Silverstone's Grandia GD04

Silvertone has just announced the availability of the new Grandia GD04.

The GD04 has a beautifully proportioned exterior and is shaped similarly to most receivers and the depth is a mere 323mm.

 

It can accommodate one 5.25” optical drive, two 3.5” hard drives, a 2.5” SSD, a standard ATX power supply, and two high-end graphics cards up to 10.5 inches.

Special Feature

Three silent 120mm fans included
Positive air pressure design for excellent cooling/quietness and dust-prevention
Thick 8.0mm aluminum front panel with premium styling
Incredible 323mm depth to fit comfortably inside home theater cabinet
Designed with cable routing for easy installation
Support power supply up to 180mm long
Support expansion cards up to 10.5 inches
Support 2.5” hard drive or SSD (Solid-state drive)

 (source: http://www.silverstonetek.com/products/p_contents.php?pno=GD04&area=)

Cooler master's Elite 100 htpc chassis

Cooler Master's new Elite 100 is an another good choice of compact chassis for your htpc, it can fit either a micro-ATX or a mini-ITX motherboard. It has a simplistic front panel provides only the power-on button, USB and audio ports. The body is made of steel and plastic. Good thing is that the asking price is unbelievable low. From what I  could see from the pictures, mind you, you may need a slim MATX for this chassis. A good choice if you are looking for something value for money from a reputable name, but definitely not for those high-end users. Other features of the Elite 100 includes:

• Multi-device support:
  - With micro-ATX board: Slim ODD x 1, 2.5" HDD x 2 or
  - With mini-ITX board: Slim ODD x 1, 2.5" HDD x 2, 3.5" HDD x 1
  
• Excellently cooled slim enclosure to support up to 65W CPU
  
• Passive mini-ITX case with silent constructional design
  
• Flex ATX 150W with Active PFC included
  

http://www.coolermaster.com/product.php?product_id=6623

Lian LI's PC-B25F

Lian Li has just launched a new completely tool-free mid-tower case recently. This is not a HTPC case but I think it could sit beside your receiver without much problem as it is also in black. Furthermore, it's got plenty of space for your hard disks. (source: http://www.lian-li.com/v2/en/product/product06.php?pr_index=366&cl_index=1&sc_index=25&ss_index=62)

Sharkoon announces new Temptation mATX case

(pic is taken from http://www.tcmagazine.com/)

Sharkoon, a Taiwan-based company, has introduced a new htpc case called the Temptation. The case dimensions are 245mm x 310mm x 445mm. The front panel is made of thick aluminum, but unlike my Silverstone Sugo SG01 (measures 263mm x 210mm x 393mm), this one gives you a rough feel impression. This case is not suitable for those do not have precious desk real estate for a big pc case like me. (my desk is only 440mm deep so obviously it can't take a 445mm-long-body case)

SFF: 'Silversttone Sugo SG01-F' vs 'Shuttle XPC SG31G2

I bought a Silverstone sugo SG01-F and a Shuttle SG31G2. There are some similarities in the Spec and form factor. I did some comparisons and they are as follows:-

1. The price of the Sugo with a 780G motherboard & a decent PS is about the same as the Shuttle which comes with a motherboard and PS.

2. Sugo is bigger and more flexible and it offers plenty of space for your stuff, but you can also fit in two hard disks & a PCI-E card in the Shuttle!

3. Sugo is solid and heavy and with thicker steel materials, but its dimensions lack of accuracy - the case is with a noticeable gap when you close it. Shuttle is light and easy to handle and it's so neat when you close the case.

4. Sugo's front panel is made of solid aluminum, while the full exterior enclosure of Shuttle is of aluminum. The interiors of both are built with steel plates.

5. Sugo can take any typical MATX board you throw in and it would outperform a typical Shuttle's.

6. Shuttle is an absolute silent system if compared with Sugo which has 4 fans inside (including the one for the processor)

silverstone sugo SG01-F

I have got my HTPC replaced recently, it's a silverstone sugo SG01-F with a Gigabyte 780GM-S2H board and a AMD5600+ processor. No complaint so far, perfectly output to my SONY (1366 x 768 resolution) including direct sound via HDMI. (the old 690G has problem with sound via HDMI, even Gigabyte support team could not figure it out and fit it)

The old 690G is also with a new suit now, I changed the case.

A Media PC chassis

There are many criteria to consider when you select your PC chassis. Do you have enough desktop space? Where you want to place it, underneath your desk or on the desk? For HTPC, a small desktop form factor chassis is preferable as you could easily match it with your existing audio video stuff and it looks nice too. But most of the desktop chassis is with a minimum depth of 40cm, it would become a problem if you desk does not have the depth. I chose a Cooler Master Elite 340 (W195xD385xH370) as my desk is only 40cm in depth, this is the only low cost model below $50 (without power supply unit) with reasonable good build quality I could find with a ‘short’ body which I could place on my desk.

And, if you wish to upgrade your HTPC and put in more hard disks in future, then you should select one which is expandable.

My HTPC Components - A US$500 machine

My HTPC's components I are as follows.

1 motherboard: Gigabyte GA-MA69GM-S2H $85
2 processor: AMD AthlonTM 64 X2 Dual-Core processor 5000+ $120
3 case : cooler master micro-ATX case $40
4 power supply: branded $30
5 RAM: 1GB 667 Kingston DDR2 RAM @ 2 nos. $60
6 dvd writer: DVDRW - sony $35
7 harddisk: 500GB SATA hard disk $130

total $500

As you can see a low cost HTPC below US$500 is made possible nowadays due to the dirt cheap hardware cost. This combination could even handle blu-ray or HD DVD contents when the price of the drives goes down in a couple of years. I really love the idea of having an on board graphics that provides a HDMI port as it means that I can cut down the cost of a PCI graphics card and at the same time reduce the heat generated. Ya, I opted for a AMD as Intel is doing poorly as far as IGP is concerned, their drivers are not so good, they don't provide a HDMI port and the price is more expensive. Their processors may be good but you have to come up another $50 for a PCI graphics card, to me this is not a good idea. Just to remind you, Intel graphics DO NOT support 1360x768 resolution and you cannot change the resolutions by any software even the well known Powerstrip. If you have a 720p LCD TV, you would have no way to get the full screen display.