Netherlands
All finished and it looks great! I thought it is good to post my findings here for other ppl that are thinking of buying this case.
Specs:
- Hiper Media Chassis (200W PSU included)
- Asus M2NPV-VM Mobo (onboard GF6150, nforce 430, HD audio, IEEE1394, DVI)
- AMD CPU Athlon 64 3200+ 2.0 GHz, 1000 MHz, 128 KB L1, 512 KB L2, Boxed
- DVD±RW NEC AD-7630 - Black - Slimline - Slot-in
- Samsung HDD SpinPoint P120 250 GB, 7200 Rpm, 8 MB, S-ATA II/300
- TwinMos DDR2 Memory Dual Channel 1024 MB, PC5300, 667 MHz, 5, Kit Of 2
- FloppyDTV-C OEM + Alphacrypt CAM
- Microsoft Remote Control+Receiver Windows XP Media Center Edition IR+Teletext
- Sitecom WiFi WL-172 Turbo
- Dynatron CPU Cooler A48G Copper (only 1U heatsink used)
Problems / remarks (chronological order):
- HDD installation: Attaching it to the case was no problem at all, but there is very little space left for the power and sata cable. You really need to squeeze it between the disk and the (fortunately flexible) PSU
- DVD Drive: No problems at all! The case comes with a special card to convert the laptop port to IDE + power connector. Be careful not to lose the small screws that come with the case, because normal screws don't fit in the drive.
- Dynatron Cooler: The heatsink that comes with the CPU is to high for the case, therefore you need to buy a 1U cooler. The A48G was the only one available at my online shop, but I thought it would do fine. Attaching it to the motherboard was no problem, but after running the HTPC for the first time, it became clear that the fan was very noisy. The cooler was meant for a server rack, blowing hot air to the side instead of up. The fan is very small, so it needs to spin very hard (up to 7000RPM -> 54 dba).
Clearly, it was wrong to buy this. Removing the fan revealed a placeholder with a small hole. I was thinking of putting the bigger fan that came with the CPU on this heatsink, but the small hole in the placeholder worried me. After testing it now, I'm more confident that this won't be a problem, since the cpu didn't get hotter than 60 degrees after running at 100% for half an hour. Besides that, it was nice and quiet!
Motherboard: You need to remove the front USB card first, otherwise it will become very hard to put it into place. Considering the location of the PCI slots and the hole in the case for one PCI card, I really wouldn't know how you could install a PCI card (even with a riser card). Maybe I should have bought another motherboard, too
FloppyDTV: Fortunately, I don't need a pci slot for the floppydtv. First, I attached the PCI bracket to the card. The card is heavier than I thought, so I thought I would have to support it with something a little. Putting it into place showed that you have to install it upside down. Support is not needed, since it can rest upon the cables that lie all over the case. I did however put some cardboard on top of it, since it is very probable that the bottom side would otherwise make contact with the case.
Then my biggest problem: PSU Trouble!
First, the PSU has a 20-pin power connector, while the power connector on the board has 24. Attaching it to 20 of the 24 pins was no problem however. This 'could cause trouble' according to the motherboard manual, but it seems to work fine.
Second, while the 20-pin power cable is very (too) long, the 4-pin CPU power connector is too short The cable coming from the PSU couldn't reach the connector on the board placed on the far side of the case (it needed about 2cm extra). I finally extended it with a connector from an old PSU and some tape. They clearly have to improve this default PSU.
Closing the case
The case really has a function here, since you really need to push everything down to make it all fit. An efficient way of positioning the cables is a must! However, it is hard to make room for the long power cable. I did manage to keep the space above the CPU fan free of any cables, which is probably good for the airflow, but it is also nice that you don't see them through the roster on the case.
Conclusions
The case looks very slick! I would recommend everybody to use a slot-in dvd player; it looks much better than a standard laptop drive. I installed Windows MCE 2005 on it (together with MP). The IR receiver and wlan card worked straight away. Total costs: about €500 + €200 for the floppyDTV and Alphacrypt CAM.
Specs:
- Hiper Media Chassis (200W PSU included)
- Asus M2NPV-VM Mobo (onboard GF6150, nforce 430, HD audio, IEEE1394, DVI)
- AMD CPU Athlon 64 3200+ 2.0 GHz, 1000 MHz, 128 KB L1, 512 KB L2, Boxed
- DVD±RW NEC AD-7630 - Black - Slimline - Slot-in
- Samsung HDD SpinPoint P120 250 GB, 7200 Rpm, 8 MB, S-ATA II/300
- TwinMos DDR2 Memory Dual Channel 1024 MB, PC5300, 667 MHz, 5, Kit Of 2
- FloppyDTV-C OEM + Alphacrypt CAM
- Microsoft Remote Control+Receiver Windows XP Media Center Edition IR+Teletext
- Sitecom WiFi WL-172 Turbo
- Dynatron CPU Cooler A48G Copper (only 1U heatsink used)
Problems / remarks (chronological order):
- HDD installation: Attaching it to the case was no problem at all, but there is very little space left for the power and sata cable. You really need to squeeze it between the disk and the (fortunately flexible) PSU
- DVD Drive: No problems at all! The case comes with a special card to convert the laptop port to IDE + power connector. Be careful not to lose the small screws that come with the case, because normal screws don't fit in the drive.
- Dynatron Cooler: The heatsink that comes with the CPU is to high for the case, therefore you need to buy a 1U cooler. The A48G was the only one available at my online shop, but I thought it would do fine. Attaching it to the motherboard was no problem, but after running the HTPC for the first time, it became clear that the fan was very noisy. The cooler was meant for a server rack, blowing hot air to the side instead of up. The fan is very small, so it needs to spin very hard (up to 7000RPM -> 54 dba).
Clearly, it was wrong to buy this. Removing the fan revealed a placeholder with a small hole. I was thinking of putting the bigger fan that came with the CPU on this heatsink, but the small hole in the placeholder worried me. After testing it now, I'm more confident that this won't be a problem, since the cpu didn't get hotter than 60 degrees after running at 100% for half an hour. Besides that, it was nice and quiet!
Motherboard: You need to remove the front USB card first, otherwise it will become very hard to put it into place. Considering the location of the PCI slots and the hole in the case for one PCI card, I really wouldn't know how you could install a PCI card (even with a riser card). Maybe I should have bought another motherboard, too
FloppyDTV: Fortunately, I don't need a pci slot for the floppydtv. First, I attached the PCI bracket to the card. The card is heavier than I thought, so I thought I would have to support it with something a little. Putting it into place showed that you have to install it upside down. Support is not needed, since it can rest upon the cables that lie all over the case. I did however put some cardboard on top of it, since it is very probable that the bottom side would otherwise make contact with the case.
Then my biggest problem: PSU Trouble!
First, the PSU has a 20-pin power connector, while the power connector on the board has 24. Attaching it to 20 of the 24 pins was no problem however. This 'could cause trouble' according to the motherboard manual, but it seems to work fine.
Second, while the 20-pin power cable is very (too) long, the 4-pin CPU power connector is too short
The cable coming from the PSU couldn't reach the connector on the board placed on the far side of the case (it needed about 2cm extra). I finally extended it with a connector from an old PSU and some tape. They clearly have to improve this default PSU. Closing the case
The case really has a function here, since you really need to push everything down to make it all fit. An efficient way of positioning the cables is a must! However, it is hard to make room for the long power cable. I did manage to keep the space above the CPU fan free of any cables, which is probably good for the airflow, but it is also nice that you don't see them through the roster on the case.
Conclusions
The case looks very slick! I would recommend everybody to use a slot-in dvd player; it looks much better than a standard laptop drive. I installed Windows MCE 2005 on it (together with MP
). The IR receiver and wlan card worked straight away. Total costs: about €500 + €200 for the floppyDTV and Alphacrypt CAM.
