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When you look at the Metis 266, you're presented with a very sharp looking black box. As mentioned earlier, the case is constructed out of steel, which makes it fairly heavy for its size.
  
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The front bezel is made of plastic, including a couple of swing out doors. The main silver door hides the optical drive, as well as a floppy or zip drive if you have one. To open the silver door, simply push on the top of it, and it drops open. The USB ports are also hidden, giving the case a clean look overall. Given the proximity of the door to the 5.25" external bay, fitting items such as the Live! Drive (found on the high end Sound Blasters) is out of the question.
 
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Being such a low profile case, there will be some concerns about system cooling. There is a side blowhole, configured for exhaust by the 80mm fan inside, to allow for some heat to escape. On top of the case is another vent, dirctly above the CPU fan, allowing for the biggest source of heat to draw in cooler, outside air.
 
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There are no thumbscrews used for the Metis, though removal of one Phillips screw allows for full access of the case. This marked the first time I've ever had to refer to the user's manual to open a case, but unlike most desktops, where you pull the cover backwards, you need to push it forward for the Metis. The entire casing is removed when you push forward, including the front bezel. Once the casing reaches about halfway, you can just lift it up, and off it goes.
 
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The front USB ports are USB 2.0, allowing you to hook up fast USB devices to the front of the case where it's most convenient. Older USB 1.1 devices are of course supported. Everything is pre-wired with the Metis, including the IDE and floppy cables. The IDE cables are single device cables, and shorter than standard two device cables. You have room to fit one 3.5" device, an optical drive, as well as a hard drive. You can probably omit the floppy, and in its place, put another hard drive there, though the design of the case would make it very difficult to get an IDE cable to connect to both hard drives.
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The concept behind the Metis 266 is more of the traditional low profile (Slim PC), rather than small boxes Shuttle makes. The benefit of making a Slim PC is that when set up vertically, it uses very little desk space. The problem with Slim PCs is that full sized addon cards will not fit. The MSI GF4 MX440-T8X we've looked at earlier is one of the few cards that will fit if it's equipped with a half height bracket.
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MSI Metis 266 SFF: With desk space at a premium, a lot of corporate types are looking towards small form factor PCs. They are also gaining acceptance with enthusiasts, but is the Metis 266 one of those SFFs they should consider?
