Dmitri's HTPC Project
Dmitri Lenna's log of his attempt to build a Home Theater PC or Media PC as it's sometimes called. He plans to describe all the steps he takes, both sucessful and not so successful, so that ohers may learn from his experiences.
Case Comparison Table | Sunday, March 06, 2005 |
Note: Only Full ATX Mother board compatable cases are being considered.
Key:
*C - Covered by a door.
*E - Embedded with a custom tray face cover.
*@ - Full ATX PSU, included.
*@@ - Custom PSU, included.
Cases considered, but left off the chart and why:
Ahanix MCE301, MCE302 - Micro ATX
Silverstone LC02 - 220W nonATX PSU, riser cards
Silverstone LC04 - 240W nonATX PSU, riser cards
Silverstone LC05,LC06,LC09,LC11 - Mini-ITX
Silverstone LC07,LC08 - Nano-ITX (?)
| Cases | External 5.25 |
Internal 5.25 |
External 3.5 |
Internal 3.5 |
Front USB |
Front Firewire |
VFD | PSU | Colors | Cooling |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ahanix D4 | 2*C | 0? | 0? | 2 | 2 | 1 | Yes | 350W*@ | B,S | 1x60mm |
| Ahanix D5 | 1*E | 0? | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Yes | 300W*@@ | B,S | 1x60mm |
| Ahanix MCE601 | 1*E | 0? | 1*C | 3 | 2*C | 1*C | Yes | 350W*@@ | B,S | 2x60mm |
| Silverstone LC01 | 2*C | 0 | 2*C | 4 | 2*C | 1*C | No | ATX | B,S | 1x80mm |
| Silverstone LC03 | 2*C | 0 | 2*C | 2 | 2*C | 1*C | No | ATX | B,S | 1x60mm 1x80mm |
| Silverstone LC03V | 2*C | 0 | 2*C | 2 | 0 | 0 | Yes | ATX | B,S | 1x60mm 1x80mm |
| Silverstone LC10 | 1*E | 1 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 1*S | No | ATX | B,S | 2x60mm 1x80mm |
| Silverstone LC10M | 1*E | 1 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 1*S | Yes | ATX | B,S | 2x60mm 1x80mm |
| Silverstone LC13 | 2*C | 0 | 2*C | 2 | 2*C | 1*C | No | ATX | B,S | 2x60mm 1x92mm |
| CoolerMaster Cavalier 2 | 2*C | 0 | 2*C | 1 | 2*C | 1*F | no | 300*@@ | B,S | 1x80mm 2x60mm |
Silverstone LC14M | 2*E | 0 | 0 | 4 | 4*S | 1*S | Yes | ATX | B/B,S/B | 1x92mm 2x60mm |
*E - Embedded with a custom tray face cover.
*@ - Full ATX PSU, included.
*@@ - Custom PSU, included.
Cases considered, but left off the chart and why:
Ahanix MCE301, MCE302 - Micro ATX
Silverstone LC02 - 220W nonATX PSU, riser cards
Silverstone LC04 - 240W nonATX PSU, riser cards
Silverstone LC05,LC06,LC09,LC11 - Mini-ITX
Silverstone LC07,LC08 - Nano-ITX (?)
4 Comments:
The chart looks good! Looks like it was complicated to do!
You might want to add mic in and earphones out at the front ?
I agree with you that some of the smaller cases are PRETTY - but severely restrict your choice and number of PCI cards - increasing costs - and may not allow a good cooler on the CPU. I'm still trying to work out my own ideas on all this, as an amateur in my 60s - but I really like the price/appearance of the Silverstone cases.
Do you have a fixed objection to midi towers ? The choice is much wider, and some (eg the Antec Sonata or the new SFX 3000B would do just as effective a job ? I m tending to take a utilitarian view of the case - I want decent room plus quietness as the main factors. I m still undecided about really needing VFD or IR.
To Johninlondon,
I agree the Silverstone do have alot going for them from a price perspective, but most of the Ahanix cases include quiet power supplies, which is a bonus.
The reason I didn't include midi-towers for the table is that I'm mainly considering a case that will look appropriate with other A/V components.
The VFD is a nice to have, but a really really nice to have ;-). The IR is mainly so that the primary operations of the system can be executed via a remote. I think this would increase it's receptiveness to, say, the girlfriend.
I'm thinking of expanding the table to include so other feature, mic in & headphones out included, but I'm not sure how I can do it and still display all the info in the blog.
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