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 Post subject: Best HTPC Case?
PostPosted: Fri 11-27-2009 2:44PM 
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BLITZVERPWND
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I'm building a HTPC for the 73" Mitsubishi that's coming in the mail. Whats the best case you guys have run into?

The guts of the htpc so far:

BFG Geforce GTS 250
XFX Geforce 8200 nVidia AM3 Motherboard
4 GB OCZ Fata1ty DDR2 PC8500 1066

Also I'd like to have 6 internal hdd bays as it might double as a fileserver... that might limit my options.

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 Post subject: Re: Best HTPC Case?
PostPosted: Fri 11-27-2009 4:56PM 
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a gts 250 for an htpc? are you also planning to game on it because that seems like overkill? My htpc uses a 9400 gt. What processor are you using?

My brother was going to buy this for the built in IR module: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6811163076

but went with this one for the volume dial: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6811163053

They are both expensive, but have 6 internal 3.5" drive bays.

a less expensive option with 7 drive bays: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6811163118

I only have 2 1TB drives in mine, so I went with a slim option: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6811121027


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 Post subject: Re: Best HTPC Case?
PostPosted: Fri 11-27-2009 7:03PM 
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BLITZVERPWND
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I'm using an Athlon II X2 240 2.8ghz AM3. I just ordered it for $30 off COMPUSA for black friday. I pretty much feel like I stole that processor, and am having guilt pangs now and again.

Yes, I am going to game the hell out of it. The recliner in front of it's armrest is almost two feet wide and doubles nicely as a mousepad. Since the display is 120hz I am conemplating dabbling with nVidia's 3d goggles, however at first I am going to put mythTV on it. I've been playing with Boxee all afternoon and it seems pretty much badass, however I'm not sure if I want to sit around renaming all my movies so it will recognise it.

That cheap one is looking very tempting. I already have a power supply, so it looks good, but I think I want the LCD panel and the remote. The volume knob is stylish but not worth $250.

I'm worried about compatibility with those screens and remotes though... What operating system did you put on your boxes?

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 Post subject: Re: Best HTPC Case?
PostPosted: Fri 11-27-2009 9:20PM 
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i dont know what he is running on his, but i just have the slim hec case that doesn't have displays. I'm running Windows 7 Pro (MSDNAA FTW) for the Media Center. I have a Hauppague 2250 tuner so I can record my shows (works as well as and is hella cheaper than a Tivo). Maybe one of these days I'll experiment with mythbuntu or something, but I see no need atm.


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 Post subject: Re: Best HTPC Case?
PostPosted: Fri 11-27-2009 9:24PM 
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a little googling makes it look like the case with the VFD display uses iMON software, which works with a clean install of win7

http://www.xpmediacentre.com.au/communi ... 7-rtm.html


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 Post subject: Re: Best HTPC Case?
PostPosted: Fri 11-27-2009 10:18PM 
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I'm thinking of dualbooting win7 and mythbuntu with boxee running on top of it. I can then experiment with windows dvr/mediacenter softwares, while the other household members can still use boxee (I'm more and more of a fan with each moment I use it, exceptionally good for an alpha product).

I'm looking at putting a pcHDTV-5500 as apparently these http://www.pchdtv.com/hd_5500.html ignore broadcasting flags and I want to be able to DVR local channels you can't get on sat. They are designed around linux but apparently have windows support too.

ATM I'm still undecided on the case. the LCD display is not that big of a deal, and I guess I could get the RF module from somewhere else.

When I worked at a hospital I remembered installing some kind of gyro in air motion mouse. Some googling resulted in this:

http://www.gyration.com/index.php/us/pr ... emote.html

I'm thinking this could be leading somewhere...

edit: There may be only limited linux support for these products: http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Gyration-based_MCE_Remotes

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 Post subject: Re: Best HTPC Case?
PostPosted: Sat 11-28-2009 1:01AM 
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i bought my MCE usb IR receiver for 15 bucks on ebay, it doesn't look that bad or take up any space. worth the money. I'm getting a logitech harmony 510 remote for xmas (my mom is scared to buy stuff without telling me about it so i know already), so it should be a great addition to my entertainment center


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 Post subject: Re: Best HTPC Case?
PostPosted: Sat 11-28-2009 5:00PM 
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Super easy TV Show renamer: http://www.therenamer.com/

Looks like it works on movies now too. Haven't tried the movies feature, but the TV works amazingly well.

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 Post subject: Re: Best HTPC Case?
PostPosted: Sat 11-28-2009 7:16PM 
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i used this one, it is also great

http://tvrename.com/

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 Post subject: Re: Best HTPC Case?
PostPosted: Sat 11-28-2009 8:05PM 
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awesome guys, that'll help immensely in getting my media in recognizable order.

logistical question for everyone: If I'm planning on building a 5-12 tb raid on this box, is it a bad idea to install the O/S on the raid array? like, I'm stuck between the desire to have the OS independent of the Raid array and having additional potential space by using all the sata ports for raid. I would put in one of those PCIe SSD's but this board is uATX and only has 1 x16 2.0 PCIe slot.

I guess I could get a ATA-133 drive for the O/S but that would suck too. Has anyone ever used their eSATA port's internally replicated sata port as an internal drive?

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 Post subject: Re: Best HTPC Case?
PostPosted: Sat 11-28-2009 10:27PM 
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ide drive will be plenty fast for an htpc

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 Post subject: Re: Best HTPC Case?
PostPosted: Sat 11-28-2009 11:05PM 
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LostBoyz wrote:
ide drive will be plenty fast for an htpc


well, I want to play games on it as well with nvidia 3d goggles. I supposed I could install the games to the raid array, though.

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 Post subject: Re: Best HTPC Case?
PostPosted: Sun 11-29-2009 1:26PM 
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personally I would keep the OS drive out of the raid so that if you ever have to do a reinstall, you won't have to worry about all of your data and it will keep you from needing to make partitions on the raid.


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 Post subject: Re: Best HTPC Case?
PostPosted: Sun 11-29-2009 3:09PM 
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BLITZVERPWND
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Anyone have opinions on windows home server running as a HTPC OS? is Home Server based on Vista, or is there a Win7 version? I like the little display screenshots I'm seeing of the Home Server Control center.

Otherwise I might put Win Server 2008 R2 with "Desktop Experience Enabled" from MSDNAA. (this is my workaround for them not having Win7 ultimate available muhuhahah)

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 Post subject: Re: Best HTPC Case?
PostPosted: Sun 11-29-2009 4:20PM 
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Is there a reason you need Win7 Ultimate? My htpc is running Win7 Pro and its everything I could want.


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