Installation:
Believe it or not the A381 can actually take up to a full size ATX motherboard, which is somewhat uncommon for thinner cases like this. The downside is still the need for half-height cards which will be tricky to find for some components. I would have much rather seen GlacialTech use PCI/PCI-E risers so buyers could still use full size cards.

Since I knew GlacialTech's power supply division, GlacialPower, doesn't make Flex-ATX power supplies yet I was intrigued to see who's model they chose to power this case. While I had things disassembled I also removed the power supply and it shows that it is an HEC-270FN-2RX which is manufactured by HEC Compucase Enterprise Co..

Other than the typical installation, which I had no problems with, you'll just have to remember to use the 3M double sided tape to adhere the brushed aluminum optical drive tray front to your DVD/CD drive. This will help the entire front of the case "flow" together by not having a black/beige CD tray standing out on it.

Testing:
The testing began before I even had my system installed in the case. Using my trusty power supply tester, I powered up just the included case components; the power supply and two side cooling fans. By doing this I could get a better feel of how loud or quiet these components would be without my system noise disrupting them. The side fans were just as quiet as I would expect them to be for being low RPM fans. They are enough to remove the heat from inside the case but I wouldn't count on them as a primary means for cooling hot components (something you likely won't have in a home theatre PC in the first place!). Since the power supply used an 80mm fan it was louder than any component in my current silent-PC tower system. This being said, it still was not as loud as some power supplies I test that are cooled by similar fans. Since Flex-ATX power supplies still aren't a very dominant style in the market, other than their large use in the server industry, we don't see many manufacturers building and marketing 80PLUS certified models yet. If and when the time comes that more Flex-ATX power supplies are built to 80PLUS specs, we will likely see them becoming quieter (hint GlacialPower..).

Giving the case a once-over to check out the build quality there was nothing that stood out to me as poor workmanship or rough/sharp edges. Although the front buttons do seem a little flimsy for my liking, and I didn't like the front door design, the rest of the case has an excellent build quality.