Which HTPC Case?

[jmsellars1]

Hi guys,

I'm looking at building a HTPC sometime soon, I have a pretty good idea of what most of my parts will be. Something along the lines of:

AMD A6-3500
2x2GB 1600 or 1866Mhz RAM
A75 motherboard, preferably mATX
Intel 330 Series 60GB

That should be fine for me as I won't need an optical drive for now and I'll use external drives for storage until I build a NAS box.

The only thing I'm struggling with is the case and PSU. It has to be something small, quiet and good looking without spending too much. The 3 cases I have been looking at are:

Silverstone Milo ML03 @ ~£60 (Around £95 with Huntkey Jumper 300W 80 Plus Gold PSU)

Great price and very practical, it fits mATX motherboards and standard ATX PSU's. My problem is that the front bezel looks to be plastic so it might look a bit cheap and it's a bit on the larger side. I was hoping for something a little bit smaller.

Lian Li PC-Q09FB with 150W FSP PSU @ ~£70

This looks awesome and is very small, it is also extremely cheap considering the aluminium construction and decent PSU provided. It doesn't have any expansion slots though, I would like 1 at the very least. If this case was a tad wider so it could fit a mATX board and the expansion slots it would be perfect.

Streacom F1C @ ~£70 (Around £135 with 120W Pico PSU)

This looks like a very pretty and high quality case. It's also extremely small which is great. It will only accept a PicoPSU though due to space constraints so this makes it the quietest but by far the most expensive. (Once you include the PSU.) It is extremely restrictive for CPU coolers and is quite picky about the optical drive choice too.


I am leaning toward the Streacom case but if I could find a different small aluminium HTPC case with space for a mATX board and possibly a small SFX/mATX PSU, that would be fantastic. I am hoping for something with the looks and size of the Lian Li and Streacom case with some of the practicality of the Silverstone case if possible.

Any ideas?

 

[rwpritchett]

Have you looked at these other options?

■LIAN LI PC-C37U
■MONEUAL 312
■MONEUAL 320

They are similar to the ML03 but are all aluminum.

Just in case you aren't aware, both Lian Lit PC-Q09FB and the Streacom F1C are mini-ITX cases and won't fit mATX motherboards.

I'm not sure if Streacom is a rebrand of Wesena as they look pretty much identical, but you may want to look at Wesena's cases too:

http://www.wesena.co.uk/

 

[jmsellars1]

Yeah I'm aware they are mini ITX, that's why I said preferably mATX at the top. Mini ITX is still an option.

I'll take a look at those, thanks for the suggestions.

EDIT: They all look nice but I'm hoping for something a bit smaller, I don't mind using a slimline optical drive, 2.5'' drives and a SFX/mATX PSU but I'm hoping for a mATX motherboard. Do you know of anything like that?

 

[rwpritchett]

My small HTPC uses the Antec 310-150 case, which is small and ITX (check it out here). It's not aluminum though. There's also the 300-150 version that is all black.

I think your best bet would be one of the Wesena cases. What were your thoughts on them?

 

[jmsellars1]

They look excellent but just far too expensive, I'd sooner go for the Streacom case I pointed out. It's not mATX but it's a decent price for such a nice looking, high quality case and has 1 expansion slot, I was just hoping for 2 or 3. I think £130-140 for the case and PSU would be my limit.

If that Lian Li case had an expansion slot that would be awesome, if it had 2 or 3 it would be perfect.