Can't decide between two cases

I had to make essentially the same choice, also liked the ML03, but my full-height Colossus card wouldn't fit, so I chose the GD04 (same case as the GD05 but with the "stealth" optical drive cover. In my view it looks much better and more "finished" when done than the GD05. I recommend you look at that rather than the GD05).

I think the Ceton is half height so it will probably fit in the ML03. And you can probably cool it ok. But with heat comes noise. And it is inevitable that three 80mm fans will be noisier than three 120mm fans while moving less air. Indeed, you're planning on FOUR fans plus a PSU fan. Good luck on keeping that quiet.

Also, not sure about the ML03, but I'd recommend against a modular PSU on the GD04/05. The cables tend to stick out farther on modular cases, and in those cases you need to bend the cables pretty quickly because the space between the PSU and hard disk is limited. It's more important, in my view, that you pick a 5.5" deep PSU rather than a 6" one than it is that you eliminate unnecessary cables. That extra half inch in between the PSU and hard disk makes it easier to build, and there is enough room to store unused cables. Cable storage room may be more critical and argue for a modular in the ML03, but someone who has used it would know better.

BTW, I use a FSP Aurum Gold 400 PSU in my GD04. Works great.

I also recently went through the same thing and decided on the GD04B. Received it earlier this week and it looks very nice (and it's less expensive then the GD05B).

Have you considered this Silverstone case. If the Silverstone power supply will work with the ML03 there shouldn't be any problem with size. Only problom could be where your cards are positioned on the motherboard and the drive bays getting in the way.

The problem with the case you just suggested DJWikiera is that it says that if you plan on installing a 120mm cooler, then you can't have an optical drive, and a bluray/hddvd drive is almost manditory for an htpc unless you plan to rip everything (from another computer) and stream it.

I'd go for the taller one that allows more space for heatsink. Using a tower computer case myself for the HTPC.

Though I've no direct experience I believe that it is a height issue since the drive is over the CPU. Per the specs for 05 anything less than 70mm should be ok. So a Scythe Big Shurken should work. That was my plan anyway.

Barring that you could look at the Lian Li C50 which has the drive on the opposite side, though it has a shorter length for Gfx cards.

td

tvted, i may have read it wrong. I was citing this:


But now I see that it was probably referring to HEIGHT and not width (I've got a case of the Saturdays )

The Lian-Li also looks pretty bada***, I've seen it before, but I'm concerned that it has no reviews anywhere. Being it that I'm a n00b, I'm afraid to buy something w/ no reviews. (that, and it's expensive and comes with no fans)

If you feel at all concerned the Antec Fusion Remote might be the bees' knees. For me I didn't want to deal with an IMON based solution for a remote.

td

I rebuilt my theatre HTPC a couple months ago using the silverstone GD04 case with the same modular power supply and everything went well, nice and quiet with good air movement and easy cable management. I also like the fact that there is a mount for my ssd drive.

I am picking up the silverstone milo case at the border this afternoon to rebuild my livingroom HTPC and will be using the antec green 380w power supply so can post on that build tomorrow if you like.

sms2, beware, I've heard several people complain about that PSU, and antec in general.

When you mentioned it, I decided to double check on newegg. There's at least 6 people complaining about DOA products.

What do you guys think about the ML03B vs the GD04 when adding a GTX 460? I have an extra 460 lying around and may want to put that in the HTPC?