[leland]

I had been planning to buy or build myself a true HTPC. Would love recommendations. I know most folks here would recommend build, which is ok, but if there's something I can buy that fits my needs I would strongly prefer to not spend the time on building.

Ideally I'd have a system that is silent (biggest priority), lower on power usage, has SSD for boot/OS and a single 3.5" 4GB drive for storage. Seeking a horizontal HTPC or mini case. I have a fair amount of space (now) and can fit something less than 18w x 13d x 8h (inches). But smaller is better. Even better if I can have two 3.5" drives in the box. Use is primarily music (out to stereo) and video. No real gaming so embedded video is fine. Optical drive would be nice but isn't required.

I liked the VivoPC but annoyed that I can't use SSD + HDD nor find review of the noise levels. Alienware X51 looked perfect but noise levels appear too high for a system that I'd prefer to be silent.

If I'm going to build would love an easy build, and at least get fanless out of it. The Streacom cases look spendy, but nice. Seems like the only ones designed to also have HDD. Not sure I could use those with AMD, though.

Backup/mirror is external HDD.

[Dougie Fresh]

I've been working on getting together some HTPC barebones in this case: http://www.travla.com/product_d.php?id=0000000019 but modified to have a IR receiver where the card slot would be and to have a different power supply. It has a quiet C1007U motherboard (not fanless but quiet), 4GB of RAM and either a DVD or Blu-ray drive. It's a neat little DVD/Blu-ray player looking case and it can fit 1 x 3.5" + 1 x 2.5" drives.

I just need to find time to finish testing so I can make them available!

[leland]

Looks like a nice case, but website makes it seem like the HDD option is 3.5 or 2.5 not both.

I'd still really love something that is prebuilt and silent. Not sure why that's so very unpopular.

[Dougie Fresh]

You can put an SSD anywhere. There doesn't need to be a mount for it. A little velcro and you're set. In the modified version of the case I have, a SSD could fit where the original power supply was. I've retrofit a new power supply in a different location.