Hot: Perfect case for PC-based Home Theater Component: networked MP3 player, Web-TV, PVR, Games(Fry's & Outpost $249)

[vladgur]

Hi guys, I was fortunate enough to get my RIO Receiver for $99 backordered and I cancelled that once I found this very nice looking case at Frys.

Its called FIC Sabre 1815 (Note that the one I bought is a Silver Edition(much better looking). Its about a size of standard home theater audio component, yet it is very well designed. It houses a Intel I815E motherboard with integrated Audio with analog, line in, mic and optical out(for your receiver), VGA-out, 2-firewire ports, 4-USB ports, 2-ps/2, 1-network,printer, serial, DVI(LCD) . You can also put 1 IDE CDROM, 1 IDE HD, 2 full-height PCI cards and 1 half-height PCI card. It comes with a 120Watt Power supply(quiet) and supports PentiumIIIs & Celerons up to 1.2Ghz I believe

All this for $249....I plan to put a DVD Rom in there, All-In-Wonder something rather, maybe better soundcard, and play around with things like Linux or Windows-based PVR, Games on big screen TV, Internet, DVDs, Divx on your TV. I will also get a wireless keyboard and a remote...
Sound like an interesting project?

Here is the link to it at Outpost.com(Be aware of their return policy and try to find it at Frys B&M instead)

Also here are Reviews that I found:

Building Your Own Linux Based Audio Component

Building a Slim, Quiet Server

 

[vladgur]

By the way, Here is the Picture of the Silver Sabre
and Here you can see its relative size

 

[mjoeyoung]

This is exactly the kind of thing I'm looking for. Only one problem. Why didn't they make a black or gray model?

 

[vladgur]

Well, the silver one is kind of grayish and besides, if you really desire, color is not something $10 spent at home depot wont fix

I also bought a celeron 900, 256mb pc100 ram, 16xdvd rom and 80gb 5400rpm drive at Frys. I just finished putting this thing together, and this baby is quiet, surprisingly 120Watt supply is enough(My other machine, an Athlon, demands 350Watt to be comfortable). The only noise that I hear comes from a cheap a$$ DVD-rom, but all the stuff I bought at Frys Im going to return as soon as I receive stuff I ordered from the internet.

I think I will go with a 12x to 16 speed DVD-rom, 850-950 celeron, 265mb ram for $20 from OD for now.
My next goal would be getting either a geforce with TV-out all go full force with All-In-Wonder Radeon.....
We'll see. I can upgrade to PIII-1.1 later when it gets cheaper

My only gripe is that that there is no power connector for the heatsink fan that I could find on this board, so only heatsink had to be installed without the fan(but the case fan is blowing right at the heatsink). As a result of that, temperature rose to 127F just looking at BIOS hardware monitor....
I will have to come up with some sort of hack to get some 5v power for a heatsink fan or smthg......

 

[Patchmaster]

<< My only gripe is that that there is no power connector for the heatsink fan that I could find on this board, so only heatsink had to be installed without the fan(but the case fan is blowing right at the heatsink). As a result of that, temperature rose to 127F just looking at BIOS hardware monitor....I will have to come up with some sort of hack to get some 5v power for a heatsink fan or smthg......
>>

Fans usually take 12v. A standard power connector has separate 12v and 5v leads. You can tap into that pretty easily. Unless you can find some specific adaptors, I'd just get a Y adaptor, clip off one of the connectors and use some wire nuts to attach it to the fan.

I would definitely get that heatsink fan hooked up before doing anything strenuous with the CPU.

 

[Jenova314]

i think this uses one of the NLX form factor motherboards. we built a system with an NLX mainboard about 2 years ago to serve as an mp3 player for our car. it's pretty hard to get in and out of, but it served its purpose.

 

[Shadjakin]

For work I purchased 3 of the Sabre 1815's about 6 months ago. All 3 had problems (random shutdowns and lockups, loss of all bios information if left unplugged for a day (yeah, I replaced the batteries with "known good" ones) and keyboard / mouse errors) and I ended up returning them to Fry's.

So keep your reciepts just in case...

The alternative I went with was the MSI 6215 , a very similar product that costs about the same ($205 at newegg) and MSI also makes an AMD model (MSI 6218) that supports the AMD 1.4 (Pricewatch lists for $137)

I have been very happy with the MSI product... I've got 7 of them around work now and they are solid little troopers.

 

[yodayoda]

ugh, how ugly. the shuttle SV24 is much better looking and is currently $299 for the case and a pentium III 933 MHz processor at fry's too.

 

[KidViciou$]

damn, i wish i could buy two of these, i would put one in my car, and the other in my home theatre system. i also wish i could get the AMD version in the silver sabre case

oh well, i have too many machines as it is, thanks for the intereesting reads

 

[WhiteMouse]

I do have a "PC-based Home Theater Component" at home, however, I am using a black mid-tower and I installed both DVD-rom and CDRW-rom (useful for saving audio/video). A DVD/CDRW combo would be great.

Another thing is the wireless keyboard/mouse. My Logitech's range is only about half of my TV remote control. So to use the keyboard/mouse, I have to sit pretty close to my big-screen TV. The game controller has the same problem if you do not have a long extension. And due to the low refresh rate (60Hz) of the TV, (action, racing) game playing on TV would kill your eyes in a few minutes. And TV's low resolution will kill the details in the game also.

So now I am only watching movies (DVD, Divx,...) using my Home Entertainment PC.

 

[mdetz]

A couple things that this has over the shuttle sv24:
PCMCIA slot
digital audio out (the shuttle doesn't have this, does it?)
more pci slots

Just depends on what you are going to use it for, I guess.

 

[greenant]

if I have a TV-out card in these systems .. can i browse internet on TV ?
How does that work ?

 

[handydave]

I got my sister one of these. It's a nice box, if you don't mind building a machine:

http://www.msicomputer.com/product/netpc/6215T.htm

 

[iwearnosox]

I have one of these (sabre 1815) painted black sitting in the corner, if someone's interested in buying it PM me. It's a nice box and all I just needed an AGP slot so I ditched this one.

 

[vladgur]

Wow, I do like the MSI case/board dimension wise: its 320x300x78mm versus 345x310x90mm on FIC Sabre
But..... I like the looks of sabre better(msi looks like a desktop case only smaller) Msi has 90W power supply vs 120w on sabre, Sabre has optical out and 3 PCI slots vs 2 on MSI
but MSI has S-video and TV-out otherwise, since they are using the same chipset Intel 815E they have similar features.
MSI does appear to be cheaper at buy.com for $191....
I am still contemplating(good thing I bought it at frys where I can always return it no questions asked)

 

[renfield33]

i had one of these (used it for playing mp3s on the stereo), but it is LOUD... so you might want to get some quiet fans.

 

[KiddyKong]

BTW 120W power supply goes a LONG way!

I have a black cube case w/ a 120W PS and I am running:
duron 700
256mb sdram
60gb 7200rpm
40gb 5400rpm
floppy
6x scsi cd-rw
pci scsi card
pci network card
game theater xp

 

[iwearnosox]

The fan is loud, and you have to be careful if you replace it= it's not a standard 80mm fan, and if you change the cfm rating be aware that this fan also is responsible for cooling the CPU as well as the case.

 

[wuhoo]

anyone tried this case out from directron?
PIA Micro ATX Cube Computer Case

im in the market for a small cube/case to support a nforce/xp1800

 

[KiddyKong]

wuhoo, that's the case i mentioned above. it's great! quiet, looks good, does everything i need it to.

edit: if you want to support a nforce/xp 1800 with that, good luck. you will have to buy a 300W+ power supply that fits the case's tiny PS area...there are some, but they are VERY expensive! Also, the nforce must be a micro-ATX size to fit.

 

[vladgur]

That cube case is sold out, it is cheap, but directron will probably eat you up on shipping. And also you need to buy a motherboard that supports it....

 

[ptaylor874]

I've been looking for a good mATX case for my DVD/Tivo PC.. This one doesn't look enough like a piece of consumer electronics gear, though, I don't think.

Has anyone tried one of these yeongyang Casper 2 cases?

Here's a Link

It looks sharp, IMHO.

 

[vladgur]

everyone seems to have a different perception of "sharp"

This ying yang case is taller than the sabre and I personally find the sabre "sharper" and more complete

 

[ptaylor874]

Vladgur,

I didn't intend to talk down the deal. I agree with you that taste varys widely. To each his own.

I just looked over the dimensions, and you're right - The YY case is a little taller and a bit wider, and the Sabre is a hair deeper. It looked larger when I first looked at it...

I've been thinking of getting the ATI 8500DV - Unforunately, they don't make a PCI version of that card.. The RF remote is what is sucking me toward the ATI.

Woops.. I think I'm rambling.. Sorry.. (Been reading this forum for a long time, but I've equaled my total posts in one night!)

 

[wesbc]

Well this is definitely a good contender for what I'm seeking. To build a decent pc to convert some video to vcd. The added pcmcia slot is a great bonus as I can just stick in my wireless card when I need it connected to the lan for updates or what not. Now I'm just curious how reliable it is. I already got a PCI video capture card, from the compusa deal. I agree that it would have been nicer if it was a black case. Don't really wanna have to paint the sucker, but I suppose it would have to do.