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Oh really CM 690 III (it's a popular case -- they made three versions of it):

http://www.coolermaster.com/ca...

Antec 280:

http://www.antec.com/product.p...

Same deal with a high end Lian Li PC-A79:

http://www.lian-li.com/en/dt_p...

I know they sell cases where the PSU's are at the bottom. It's a gimmick to sell cases to people that think that's a better design. It's not. The one and only benifit is the weight of the case is now at the bottom and it's less likely to tip. But heat wise, the PSU is the biggest offender in your case. It's also one of the most heat tolerant components. A good, basic, design has large fans in the PSU pulling air IN from the case and exiting the PSU out. All other fans are blowing IN to the case so all airflow enters the case first, travels through and then exits the PSU.

If you have the PSU mounted at the bottom of the case, he will radiate from the PSU up into the rest of the case. Also, as the hot air exits the PSU it will rise past your input fans causing them to recirculate that warm air again!

Oh really CM 690 III (it's a popular case -- they made three versions of it):
http://www.coolermaster.com/ca...

Antec 280:
http://www.antec.com/product.p...

Same deal with a high end Lian Li PC-A79:
http://www.lian-li.com/en/dt_p...

I have used both and am quite impressed.
The Bitfenix is a bit "cheaper" feeling than the LianLi, but better for CPUs needing better cooling.

Agree on the PSU, though.

A better link to the case the parent is talking about and a link to newegg

here is another one and this one will hold a 5.25 drive as well. I want to like the fractal designs Array case, but I would like at least a slim optical bay.

http://www.lian-li.com/v2/en/product/product06.php?pr_index=331&cl_index=2&sc_index=5&ss_index=13&g=f
Lian Li ex-50.
Supports up to 5 disks.
Comes with a 2 port E-SATA II PCI-e 1x card (SiI3132 based), nice power supply and big cooler. Supports RAID 0 / 1 / 3 / 5 / 10 / JBOD / Port Multiplier.

Not bad for $200.

Funny you should mention Lian Li cases... I happen to have one (a slightly older model of this one), and I think it's great, mainly from the standpoint of material quality, but also aesthetically. Cases have come a long way in the past few years, though - usually you don't need to worry about cutting yourself badly while trying to remove components. However, I think the best designed chassis I ever had the pleasure of owning was for a Power Mac 7500 with the Outrigger style case.

If I were building a dedicated HTPC on the Windows side (unlike the general purpose C2D HTPC I own), I might use an AMD EE/SFF CPU, MicroATX motherboard, and I'm partial to Lian Li, so probably this case, although SilverStone also offers some good HTPC cases. I'd also use a faster hard drive than the Mini, possibly a RAID. Dealing with multi-GB files all the time has got to be dog-slow on that thing. It's slow enough on the 2x500 GB RAID-0 I use now.

If I wanted HD (which I probably would), I might go for a Core 2 Duo E6700 instead. My current E6600 (OC @ 3.2 GHz) still almost maxes out on certain HD movies. The Mini wouldn't stand a chance of playing them without dropping frames. Also, I'd choose quiet cooling from SilentPCReview. They're really the pros as far as quiet HTPCs go.

1. Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 Processor - $970.00
2. 2 x EVGA GeForce 8800GTX KO Video Cards in SLI - $1,299.98
3. EVGA 680i Motherboard - $249.99
4. 4 GB Corsair Dominator (PC2 9136) Memory - $878.00
5. Sound Blaster X-Fi Elite - $259.99
6. 4 x Western Digital 10,000 RPM Raptor Hard Drives (RAID 0) - $919.96
7. 4 x Seagate Barracuda ES 750GB Hard Drives (RAID 1) - $1,519.96
8. Koolance PC4-1036BK - $618.95
9. 2 x Dell Ultrasharp 3007WFP Monitors - $3,398.00
10. Lian-Li F1A Computer Desk - $2,895.00
11. Das Keyboard - $89.95
12. Logitech MX Revolution Mouse - $89.99

I don't know of many people that want an ugly workstation permanently plugged into their TV or that are willing to plug their laptop in every time they want to stream a film.

IMO, the killer appliance would be a DVR priced less than 500 USD with a DVD drive and a network interface capable of pulling movies from all the PCs in the house as well as services such as this.

I don't know of many people that want an ugly workstation permanently plugged into their TV or that are willing to plug their laptop in every time they want to stream a film.

IMO, the killer appliance would be a DVR priced less than 500 USD with a DVD drive and a network interface capable of pulling movies from all the PCs in the house as well as services such as this.

8 drive 4U Supermicro case. And here's a 7 drive one, which I have running in a cupboard a few ft away. SCA, fixed bays and more modest variants abound.

And here is a 12 drive Lian-Li, although you need to be very careful with cable routing and PSU/fan choice to fit them all in and keep them well cooled (the 6 drive one is awful for this). They also lack a reset button for some reason.

Lian-Li makes the coolest cases around, no mods required. A little more $ than the average case, but Lian-Li cases arn't average. Hands down, slickest off-the-shelf style.

Too much plastic ... that about sums it up. Some came with power supplies but I'm not sure the manufacture is trustworthy, I am not familiar with the ones included. Alternatively you could get an aluminum Lian Li http://www.lian-li.com/main.htmcase like I did five years ago, it still looks like the day I bought it. I won't have to get another case unless form factor changes radically. And the big knurled nuts and sliding modular construction makes installing hard drives, power supplies or motherboards a snap. They cost a little more but they last a long time and don't break.

29 pages for five cases? You've got to be kidding!

I hate to be the token apple fanboy, but these cases are amazingly ugly. all of them are significantly uglier than anything apple's produced, dating all the way back to the blue and white G3s.

that's not to say that OEM PC cases have to be ugly. IBM's produced some slick-looking cases, and so has Dell (for their small-form factor business stuff at least).

Lian-li's cases are also reasonably attractive, even if they somewhat appear to be knockoffs of the G5.

Industrial design seems to be an art lost to many theese days, which is a real shame... the G5's case was beautiful, functional, and able to cool several ridiculously hot G5 processors silently.

and http://www.ergoindemand.com/computer_monitor_stand _hex.htm

Only if you have a nice budget...

That case you mention is a Lian Li, I'd definitely like one of those - they're not cheap: http://www.lian-li.com/product.htm . The cheapest one on Newegg (and yes I know Newegg is not the end all be all of online stores) is $199: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82 E16811112051

But yes, you're right: the water cooling setup is an ugly implementation. They should've drilled holes in the top and ran the tubes through that instead and put elbows on it to bend it at a 90 degree angle to the box.

It's not, that's just the design of that particular Lian Li case.

That's part of the magic behind Apple's product line. "Back in the day," computers were ugly, huge, clunky, off-white boxes that people generally kept out of sight of guests, perhaps in a spare room somewhere along with their model rockets and comic books

That's a complete load of crap. Lian-li has been making uniquely-styled cases since 1997. Apple's first colorful computer, the iMac, didn't come out until 1998. SGI was making fancy boxes even earlier than that.

Lian-li pioneered the brushed-aluminum look that Apple stole with the new G5. Apple's product line has nothing to do with magic. It has everything to do with marketing.

I'm not sure if this is the biggest ever, but this Lian Li case has 7 5.25 inch bays and 12 3.25 inch bays.

Why not just link to lian li directly? http://www.lian-li.com/Product/Chassis/M_V_C_PC-V1 200.htm. Is it me or have these been around for a while -- seems I saw an identical looking case for $190 at the local compucare last winter. Maybe just a prior incarnation.

I have the V1200B as it stands, great case mind you but not the point of this post...

The Lian Li F1 desk

I am normally not a man to go gaga over furniture, but come on you have to agree, this would have to be the best tech desk I have seen in AGES!

At 3000 pound it's a little steep...

Lian Li makes many many cases. You want innovative, try the conch shell design: http://www.lian-li.com/Product/Chassis/M_M_PC-777. htm. You want quiet, try the V Silent: http://www.lian-li.com/Product/Chassis/M_V_S_PC-V1 100plus.htm.
You want no holes, try the PC-6X series: http://www.lian-li.com/Product/Chassis/M_C_PC-6X_S _PC-6077.htm.

Lian Li makes many many cases. You want innovative, try the conch shell design: http://www.lian-li.com/Product/Chassis/M_M_PC-777. htm. You want quiet, try the V Silent: http://www.lian-li.com/Product/Chassis/M_V_S_PC-V1 100plus.htm.
You want no holes, try the PC-6X series: http://www.lian-li.com/Product/Chassis/M_C_PC-6X_S _PC-6077.htm.

Lian Li makes many many cases. You want innovative, try the conch shell design: http://www.lian-li.com/Product/Chassis/M_M_PC-777. htm. You want quiet, try the V Silent: http://www.lian-li.com/Product/Chassis/M_V_S_PC-V1 100plus.htm.
You want no holes, try the PC-6X series: http://www.lian-li.com/Product/Chassis/M_C_PC-6X_S _PC-6077.htm.

Why can't somebody come up with a decent design?

Try Lian-Li
But I agree with you, most stock PC cases are crap, and are too flashy without elegance. I love the Lian-li cases, they're clean and don't look tacky if you decide to put a few quad-LED fans in there. All sharp corners are lined with a plastic to avoid cuts, the cases are easy to take apart, and most models have slide out motherboard trays. However, these cases do cost a premium.

Lian Li

A good quiet, black or silver, brushed aluminum case looks pretty slick.

I'm a big fan of this one. I've built a few computers with it.

I am really excited about this case.

It has a lot of noise customizations done already.

If I end up with another pc, that will be my next case. However, I accidently got addicted to my powerbook :P

Lian-Li makes the perfect case to make yourself a clone of the PowerMac G5 with x86 hardware.

You could probably build your own for much less than the cost of this hip-e machine.

I suggest you look at Lian-Li's PC-V2000 and up line. Both their PC-V2000 and their PC-V2100 have 7 5.25" bays and 12 3.5" bays. I also believe Lian-Li sells hard drive conversion bays. I'm not sure how they work though.

Linkage:
PC-V2000
PC-V2100
Lian-Li Homepage

I suggest you look at Lian-Li's PC-V2000 and up line. Both their PC-V2000 and their PC-V2100 have 7 5.25" bays and 12 3.5" bays. I also believe Lian-Li sells hard drive conversion bays. I'm not sure how they work though.

Linkage:
PC-V2000
PC-V2100
Lian-Li Homepage

I suggest you look at Lian-Li's PC-V2000 and up line. Both their PC-V2000 and their PC-V2100 have 7 5.25" bays and 12 3.5" bays. I also believe Lian-Li sells hard drive conversion bays. I'm not sure how they work though.

Linkage:
PC-V2000
PC-V2100
Lian-Li Homepage

3 Ware 12 drive RAID card

I I havn't calculated the per MB cost of all the large sizes. someone with more time please do this.

What will make this perfect is removeble drive kits (They require an external 5.1/4" bay for each 3.1/2" drive. Some even have little activity LEDs) and a server case with 12 external 5.1/4" bays.

Did he buy the thing from Thinkgeek?

It says that it is a Lian Li PC-6010W which apparently by default includes the aquarium option.

Sudhian has a forum dedicated to HTPCs only.

HTPC forum.

There are some good HiFi like cases like the CoolerMaster ATC 600,610, 620 and 630.
The LianLi 9100, 9300, 9320 and 9400 are fine as well.

The other forums at Sudhian are interesting as well if you into XPC and similiar stuff.

Bye egghat.

OEMs are finally getting clues. I just noticed that lian-li just came out with a new case, the 6077, that the entire front of the case is 5.5" bays, 9 of them. The on/off switch, led face place and 3 3.5" internal bay takes 2 of those but you can put it in any 2 of the 9 bays. Sweet. I've been looking for this for a long time. You could really load up this sucker with disk drives.

Now if they would just get rid of some of that spagetti on the power supplies, the new SATA drives don't need it anymore.

There are a couple of Lian-Li cases that look almost the same as a AV component.
(look under the desktop cases)
www.lian-li.com

I much prefer Lian Li cases. I have their PC-60USB and PC-62USB models. They have all the attributes expected of high-end cases: machined or rounded edges everywhere, thumbscrews, excellent airflow, lots of drive bays, etc. But they have nice touches like filters on the intake fans that can be easily removed for cleaning by unsnapping the front bezel. are a pleasure to work on. The dual front fans have a speed control, adjustable from the chassis front, that lets you set their speed to keep noise down. Combine that with noise limiting fans on the front and top exhaust ports, and you can make a nearly silent machine. The front also has 4 USB port connections behind a door that hinges back into the chassis when open. Its nice touches like that that make a big difference.

Finally, in spite of having more space (3 external, 5 internal 3.5" bays vs. the 2 and 4 of the CoolerMaster), it fits all this into a total package about the same size. So check out Lian Li if you are in the market for an aluminum chassis.

I bought this power supply about a year ago. Not only is it as quiet as they tout, it's been a real work horse for me. I have a Lian-Li case, all drive bays filled (from time to time, not constanly ALL hooked up, but...), this thing keeps on running.

I highly recomend checking these folks out.

i think the design of this thing is kindof dumb. firstoff, the fact that this thing has the controllers built into the whole unit. so if you wanted to put this thing on your coffee table, you'd need to have a bunch of wires running to your tv (sound, video, power, etc)

furthermore, i just think that it's way too expensive. it would be much easier and likely cheaper to use a flexatx pc, get a decent case so it looks good with your home equipment, and then buy fancy controllers and whatnot.

As a Mac user, I don't think Apple's current cases have enough bays, and this "Mac case clone" doesn't look so great. I've always liked the Lian-Li PC-60, which I will be transplanting my G3 tower into soon.

One brand that is a little on the expensive side, but makes great cases is Coolermaster. I purchased an ATC 101 about a year ago and have been really satisfied. If you not willing to fork down that much money for a case, Lain LI makes some great alluminum cases that are relativly inexpensive.

Lian Li Website

Lian Li PC-70 aluminium full tower computer case

Lian Li PC-76 server case

Lian Li PC-60 computer case

Coolermaster ATC-201SX alloy case

Lian Li HDD Caddie Page

RH-620 Alloy HDD Caddie

RH-600 Alloy HDD Caddie

RH-29 Alloy HDD Caddie

Lian Li Website

Lian Li PC-70 aluminium full tower computer case

Lian Li PC-76 server case

Lian Li PC-60 computer case

Coolermaster ATC-201SX alloy case

Lian Li HDD Caddie Page

RH-620 Alloy HDD Caddie

RH-600 Alloy HDD Caddie

RH-29 Alloy HDD Caddie

Lian Li Website

Lian Li PC-70 aluminium full tower computer case

Lian Li PC-76 server case

Lian Li PC-60 computer case

Coolermaster ATC-201SX alloy case

Lian Li HDD Caddie Page

RH-620 Alloy HDD Caddie

RH-600 Alloy HDD Caddie

RH-29 Alloy HDD Caddie

Lian Li Website

Lian Li PC-70 aluminium full tower computer case

Lian Li PC-76 server case

Lian Li PC-60 computer case

Coolermaster ATC-201SX alloy case

Lian Li HDD Caddie Page

RH-620 Alloy HDD Caddie

RH-600 Alloy HDD Caddie

RH-29 Alloy HDD Caddie

Lian Li Website

Lian Li PC-70 aluminium full tower computer case

Lian Li PC-76 server case

Lian Li PC-60 computer case

Coolermaster ATC-201SX alloy case

Lian Li HDD Caddie Page

RH-620 Alloy HDD Caddie

RH-600 Alloy HDD Caddie

RH-29 Alloy HDD Caddie

http://www.lian-li.com/new-pc/PC626ENG.htm

It amazes me the amount of 'software' guys who think they're experts but have no idea when it comes to hardware.

Check these examples out:-

- "Do get a pure PCI-bus machine (not a hybrid PCI/ISA design, you sacrifice about 10% of peak performance with those)."

This is pure humbug - you do not get 10% greater performance by buying a motherboard that has ni ISA slots (like those Asus KT boards). Because the fact is that even if they have no ISA slots, they still have a ISA bus built in the southbridge to support legacy stuff like the printer/parrallel port, the serial port/s & the PS2 mouse & keyboard ports. Now as far as the USB ports are concerned, I'm not sure whether they use the ISA bus or the PCI bus.

- "For the power supply, the three of us easily agreed on a vendor: PC Power & Cooling"

Bloody typical. Yet the reality is that the PC Power & Cooling mob are just 'badge engineers' - they re-sell other manufacturers products with their own own brand markings & inflated prices.

For example their full tower case is just a California PC full tower case with a custom bezel on the front.

Now as far as their power supplies are concerned. I remember when they used to sell a 'Silencer' model 275 watt power supply. In fact all it was was a generic 300 watt power supply, de-rated down to 275 watts so it was understressed, so it would cope with retro-actively fitted low speed 'silencer' fan.

As far as powersupplies are concerned I recommend the Enermax 350 watt EG365P-VE(FC) or 450 watt EG465P-VE(FC) power supplies. They have a push/pull dual fan design (a 80mm exhaust fan at the back & a 92mm intake fan at the bottom), which means the fans can run at a much slower (therefore quieter) speed, without losing any cooling performance. The Powersupply comes with a standard motherboard 3 pin senser connector cable, so you can blug it into a spare motherboard fan header, which means ifyou can see what revs one of the power supply fans are running at in you PC monitor applet in you system tray (& it can warn you with an alarm if it fails). Also the powersupply comes with a thermastat on a connector which can be somehow attached to the heatsink or against the CPU core if its a exposed flip-chip type core (as long as it has no heatspreader like the AMD K6 series has), this controls the fan underneath the powersupply & it only runs when necessary. Consequently these power supplies are so bloody quiet you sometimes think its not running.

- They also recommend the Thunder K7 (S2462) Motherboard, which is a huge waste of money as you can buy a very similar motherboard made by the same manufaturer at a much cheaper price (the Tiger MP (S2460) Motherboard). Also the 'Tiger' has a standard ATX connector, rather than the propietry connector that the 'Thunder' has. Which means you can use normal ATX powersupplies, rather than the inflated priced propietry powersupply that the 'Thunder' uses.

- Also, even though this is s'pose to be a 'Ultimate Linux Box', they fail to mention that both IDE floppy drives(if you are using the IDE bus) & SCSI floppy drives (if you are using a SCSI BUS) are avaliable. Even better one can get the LS120 variety which are compatible with both 120MB 'SupperFloppies' & standard 1.4MB standard floppies.

- They spend 4 paragraphs talking about 'Noise Control and Heat Dissipation' without really saying anything. When all they really needed to say that it's best using bigger fans at slower speeds - such as 12 volt 120mm fans running at 7 volts (positive hooked up to the 12 volt line while the negative is hooked up to the 5 volt line). The quietist fans (all other things being equal) by brand are the Papst Simtec bearing fans, the Sanyo Denki fans & the L1A1 versions of the Panaflo fans.

- They recommend a pretty well generic (though above average) Antec case, but this is s'pose to be a ultimate Linux box.

Therfore I recommend the Addtronics 'Server Cases' (their full tower cases) - the 7890 & the 7896. They are great cases with their great cooling options, filtered intakes, butterfly doors & slide out 'mainboard & I/O backplane tray'. Supermicro sell their own badge engineered version of this full tower case.

Other good full tower cases are the all alloy ones made by Lian Li. Such as the Lian Li PC-70 aluminium full tower computer case & the Lian Li PC-76 server case

If a mid tower case is more your style, both Lian Li & Coolermaster maker great alloy ones. They are great for LAN parties. In this regard I recommend the Lian Li PC-60 computer case & the Coolermaster ATC-201SX. Both cases are unbeatable as mid-tower cases - they have everything. I Personally thing a midtower case must have 4 5.25inch drive bays; so you can have both a CD burner & DVD drive, plus 2 HDDs in removable HDD pullout caddies.

For a ultimate box it should have the all alloy (better heat dissapation) twin fan caddies that agains are made by Lian Li. The 3 best models appear to be the RH-620 , the RH-600 , & the RH-29

For the motherboard, I'd recommend one with the SIS 735 'chipset'. Preferably it would have a AGP Pro slot, 6 PCI slots, one shared with a ISA slot at the bottom. It would have BOTH 2 DDR slots & 2 normal SDRAM slots. It would have a integrated RJ45 network connector above the 2 rear USB ports, plus integrated 'hardware' 5.1 sound (IWill have brought out a couple of boards of late with integrated 'hardware' 5.1 sound, they have the 3 standard female jack ports under the midi 'D' plug at the back, plus the extra connects hook up via a ribbon cable & a slot backplane cover). The board would also have integrated SCSI & Firewire like some of the MSI Pro or Turbo or whatever boards have. Plus an extra IDE controller (Promise, Highpoint, etc) so there's the potential for 8 drives (HDD, CD, DVD, LS120, ORB, etc) rather than the standard 4. The extra IDE controller will also have RAID 0,1 & 1+0 options (most have this built in, though its sometimes disabled). All the integrated stuff must have the capability to be disabled, either via jumpers or in the BIOS.

Twin AthonXP/MP CPUs would be the go (the XPs work fine in SMP setups, they just are not certified/supported for such configurations - that's the main difference between the XP & MP, the MPs are certified/supported for SMP use.

That's enough raving for now.