Advice on a nice case

Stoner

Ok I have the following.
1x blu-ray drive
1 x 300 Gb SATA HD
1 x PCIEx1 dual tuner card (supports Win XP -- Vista)c/w remote
1 x PCIEx16 passive Geforce 7300

so I'd like to get a Case,

I dont need advice on the CPU, SW or ram, just a case

Have been looking at the Shuttle cases (i have one already and I'm very happy with it, want another more modern one, this one is 2 year old and I'm out of the loop on what is best )

so any advice please?

Requirements as a must

optical sound output
1000 lan
small/slim
quiet

note I know it might have a built in DVI or HDMI and i might not need the graphics card, I just needed it on the one i have as the built in graphics did not cut it and I needed the dedicated ram
thanks in advance.

mediacentre.ie

The antec fusion is a really nice case and extreemly quite. you will need a m-atx board.

Stoner

thanks

sudo911

Stoner,

I got one of the Ahanix MCE303 cases off ebay - nice and slim, and looks great in black. It has a USB VFD controlled by IRTrans. It comes with a MCE remote control and a 3.5" media card reader. I bought one of the Gigabyte mATX boards with HMDI for my setup.

Sudo911.



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mediacentre.ie

oooh. thats nice. kind of looks like the origenae's

prob doesn't fit full size pci cards though?

or does it come with a riser?

does it come with it's own heatsink?

very nice case for a m-atx with on board GPU.

how much did you pay?

sudo911

While there is 4 slots, they are half-height. Not a problem at the moment, as my HDMI is onboard. However, I did get a link to a site which showed how to install a riser for a full height card.

Here is a link to one being sold by the guy I bought it off. $149. http://cgi.ebay.ie/BLACK-ALUMINUM-HTPC-MEDIA-CENTER-MCE303-CASE_W0QQitemZ150264105532QQihZ005QQcategoryZ3669QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

I bought a Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H - comes with HDMI onboard via RADEON chipset with full 1080p support. http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Motherboard/Products_Overview.aspx?ProductID=2814

I also bought one of the LG Blu-Ray Writer/HD-DVD ROM optical drives so I can play all 3 formats DVD/Blu-Ray/HD-DVD

Sudo911.

mediacentre.ie

yes the 780G in a great chipset for a HTPC if you are not interested in gaming.

how quite are the 80mm fans?

It would be hard to fit a passive CPU cooer in there.

I love the fusion because you can fit most components in there. It is extreemly quite as well and you can fit a passive scythe mini ninja and passive 9600gt plus two TV cards:

my case out of the box



mini ninja and 9600gt with modded passive cooling

Stoner

great cases lads, thanks for the heads up, I'd love that Blu-Ray Writer/HD-DVD ROM. At the moment i have a Blu-Ray DVD writer that came with my XPS machine from dell outlet, I was going to use it. I love the slimline case, but I have had difficulty with onboard RADEON shared memory graphics cards before, casi I have at the moment has a DVI connection, but i still had to put in a cheapo graphics card fot the HD experience. But yours is more up to date

They are both great machines, full height PCI and passive is a must though (so I'd have to use that mod on the small case). Another thing, I put a 2 TB NAS in my attic with 1000 Lan, made a difference to the noise from the media PC, not huge but noticeable (i.e I play the content from the NAS and not the HDs in the PC)

Was the Blu-Ray Writer/HD-DVD ROM expensive?

I'm off to e bay now, I might sell the blue ray player on adverts or something and get that one, I love the multiformat aspect.

Last question sudo911, what software do you use for the different formats, can you just pop a blu ray disk in , take it out and pop a HD DVd disk in?

mediacentre.ie

I wouldn't sell your Bluray drive.

you do know that they don't make HD-DVD's anymore?

Bluray won the format war so all studios now support Bluray only?

All new realeases will be Bluray not HD-DVD.

Unless you bought loads of HD-DVD's when they where out then stick with what you have.

I have a pioneer bdc-202bk. it's not a writer. I use windvd9 for bluray playback and anydvd to rip them to HDD.

i tried powerdvd 8 but the quality was better in windvd 9

Stoner

yeah i know that, but there are loads of cheapo HD DVDs out there

I'm really behing the times, windvd is on no 9 now!

thanks for the info.