Moneual MonCaso: Touchscreen Gadgetry & Solid Cooling?

Devonavar · Post by **Devonavar** » Wed Oct 31, 2007 4:38 pm

Moneual MonCaso: Touchscreen Gadgetry and Solid Cooling in One?

andyb · Post by **andyb** » Thu Nov 01, 2007 9:04 am

Sorry Devon, you seemed to have spelt "Aluminium" wrong on page one.

"Their tower enclosure resembles an oversized iPod Mini â€” it's even available in a choice of six brushed-aluminum finishes."

Aluminium is the correct spelling, anything else is "Disambiguation"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluminium

Andy

Post by **MikeC** » Thu Nov 01, 2007 9:33 am

-- ASIDE --

Andyb,

You're right, and I appreciate the link to the etymology of the word...

...but there are other mitigating factors. Such as the simple fact that for the last >4.5 years, SPCR been using American English as its nominal editorial standard. Most of the writers today come from Canada, while in the past, a good portion were American. The default standard on the web today is American English. We're just going with the flow and we have to use some kind of standard anyway (and aluminum is the Canadian spelling too...)

BTW, I make exceptions -- I leave alone the spelling of articles submitted by writers from commonwealth countries who use (more or less) British English spelling.

Have you read The Meaning of Everything? Simon Winchester's story about how the Oxford English Dictionary was created. It took 70 years. If you like words, you'll find this book fascinating. And it's in proper British English.

-- END OF ASIDE --

Back to normal programming everyone.

andyb · Post by **andyb** » Thu Nov 01, 2007 10:04 am

Cheers Mike, that book does look interesting

And I know I cant change the way people spell things, but I can try with certain types of words.

The spelling of things and placesshould be more important than generic words.

Such as: The Eiffel Tower, The World Trade Center, Aluminium, Uzbekistan.

The fact that Eiffel is pronounced differently by me doesnt mean that its spelling should be different because I live in another country. Likewise I have been brought up to spell the names of places correctly even if the word itself has been spelt wrong, such as the late World Trade Center, Aluminium and Uzbekistan are the name of a Scientific Element, and Uzbekistan a country, those things should be sacred and spelled in the correct manner regardless of the country's "official" stance on its spelling.

Anyway, aside from the banter of spelling, I should really read the last 4 pages of the review, the case is interesting as its Full-ATX, and appears to have competent cooling unlike many HTPC's.

Any more news from Antec about the Fusion-MAX BTW.

Andy

Devonavar · Post by **Devonavar** » Thu Nov 01, 2007 11:03 am

Ah, the aluminum / aluminium debate. I don't know why this particular word pisses people off so much. We've accepted that people Americans and Brits spells many other words differently, why get worked up about an element?

As far as I know, aluminum is not a proper noun, except possibly in specific contexts when using the word nominatively rather than descriptively. It's certainly not a proper noun when used as an adjective, so I see no reason to stick to the British version, especially when the usage on the site has been "aluminum" for as long as I've been here. I understand that the extra 'i' is often used in academic circles, but SPCR is a website, not a chemistry journal.

As Mike says, we write in American English (and, as a Canadian, I resent that a bit). American convention is "aluminum", so I see no problem with the article.

Gojira-X · Post by **Gojira-X** » Thu Nov 01, 2007 1:36 pm

I did a bit of digging about the origin of the 80mm A8025L12s fan.
The only manufacturer I came up with is iCute.

This probably doesn't help as I know iCute source their parts from all over Taiwan and China.

An extract from the webpage says it all:

This is sleeve black fan
1. High effect scatter hot.
2. High precise and low noise.
3.Size: 80mm/92mm/120mm

lol

mattthemuppet · Post by **mattthemuppet** » Thu Nov 01, 2007 3:13 pm

gotta say that, judged on looks (as it will be, being a lounge room item), I almost passed this review by. All the technical aspects may be fine, but it really does look like a PC maker trying to ape a stereo maker. Surely a neat clean elegant look shouldn't be that hard to achieve?

Other than that, it all looks fine-ish, but it's a shame they skipped the opportunity to use 120mm fan(s), at least as exhausts, given the height of the case. Others have managed. Why bother going with full ATX too? Other than extra PCI/PCIe slots I can't really think of an advantage over mATX, especially as most HTPCs are likely to use integrated video (unless you're going for high end HD play back I guess).

Funnily enough I was dreaming about building an HTPC last night, and this popped up. I wonder what I'll dream about tonight?

Post by **MikeC** » Thu Nov 01, 2007 5:21 pm

mattthemuppet --

I agree the case is just too big for my taste, but I am not sure I agree that it looks bad. Taste is such a personal thing.

Despite my dislike of big AV (or computer) components, I have to say that when you take a good look at "high end" AV, these days, the number of humongous components, particularly receivers, is staggering. This case would actually fit in such company.

Some examples of huge AV components --

Those are already way too big, this one is absurd:

I recall a chat with the folks at Silverstone at Computex in Taipei last summer. They told me Marantz wanted a case to match their big A/V receivers... and the ginormous CW02 was a Silverstone's response:

lucas82 · Post by **lucas82** » Thu Nov 01, 2007 8:23 pm

Guys, what do you think about this HTPC case?
http://www.3rsys.com/english/products/v ... idx_num=81
Can it be quiet?

Bluefront · Post by **Bluefront** » Fri Nov 02, 2007 2:43 pm

I'm curious. Since these sorts of cases are intended to sit near the TV and other audio equipment, just what good is a touch-screen display? 99% of the time you will be way out of reach of the thing.

joe123 · Post by **joe123** » Fri Nov 02, 2007 5:55 pm

Thats a very detailed review, well done. In revision 2, they should replace those fans with some nexus ones and some soft rubber grommets for hard disk mounting. I'd be interested in the results.

BratWalnut · Post by **BratWalnut** » Tue Nov 06, 2007 9:37 am

mattthemuppet wrote: Why bother going with full ATX too? Other than extra PCI/PCIe slots I can't really think of an advantage over mATX, especially as most HTPCs are likely to use integrated video (unless you're going for high end HD play back I guess).

I went to the mATX route on my first HTPC, and I will never do that mistake again. mATX are only good if you're building some sort of extender, and all your turners, gaming and storage needs are located elsewhere. A simple 4 turner HTPC, or even a 2 turner HTPC WITH a double slot video card (as most fanless designs are) will eat more slots than you can have. This assuming you do not plan to use a sound card that is better than the onboard ones (which frequently have driver issues, either with Vista or with S3 states, or plain noise, etc.). There are very few turners that fit PCIe slots, and no soundcards to date.

Even if you do use PCIe slots for one of your tuners, add to that the fact that many mATX boards needs PCI expansions for extra USB ports, or
SPDIF connectors, or perhaps a Component cable option.

A crippled mATX, will certainly limit the options for your build. I would not recommend that unless you put your either tuners or storage or gaming needs elsewhere. A media center extender, basically. But why limit yourself to that, if it can be done?

BratWalnut · Post by **BratWalnut** » Tue Nov 06, 2007 9:50 am

As for the end of the article suggestion to use something like the Apple's I-Touch to display metada and control the library, something like that is already available, or soon to be. That's the Ricavision sideshow remote. They offered me a sample version of the Sideshow Remote for 199.00 (send an e-mail to them, that's what I did), but I'm wating for the Rica100 which is apparently improved and will be available jan/08.

http://www.ricavision.com/ricavision_we ... emote.html

And it uses bluetooth AND infrared, so it will be able to control Vista Media Center wirelessly (and maybe PS3?) and also your receiver via IR.

Aparently the Sideshow module will be available for case manufacturers to build their own remote with the technology. http://www.ricavision.com/ricavision_we ... odule.html

That might be a good thing, I don't know. I'm waiting for remotes such as these for a long time...

djkest · Post by **djkest** » Fri Nov 09, 2007 6:01 am

BratWalnut wrote: A simple 4 turner HTPC, or even a 2 turner HTPC WITH a double slot video card (as most fanless designs are) will eat more slots than you can have. This assuming you do not plan to use a sound card that is better than the onboard ones (which frequently have driver issues, either with Vista or with S3 states, or plain noise, etc.). There are very few turners that fit PCIe slots , and no soundcards to date.
Even if you do use PCIe slots for one of your tuners, add to that the fact that many mATX boards needs PCI expansions for extra USB ports, or
SPDIF connectors, or perhaps a Component cable option.
A crippled mATX, will certainly limit the options for your build. I would not recommend that unless you put your either tuners or storage or gaming needs elsewhere. A media center extender, basically. But why limit yourself to that, if it can be done?

They have come a long way in the last couple years.

690G and 7050 both have enough horsepower to handle HD video, and have great output quality.

Avermedia makes a great PCI-E card that records HD and SD, works with linux/mediaportal/mce , and fits in a low profile case.

Asus Xonar, one of the best sound cards out there, comes in PCI-E.

Then again, the Realtec ac88x Azalia onboard sound does bit-perfect SPDIF out, so it's not needed if you want digital out.

Micro atx is viable. I got a motherboard for $75 that has onboard video, hd audio, spdif out, DVI/HDMI/component video/ S video out. I'm not even sure you can get all that in full ATX.

BratWalnut · Post by **BratWalnut** » Fri Nov 09, 2007 9:33 am

djkest wrote: They have come a long way in the last couple years.
690G and 7050 both have enough horsepower to handle HD video, and have great output quality.

I'm pretty sure any of these can't be compared to a dedicated video card with respect to image quality and processor load. But I agree it is perfectly doable.

Avermedia makes a great PCI-E card that records HD and SD, works with linux/mediaportal/mce , and fits in a low profile case.

Usually you have only one PCIe card on mATX boards. So you'd have to occupy the other PCI slots with the one/three tuners you'll probably need. And what's the point of putting tuners on a low profile case? You'll have to record the output of those, and you'd need storage room. Yes, you can put 1TB hd there, if you're building it from scratch and have a lot of money to spend, but still i'm not sure about the flexibility there. If you have some room in the case, at least 3 bays, you can use a notebook drive, a big drive, a spare old drive, etc. Cheaper and more flexible, and probably cooler.

Asus Xonar, one of the best sound cards out there, comes in PCI-E.

This one was just lauched. You can't find it anywhere (as opposed to the PCI version). And the PCI version already goes for close to $200.00, I'm afraid I'll pass.

Then again, the Realtec ac88x Azalia onboard sound does bit-perfect SPDIF out, so it's not needed if you want digital out.

Micro atx is viable. I got a motherboard for $75 that has onboard video, hd audio, spdif out, DVI/HDMI/component video/ S video out. I'm not even sure you can get all that in full ATX.

I'm sure that full ATX is not about having integrated video. But mine (DS3R) does have spdif in/out and integrated Blueray lossless HD audio, supporting 7.1 + 2 independent channel streaming (ALC 889a). All this is currently mounted in a case smaller than Antec's fusion (Zalman HD135, I posted my build somewhere). So if you're not saving space here, then unless you go for the slim cases, why not go full ATX?

I'd go with a slim case and mATX for something simple like an extender (I'd just buy an Xbox360, if it weren't so loud). But, on the other hand, a TiVo like recording computer, or worse, a gaming/music/video server HTPC needs full ATX.

ATWindsor · Post by **ATWindsor** » Sun Nov 11, 2007 5:53 am

You talk about using the iPhone as a remote, but have you tried the program "Netremote" it maskes a phone into a touch-screen-remote (however a phone with windows mobile as OS)

AtW

jhoff80 · Post by **jhoff80** » Sat Dec 22, 2007 8:55 pm

Can anyone please tell me the amount of clearance this case has for a CPU cooler and maybe suggest the best heatsink for it?

I was considering the Scythe Andy, but wasn't sure if that would work.

This would be with a Q6600 possibly trying to overclock.

DaveLessnau · Post by **DaveLessnau** » Mon Apr 28, 2008 4:57 am

$500!!! For a CASE! Are they aware that it's possible to build an ENTIRE HTPC for just about the price of their case, alone? I was doing some research on HTPC cases and came across this review. I didn't pay attention to the price until I went to Newegg to see if they carried it. Yikes! That's too expensive at half the price.

I assume it's that touchscreen that's driving this price. But, still, $500!