Lounge Rack

The case is great, but it doesn’t have sound-dampening panels or any features to actively reduce sound like many of the Antec cases.

I bought the bought the AcoustiPack LITE pack along with the case, which contains two sheets of the 2-layer self adhesive material. As the case isn’t that big, I didn’t need the ‘Ultimate’ pack.

Generally, the material was nice to work with. The adhesive backing is good, and you really can pull it up if you need to reposition. Which I did - it’s tricky to get the perfect fit first time. Much of it was in the measuring - I had to leave space for the case to close properly, while getting maximum coverage for sound absorption.

The hardest bit of the job was to lay the bottom piece, which goes under the drive bays. The screw holes for the drive bays are raised enough to get the AcoustiPack material underneath, but I had to make some incisions in order to get the raised bits through nicely. I also had to cut out a section to allow the flap over the front panel to move freely.

AcoustiPack preparation

The self-adhesive backing was a bit fiddly as it kept ripping as you can see below. As AcoustiPack advertised though, if it’s not quite right you can pull it up and reposition if necessary, which it was.

Self adhesive...

I spent a while covering the power button assembly. While it may not have been necessary for noise, one problem I found when I plugged the power to the LED in (I wanted to see how it looked) was that the blue light spills through to the VFD window, so you can see through it. This doesn’t look very nice, so I made sure the gaps were filled. The same goes the other side so that the light doesn’t come out of the air vent in the case.

Case soundproofing (front)

When it came to covering up some of the unnecessary vents, I didn’t want to leave the sticky backing exposed to the holes in the case. It’s just going to get dusty (the dust will stick) and won’t look very nice. What I did was to get some black paper, and sellotaped it to the case before sticking the AcoustiPack over it. As I didn’t have any, and didn’t want to waste printer ink, the black paper came courtesy of full-page ads with a black backgound in an old Top Gear magazine. Thanks, Vauxhall.

Roof soundproofing

I tested the CPU fan against the open vent and it does make quite an airy whine though the holes. Seem like it was a good idea to cover up the vent which will be above the fan and let the air come in from the one next to it. The only trouble is that there’s only about 1mm clearance between the fan and the soundproofing - a bit more would have been nice I suppose that’s the trade-off with having such a slim case.

Another little thing I did was to get a spare bit of the AcoustiPack material, stuck it to some cardboard, and blu-tacked it to the bottom of my DVD drive. This will help to absorb any sound coming from the drive bay underneath it, and is removable for when I change the drive.

I’m not in a position to compare the noise before and after, as I did this before I’d even ordered many of the components, but it should be a good starting point for a silent computer. This SPCR review shows the difference that it can make - they say that while it isn’t ground-breaking, it does make enough of a difference to be worthwhile for the enthusiast. I’m pretty enthusiastic.

HTPC General AcoustiPack, Antec, case, quiet, soundproofing, VFD

When it came to choosing a CPU fan, there were only two real considerations:

• Quietness (obviously)
• Size (low profile)

In a low profile case, there isn’t much space to work with. Ultimately though, the choice came down to the Zalman CNPS 8700 (or one in that series) or the Scythe Shiruken. These are pretty much the only low-profile coolers I found to be worth considering.

After reading a few reviews, I decided to go with the Scythe Shuriken. I don’t know that it’s any better than the Zalman, but from what I’ve read it seems that Scythe are pretty much leading the field when it comes to silence and Zalman aren’t as strong as they used to be. Plus, I found that the Shuriken was cheaper and more available than the Zalmans.

As soon as I got the Shuriken and plugged it into my other PC’s fan controller straight away. It’s virtually inaudible until it spins at full speed. The heat-pipe technology is pretty hip, so I’m hoping it will perform well at low speeds. My CPU shouldn’t be maxing out anyway, as this machine won’t be used for games.

The mounting screws seem fairly innovative - it comes with every mount you could imagine! Looks quite easy to clamp the heatsink down, which is good because I hate the careful-yet-forceful approach one usually has to use.

The Shuriken has some fancy PWM controls, which the motherboard I’m getting does support, so we’ll see how that goes.

Here is a pretty good review of the Shuriken, with some nice photos and noise testing, if you want to take a closer look.

Cooling, HTPC General, Hardware Cooling, quiet, Scythe Shuriken

The first thing I wanted to sort out was the enclosure for my HTPC.

The main attributes of comparison for me were:

• size (specifucally, height)
• capacity for hard drives
• aesthetics

My main desktop PC lives in an Antec P180 case, which I bought for its quietness and general design. Antec do make some cracking HTPC cases, so I looked at them first. The Fusion 430 was quite nice, but a little large I thought. The advantage is that you get full size PCI slots, but it’s a bit cumbersome. Also, the knob. I mean, I really don’t see the point. I guess it might make the case look like a hi-fi amplifier, but I wouldn’t want to have to get up to adjust the volume, and even if I could, I’d use a remote control anyway. Also, the chances are I’d be using a speaker setup which would have its own volume controls. This drew me to Antec’s Micro Fusion case, which does look nice, and is a great size, but only takes one 3.5″ hard drive which is not enough for my storage requirements.

Silverstone make some nice looking cases, but many of them seemed to need riser cards for PCI/AGP devices, which seems a bit fiddly to me. I couldn’t quite find one that did all that I wanted it to. I was warming to the idea of a VFD display, and none of the slimmer Silverstone cases had them.

There are plenty of other options - l looked at barebone systems, and nice slim systems with space for notebook optical drives - these aren’t great because I think it will be a while before I can get a notebook Blu-ray writer that won’t cost the earth. It also seems to be hard to find a small case with enough space for hard drives.

I eventually settled on the Moneual MonCaso 301. It ticks all my boxes and looks incredibly stylish. Here are some highlights:

• Space for a full size power supply, which gives me a wide choice there. 
• Low-profile PCI cards; with more and more low-profile cards (like TV tuners) becoming available this will not be a problem. No messing about with riser cards.
• Full size optical drive bay, with a bezel to keep with the case’s smart look. Not many of the HTPC cases I looked at had this.
• VFD display is an iMon display, and comes with the full iMon PAD remote. This is great because there is plenty of Linux support for both devices.
• Extra connectivity is great but doesn’t compromise the design. The 3.5″ device reads memory cards, useful for viewing digital snaps, and a firewire and USB ports, as well as stereo audio in and out. This is all hidden behind a flap which keeps the case looking sharp.
• Two internal 3.5″ drive bays, essential for my RAID intentions.

The build quality is excellent, and the case feels like it’s going to last a long time, and won’t be outdated quickly. 

I do have some gripes though:

• Price. This is the killer - it was almost £200. I think with all the functionality and great looks it is worth every penny but it’s still a financial blow!
• Optical drive bezel. You have to remove the very front bit of your drive’s tray, and replace it with this one. It has the DVD logo printed on, which will annoy me when I get a Blu-ray drive. The other problem is that it doesn’t clip on but it uses a self-adhesive strip. This could be a problem if replacing the optical drive.
• Supplied 80mm fan is noisy. I did half expect to have to replace the fan but really I expected better from such a high quality case.

Overall I’m really pleased with the Moneual. It does everything I need it to, and looks great in my lounge. I’m going to have fun configuring the display and remote control, and there’s plenty of space for expansion. One little surprise was that Moneual generously included a magnetized screwdriver with the case accessories. Nice touch!

Hopefully I’ll update this post with some images of the Moneual case.

HTPC General, Hardware Antec, fan, Moneual 301, Silverstone

I am Will.

My problem is that I have lots of digital media on my home PC, with no proper backup solution.

I decided that I needed some storage to connect to my network, with some sort of RAID configuration to act as a backup for my digital photos, music, movies, TV programmes, et cetera.

I started looking at NAS enclosures, and decided that they’re pretty expensive, and for my needs I thought I might as well build a server to host my own storage solution. One of the other things I like to do is watch movies. I often stream to my Xbox360 (it works surprisingly well over 54g since M$ released the codec update for the Xbox dashboard) but I’ve also sometimes thought that it would be nicer to have a media PC or a Mac Mini or something in my lounge.

The project is born! My basic requirements are:

• Aesthetics - It’s got to look good in the lounge, almost so you wouldn’t know it wasn’t a DVD player or PVR
• Silence - It’s got to be whisper quiet, as it will be a 24/7 file server which should not be heard at all
• High-definition media playback - It’s nearly 2009 so we need to set some standards. The hardware will need to meaty enough to play Blu-rays and high-def media smoothly
• Big, redundant storage - This is going to be my backup, so it needs reliable storage. RAID is a necessity
• Pleasant interface - This means a nice front end for my media, probably controlled with a remote control from the armchair
• Linux OS - As a Linux administrator this will be very much an academic exercise, as I’m always trying to improve my skills.
• Energy efficiency - as the server will be on 24/7 then it needs to be kind to my electricity bill. And the planet, I suppose?

Join me on my excellent adventure while I look at and compare hardware and software for this project, and document the trials and trubbulations along the way. This blog might interest you if you’re a Linux enthusiast, particularly with a/v stuff, or if you’re interested in building a quiet HTPC media center.

HTPC General aesthetics, case, digital photos, hi-def, HTPC, interface, linux, Mac Mini, NAS, power consumption, quiet, RAID, storage, Xbox360