Mini ITX specific recommendation needed

[Tbirdkid]

Ok guys, im about to get this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...scrollFullInfo

I am probably going to end up using my Radeon 5770HD card in it and put 4 gbs of ram in it.

Here is my question:
I want a case that isnt full sized, but a large case to put this in to go into my media center. I plan on cutting a few holes, and putting a few fans in it, and also need a bit of a recommendation for super quiet 80mm fans. I mean quiet. I will put a rheobus on it as well to keep it under control so a small floppy size front slot would be great for this, or i can do it in the back.

I dont want to spend a ton of money on it either. I guess a ton is over 100 bux for the case.

Suggestions?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Zap]

Why Atom? The new AMD stuff (E-350) is as power efficient as Atom, yet outperforms it plus has graphics that is similar to ION. See AnandTech's reviews. That particular review is on a netbook sized portable, but you can get the CPU (now called APU?) in a mini ITX board.

What do you need the Radeon 5770 in it for? If it is for gaming, the CPUs (Atom or E-350) will be too weak. If it is for HTPC duties, it is overpowered and will just sit there for the most part wasting electricity.

Oh yeah, for "media center" do you mean you just want a case that is more horizontal than vertical, or does that mean you want one that is the same size as your surround sound receiver?

Please clarify what you will use it for because that will help in our recommendations.

 

[Tbirdkid]

Question 1: The price is right.
Question 2: I am going to drive a 46inch Sharp Aquos LCD to 1080P and rip, compress, decode personal music, dvds, etc to keep on this box.
Question 3: Specifically, i want a case very similar to a tower, but laid horizontally and maybe a lil smaller for the cooling aspect, and hard drive storage.

Essentially, i dont have the room to put a tower in my audio tower and would like a horizontal case that will hold all my drives, bluray drive, rheobus, fans, and just work effeciently.

 

[Fox5]

I'd like to point out that AMD Zacate boards are out and cheaper than that Atom/Ion board.
Also, the graphics chip on the AMD Zacate is powerful enough (that's the E-350 Zap mentioned btw) to do 1080p. There's no real benefit to a 5770, but maybe a 5450 or 5550 would be worthwhile.

 

[Fox5]

This is what you should get:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-228-_-Product

And I would recommend this case:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811108196
If it's big enough for you.

 

[Zap]

1) E-350 for $3 cheaper shipped price or more expensive but with overclocking and USB 3.0. Both have SATA 6Gbit. The Atom board you linked to does not have a price/performance advantage over the cheaper one I linked.

2) How much encoding/transcoding will you do? If a lot, you will want to either go with a fast CPU, fast Nvidia GPU (last I heard they did GPGPU better than Radeon for transcoding) or... a Sandy Bridge CPU using integrated graphics. This last option will give you the fastest encoding/transcoding times. Alternately you can always just do the ripping/encoding/transcoding on another machine and copy it to this one. That way you can get by with a lot lower end machine.

3) So, a case that fits in with your other equipment? I personally like the Silverstone GD05, and currently use the Antec NSK2480. The only limitations are they only hold two HDDs (Antec has room to hold more unofficially). There are HTPC cases that hold a lot of hard drives, but they are usually HUGE and expensive. What I do is I have an external USB box that I bought for $40 which holds two HDDs. I've got two 1.5TB in mine, but you may be able to go up to two 3TB drives. Oh yeah, the two cases I listed are micro ATX, which will hold mini ITX as well.

 

[Fox5]

Zap - For transcode, it appears Nvidia's Ion can't do CUDA transcoding, so no performance benefit for Atom. AMD's transcode still works on Zacate (and even integrates with windows' built in transcoding). It doesn't provide a big performance boost, but it is better quality than Nvidia's transcoding.
Sandy bridge with quick sync would be best, but that's a huge huge price increase over these mini ITX systems. It'd be easier to recommend the jump up to an Athlon II based system, net difference should only be about $50.

 

[aigomorla]

i3 540 or 550 clarkdale (~100) + Giggy ITX. (~100) = ~200 dollars vs 120 dollar setup your looking at.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-221-_-Product

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128448

Its going to cost a bit more, but TRUST ME... the power computation level is in a magnitude of an exponential scale vs the two processors at a small increase of power cost.

SCREW the ATOM unless u need just a pure web browsing mini box.
This clarkdale will do rings around the atom, and only drink a tad bit more electricity, since ur using a dedicated GPU.

Your going to have problems in HD downscaling H.264 @ 1080p unless u find a player which can use full video hardware acceleration.
(you can ask gillbot if u want a second voice in it.)

Go with a LGA1156 ITX platform, get 2gigs of DDR3 ram, whatever is cheap, or 4gigs, and u should be set.

 

[Tbirdkid]

Im thinking am3/itx/5770hd/4gb

and getting some super quiet fans with a full sized case/htpc case so i can fit my video card in it and 3 drives...

Which case would you guys recommend, and also fans. I want quiet, and i dont mind paying for quiet...

 

[Zap]

With a "full sized case" you don't need to spend the extra on a mini ITX motherboard. Just go micro ATX. You'll have a wider selection and lower prices.

For cases that have the HTPC look, check out the Antec Fusion. It is the same chassis as the Antec NSK2480, but spiffed up for that HTPC look. It has two HDD bays but you can lay a HDD on the PSU - I've done that. Also, the NSK2480 version has two optical drive bays so one can be used for a HDD. For that matter the Fusion uses one of the optical drive bays for a VFD or something, so maybe there's room behind it for a HDD.

These cases use two 120mm fans for exhaust, and you can replace and/or undervolt them for quiet. For HSF use a Scythe Mini Ninja 2 without the fan (sits right next to 120mm exhaust).