Slashdot Mirror
HTPC 4-Way Enclosure Roundup
Anony writes "Anandtech's Joshua Buss takes a look at four horizontal HTPC enclosures. He writes, "With the amazing rate at which full-fledged computers are dropping in price, it's really no wonder why they're starting to take over more and more roles that used to be accomplished by simpler machines. For everything from car stereo systems to hold massive music collections to kitchen machines for helping retrieve and store recipes, these "specialized" computer uses seem to only be expanding in number...Luckily, there have been many improvements made in this category since the inception of the HTPC, and as such, we were able to round up four very nice looking enclosures to compare in this article. Every unit is advertised as being able to handle a full ATX motherboard, and since the demands for a powerful HTPC are relatively high, we'll be giving these cases' cooling systems a vigorous workout with a brand new 3 gigahertz Pentium 4-based ATX test bed."
It's unfortunate that one hast to actually RTFA to figure that out.
Ben Hocking
Need a professional organizer?
Did this article just pop on the frontpage under the novell article? Or did I just miss it??
This is the sig that says NI (again)
"they're starting to take over more and more roles that used to be accomplished by simpler machines" - and Ahnold is about to lose his job as Ca Gov.... seems that the Terminator prophecy is just ten years later than the movies predicted.
Evil Overlord Rule #86. I will make sure that my doomsday device is up to code and properly grounded.
Once you got the crucibles banged out, which the industry did many years ago (including full atx boards with all the frills), stamping down boards is cheap. And a lot of them don't get bought, ever. Wouldn't it be more expensive to build custom dumbed-down motherboards for these smaller but unique applications?
I had the same thought until I read your post. Thanks for clearing up my insanity. /. is getting weirder and weirder every day.
Evil Overlord Rule #86. I will make sure that my doomsday device is up to code and properly grounded.
Obviously I *need* a quad cpu machine to handle my recipes database.
Seems to me that it would be a simple thing to casemod a system into an old stereo receiver case. At least then it'd look like it belongs there, my JVC receiver sitting on top of my old JVC receiver.
Evil Overlord Rule #86. I will make sure that my doomsday device is up to code and properly grounded.
While we're on the topic of HTPC enclosures, does anyone know of a company that sells pre-built MythTV boxes? Or would anyone like to volunteer? I'm in the market for one but I really don't want to spend a lot of time getting the hardware to work right.
I forget... did he invent the Buss Bar, or the System Buss? Google no help here.
Pacifist paratroopers yell, "Ghandi!" when they jump.
For many of the jobs they suggest - Kitchen machine, music hub, lower end specialist stuff - I personally would much rather go with Mini ITX.
n i-itx/
:o)
eg Via
http://www.via.com.tw/en/initiatives/spearhead/mi
with a nice compact case
http://www.mini-itx.com/store/
http://www.bigbruin.com/html/morex_3688.htm
I guess really what Im saying is I would perfer a Mac Mini
Open Source Drum Kit, LPLC deve board - mjhdesigns.com
It's unfortunate that one hast to actually BAFN to figure that out.
Nobody else reads HT and thinks of Hyper Threading?
--
Superb hosting 2400MB Storage, 120GB bandwidth, ssh, $7.95
Wouldn't a low power Pentium M be more sensible - otherwise the fans will drown out my TV and the cost of the power would bankrupt me.
Why do we always assume we need a high end generalist device for a specific usage that could be satisfied with a lower power and cheaper alternative?
I'm surprised the reviewer stuck to some of the major case makers in the review (Antec, Lian Li).
HTPC's, IMHO, are still very much a niche product, and the specialty case makers like a Silverstone or Ahanix would seem more appropriate.
The review focused on some of the bigger cases out there - when you realize how big the assortment is to choose from, from mini-ITX to slimline to full size, there are quite a number of choices out there.
Did anyone else read that and immediately think of a "4-Way" SMP Capable mini-box?
:(. Something about having a cluster of 16*4 Proc boxes made me happy.
My dreams were shattered when I realized it was a 4-way review
Anandtech.com is on slashdot enough, you'd think they'd have some better servers by now.
Pretty widgets? What pretty widgets?
I bought a box at a garage sale for 10 bucks to put FreeBSD and musicpd on for playing my ogg collection. The only problem was there was annoying 60hz hum on the output of the crappy soundblaster 16 card that I was using. I tried a number of things, including building my own shielded interconnects and trying to shield the powersupply.
Then I thought: this may be a ground loop. So I disconnected the powersupply ground (at the plug) and the hum went away, leaving a very clean sound.
Dangerous? Yes. Effective? Yes. YMMV. Great way to spend 10 dollars, but don't blame me if you burn your house down. (Yeah, I'm still trying to scrape up another 100 bucks for a new HD to hold more music.)
The snow doesn't give a soft white damn whom it touches. -- ee cummings
Maybe I have pretty high standards, but I want a PVR/HTPC to fit in with my HiFi equipment and TV. I thought these four were rather ugly, to be honest.
I quite like the Accent HT-400 http://www.arisetec.com/products/HT-400.htm, or some of the silverstone cases http://www.silverstonetek.com/product-case.htm, or perhaps (although personally there's something about this last that doesn't feel quite right) the http://www.ahanix.com/dvine5.html.
-- Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a perl script.
ever thought about using ferrite? worked for me.
Soundblaster 16s are crap, there is your problem. You can dig newer cards out of the trash, ones that won't burn your house down, and don't have ground loop issues.
You know they sell ground loop isolators right? Sure it would cost more than you paid for the box ($16), but it's cheaper than burning your house down:
c tId=2062214&cp
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?produ
I had a ground loop problem once too.
I solved it by putting the 'puter and the stereo in the same wall outlet. AFAIK that isn't a 100 % foolproof solution, but it worked for me.
There's a myriad of HTPC cases, but very few chips and motherboards.
I am very disappointed with the availability of "alternative" platforms. Very few places sell the VIA C3 chips. The VIA C7 only exists in press releases. Some companies sell the chips but not the motherboards! Most of the motherboards have on board video that doesn't include DVI/HDMI which makes them no good for home theater anyway. The Transmeta Crusoe is a good option, in theory, but I've never found any place that sells them.
I've been looking for a CPU+mobo combo for a few weeks and I am getting very frustrated. My 54 watt AMD Athlon 1Ghz overheats no matter what case I have, since it sits in an entertainment center. If somebody made a DVD player with Mozilla, MPEG-4 support, and a hard drive I wouldn't even need a PC.
My complaint is with the temperature benchmarking. Why on earth use a 6600 GT? I mean we are talking about an HTPC case, and maybe I am alone in thinking this, but if I am making a PC for home theater use, I want a card with some power, but I also want a card with TV tuning.
This test should've used an AIW either the AIW 2006 edition (overpriced AIW 9600), the X600-AIW or the newer X1800XL AIW (for the truly crazy people). For an HTPC where power is not the ultimate requirement the AIW 2006 edition should suffice for true testing.
"Some days you just can't get rid of a bomb."
Hoojum Cubit 5 - in chrome.
:-)
Very sexy
Unfortunately, they missed a unique case : the mCubed HFX. Altough it is a little pricey, it features heatpipes between the CPU/GPU and the case that will dissipate the heat (with fins). There's also an optional "emergency fan", as well as other gadget (VFD display, remote control, ...).
Add a fanless powersupply, internal or brick, and you've got a nice silent HTPC.
dirkvader.de has a review with a Pentium M, this site with an Athlon64 3500.
#include "coucou.h"
Be careful to get the "AW850 Deluxe" and not the confusingly similar "AW850 D" - they're different! It wasn't easy to find a cheap, OSS-supported digital sound card that can handle various sample rates, but this one works.
When I read the title I thought that this article would feature some nifty non-pc like designs. Wrong. They're just SFF PCs, some with a hide-away drive bay, except for possibly the last one which has some artistic curves.
I've built two mythboxes now. The first is of the Shuttle G2 variety, which works nicely, but still looks very PC. The one I built for the girlfriend is a much prettier ASUS Pundit which is very aesthically pleasing. It's not "booksize" as advertised (unless you read books twice the thickness and length of a hardcover), but it's the smallest full-featured case I've found. Too bad the card reader isn't Linux supported and doesn't have all the card types available.
What we really need is an article on very tiny (mini-itx preferably) motherboards and cases. I need something without fans, because most fans are distracting. The two I have are minimal, but if you strain it can definetly be heard. The Via chipset looks promising, and the almost fanless 1Ghz Epia Nehemiah motherboard might fit the bill, but I'm not sure how well supported the architecture is supported in Linux.
In researching my post here, I stumbled across Shuttle's latest M1000 offering. That looks pretty sweet, but I haven't done my due dilligence on Linux compatibility yet.
So, if someone could review the prettiest, smallest, fanless (and throw in cheapest too) HTPC case/motherboard combos, it would be appreciated. Thanks in advance. Till then, I'll browse http://www.mini-itx.com/ from time to time.
-- I have fans? Wow.
Yikes, a lot of replies. I like yours best though :) I've never tried ferrite, I might have to try picking up a large core and see what happens. As for the ground loop isolator, I've heard a little of these but I'll probably need to spend a little more than 16 bucks to get one with a good transformer (or to build one myself), as lower end ones end up rolling off some frequencies and distorting some as per here While a nice card might solve the problem, I did try several others (my roommate collects older/useful PC components) and they all had the same problem. Also, I did try and plug the computer into the same outlet as the amp, to no avail.
:-D However, thanks for the link, it is nice to know of some good hardware that supports linux (and I'm sure FreeBSD) in case I can ever afford to build a NEW computer. Got any more?
While an optical connection would be fun, I like to build my own audio equipment (well, amplifiers at this point) but I'm not quite to the point of building in optical inputs
The snow doesn't give a soft white damn whom it touches. -- ee cummings
I hear a lot about HTPC and built a few systems for myself at home. In general I like both Myth and Windows and would love to make this a real DVR but I have one problem. It is not the case, the mobo, or the CPU (I love the Pentium M in my box, almost completely quiet). The BIG problem I have is with the video card/tuners that are out there. I can not seem to get a good signal out of anything that I have tried. I am not sure if it is the tuner or the output (vid card). What I really want is something with progressive scan out. I have heard of some of the new cards that say HD ready but I am not sure what that means. I also have a replayTV and it smokes anything I have built to date. The picture quality, though not as good as direct from the source, is superior to anything that I have been able to get out of my HTPC. Is there any hope for this or am I completely blind or ignorant to what is available???
This article is a clueless joke.
It's hard to imagine, this clown has *any* clue about the HTPC community or market.
Go to www.pcalchemy.com or www.htpcnews.com if you want to see *real* HTPC cases.
Then someone can write a review about real products the HTPC community is actually using instead of the stupid-ass cases in the article posted today.
Good greif.
For the record, I've used a Silverstone SST-LC03-B case for years. But don't put anything more powerful than a Celeron in one because they suffer from poor airflow.
Curretly I backed away from the whole HTPC case concept and went to an Antec P180 because the case is beautifully engineered for awesome airflow and silent operation. It doesn't look like audio gear, but then I hide all the gear, because nobody really wants to look at a pile of electronic boxes in their living room anyway.
Get a piece of 12-16 gauge wire. Crimp a ring terminal onto each end. One end goes to a screw somewhere on the stereo's case, one end goes to a screw somewhere on your PC's case (to which your motherboard and therefore sound card is, or should be, grounded). Now ground is ground on both devices, and your risk of dying due to a problem in the PC power supply is decreased (presuming the stereo uses a 3-prong plug or you fix the plug on the PC).
As usual, almost no mention of how you're supposed to control the damn thing once it's built. Hanging an external IR receiver off the side seems contrary to the aesthetic considerations that would lead one to shell out for one of these cases in the first place, so I assume that some or all of them have built-in IR receivers. (IIRC, the article did mention a remote control that came with one of the cases.) It would be nice if they would actually discuss the subject, however.
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
I recently bought a Pinnacle Showcenter 1000g after spending forever on trying to slap together a HTPC using old pc parts. The showcenter is a really nice unit for what it cost me ($64) It does everything I wanted ..mp3's,divx,xvid..etc.. The only bad point is that I can not record tv shows on it. All it does is stream moves and videos via wireless off my HD into my entertainment system. If someone wants something easy to setup the showcenter might be your best bet if you can get them for under $100.
That thing does not fit in with any audio-visual equipment I've ever seen anywhere. Looks like a cross between a generator and a 50's radio.
I have had an HTPC in my stereo cabinet for ~3 years now. About 6 months ago I switched motherboard/cpu/etc and put it all in the exact Antec case the review describes. For the most part, the case is perfect. It only has two small problems: (1) the front of the case is silver, and it's basically impossible to find silver DVD drives so you end up with a sore-thumb black or beige drive in your shiny silver case, and (2) the Antec case is so open to air flow that noise from inside the case is poorly muffled. My CPU fan is quiet, but the !@&^# northbridge fan is really loud, and the case does nothing to help that. I solved problem (1) by buying a DVD writer that came with replaceable front plates; I took the beige set and spray-painted it silver with garden-variety paint from Home Depot before attaching it to the drive. The match with the case color is surprisingly good. I would have preferred a black front to the case, however...
BAFN == Be A Fucking Nerd