability as "call" or "contact us", and so far, of all such retailers I've contacted, every single one has either not responded, or reported that the Micro Fusion is simply "not currently available". So, I'm making the not-so-big leap to assume that the Micro Fusion Remote 350 has been discontinued.

Which leaves the recently-announced PC-C37 Muse. I originally saw this chassis back May or June, but again, it seemed to be unavailable. That was, until sometime in late June, that the PC-C37 product page's front image was altered to include the text "End of July 2008".

Well, I can tell you, that sparked my interest! :) So, I assumed (perhaps incorrectly), that this product would be "available" (in some form) by the end of July 2008. Now, I really only expected that "availability" to be to reviewers at worst, and US retailers at best... being here in Australia, I assumed it would still be a bit longer before I see any available locally.

Well... July 2008 is now officially over... it's come, and it's gone... and still I see nothing indicating that the PC-C37 Muse has become any more available than the various press announcements from the past two months. So then, what exactly does the "End of July 2008" text refer to? I'm guessing my original assumption is still correct, which would mean that either: Lian Li has slipped their own deadline, or that the market is being slow to report a newly available product... either way, I'm still waiting with anticip....ation ;)