Possible HTPC project

[BigBry]

I've built a HTPC using the mcubed unit on that page before. It is very heavy as you say and the heatsinks on the sides are very sharp (they have serrated edges). It's very easy to leave loads of skin on it.

I wasn't impressed with the quality for the price and is a fiddly build (you need some very long screwdrivers for example). The PSU only sits in the middle and is obviously designed with using a fanless one. The IR receiver is an Imon one (unless they've changed things).

If you're going the whole fanless route you do need to be very careful, heat is still generated and you really need some way to shift it.

It comes with a scart connection although this is only compatible with a very limited number of graphics cards.

You also have to fit a floppy drive (in the rear) or you have a gap there.

I think you can do better that this case.

[Funkstar]

What would you recomend then?

to get some air moving through it i was intending a couple of slow spinning 120mm fans.

PSU was going to be the seasonic fanless model from Scan. Question is, how do you get power to the PSU? is there a romet under the floppy bay? it's the only thing i could see from the photos.

The SCART is only really for Hauppauge PVR-x50 cards. had no intension of using that anyway, same goes for the stereo phono jacks.

Floppy bay at the back might work out well for me. I'd be using it for either a firewire satelite decoder (http://www.firedtv.com/DesktopModule...ID=8&W=60&H=60) or a CAM slot for another DVB card of some description.

[jamena]

I got myself a Silverstone LC-11 in silver with the VFD and remote - didn't like the sound of the "faux wood panelling" on the black version - silver version is pretty much all-aluminium. It's about the size of a largeish VCR, though somewhat deeper than most VCRs. It was rather cramped working inside but then I guess any small case will be a bit tricky. Not much harder. It's nice and quiet, loudest thing by FAR is my 9800pro. Next loudest thing is the Zalman 7000AlCu cpu cooler if turned up to full.

It has a drive cage for two HDD, but you could probably make some custom thing to put there in it's place (the drive cage is held in by metal tabs and a single screw, and there's a reasonable bit of room between the drive cage and the mobo. it's uATX only of course. The 5.25" DVD-drive I used (pioneer DVDRW 111) was a little problematic, but once I'd shaved about 1mm of plastic off the eject button if works well with the case button. There's probably room for another 3.5" device under the DVD bit but I used that as a place to cram all the excess wiring.

all in all a nice case, bit expensive for what you get I suppose, but then I haven't any other cases like it to compare it to! The iMON remote and VFD are pretty cool. I'm still using it as my main rig and probably will be for a few weeks/months, but it's been deemed acceptable for use under the TV

[Funkstar]

Well i added it all up, and it comes out at around £850 all in.

I think i'll probably order the component parts of the build shortly and see if i can get MediaPortal set up how i want it. That means £280 outlay now, the rest can be a bit at a time

If that goes well, i'll start getting the cooling and silencing bits to see where the noise is coming from i.e. hard drives, power supply, etc. I have an old case i can use in the mean time.

Parts i already have:
2x 400gig WD Hard Drives
3x DVB-T PCI cards (Nebula DigiTV, Twinhan DTV and a KWorld)
MCE remote and reciever
250gig Maxtor or 200gig Seagate to use as a boot
and for the screen i'll be using my plasma. not sure how i'll handle the windows and media portal setup, but that might be fun

[BigBry]

Yes, from memory the power lead feeds under the floppy drive area. I can't recall all the issues since it was a build for someone else and they requested this case.

If you're using a couple of fans then you should be ok, the site seems down now and I seem to remember you could add a fan at the bottom of the case. I mounted a decent one at the top of the unit.

I'm not sure which seasonic PSU you're referring to, I used the fanless Silverstone (which seems to be the one mcubed recommend, but they would wouldn't they).

Personally I'd go for a Silverstone or the Zalman unit. But if you want to be different I can understand why you don't want to go down that route.

[Funkstar]

actually, by bad, i meant the Silverstone one.

[DanceswithUnix]

PSU was going to be the seasonic fanless model from Scan.

If you are going to have a couple of 120mm fans, why don't you have the PSU as one of them?

[BigBry]

The PSU on this unit sits in the middle of the case. You may not get the fan to do anything for the case (although I can't recall which way it sits). I do remember with the Silverstone PSU you apply tons of thermal paste to the side of the PSU and 'stick' it to the side of the mcubed case, therefore using the huge heatsink to help disperse heat.

[jamena]

actually, by bad, i meant the Silverstone one.

only thing that had trouble fitting in the lc-11 was my audigy2 card, but a little bit of force and some tightening and loosening of the bolt in the pic below sorted that out All the other cards fitted fine.

Click for bigger:

[Funkstar]

Well i placed an order with scan for a few parts to get a system running before plunging head long with the case.

here's what i got:
1Gb PC2-5300 DDR2 667MHz non-ECC 24
AMD AM2 Athlon 64 X2 4200+ Dual Cor
Asrock AM2NF3-VSTA, NF3 250, Socket
256MB XFX 6200 Mem 550MHz, GPU 300M

This should be delivered to work by the time i get home at the start of the week.

Thinking about starting a project page for this...

[BigBry]

In case you're still interested in the case I saw the following link via the AV Forums. This guy seems to be legit (there's feedback from others who've bought?) and the HFX case he's selling is priced at £145 + £16 p&p which could be an absolute bargain.

It's not me on ebay, I don't know the seller, I just thought it was a great price (I'm tempted). He seems to have a few for sale if this ones gone.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/HFX-Silent-Med...QQcmdZViewItem

[BigBry]

Oh stuff it, I bought one despite what I said earler. If it's the full Borg CPU cooler that's an unbelieveable price (I'd better use Paypal for some form of protection!).

http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/info_1278.html

[Funkstar]

hmmmm, he's got one left

bugger bugger bugger!

even if it's just the case that is an amazing price compared to KustomPCs.

should i/shouldn't i?

EDIT: bugger it, just completed the transaction

EDIT 2: Oh yeah, thanks for that BigBry

[BigBry]

Hope it's genuine or we're both up the creek!

Took you and me about the same amount of time to consider it and fish out the credit card.

[Funkstar]

eBay and the computer inducstry are built on the weak willed

If it's not genuine i'll badger JohnLewis/Mastercard. They owe me one with the amount i spend through them

[Funkstar]

Hope it's genuine or we're both up the creek!

Took you and me about the same amount of time to consider it and fish out the credit card.

Did you get your case dude?

Mine arrived about 10 minutes ago with City Link I hadn't had any email saying it had been shipped, just the auction and paypal completion notices. Sent the guy an email yesterday asking for the tracking number but didn't get a reply. Not a problem though.

Doesn't seem as heavy as i would have thought, but it is a *big* box. I'll open it up later to see what all is included.