Still fiddling with this and nothing special in the design -- just quiet components. Apologize for the quality of the pics, when I finish I'll try to get some good ones.





System is:
Intel 2.4Ghz Northwood w/ one of the original Zalman 7000 AlCu sinks @ 5v
Abit IS7 motherboard with the northbridge fan replaced with a Zalman NB47J passive sink glued on
Toshiba MK8025GAS 80gb notebook drive
NEC 2510a DVD burner (slowed down with Nero drivespeed)
Sapphire Ultimate Radeon 9600xt
Hauppauge Win-TV PVR 250mce
M-Audio Audiophile 2496
Netgear gigabit lan card
Antec SL350s PSU modded with a Japanaflo 80mm L1A
Japanaflo 80mm M1A-BX @ 5v (exhaust)
all wrapped up in a Kanam Accent HT-400b htpc case

Airflow in this case is very good with an intake in the bottom under the optical drive cage as well as intakes along either side (sorry, no pic of the sides yet). Full load (FAH), temps stabiliz around 48c (ambient 23c).

The box sits in an enclosed entertainment center with an opening in the back for the exhaust) & runs 24/7.

System is inaudible with the entertainment center door closed. With the door open, you can hear the exhaust fan slightly (from cd changing distance -- a little less than 1m.

All in all, a success. As I tweak, I'll update...


Dave

Very nice!

Is Digitalconnection.com really the only place in the US to buy this case?

WOW! Looks really clean. I assume there's a bundle of wires under the burner?

I'd like one of these... But I'd put in two DVB cards and some Linux-based PVR/HTPC software (if I had the skills with Linux... ).

Seems You're running XP Pro. Have You considered MCE 2005?

Oh, and I'd lose the grills.

Cheers,

Jan

Ralf,

Unfortunately, yes -- quite the monopoly, but considering it comes with the VFD and the IR remote (Imon), it's not that far out of line.

Jan,

Yes, it's running XPpro with Meedio as the front end -- can do everything with the included remote (although when typing something long I tend to use a keyboard). I have no desire to use MCE at this point, Meedio does everything I could possibly want. As to the PVR card, right now I'm not using it. We have a digital cable box with a built-in PVR -- when the 3mth free trial on the PVR cable box runs out, then I'll probably switch to the HTPC PVR.

Only real drawbacks to the case: the PCI slots are kinda narrow and the cover is on the flimsy side. Other than that, I like it -- fits in nicely with the rest of the components. No one realizes it is a PC until I do something "PC-like" (ie., surf the web, photos, etc) -- just looks like a really big "reference" type CD player.

I was pretty amazed how quiet it is just with stock components and no modding (except the PSU fan) -- it's not much noisier than my workstation, and that's extensively modded.

Dave

Beautiful HTPC Dasman,
That case looks like the best designed HTPC case yet. Very slick how the PSU mounts into a cutout to allow full utilization of 120mm fanned PSUs while minimizing case height. What's going on w/ the cables routed back into the case thru the PCI slot? Do you have a IR receiver mounted internally?

Bomba,

Being able to use an ATX PSU was one of the big selling points for me (that, and getting an 80mm exhaust fan instead of 60mm).

As for the cables out the back -- one is for the front firewire port, the other is for the parallel cable is for the VFD. The IR receiver is an iMon USB and it goes to the mobo pins. Both the VFD and the IR receiver/remote come with the case -- already installed.

Dave

Can you make the VFD display show the current movie/song title and porhaps: time played in the lower left and total time of the movie/song in the lower right corner?

I guess that will require a meedio plugin, no? Or does meedio playback movies in the windows default player?

akaidiot

The VFD can display anything that the software will send to it -- there is a meedio plugin that will send info to an LCD, but I haven't played with it yet.

There's also Girder, JaLCD and LCD Smartie...


Dave

Yup, that I knew. But you haven't tried that out..yes

Also, is there enough vertical room to hang(decouple), with rubber bands, 2 3,5" drives in the 3,5" tray?

Yes, you can hang two drives in the 3.5" bay -- if you want to mod the 5.25 bay then you can hang two drives there as well.

There are some reports that recent versions of the case come with a 3.5" bay under the 5.25" bay -- but mine came 5.25" wide the entire height.

Dave