Looking for advice on a case. How about these?

If the feedback is good on the seller (forgot to look), there is no issue with it coming from asia. A lot of cheaper misc stuff made in those parts have become available for sale directly from that region weather it be ebay, or other sites such as dealextreme and such. The big downside is it usually takes weeks to get your stuff. Sometimes the price difference is worth the wait if you dont need it right away, but otherwise look for US sellers and decide if the increased cost is worth getting it faster.


Anyhow, those 2 cases are different animals, with 1 being mATX and the other ITX, so first and foremost it depends on the form factor you want to build. As far as motherboards go, cost will be similar, but mATX will give you WAY more options. That said, #2 would be the safer bet being a known brand, good layout for ITX, etc...I would just expect it to be all around better quality. At the same time though, case #1 is only $30, so if you like the style of it that much it could still be worth getting as it would be no big loss if it turned out to be junk.

I've got this case and I really like it:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811204035
It looks really good sitting beside my receiver. It holds a ton of hard drives, I actually had 6 stuffed in there at one time but then got an external box because I was always swapping drives out. I've got an HD 6850 card which fits perfectly; don't know how much bigger you could go but really the 6850 is probably a little overkill for what you'd need for an HTPC anyway. Also, I've got a full ATX board which is nice for expandability. There is an optional LCD display you can purchase for it, but I'd didn't want the extra light since the case sits under my screen so I can't comment on how that works. It's probably a little bigger than the ones you were looking at, but that also means you'll be able to fit the ATX size board and will have the extra room to work with.

Edit:
Sorry, I posted the link for the Micro-ATX version. Here is the one I have:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811204037

Check assassin's faq.. but itx is the smallest and has the least number of expansion and or memory slots.

+1. Also they have usually have less SATAII/SATAIII connections than m-ATX or ATX.

Nope. You can even add an external cable card tuner if you want.

Its going to be harder to find than with a standard PSU but you should be able to.

BTW I would buy it here.
http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?...d91825b016afb7

I just saved you about $25.

You can always replace it with a picoPSU. The $25 Assassin saved you would go a long way towards one.