December 2004 HTPC Case Roundup
by Purav Sanghani on December 27, 2004 2:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
Final Thoughts
Which unit will win our Editors Choice Award in this first HTPC case roundup? Taking a closer look, the case that came the closest to giving the best home theater experience out of the box was SilverStone Technology's LC10/M. The extra features, which included a media center compatible IrDA remote control and media center software, made this case easy to set up and use. Thermal performance of the LC10/M was better than the performance shown by the D.Vine 5, but took a hit in sound performance, since it produced about 51dBA with its 3 case fans.NMediaPC's HTPC 100 did not perform as well in our thermal benchmarks as the LC10/M or the Cavalier 2, but it produced an extremely low amount of sound, since it used a single 60mm fan, which is very important in a home theater environment. NMediaPC also offers barebones and full system kits for a complete home theater solution.
Ahanix still needs some work on their HTPC case, though. The D.Vine 5, no matter if it was constructed of aluminum, had a lot of unused space, which could have been utilized for extra drive bays. And though the sound performance was above average, the thermal readings were just too high for us to choose it over the rest.
In the end, we will have to let the prices decide on which is the right HTPC case for you. If you want a simple solution, one where a third party external IrDA receiver can be used without a functional LCD text display, the Cavalier 2 is the best solution at an extremely low price of $100. This price includes the 300W SATA ready power supply. If you want something a little quieter out of the box, however, with a fully functional IrDA remote control and a media center suite and don't mind spending $230, the LC10M is for you. There is also the option of purchasing the LC10 without the multi-media kit, which takes away the remote control and media center software and brings the price of the chassis down to about $140.
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The final call: SilverStone's Lascala 10 receives our Editors Choice Award for best HTPC case of 2004 in thermal performance as well as visual and internal design and features. NMediaPC's HTPC 100 comes in at second for its quiet performance but the lack of drive bays kept it from taking the #1 spot. The LC10/M had plenty of space for extra HDD. We felt that the sound issue can be cured with quiter fans, or even removing the front 80mm intake fan. |
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monsoon - Wednesday, September 7, 2005 - link
hola,i want my HTPC to be a full fledged double-core AMD PC capable of running everything, with double 5'25" front bays and silent.
so, what'S out there today to realize such a project ?
it's been almost a year since this shoot-out, and i would really love to see some commercial products ( already assembled or cases only ) to match these needs.
120mm fans anyone ?
passive cooling ( or should we wait for the coming laptop double-core CPU releases ) ?
thanks for reading this,
cheers
rdunnill - Friday, January 28, 2005 - link
Quote: "There isn't anything requiring these large cases except a gaming video card"To the contrary, I use a Holo3Dgraph-I deinterlacing card, which is full-height and thus requires a modestly-footprinted case like the NMediaPC.
rdunnill - Friday, January 28, 2005 - link
I am considering the NMediaPC case due to its small footprint.Footprint barely received mention in the review, but it's important to me, because the space in my HT cabinet is small.
mindless1 - Thursday, December 30, 2004 - link
JKing76, the distinction is not "just playing movies". There isn't anything requiring these large cases except a gaming video card, or to look at it another way, stuffing so many cards in that you can't get a riser to work and need a larger power supply too. Perhaps if you need more than 2 HDDs, that's an issue too... but most won't.Games <> Home Theater
Some can't grasp that, and that's OK, there SHOULD be cases suitable for building living room gaming boxes, but that does not begin to mean HTPC cases per se, should be this large.
goku21 - Thursday, December 30, 2004 - link
What about doing a project/review on a HTPC you build yourself? Go all out and instead of using a HTPC case use a SFF case or something. Be a little different about it.That's something I'd like to see. Perhaps something interactive where all the readers can vote on what types of components go into it and what not.
Of course that's just my stupid opinion =)
PuravSanghani - Wednesday, December 29, 2004 - link
We gave our Editor's Choice Award to the SilverStone LC10/M because it has a combination of great features (VFD Text display, room for expansion with more HDD mounting space, the ability to install a full ATX board and power supply, as well as an optional multimedia kit since MS Windows Media Center is not sold on store shelves just yet). Bias is not one of the reasons we chose the LC10.The HTPC100 is a great out-of-the-box solution if you want a simple barebones system. It performed well in our thermal and sound benchmarks. The case, however, does not have much room for expansion, only supports microATX boards, and does not have a text display. Although, for its performance in thermal and sound we believe it is a worthy competitor to the LC10.
We hope this clears up some confusion in our regarding our conclusion of this roundup.
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Nintari, Mindless, mcveigh: We chose these components because many boxed Home Theater PCs come with hardware similar to our configuration. A media center PC, in our definition, is not just a PC with a TV Tuner slapped in it, but rather a fully functional PC with the ability to process home theater content.
Definitions of the HTPC will vary by user and the purpose of the HTPC in their home theater setup.
During our testing we do not install a TV Tuner card but we do process content like playing a DVD and video games to simulate operations during normal PC use with this "standard" hardware.
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#27: Feel free to let us know of any errors in the article and we will be more than happy to fix them. Thanks.
Purav Sanghani
Clint - Wednesday, December 29, 2004 - link
All three vendor links for the Silverstone case show a completely different case (though they all match one another).ElFenix - Tuesday, December 28, 2004 - link
I've asked for years: please hire an english major to edit your articles. The sentence structure of this article is even worse than most of the articles around here.JKing76 - Tuesday, December 28, 2004 - link
Sorry mindless, I don't buy your definition of HTPC. I consider an HTPC to be a computer you'd keep hooked up to a home theater system full time. You want a tiny, low-power PC just for playing movies, well, that's your choice. But there's no reason big screen, high-quality surround sound gaming support can't be part of a HTPC.geogecko - Tuesday, December 28, 2004 - link
Personally...the best HTPC case money can buy...http://www.atechfabrication.com/products/heatsync_...