Man, from further looking..... 100 bucks for this?
http://www.shop.perfecthometheater.com/HTPC-ITX7-Silver-Mini-HTPC-chassis-HTPC-ITX7-S.htm
Gogo front usb ports?
God damn this thread for making me want to get back into media centers. I was all content and happy, now I just burned an hour at work seeing how cheap i can do one for.........
That's actually the one that I'm considering buying (in black though). The front USB ports are actually the selling point, because I would like my HTPCs to be able to play games such as StepMania where I would need to plug in a (USB) controller. There are only two things I don't like:
1) The price... it's a decent premium for a small feature. It's mostly made worse by the fact that the other two "lesser" models are on sale.
2) It looks like they didn't think about cabling at all. The one problem I have with my current HTPC case is that the front panel and PSU cables are too long for such a small case. It looks like the same will end up being true with that case as well.
Although, I am tempted to sacrifice size to help alleviate noise. I use a Thermaltake Slim X3 in my current HTPC, and while it certainly fits in small places, it's a bit noisier than I'd prefer in a HTPC. HTPCs need to be as quiet as possible, so I prefer the whisper quiet fans (> 80mm is preferred as well). So maybe getting one of those larger set-top/AVR-sized cases might be better.
As for their price... there's definitely a bit of a premium over the specialty boxes like the Roku, but honestly... a built HTPC
just works. There's usually no worrying about whether the SoC supports a certain codec or container. As I mentioned earlier, it also allows for games, which I like.
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