Hi! Why doesn't this case exist?

crispyfish · Post by **crispyfish** » Tue Nov 21, 2006 11:01 am

Hi there, I've been lurking for a long time and have gotten some great info from this site, but I do have one case proposal...

Take the Antec NSK2400. Make it tall enough to accommodate 3 external 5.25 drives (you don't need to actually have the bays, this is just to give a sense of height). Then, instead of the two horizontal hard drive slots, put in 4-5 vertical hard drive slots. And since you're making the case larger anyway, make it full ATX-compatible.

Benefits:
- Can still fit in many (not all) home theater stands
- Easily expandable storage
- Room for more powerful passive CPU and VGA heatsinks

If such a case existed, I'd be all over it like white on rice, especially if it looked pretty (brushed metal is nice). Are there any cases out there that are even remotely close?

crispyfish · Post by **crispyfish** » Wed Nov 22, 2006 3:46 pm

What about a desktop case that's wider than normal?

jaganath · Post by **jaganath** » Wed Nov 22, 2006 4:30 pm

Take the Antec NSK2400. Make it tall enough to accommodate 3 external 5.25 drives (you don't need to actually have the bays, this is just to give a sense of height). Then, instead of the two horizontal hard drive slots, put in 4-5 vertical hard drive slots. And since you're making the case larger anyway, make it full ATX-compatible.

How would this be different from a P180 laid on its side?

crispyfish · Post by **crispyfish** » Wed Nov 22, 2006 4:34 pm

jaganath wrote:How would this be different from a P180 laid on its side?

Do you mean literally, or in terms of size? If you mean literally, it would look pretty ugly, and you'd have optical drive issues. Plus you'd be stuck with the front cover, which means no VFD... But in terms of size, yeah. That's pretty much the idea.

Post by **NeilBlanchard** » Wed Nov 22, 2006 4:34 pm

Hello & welcome to SPCR!

I'm afraid I can't help you find "your" case -- where are you located and where have you looked for this case? How is this case better than some available HTPC cases?

crispyfish · Post by **crispyfish** » Wed Nov 22, 2006 4:37 pm

NeilBlanchard wrote:Hello & welcome to SPCR!

I'm afraid I can't help you find "your" case -- where are you located and where have you looked for this case? How is this case better than some available HTPC cases?

Thanks for the welcome.

I find the current crop of HTPC cases to be either lacking in hard drive bays, or marred by cumbersome front covers. What's needed is a fairly basic case with careful attention paid to internal layout. I think you could end up with something fairly versatile and expandable...

tempoct · Post by **tempoct** » Wed Nov 22, 2006 4:40 pm

I'd look into the Ahanix cases. You might need to work on to get it more silent but they are looking good. Fits standard ATX.
http://www.ahanix.com/products/mce/

crispyfish wrote:Hi there, I've been lurking for a long time and have gotten some great info from this site, but I do have one case proposal...

Take the Antec NSK2400. Make it tall enough to accommodate 3 external 5.25 drives (you don't need to actually have the bays, this is just to give a sense of height). Then, instead of the two horizontal hard drive slots, put in 4-5 vertical hard drive slots. And since you're making the case larger anyway, make it full ATX-compatible.

Benefits:
- Can still fit in many (not all) home theater stands
- Easily expandable storage
- Room for more powerful passive CPU and VGA heatsinks

If such a case existed, I'd be all over it like white on rice, especially if it looked pretty (brushed metal is nice). Are there any cases out there that are even remotely close?

crispyfish · Post by **crispyfish** » Wed Nov 22, 2006 4:43 pm

tempoct wrote:I'd look into the Ahanix cases. You might need to work on to get it more silent but they are looking good. Fits standard ATX.
http://www.ahanix.com/products/mce/

Yeah, I've looked at those. Unfortunately, except for the 701 (waaaay overkill), those have a maximum of 3 internal 3.5" drive bays.

tempoct · Post by **tempoct** » Wed Nov 22, 2006 5:05 pm

OK... hmmm....
Maybe if you don't mind mATX, why don't buy Antec NSK2400 and Antec Fusion stacked together

Looks here, might be more help there also;
http://htpcnews.com/

crispyfish wrote:
tempoct wrote:I'd look into the Ahanix cases. You might need to work on to get it more silent but they are looking good. Fits standard ATX.
http://www.ahanix.com/products/mce/
Yeah, I've looked at those. Unfortunately, except for the 701 (waaaay overkill), those have a maximum of 3 internal 3.5" drive bays.

andyb · Post by **andyb** » Wed Nov 22, 2006 5:16 pm

I dont really understand what you are trying to achieve, are you wanting a re-designed P180 "desktop" case, that can tame any hot beast quietly, or are you after a smaller case that has loads of storage.???

Andy

crispyfish · Post by **crispyfish** » Wed Nov 22, 2006 5:25 pm

andyb wrote:a re-designed P180 "desktop" case, that can tame any hot beast quietly

Essentially, yes. I'm surprised there isn't more being done with larger desktop cases these days, especially since LCDs are so light and could be placed directly on top...

andyb · Post by **andyb** » Wed Nov 22, 2006 5:55 pm

Ergonomics is the answerto that one, your desk would have to be quite low so your monitor wouldnt be too high, then your arms would be too low. It just doesnt work, especialy as screens are getting bigger.

Andy

crispyfish · Post by **crispyfish** » Wed Nov 22, 2006 6:33 pm

Good point. But I just want to put it in my entertainment center anyway.

Or I could go a completely different route and get a TT Mozart TX.

andyb · Post by **andyb** » Thu Nov 23, 2006 2:39 am

How many dtrives are you looking to put into your PC, and what other hardware are you using.

Andy

PS: Dont get that Mozart TX, you will regret it.

crispyfish · Post by **crispyfish** » Sat Nov 25, 2006 10:24 am

andyb wrote:How many dtrives are you looking to put into your PC, and what other hardware are you using.

I'd like it to support at least 4 hard drives, but the ability to expand would be great too.

Currently I have a mATX mobo, but I'd like to move up to full ATX for the extra PCIe slots (so I can keep my eVGA 7600GT and have dual Saber 2020s). My CPU is an Athlon X2 4600+. I need at least two front bays, for an optical drive and a VFD panel.

PS: Dont get that Mozart TX, you will regret it.

What's wrong with the TX? (Besides it being a gigantic monster, that is...)

Chris Chan · Post by **Chris Chan** » Sun Nov 26, 2006 7:52 pm

Gigantic monstrosity of the case is enough to make it a deal breaker. I want stuff I can tuck under a desk.

Chris Chan · Post by **Chris Chan** » Sun Nov 26, 2006 8:21 pm

Aha! I found a six-HDD desktop case. Silverstone Grandia GD01MX

andyb · Post by **andyb** » Mon Nov 27, 2006 2:15 am

I dont see any HDD cooling on that silverstone desktop case, just being able to screw the drives in is not enough, keeping them cool is a must.

Crispyfish, how many drives of what size do you currently own.???

Andy

crispyfish · Post by **crispyfish** » Mon Nov 27, 2006 7:05 am

Currently I have 1x80GB in the lower 5.25 bay, and 2x150GB in RAID1 in the soft-mounted slots.

Probably the best thing for me to do at this point would be to keep the NSK2400, and just get bigger drives for the soft-mounted slots (and possibly use those drives for my system drive as well). I'd have to give up on full ATX, but hey, that's life...

SST Guy · Post by **SST Guy** » Mon Nov 27, 2006 5:15 pm

andyb wrote:I dont see any HDD cooling on that silverstone desktop case, just being able to screw the drives in is not enough, keeping them cool is a must.

The pictures we have on the site do not show them clearly, but there are two fan slots to mount either 92mm or 80mm fans in front of the HDD cage.

andyb · Post by **andyb** » Mon Nov 27, 2006 6:01 pm

If you wanted to keep your NSK2400, you could/should buy 1 or 2 larger drives to replace your RAID-1 array, or you can always get 1 new drive and a caddy and use the caddy to backup the 1 big drives using your 1 smaller drives.

You can always put 3 drives into the NSK2400, if you are not bothered by the speed of your boot drive youcan always use a 2.5" drive, and 2 3.5" storage drives.

Andy

Chris Chan · Post by **Chris Chan** » Mon Nov 27, 2006 6:12 pm

Thanks for clearing that up, SST Guy. So the Grandia's internal structure is similar to that of the LC17, except for the different hard drive bays. (I'm just drawing comparisons to the LC17 because I've seen it in person.)

crispyfish · Post by **crispyfish** » Mon Nov 27, 2006 6:29 pm

andyb wrote:You can always put 3 drives into the NSK2400, if you are not bothered by the speed of your boot drive youcan always use a 2.5" drive, and 2 3.5" storage drives.

Yeah, I already have 3 drives in there -- 1 system drive and the 2 drives in RAID-1. The RAID drives are filling up and I don't want to use the system drive for storage because it lacks redundancy. The system drive is also much louder in the optical bay than the soft-mounted RAID drives (they're all Samsung Spinpoints). Looks like upgrading the RAID drives with the future in mind is really the best way to go...

My concern about the Grandia is that it will be much louder with an aluminum chassis and much smaller fans than the NSK2400. Although the more I look at it, the more it looks like a pretty sweet case!

Chris Chan · Post by **Chris Chan** » Mon Nov 27, 2006 6:40 pm

The Grandia's chassis is steel; only the front panel is aluminium. There are plenty of silent 80mm fans. I can recommend the Arctic Cooling fans, which are quite inexpensive too.

chappy16775 · Post by **chappy16775** » Thu Dec 07, 2006 2:10 pm

Can anyone report on the Grandia GD01? I was looking at the LC-20 but heard a few bad things there.

minibeardeath · Post by **minibeardeath** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 9:33 pm

chappy16775 wrote:Can anyone report on the Grandia GD01? I was looking at the LC-20 but heard a few bad things there.

what bad things did you hear cause ive been looking at that case and havent found much bad bout it

Hi! Why doesn't this case exist?

Hi! Why doesn't this case exist?

Re: Hi! Why doesn't this case exist?

Re: Hi! Why doesn't this case exist?

Re: Hi! Why doesn't this case exist?

huh?