HTPC Case/Setup recommendations

[spyork]

I currently have an Antec ATC 610 which I'm giving the boot. The case is beautiful, but the space is too confined and case cooling is a problem. What is everyone's opinion of the Sonata II for a HTPC case. My setup is as follows:
Abit NFS-7 2.0 NForce2 motherboard
AMD 2400 XP
1GB RAM
PVR-350 and plan on adding PVR-500 in the future
soon to be 2x 250GB or 300GB SATA drives
DVD ROM
ATI 9800 Pro
3x Media MVP units

I would like a case that is quiet, but also good on keeping temps low. Any recommendations are apprecicated. Also what is everyone's opionion on RAID? Should I RAID my two drives for GBPVR? Thanks...

[andlju]

I would like a case that is quiet, but also good on keeping temps low. Any recommendations are apprecicated.

I haven't tried it myself, but I've heard a lot of good things about the mCubed HFX case. It can be used for setting up a completely fanless box. A bit pricey though, and not that easy to come by.
Oh, and please feel free to share and discuss your setup at http://myhtpc.ljusberg.com!

[Major Hostility]

I run all my PC's in Sonata cases and have found them to have a very good silence/price ratio. The built-in PSU will self-regulate the rear fan pretty well, so all I normally hear is the CPU fan. Make sure your motherboard supports a fan speed controller, like SpeedFan, so you can keep the CPU fan as quiet as possible.

One of my Sonata's is running an Athlon 3000+ and under full load barely hits 41C so I've been very happy with cooling in that box overall.

Silent PC Review also gave high marks to the Antec P150 but it's a bit pricey for me ...

[spyork]

That Antec P150 definitely looks nice, but somewhat pricey. When it comes to my main workstation I usually spend a little more on a better case, but I can't really justify spending that much on the HTPC. The Sonata is definitley looking like a winner right now. I just wish you could mount a 120mm fan in front of the hard drive cage instead of behind it. Major, have you had any problems with the hard drive temps?

[Major Hostility]

Major, have you had any problems with the hard drive temps?

I haven't, but I don't normally run extremely disk intensive apps. In my Athlon box, I'm currently running an older Seagate ST380011A (80GB at 39C) with a newer Samsung SP2504C (250GB at 33C) SATA drive I bought for video storage. I'm not sure why the Samsung is running so much coolor ...

Overall, I've been very impressed with how cool the Athlon system runs. I have a 2.4Ghz P4 in another Sonata case that runs quite a bit hotter, so it looks like I've become an AMD convert!

[spyork]

Good choice Major...I use nothing but AMD processors now days.

[sybil]

My case is the original Antec Sonata and I think the newer version may have even better cooling. I run an Athlon64 3000+ (Winchester) on an Epox 9nda3+ nforce 3 board. The processor never goes above 40 celsius. I have 3 sata drives - 2 Seagate and 1 WD and they stay pretty cool also, although the WD is definitely the hotter one. One back 120 mm exhaust fan and a 120 mm fan in front of the hdd's. The hottest component is the video card - an ati x800 pro, but it never gets overly hot.

If you're looking at desktop cases at all, I've been eyeing the Thermaltake Tenor - the price is reasonable and it gets good reviews for quietness, cooling and space. It's still about the size of a mid tower, but very nice looking if you had it with other home theatre components.

[spyork]

Well newegg just got the Antec P150 in stock, and I just had to place an order. I didn't even know about this case until Major mentioned it. Thanks Major, it's all your fault that I ended up spending more money. Seriously though the P150 looks sweet!

[gomjabar]

I just got the thermalrock Mystic...I was worried that it might end up being too gaudy but it looks better in person than in the pics. Its fairly quite too...all I hear is the cpu fan.