Finding the right PC case?

[delley]

Hi all!

I've just started exploring the wonderfull world of PVR's. My first choice was to buy a Kiss box that did it all for me, but I thought: I could do better than this. And thus I decided to build my own PVR.

I want it to be slick looking, not a PC smack-in-the-middle of my livingroom. I want it to blend in with the rest of my stereo gadgets.

I found this nice looking case:

http://www.cappuccinopc.com/dg1.asp

But what bothers me with this case is I cant really put my own I/O cards in to it - and thus I can't put one of the supported video cards by this software in.

Any one got some good recommendations to cases. Only requirement is it has to be slick looking, have an IR reciever and have possibility to add your own IO cards.

In advance thanks,

delley

[fini]

have you looked at any of the silverstone cases? They're expensive, but are well made and altogether worth it. kustompcs.co.uk has a selection of htpc cases that might interest you.

fini

[sub]

Even more expensive, but very very nice are the Hush PCs.

http://www.hushtest.de/hushsho....ker.jpg
http://www.hushtest.de/hushsho....ker.jpg

Its a bit extravagant, but I've just splashed out and ordered myself one. Sorry guys, but you'll have to listen to me piping on about how good my Hush from now on...

[Bigted]

Sub,
Selling off the old HTPC on Trademe?

[krypton_john]

My NZ$0.02 on HTPC cases:

1) Has to look good - but you already knew that.

2) Has to be able to support your tv tuner cards - i.e. full height pci cards. Some slim cases only support half height cards, i.e. not PVR250's.

3) Has to be SILENT. Many cases, especially lower priced ones, are just too noisy. The noise can come from the fan in the power supply, the CPU heatsink fan, the graphics card fan and the hard disk. All can be mitigated by a well designed case and power supply.

4) Has to have adequate cooling. If you have a couple of hard disks, a couple of tuners, a grunty cpu and video card all in a tiny box it may not get sufficient cooling.

[reven]

has any one seen or own the cases by accent? they are by far the best ones ive ever seen, going to get one even, just wondering if anyone knows it the remotes that ship well you can get work with gb-pvr? the remotes are "iMON Remote Stick Controller (RSC)" and "iMON Multi Median (MM) Remote" anyone know which one is better with gb-pvr ? (given that they both work, or can be made to work)

also does gb-pvr support output to an lcd screen? since you can get one with these cases

if you havent seen these checkout the link on the top to the accent website, they're so pretty

if anyone has one can you tell me how noisy they are

[sub]

Quote[/b] (Bigted @ Sep. 14 2004,22:13)]Sub,
Selling off the old HTPC on Trademe?

Yes, the old PC is on trademe. Its probably not too difficult to spot. I'm including a USA PVR250 which is surplus to requirements.

[sub]

Quote[/b] ]has any one seen or own the cases by accent? they are by far the best ones ive ever seen, going to get one even, just wondering if anyone knows it the remotes that ship well you can get work with gb-pvr?

Yes, they look very very nice. To be quite honest, I dont know if the remotes will work with GB-PVR. It really depends on the software that comes with them. If the software fakes keystrokes (lots do), then it'll work fine with GB-PVR. Otherwise you may need to add something like girder into the mix.

I'm tempted to have a chat with the guys from CamdenIT (Accent PC) to see if he'll loan a me a remote and VFD to try out. They look pretty good.

[reven]

Quote[/b] (sub @ Sep. 15 2004,02:14)]
I'm tempted to have a chat with Cameron from Accent PC to see if he'll loan a me a remote and VFD to try out. They look pretty good.

well if you dont get one, im going to order one in about a couple of weeks, if they're in the country yet (getting the case, lcd, + remote (not sure which remote yet, have to do some research on them)) im pretty sure the "iMON Remote Stick Controller (RSC)" will work with gb-pvr, havent found a review on the other one yet, ill tell you how it goes, i still cant get over how pretty the case is

[delley]

Hi guys!

Thanks for the great info!

The Hush cases looks awesome, but are a bit out of my price range - I think I'm gonna go with one of the accent or silverstone systems.

New Question:

If I'm gonna use a PVR350 card - what kind of CPU / RAM / HD (rpm) setup is needed to get flawles operation of GB-PVR?