I'm looking to turn my ageing gaming PC into a HTPC, to sit alongside a Samsung LE40A556P (40" 1080p 5 series LCD) TV. Current specs are as follows: AMD 4000 X2 6GB DDR2 PC6400 (recently upgraded from 2GB) Gigabyte 780G Motherboard (recently upgraded for this purpose) Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 250GB Samsung Spinpoint (SATA) Standard sized DVD-RW (later upgrading to Blu-Ray) 530w Tagan PSU 7800GT (w/Arctic Cooling Accelero) For the HTPC, I'm thinking of scrapping the 7800GT and sticking to the Gigabyte's HDMI port, to save power and space. Case wise, I'm looking for something black (to match the Samsung); relatively cheap and supports the above hardware. I'm having trouble with the latter, as many cases don't appear to fit a Freezer 64 and some require slimline optical drives. If the Freezer 64 is going to cause trouble, then could you recommend a decent AM2 cooler that would fit/be suitable? Let me know your recommendations!
Antec fusion + ninja mini is a combo thats working well for me. I'm running an undervolted/clocked 4850e passively with that combo, but if you can't run passive the layout works well for airflow with the ninja.
What about the top case on this page? http://www.autdirect.co.uk/acatalog/Coolermaster.html Looks nice, and is the right price
I like the look of the Scythe Ninja Mini, and running it passively would be even better. However the fusion is more than I was expecting to pay. Their NSK2480 is cheaper and appears to be the fusion, minus the LCD? Did you purchase your fusion with the 430w PSU? Or is it available without a PSU? You're right about the price, cannot argue with that. Will look for a few reviews - anyone used one of these before? The TF11 looks suitable, but is out of my price range. Aiming for ~£50 due to splashing out on the TV recently! Thanks for recommendations so far, giving me much more options.
the difference between the fusion and the NSK2480 is just the bezel - LCD, stealthed CD drive and (useless tbh) knob and its aluminium on the fusion and plastic on the NSK2480. I don't think the NSK2480 is available in black though. I'm using an enermax Pro82+ with mine but it did come with a PSU. I don't believe you can buy either of them without the PSU.
<3 Just upgraded mine this evening Now it's mahoooosively oversized Use a stock AMD heatsink - I can't even hear if my HTPC is turned on.
id recomend the thermaltake lanbox lite... once you get over the fact that its a thermaltake, and the fact that its not that glossy in real life... It makes for a well put together pretty quiet (dont bother with the 60mm fans) case for £50 http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=134157 is another htpc thread that might be worth a look. Any of the silverstone htpc cases are worth having especially the LC-19 imho edit: kustompcs and specialtech are both good places to look for htpcs.
The Silverstone Grandia 02 is actually pretty nice and quite cheap. I've recently built a system for a pal around this case and a Gigabyte 780G mATX mobo (can't remember those long model names they use). The only issue we had was with the cooler. A Zalman CNPS8700 wouldn't fit, so we ended up using the stock cooler for the 4850e. It's practically inaudible.
I built this one a while ago for a friend - Cooler Master ATCS in piano black - very hard to photograph. Cooler master quality and a nice case for HTPC. It's coming back for a window and CCFL upgrade: John
I've been looking around many sites to draw up a shortlist, along with the above recommendations. Coolermaster atc-620c/ATCS Antec NSK2480-UK Silverstone LC10 Silverstone LC13 Not too sure about the Coolermaster, as it appears to now be discontinued - cannot find it on the official site, and the only retailer appears to be Autdirect.co.uk (anyone used them before, or know of another UK supplier with stock?). The Antec Fusion is too much and has features I wouldn't use (e.g. LCD), which makes the NSK2480 a better choice, however it's silver. Then I came across both the LC10 and LC13, leaning more towards the latter at the moment. Will trawl these forums more and look for other possibilities. There's no rush, as I'll most likely purchase it in a month or so, once the TV has arrived and I'm 100% sure about the whole HTPC thing. Again, any further recommendations?
silverstone lc17 is a pretty decent one at around £70 Be aware that the ones that fit atx boards are usually pretty huge, you might want to check the height clearance of any av stand you are using
The TV and stand are arriving this Monday, so I'll measure up height/depth and check if they'll fit - thanks for the tip, as I would've gone ahead and bought one without checking! The LC17 was on my short list originally, however it only appears to accept slimline drives, which would require me purchasing a DVD-RW one now and then a Blu-Ray in future. EDIT: After reading some reviews, it seems Scan is wrong - the case does in fact take full sized optical drives. I think the LC17 is back to the top of the list!
