[mythtv-users] HTPC cases

Mark Lehrer mark at knm.org
Fri Mar 10 22:43:06 UTC 2006


> anyone here using Silverstone cases?

I just got an SC11-LC-300-B a few days ago and my motherboard should
arrive today.  I'll post more details soon.  The short answer so far
is that this case looks beautiful but has some limitations.  My $.02
so far:

This is the short MicroATX case where there is a riser card to mount 3
slots horizontally.  Unfortunately there isn't a good socket 939 board
to use for several reasons:

1) This case requires the PCI-X and PCI slots to be next to each
other, and to be the first two slots.  Most boards have a PCI-X-16 and
PCI-X-1 slot next to each other, which means you can't use a PCI slot
(and that means no HD2000!  which is the whole point of having a HTPC)

2) I haven't seen a single MicroATX socket 939 board with an S/PDIF
connector on the back - this means burning a valuable slot for digital
audio.

3) The only board that I have seen with S/PDIF daughter card and the
correct slot arrangements is the Asus A8N-VM, which I bought.
Unfortunately the sound chipset is proprietary Asus garbage, so I am
going to have to buy a sound card anyway and hope that there is native
Linux support available some day (or even better a motherboard with
both on-board S/PDIF and Linux support).

4) Minor gripe: blue LEDs are annoying!  I hope I can replace it with
something easier on the eyes - this is a home theater after all.

So the bottom line is to research motherboards before going with this
case.

My goal is to use a GeForce 6600GT and AMD 3500+ - with a 300 watt power
supply.  Wish me luck!

Mark



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