[mythtv-users] Computer case recoomendations

Nemo Inis nemoinis at telus.net
Fri Jan 26 16:22:46 UTC 2007


My FE/BE Myth box is in an Antec Fusion case and I'm generally pleased 
with it.  A few notes:

- It does look good.
- The case is well designed layout-wise
- Ventilation is superb
- Construction (factory assembly) is so-so: in my case there were loose 
screws in my brand-new shrink-wrapped unit.
- It's a tight fit for the motherboard: make sure yours doesn't have 
side IDE connectors, etc...
- Design flaw: the front plate (heavy brushed aluminium) is NOT 
grounded. In theory this should be ok because it's covered with a 
varnish so it's isolated from you, but in practice, the tiny recessed 
bevels of the front panel buttons is not varnished (I guess the bevel 
was made after the varnish had been applied).  In my carpeted 
living-room, the computer would crash -hard- every time my finger got 
close to the power button, whereas it had worked fine in my computer 
lab.  After grounding the front panel, this problem disappeared. 
Unacceptable in such an expensive case, IMHO.
- Design flaw: the LCD display area indeed has space so you can add 
your own IR receiver, and it's not difficult to do.  However, the glass 
window in front of it is covered with IR-opaque paint. Duh...
- Design flaw: the case ventilates extremely well, however it's a bit 
noisier than I was led to believe by the ads.  Especially noticeable 
during the quiet passages of a movie.  I'm thinking of  disconnecting 
one of the two case fans (they're the source of the noise. My heatsink 
fan is silent).
- Annoyance: there's a HUGE volume-type button on the front of the case 
that I can't use because there is no Linux driver for it and no 
information is available (that I could find)  to write one.

Hope this helps


On Jan 26, 2007, at 4:20 AM, Robert Seaton wrote:

> I think I have narrowed my search down to either the Antec fusion, or
> the Silverstone LC16M. The LC16M has more features, and has an
> integrated IR receiver which in my opinion is a major plus. It also has
> buttons for manual operation. I'm just wondering since this case seems
> to be built for MCE, how hard it would be to get all of these extra
> features working on Linux. The Antec fusion has a much better design,
> however I would have to hack it in order to integrate the IR receiver.
> Any opinions here from anyone? Input would be grateful.



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