HTPC cases with a short depth?

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elleana

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Apr 15, 2006
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Am planning a HTPC build around Christmas time to go with the nice new LCD TV I'm going to treat myself to :) All the components are still in the air but right now I'm doing some thinking about the case. My equipment rack (cable box, dvd player etc) has an extremely short depth - around 14 inches max. I've been having trouble finding a case that will fit. Width and height are not so much of a problem because there's some room to spare, but I'm looking for a case with a depth of less than 14" - 12 or 13 would be ideal because then I have some room to play with the cabling.

The Silverstone Lascala LC19 looks like it would fit, except that it seems extremely limited. Everything else I've seen on newegg runs to 16" or 17" which would leave the front jutting out. An ugly no-no.

Anyone have any suggestions?
 
You can always build an ati 780g, nvidia 8200, or intel 4500 based ITX system in an apex mi-008 case. The motherboard will run you $145-$180 alone but the rest of the components should be cheap enough!
The case is roughty 8.5" W by 5" H by 12" D, comes with a 275w psu (which you can order a spare since they are available and everything apex makes is relatively cheap) fits a standard DVD-RW and probably 2 Harddrives. Dual core celeron with intel 4500 combo is probably the cheapest.

Or you can get an atom motherboard/cpu combo for $70 :D the dual core version for a little more might be perfect for 720p content if you run coreavc or another fast x264 decoder... maybe.
I built a single core version and it can almost do 720p perfectly, a few times during any movie it will slow down. The onboard video is pretty crappy though!
 
Hm thanks for the suggestion but would really rather go for a case that supports a mATX board. Also - it'll need to be able to play 1080p.
 
elleana said:
Hm thanks for the suggestion but would really rather go for a case that supports a mATX board. Also - it'll need to be able to play 1080p.
Click to expand...

The AMD 780G and AMD 8200 chipsets do support 1080P playback. So no need to buy a separate video card.

Anyway, you could go with this case:
Antec NSK1380 mATX Case with 80Plus 350W PSU - $98

Has a depth of 13.2" and comes with a quality 350W PSU.
 
i would personally love to build a 780g mini-itx system with that J&W board...

atom looks nice but with out a decent IGP or a PCIe slot it is worthless for a HTPC
 
Adidas4275 said:
i would personally love to build a 780g mini-itx system with that J&W board...

atom looks nice but with out a decent IGP or a PCIe slot it is worthless for a HTPC
Click to expand...

Pretty much, yup.

Very few HTPC cases will meet your needs; I'd highly suggest buying a deeper rack instead but if not then go with something SFF like the 1380.
 
tonyou said:
Here is another case to consider, it's 14.2" deep but fits most standard parts:

Silverstone GD02
Click to expand...

AND WE HAVE A WINNER!
Wow, that almost exactly fits my requirements. Thanks awfully. Not sure why I missed it the first time round when I was trawling silverstone's website.
 
I saw that and thought about it, but It uses a non-standard PSU though... Thanks for the offer.
 
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