Asus
Newbie
- Joined
- Aug 22, 2003
- Messages
- 10,346
- Reaction score
- 0
I had 2 potential problems I ran into. Luckly everything worked out without delay. *see the end
Here are some pictures of the case.
FRONT - Volume nob, USB, Firewire, Headphone, Mic, covered optial drive and a VFD display. Also has metal feet in the front although you can't see it with the carpet.
BACK
And the ventilation.
LEFT - The power supply sucks air inhere and then right out the back.
RIGHT - The only case fans are 120mm exhaust.
BOTTOM - Vents up front by the hard drives.
Power Light. - White is different, but nice.
This is a very nice case. Blends in with the other equipment by the TV and doesn't stick out as a PC case. There are some sacrifices, such as using a MicroATX motherboard, tall CPU coolers don't fit, only 2 hard drive mounts and 1 optical drive bay. Since the case does not have any intake fans and the air flow does not go from one side of the case to the other, it puts a number of small vents next to the key hot components so the parts will be cooled as the air passes over them and then sucked out the exhaust. Top vent over the PCI cards and GPU, vent below the hard drives, rear vent for the CPU etc. There is not a lot of room for wires although the case has some nice wire routing features built in. Although some of the edges and corners can be sharp. Have a few cuts from installing the parts. The CPU and hard drives run about 40C when idle, 45C when recording. Case temp is about 35-38C.
ASRock board.
Gigabyte 8500GT
Zalman HSF. - With the fan on low I cannot hear any air noise coming from the cooler. But there is a noticeable bearing or motor noise. And it can be heard from the couch which is annoying, although not loud. :\
I replaced the stock Antec Tricool fans with some Scythe fans. Instead of 25dBA on low (1200RPM), these are rated at ~8dBA (800RPM). They use fluid bearings so they are really quiet. I wish I had some for my main PC. hehe
It comes with a high efficiency Antec 430watt PSU (actually made by Seasonic). You won't find this model sold in retail, it is made specifically for this case. Also, the wires are plenty long to reach to the other side of the case.
Motherboard installed in the case.
Wiring and optical cage.
Hard drives mount on their side with rubber grommets.
The VFD display connects with USB. And they actually give you an adapter to plug it on to the board.
So now I can just sit back, pick up the firefly remote and play music, dvds, video files, browse pictures, radio, watch-record-pause TV all off 1 box.
TV options
List of shows
Highlight one to watch or record.
A lot better than having to turn on individual electronics and have 5 remotes to do all those things.
*
I ordered the Antec Fusion from Directron.com. I never did get a follow-up email from UPS saying it was shipped and directron's website said the Fusion was out-of-stock AND discontinued! But I called them up the next day and my order was shipped. They also gave me the UPS tracking number.
My Directron order came the same day as the other parts from Newegg. Good timing.
I found out that the Stock AMD cooler I was going to use did not work with the bracket that came on the ASRock board. I quickly looked up HSF reviews and found one that 1)came with it's own backplate and mount 2)that would work on a socket 754 system 3)and I could buy locally. Bought a Zalman 7000B-Cu from Compusa. Problem solved.
Here are some pictures of the case.
FRONT - Volume nob, USB, Firewire, Headphone, Mic, covered optial drive and a VFD display. Also has metal feet in the front although you can't see it with the carpet.
BACK
And the ventilation.
LEFT - The power supply sucks air inhere and then right out the back.
RIGHT - The only case fans are 120mm exhaust.
BOTTOM - Vents up front by the hard drives.
Power Light. - White is different, but nice.
This is a very nice case. Blends in with the other equipment by the TV and doesn't stick out as a PC case. There are some sacrifices, such as using a MicroATX motherboard, tall CPU coolers don't fit, only 2 hard drive mounts and 1 optical drive bay. Since the case does not have any intake fans and the air flow does not go from one side of the case to the other, it puts a number of small vents next to the key hot components so the parts will be cooled as the air passes over them and then sucked out the exhaust. Top vent over the PCI cards and GPU, vent below the hard drives, rear vent for the CPU etc. There is not a lot of room for wires although the case has some nice wire routing features built in. Although some of the edges and corners can be sharp. Have a few cuts from installing the parts. The CPU and hard drives run about 40C when idle, 45C when recording. Case temp is about 35-38C.
ASRock board.
Gigabyte 8500GT
Zalman HSF. - With the fan on low I cannot hear any air noise coming from the cooler. But there is a noticeable bearing or motor noise. And it can be heard from the couch which is annoying, although not loud. :\
I replaced the stock Antec Tricool fans with some Scythe fans. Instead of 25dBA on low (1200RPM), these are rated at ~8dBA (800RPM). They use fluid bearings so they are really quiet. I wish I had some for my main PC. hehe
It comes with a high efficiency Antec 430watt PSU (actually made by Seasonic). You won't find this model sold in retail, it is made specifically for this case. Also, the wires are plenty long to reach to the other side of the case.
Motherboard installed in the case.
Wiring and optical cage.
Hard drives mount on their side with rubber grommets.
The VFD display connects with USB. And they actually give you an adapter to plug it on to the board.
So now I can just sit back, pick up the firefly remote and play music, dvds, video files, browse pictures, radio, watch-record-pause TV all off 1 box.
TV options
List of shows
Highlight one to watch or record.
A lot better than having to turn on individual electronics and have 5 remotes to do all those things.
*
I ordered the Antec Fusion from Directron.com. I never did get a follow-up email from UPS saying it was shipped and directron's website said the Fusion was out-of-stock AND discontinued! But I called them up the next day and my order was shipped. They also gave me the UPS tracking number.
My Directron order came the same day as the other parts from Newegg. Good timing.
I found out that the Stock AMD cooler I was going to use did not work with the bracket that came on the ASRock board. I quickly looked up HSF reviews and found one that 1)came with it's own backplate and mount 2)that would work on a socket 754 system 3)and I could buy locally. Bought a Zalman 7000B-Cu from Compusa. Problem solved.
