December 2004 HTPC Case Roundup
by Purav Sanghani on December 27, 2004 2:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
Benchmarks - Sound
Sound levels are extremely important when it comes to home theater components, as we discussed in our introduction to HTPC cases. We measure the sound levels of each of the four competitors at 12" away from the sealed cases with the power supply, heatsink, and VGA card fans turned off to measure the sound levels of the case fans.
Of course, NMediaPC's HTPC 100 came out on top with the lowest sound levels that we have witnessed in a PC chassis, and this mainly due to having a single 60mm case fan. The loudest of the batch was the Cavalier 2 at 54dBA with its dual 60mm fans and the 80mm fan at the front of the chassis. The LC10/M came in at the second loudest chassis producing about 51dBA.
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matthewfoley - Monday, December 27, 2004 - link
Great article! I'd love to see more on the HTPC area, including a processor article.I agree, benk. How could you choose the SilverStone over the NMedia? It runs hotter, louder, is more expensive and doesn't look as good.
Another thing I'd like to see in all of the cases is more room for hard drives. If you're going to store anything recorded in Media Center 2005, you're going to need tons of space, and the average user isn't going to want to have a separate file server. Then again, your average user isn't going to build a HTPC...
benk - Monday, December 27, 2004 - link
As noted, please fix pics in thermal section.That aside, great review. The pictures are extremely helpful. I would love to see added to them a comparative shot of all of the cases, or failing that a single chart that lists all of their dimensions.
My personal choice would probably go to the NMedia...if the temperatures are within normal operating ranges, and you're not overclocking (overclocking seems unnecessary in the HTPC arena), noise plays a much more defining factor in my purchase than thermal management.
Locut0s - Monday, December 27, 2004 - link
Ahh now these are what I'm talking about when I mean some nicer looking cases, even if I'm not in the market for an HTPC.mcveigh - Monday, December 27, 2004 - link
fix rollover pics on testing section :)great article! I love my htpc but am looking for a newer case I wish you had tested Ahanix D.Vine 5 with 2 siletX fans installed.
actually how about changing testing to include using identical fans for all systems. I know it's more work but this way you could see how casese compared based on design alone.