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HTPC case without an optical bay

Posted: Sun Apr 15, 2012 9:48 am
by fubarbundy
Hi all. Does anyone know what cases if any are available with the following features:
  • Hifi component form factor (~45cm wide, <45cm deep, <18cm high
  • No optical bay (
  • Mini-ITX or MicroATX
  • Plenty of 3.5" bays (5+)
  • Space for 1 x 2.5" drive
  • Ideally space for a dual-slot graphics card
  • Well-made
  • Clean/minimal design
  • Ideally black
If it weren't for the fact that I want to put it on my existing hifi shelf, the Lian Li PC-Q25B would be my ideal case... can anyone help me? Does such a case even exist? :D

Thanks :)

Re: HTPC case without an optical bay

Posted: Fri Jun 01, 2012 11:50 am
by lapon
That's quite a specific set of requirements. Can the HDD's go into an external enclosure, as 5 is a lot of 3.5" spaces in addition to the 2.5" drive. I don't know of any cases that have fewer than one 5.25" external bay, I guess case makers worry that you have to install the OS somehow. Most cases in this should be able to fit a dual slot graphics card. I have seen these shorter cases that have the 5.25 external side mounted, so it cant be see during typical use. Sorry I cant be more helpful!

Re: HTPC case without an optical bay

Posted: Fri Jun 01, 2012 6:51 pm
by aurania
A stacked pair of Wesena enclosures would do nicely. One for the motherboard and CPU and one for all the hard drives:

Image

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Re: HTPC case without an optical bay

Posted: Sat Jun 02, 2012 11:40 am
by Olaf van der Spek
lapon wrote:I guess case makers worry that you have to install the OS somehow.
USB and external ODDs exist for that.