HTPC Case, fans, heatsink help

I was looking to get an HTPC case to replace my current monster of a case.

I liked this case a lot but the reviews seemed kind of iffy.
nMediaPC 6000B. The Price was also nice at $70 bucks.

There were these ones too but at a substantially higher price.
Choice 1 in the >100 range; Silverstone LC17-B
Choice 2; Silverstone LC10B-E
Choice 3 and also the highest price; Lian Li PC-C33B

Also not sure on what kind of fans I should get that would be quieter and move a good amount of air, 80's, 120's and if the Lian Li a 140.

I was looking to upgrade the CPU Heatsink as well since I was going to be ordering a few things, just not sure on where to go with that one too. I want something that is as close to silent as possible.

I did find a few things:

COOLER MASTER RR-H101-22FK-RI 80mm - 14.99

COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus - 29.99

Xigmatek - 34.99

PROLIMATECH - 65.99

I don't want to sound cheap, but keeping the cost down would be awesome. I don't want to buy something that is going to be the same or worse as the OE. Everything is stock and not OC'd. All the parts are in my sig that would go into this case.

Any help is appreciated.
Outlaw

the hyper 212 is one of the best coolers on the market, it gets beat by a couple degrees by coolers twice the price. but for the buck its by far the best imho...

diluzio91 - I looked at a few reviews on it, and it seems pretty solid especially for the price like you said. I think I will go with that heatsink. ~Thanks

My wife said she likes the nMediaPC case..

Anybody have any preferences or recommendations on case fans or cases that I might have missed?

Also, while I going here, do you think it would be worth the extra 35 bucks for a 2GB Ram kit to bump the system up to 4GB (still have 32bit OS). Once I am able to get a gaming laptop, I hope for this to be a media PC only with maybe the occasional game(CS:S, Sims, Sim City).

*UPDATE*
I was able to find a review that gives Mobo tray to case top height and it is NOT tall enough for the Cooler Master Hyper 212 CPU Heatsink. :(

The COOLER MASTER RR-H101-22FK-RI will fit, guess its time to look up some reviews...

Check out the Thermaltake MeOrb for the HSF or the MAX orb for something a little taller. I have one in my HTPC and love it. As far as fans, Checkout Noctuas stuff. They come with 2 pigtails that will drop the voltage for you so you can tailor the sound level to your liking.

What media software do you plan on running? I can not say enough good things about XBMC.

What mobo do you have it on? Do you think that will clear the northbridge HS on the 680i?

LINK to picture of board.

I think it might be a really tight fit. That MeOrb is 4.2" across, the OE Intel is 3.5" across.

Here is 2 pics I got with my phone.

Well my wife got me an early xmas gift. On an impulse buy, she got me a Corsair H50 liquid cooler for the CPU. Based on the reviews it should be perfect for the 65w cpu. Gurus review used a quad core cpu oc'd and still kept it about 53c at 60% fan rpm. My oe fan can't even do that with this cpu. Just need to get the rest of the parts now.

Nice. Congrats on the H50.

For future members reference I have mine on a Gigabyte 880GMA-UD2H AM3 board, inside a Thermaltake Lanbox Lite. I have had both the MeOrb and the MaxOrb on it. It will be moving to a CoolIT Vantage ALC in a few weeks.

Thanks!

Looking at your board the heatsinks around the cpu look a lot shorter then mine. The ones to the left of my cpu would have been fine but no way on the northbridge. It has a 40mm? Fan mounted vertically off the board to give you a height reference.

Thanks for the recommendation.

Any input on solid cases?

Well the Lanbox lite is built like a tank but you will never get the H50 in it. If you want the typical HTPC look, Antec makes a nice one as does Apevia. I can not comment on how solid they feel though. I dunno how the H50 would fair in them either due to space restrictions.

Here is what my setup looks like if you are interested. I am running windows 7 and XBMC with power DVD for blu-ray playback. The keyboard you see in the first photo is the best "remote" you can have IMO. Newegg has it for < $50

If a more traditional PC case is ok, then check out NZXT's Vulcan. It will only fit an mATX board though, but it will have plenty of room for your H50 and lots more.

And two of the Vulcan I partially built the other night.

What keyboard is that? The IOGEAR GKM561R?

Nice setups but unfortunately the case must fit an ATX mobo. I like that Thermaltake. It is exactly what I want, something clean and simple. Too bad its mATX only.


I am really impressed with the H50 so far. Idle it keeps the cpu about 37c. I did a prime95 stess test on the CPU for about 15min and it only reached 47c max! The OE cooler would have broken 60c. I also have the fan mounted on it as an exhaust, not an intake as Corsair recommends. Very nice so far.

Thanks for the info.
Outlaw

The keyboard is this one. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-018-_-Product

It is far better than my WMC remote.

Thanks for the link.

I will add that to the cart after a find a new mid tower.

You might want to check out NZXT Beta EVO or Thermaltake's new Dokker.

Thanks, The NZXT was in my top 16 under $75.

My wife narrowed it down to these top 5

ENERMAX Staray ECA3171-BR-AP

APEVIA X-JUPITER-JR S-Type X-JPJST-BK

Tuniq 3 IC-TQ3-US-BK Black

XION AXP Classic Series AXP600-001BK

SIGMA AEGIS AEGIS-WB

I reviewed the Starray last year. http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/?q=node/377

and we reviewed the Beta Evo http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/?q=node/413

Nice review. Do you think there is really any way for good cable management in the Starray?

With a lot of patience and zip ties, maybe.

hm... what about these?

Xion AXP600 I'm just iffy on the hotswap as I have never used it.

or

AeroCool Vs-9

Thanks for the help,
Outlaw

I have never seen either of those so I can not comment on their quality. Maybe someone will chime in here and offer some advice on them.

no idea, but IMHO for the money, spend a few $$ more and get a known good quality case. just my 2c

Thanks. I will look some more. I'm just trying to keep it as low budget as possible. The few reviews I did find made it seem like a decent case, but there were a couple that got their case with dead hot swap boards. If the hot swap boards can be removed, and just the trays used to hold hdd's, I'm good with that. :D

Any case recommendations under $100?

Thanks again,
Outlaw

Well, I got a Cooler Master Centurion 590. Just finished swapping the parts. So far so good. I did a push/pull exhaust with the H50 and it is now running idle at 25 - 32c and load for almost 10min was 40-41c. And the Bluray Rom is louder then the fans.