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> HTPC > Case Round-up
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13th Nov 2004
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Probably the least important technically, but most important to shallow/easily impressed by shiney things people (of whom i'm definately
one), is choosing a case.
Unfortunatly the nicest cases on the planet for HTPCs:
are made in mainland Europe, arn't available in the UK and already cost several hundred pounds, so with shipping an import duty would cost more than my budget for the
entire project. Then there's ones which are really nice:
but are only sold as out-of-budget prebuilt systems. Also out of budget are some cases which I personally can't quite understand the price of:
the last one there is quite nice, but at 290 quid for a bare case?! Then there's the high-end general desktop cases, which could be used:
but leave the drives showing and don't really disguise the fact that you have a PC in your living room. Next are the tiny cases, like the King Young boxes I build at work and Shuttle PCs:
but they are tinier than needed, and compromise on space for extra harddisks and decoder cards. Going off at a bit of a tangent, the company I work for also designs it's
own cases, they look extremely sexy and don't cost too much per unit either. None are suitable for this application thou, and to get a piece of metal cut costing 20 quid
will cost several hundred for the first one (technical drawings etc). I could just make my own machine, out of MDF, or hack appart an old amplifier, but I've yet to see
one that isn't tacky as hell. Getting warmer is a selection of cases designed for HTPC use, but more in my price bracket.
Best of these is the Silverstone LC03:
It is really nice, it has a built in VFD display and everything, but what's with that curved front? I just can't live with something that grim in my lounge. Alas, the
saviour:
a coolermaster ATC 620. It's cheap too (end of line), I'd gotten quite used to the idea of spending 100, so to find something presentable for around 50 is great.
It's standard hifi width, the same height as an average amp, uses a standard ATX power supply and has enough space for 4HDs, 2 CD/DVD drives and a Micro ATX board. The silver would be
nice, but the green bits (not shown in the pic above) just don't do it for me. So, black it is :)
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