HTPC Case/Chassis

[Oliver]

The case/chassis is probably not the best item to choose first when building your HTPC but it is the first item I have looked at.

I want a strong build, preferably aluminium, black, beautiful and expandable. I guess year of being limited to upgrade choices and took its toll on me, I would ideally like it to fit a full sized motherboard, power supply and have room left for PCIe card options.
I like the SilverStone and Lian Li ranges and also like some of the Streacom cases, but I don't want to limit my choices just yet.

So far this is my SilverStone GD07 is my favorite, followed by this SilverStone GD06 They are both huge cases and I really like the look of them.

SilverStone GD06



SilverStone GD07



Look at this for a cool feature, hot swappable HHDs


Any thoughts?

[Oliver]

GD06

440 mm (W) x 150 mm (H) x 340 mm (D), 22.4 liters

Motherboard support:
Micro-ATX, Mini-DTX, Mini-ITX

Power Supply:
Support standard PS2(ATX) up to 150mm

Expansion Card:
Support graphic cards up to 11 inches., width restriction-4.92"


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GD07

Dimension 440mm(W) x 175mm(H) x 435mm(D), 33.5 liters

Motherboard support: 
SSI-EEB, SSI-CEB, Extended ATX, ATX, Micro-ATX *1

Limitation of PSU:
220mm

Power Supply:
Support standard PS2(ATX) up to 220mm, recommend depth is under 180mm (When optical drive installed)

Expansion Card:
Support graphic cards up to 11 inches., width restriction-4.92"

[IT Troll]

Silverstone do make some good, affordable, HTPC cases. The GD06 is quite a bit smaller than GD07 because it is Micro ATX sized, which I think is a good option for HTPCs. They are 25% shorter than full ATX but take all the standard components. All you miss out on are a few extra PCI slots which you probably wouldn't use anyway.

The GD05 was actually on my short list when I was looking. The GD05 is basically the GD06 without the front door. I didn't want a front door because I wanted to fit an internal infrared receiver. Very few of the HTPC cases have these built-in like the VGX-XL does. So either you need to fit one to the case or use an external one (if you want to use a remote that is).