What is Your Favorite HTPC / Media Center Case?

[mcjathan]

Greetings, I'm new to SageTV but I'm planning to build up a nice system. I would appreciate your opinion on the following question:

What is the best (features, cost, value) HTPC / media center case that you have seen?

Regards,

Jeff

[SWKerr]

To me this question really depends on where you plan to put it and how you plan to use it. If you are going to have a central server and just use the HTPC as a client then my thinking would be different than if it was going serve dual roles.

My first case was a micro ATX with an LCD on the front. It was quite nice looking and matched to the AV receiver which was nice since it was behind a glass door in the entrainment center. Eventually I wanted to expand it and did not have enough bays for hard drives. The other issue was really airflow. I am pretty sure the heat of that system with the tightly packed had drives lead to early failures. (Thank god for the warranty and backups.) Fact is I still use it today but just as a client with a low power AMD chip and one hard drive. It runs much cooler as well.

The next case was much larger with better airflow. (Not great air flow but better airflow.) It still looked nice but it was big. With a full ATX motherboard and room for six hard drives and two DVD drives it could support just about everything. Thing is it still fit in the Entertainment Center just took up more space but since that was space used by air there was really no negative to a bigger box.

I think you need to decide where you will put it and what it will do and then decide. If it would be some place that is not visible then you have a lot more options.

Things to consider:
1. Not just airflow for the case but for the cabinet or closet it will be in. You need to get the hot air out of there as well.
2. If it will be out in the open then noise is more critical. The quietest fans for the CPU and case are the big 120mm ones that are set to run slow. A big slow moving fan will move as much air as a small fast one but will not make any significant noise. A small case will limit your options here.
3. Fancy LCD displays. They will look nice but you will likely never use them. You can't read it from the couch.
4. Built in connections. Aside from USB and firewire I am not sure I have ever used the front ports. If you have AV connections in the front you will likely need a special connection to plug it into you card and still will not use them. I also have useless card reader ports on one since I only use HDSD now the older SD reader is useless and I don't even know what some of the others readers are.
5. Built-in IR receiver. My first case had a MCE IR receiver built into the case but I had to hold up the remote over my head to get it to work. I ended up using a long USB connection and placing it over the TV. Seemed nice but turned out to be useless.

I really think simpler is better.

Unless you plan on just a client only setup I would go with a full ATX case with 6 drive bays as long as you have the space.

Bling costs more and having a lot of glowing lights can be distracting depending on where you put it.

I have built about 8 HTPCs for myself and various people and this is my favorite case. It is big and rather plane but the quality is good and it blends into the Entertainment Center very nicely. Silverstone:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811163054

[vrscdx]

I'm sure I'm in the minority here, but I love the Thermaltake Mozart Tx. It's huge, but it looks very good right next to my entertainment center.

I chose it so rather than building 1 HTPC and one server, I could use it for both. Currently I've got 9 HDD's in it (totaling 11.8TB), and it's perfectly quiet with 8 120mm Sycthe fans.

Of course I can only shove one more drive before it's completely full(two are already in 5.25" bays), so I may need a server after all.

If you wanted a small one, then disregard!

[PeteCress]

Originally Posted by mcjathan

...to build up a nice system....What is the best (features, cost, value) HTPC / media center case that you have seen?

For me, the best case was no case and no noise.

You've probably already been here, but the remote chance you have not: SageTV's HD200 really has to be used to be appreciated. Not just seen... actually used.

I keep the PC in a closet and have an HD200 under each TV.

They're small: about 6 x 7 x 1/5"

They're totally silent: no moving parts.

They take very little electricity. I estimate less than 15 watts.

And the remote that they come with does everything my heart desires.


The HD200's:

- Tune live TV

- Play recorded shows

- Play ripped DVDs

- Play assorted other files.

In my little world, that's "it"....


In addition, a really cool factor is that I can watch the first part Charlie Rose on the stairmaster in the garage before breakfast (HD200 on a WiFi gaming thingie plugged into an el-cheapo DVD player's 7" screen).

Then, after I get showered and sit down to breakfast, the HD200 in the kitchen automatically picks up right where I left off in the garage - no fast forwarding required, it just starts up again where I left off in the garage.

[lovingHDTV]

I've recently been looking for a new HTPC as well. I will only be using it as a client so I've been looking at a micro-ATX for mini-ATX solution. I'm leaning toward a microATX solution at this time.

Here is the case on the top of my list:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811204030

[paulbeers]

I'm with Pete on this.....

First off, tru HTPC cases are expensive. You are looking at $100+ range for a nice case. If you go with the LCD screens you are now looking in the $200+ range.

Next you have to deal with noise and heat and the overall cost of running that client day in and day out (even an AMD 780G chipset and one of their 4XXXe processors are still going to run 80 watts of power compared to 7 watts for the HD Theater).

BUT, if you are a pc gamer / want Blu-Ray & DVD disc playback (from a drive not ripping to server) / internet browsing then yes a full client is necesary.

For me none of those were necessary....and my wife is happier as the extender just works (no constant tweaking needed).

[PLUCKYHD]

I really like the uneed cases they can be expensive but are well built and very nice
x11 is the one I use to use before going extenders.

I forgot they are called origen ae now
http://www.origenae.com/en/htpc_x11.htm

I don't know who sells them anymore I use to buy them from pcalchemy but they sadly went under

[HelenWeathers]

If you're building a SageTV server for a closet etc, I love this case.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811133059

I also like the removable drive bays (I use four - makes HD replacement easy).
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817998020

For HTPC cases I like:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811163055
You don't need so many internal drives for a HTPC as a client, so if you use long video cards w w/o SLI you can remove the center bay mount and have all the room in the world. The power supply mounts on the opposite side of the case than most, so all card connections are in the center of the case instead of to the right. In my cabinet that's a definite plus.

[Skiier__Dude]

I found myself an ATX case made by Marantz (the audiophile gear manufacturer). Piano black, metal. Airflow front to back, side to side and top to bottom. Room for about 8 drives. Looks like another AV device sitting with my stereo.

However, that said, I did move to the HD100 media extender and relegated this device to a standalone headless server in the crawlspace.

[IVB]

if you're looking for server size cases, i love my antec1200. It's really designed for gamers who need to vent heat, but works well for systems with tons of HDs too.

It has 3 120mm fans in front flowing over 3 internal HD cages each of which store 3 HDs (for 9 HDs), plus a bay for 3 5.25" drives. It also has 2 rear 120mm fans and a top 200 mm fan, with a spot for a 7th fan if need be.

It is a huge beast that is heavy, but if it's in a hidden location and you'll have lots of HDs, it'll also help with cable management.

I use 5 x 1TB drives for a 4TB RAID5 array, and 2x1TB for a 1TB RAID1 "mission critical data" array, plus a 1TB boot disk. Damn, i'm nearly full already, thankfully the odds are low that i'll need much more space anytime soon, and if I do, i'll slowly swap out the 5x1TB for a 5x2TB.

[TallMomof2]

I built my server with the Antec Three Hundred It's a very quiet and unobtrusive case, even after adding a couple more quiet fans for cooling. If you convert the 5.25" bays, you will have space for 8 HDDs. It comes with one 120mm fan in the back and one 140mm fan in the top. I added two 120mm fans in front of the HDDs just to be safe. The only way I can tell it's running is to look at the HDD light on the front of the case. I'm running the stock CPU cooler and video is onboard.

[evilpenguin]

I'm pretty partial to Shuttle Barebone PC's. They're small, look great, and provide more than enough features/expandability to put together a good HTPC. My last Sage Client before I switched to extenders was a Shuttle SN25P and I'm even building a new server that's built on a SX48P.

[SWKerr]

I have to reiterate TallMomof2's pick.

I am not sure I consider the Antec Three Hundred a HTPC case (mostly because it is a tower) but if you have a space it is a great case. I have two of them now and would recommend them as a server or a HTPC if you have a spot for a tower. It could probably lie on its side as well.

I actually take out the big fan and just use one 120mm in the front and back. There is plenty of airflow even on the slow setting to keep everything cool. I use an aftermarket CPU cooler with another 120mm fans as well. The thing sits on a corner cabinet I built just behind the 42" Plasma and I have to my ear up to it to hear anything. I used to keep an real HTPC case in the cabinet below it but it was always to warm for my tastes even with a fan pushing the air out.

Another thing I like about this one is that the drives are not packed tightly together. There is good spacing between them. The power supply is in the opposite placement of most cases but I have not found that to be a problem. Th only negative to this case is that you will suddenly realize how loud your hard drives are.

This thing is also usually recommended as the case for cNets budget PC builds.

[easperhe]

I just built a HTPC last week. We just have the one box for one Hi-def TV. I got a ATX SilverStone LC17. It's a bit cramped (definitely get a modular power supply - I got a ENERMAX MODU82+). But I love the end result. It looks great, looks like a piece of stereo equipment and not a PC, sturdy, good air flow, and very quiet. I only hear the CPU cooler when the PC is booting. After that, it's very quiet.

[gplasky]

Spotted these the other day.

LUXA2 by Thermaltake

Don't know when or where you could buy them but they sure look nice.

Gerry

[TallMomof2]

I have to reiterate how quiet the Three Hundred is. When I first got my HD-PVR I read some complaints about how noisy it was. I couldn't hear it because the PC I was using was just a shade louder than the HD-PVR. Now with the HD-PVR hooked up to my Three Hundred server I hear it for the first time even though I wouldn't consider it noisy.

Also, if you're planning on a lot of drives this case will work for you.

The Shuttle cases are very nice, I built one for DH but you can only use 2 HDDs. It is an extremely quiet case you just need to keep the sides clear for good air flow.

[Jackal]

For a while I was using a GMC case. It is very slim and fitted well into my media cabinet.

GMC HTPC Case

HTPC Entertainment setup

But then the PSU died out and I had to put everything back into the old Antec case. I still need to replace that PSU.

Rebuilt Antec HTPC

Antec case and TV

I also need to change the specs in my sig. That was the older HTPC that was originally in that Antec case.

[lovingHDTV]

Originally Posted by lovingHDTV

I've recently been looking for a new HTPC as well. I will only be using it as a client so I've been looking at a micro-ATX for mini-ATX solution. I'm leaning toward a microATX solution at this time.

Here is the case on the top of my list:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811204030

I ended up buying this one instead.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811204032

It will fit perfectly in my cabinet and supports 2x120mm and 2x80mm case fans.

I'll be putting it together this weekend (hopefully).

[pknowles]

http://www.techeblog.com/index.php/t...ional-computer

[OldPCGUY]

I use HD-200 for playback but I have a dual use Sage Server/Computer in the entertainment room.

I wanted the computer to be as quiet as possible and have lots of slots for big storage since I only record HD content now.

ANTEC has some really cost effective quiet solutions.

Antec Solo, Antec Sonata, Antec P1

To make a quiet system focus on the case, all Fans, HardDrives and power supply.
Check out reviews for Hard Drives, Fans, and cases on NewEgg.com.

The Silent PC web site gives a good overview. Buying a lower noise hard drive is better than spending alot on an expensive hard drive enclosure.

Biggest Bang for Buck on Low Noise
1. Buy a low noise case (I got Antec Solo for $60 last year I bought 2)
You do not have to pay extra to get a low noise case. But Media Center Case prices are outragious.
2.Buy A Low Noise Power Supply. Not a big premium. I got an Antec 650 Watt Supply with no Fan.
3. Buy a low noise expensive 120mm fan. The 120mm fan can ruin all your efforts for a low noise case.
4. Review Harddrives on New Egg and get a reliable one with low noise.

I was so happy with my HTPC Server/Storage System noise that I upgraded my 2nd computer with the Antec Solo Case, New Fan, New Power Supply, and new CPU cooler. It went from extremely noisey to virtually quiet.