Small Mini-ITX cases? HELP! Options

[JohnWPB]

Ok, I have been looking and looking for a nice SMALL Mini-ITX case to use for my HTPC. I purchased one that looked nice, and seemed small.. but when it arrived today, it is far bigger than what I am looking for. (Think 1995 Desktop Case!)

I can google and Bing till I am blue in the face, but decided instead to ask what everyone here is using for their HTPC's.

What I am looking for:

- SMALL Case, just enough room for a 2.5" drive for the OS is fine, as I have all my movies on external .5 tb and 1 tb USD drives.

- Something I can use a laptop DVD drive in, as I have a slot load drive I would like to use. Everything I have found has a 5.25" bay for the DVD!

- Something the size of a CarPC case is ideal, however something more aesthetically pleasing would be nice, as I want it to look good in the entertainment center. Most CarPC cases look like Car Audio amplifiers

BTW, I already have a nice little Mini-ITX board, 80 Gig 2.5" HD. It has 2 gigs of ram, a dual core Pentium M 2.4 Ghz CPU, and 5.1 audio onboard.

So...Any Ideas? What is everyone here using?

[Dan (electron)]

If you were starting from scratch, I would recommend the AOpen Digital Engine series (XC Mini is the latest one, I have one on order), they look very nice, and have lots of options (such as eSATA). Have you taken a look at Logic Supply's website? They are one of the bigger embedded components dealer out there, they should have something you like.

[petec]

John,

I currently use an Aopen mini-pc for my HTPC. It has a slot drive.

The whole HTPC thing took me into the CarPC world tapping into the NAV in two vehicles that I have looking for the smallest / fastest PC I coud find.

I just purchased a new small mini-itx board case. Its actually the smallest that I have ever seen. I purchased it for my car PC. It doesn't have room for a DVD drive though. I believe the model is an M350. You can also purchase a Vroom II case (which I also have). It has room for a drive but its a bit bigger and difficult to work with.

With my new Mediagate player (much like the popcorn media player) I don't use the HTPC much anymore. The Mediagate 800HD plays all (including HD movies well). I was going to write a review about it when I got the chance. Interesting about this box is that it has a built in browser, lets me plug in a keyboard and mouse, works wired or wirelessly and it boots faster than the HTPC.

The smallest though is still the Apen HTPC. It looks like the MAC mini. Its quiet. You would have to start from scratch though and just use your memory/cpu/HD from your existing pooled items.

Vroom II case



CarPC #2 case (testing)



CarPC #3 case (testing) - stock photos





PeteC

This post has been edited by petec: Sep 29 2009, 06:51 AM

[drozwood90]

PeteC,

Is that a kitty door on the back of your rear seat?

haha

--Dan

[BraveSirRobbin]

Nice installation PeteC! Do you have any heat issues with your equipment inside that compartment?

[petec]

--Dan - its for skis - the entire back seat folds down.

BSR - haven't mounted CarPC yet. Testing out 3 different cases and motherboards - (Atom, 1.6 Celeron and 1.0 Epia). Application is working great and is being ported over to Linux. Tapped into NAV system and mapped radio knobs / steering wheel controls to PC. Applications does internet, video and music. In addition it reads the bus and shows various messages between devices on the bus.

[ASIHome]

What vehicle?

Also, did you look at http://www.mini-itx.com?

This post has been edited by ASIHome: Sep 30 2009, 09:54 AM

[roussell]

What vehicle?

It looks like a BMW X3

To JohnWPB, have you looked at Logic Supply? I've have success with their cases.

Terry

[petec]

Roussell, It is. I also have a 330xi and that was much easier to integrate a CarPC than the X3. I have used Logic Supply - good prices. Just purchased a pico 120W M3ATX for the above mentioned case.
CarPC-1 PC mounted in trunk and using existing NAV display.




BraveSirRobbin, I don't believe I will have a problem with heat once mounted inside of the left "boot" but haven't tested yet.

JohnWPB, I am building a new HS server in the case shown above with the ruler. The case would be ideal for a small footprint HTPC too. You can put a Blueray slot drive in it and one/two PCI cards in it.

Here are pics of the AOpen Multimedia PC. I "added" an ASTC tuner and a BT module to it.




For my next HTPC (haven't gotten around to building it yet) and don't use the AOpen HTPC much lately since I bought the Mediagate mediaplayer server.
I bought a Athenatech A3701BB Media Center Chasis (68.75 from buy dot com) and a quiet PS for it. As the HA server I will be putting a mini-ATX Intel dual-core board in it.

Athenatech A3701BB

Its still sitting in the box. (bought it in April) - generally read OK comments on it. I didn't want to spend $200 on an HTPC case.

Here are some reviews on it.

Reviews-1

Its not being sold anymore at NewEgg but there's a bunch of reviews on their site too.

Reviews-2

Here are some new pictures of the new mini case I purchased (took it out of the box today) along with a slot load BlueRay player I purchased a while ago. You could do something like this if you wanted?





This post has been edited by petec: Sep 30 2009, 04:11 PM

[JohnWPB]

Thanks for all the suggestions... it seems hard to find a MiniITX case that is less than 12" deep. I honestly am thinking on building a case myself so I can have the size I want. I can always attach the front of the case I purchased to it for a nice clean look on the front.

The 12" problem, is you have to add another couple of inches at least for the cabling, especially the DVI cable. My entertainment towers on either side of the TV are 12" deep.

Last idea, is to just hide the thing around the back somewhere, and have a remote power switch for if it locks up. I already have a small laptop Blue Ray Player / DVD burner in a USB case. Looks almost identical to the one in a photo above.

[petec]

John, the little mini case above has a setup for a VESA mount so that if you wanted you could mount it to the back of an LCD TV.

[petec]

John,

Check out the new EeeBox PC EB1501. Not sure if I like the way it sits but very compact.

Asus EeeBox PC EB1501

Purchased the Vesa mounting screws and additional HD/Fan plate for the smaller case. Works well in the SUV. As a test put two SATA drives in it.

150W intelligent pico PS (M3 ATX) for it is relatively new and works as well as the older style automotive PS that I use (M2 ATX)

This post has been edited by petec: Oct 30 2009, 06:39 PM

[petec]

Although a bit of a tangent finished the CarPC using the smaller case. I purchased a VESA mount kit and with the rubber feet of the case it makes for a tight fit. The boot speed is much quicker than previously used MB. I mounted two SATA hard drives in it.

[whatuusay1]

I've been in the same search as you are - small, attractive case that the wife will approve of. I pretty much decided that if you want small and attractive just accept that its going to expensive - really expensive (2-300+) for just a case. You also get to deal with heat issues, specialized power supplies, expensive blueray slim drives etc.

I ended up going with a shallow SilverStone SST-GD04B case - its designed for microatx boards (relatively small) yet allows for full size cards/power supply and hard drives. The case is just 12.5" deep. The kicker is that the case while very attractive, great cooling (3 included fans) and well built was only $100.

I cant post links (long time lurker) but google has a few vendors.

Just my .02 - I've been very happy with the case thus far - I have it in an audio rack that wouldnt support the standard depth htpc cases (16-18" deep).