[ages_devil]

hi,

i'm going to buy either one of them for an htpc i wanna build, my problem is that i like the silverstone more but i'm afraid of the psu and dvd not to fit (bit-tech review said it's tight and things might not fit and i read on AVS that normal sized DVD RW and PSU might not fit or will be extremely hard to fit them in the case)

is the nmediapc 5000b any good ? i'm going to ship them to egypt so these 2 are my only options because of the shipping costs .. the nmediapc 5000b will cost me about 680 EGP while the silverstone ML03 will be 615 EGP (both prices including shipping and customs)

The HTPC will probably has AMD A6 , 4gb ddr3, Thermaltake Smart m450w 80 PLUS , Samsung DVD-RW, DVB card, 1TB HDD ... haven't decided which mobo yet.

so which one should i get ? are there any other good cases within the same price range (and weight) ?

 

[renethx]


Check SilverStone Strider Essential 400W SST-ST40F-ES; its cable with 4 SATA connectors supplies power to all of 1 x optical drive, 1 x SSD and 2 x HDD, as if the PSU is designed for ML03. If the depth of the optical drive is

 

[Zon2020]

I don't own and thus can't answer your question about fitting the psu and optical drive in the ML03 (nice case, by the way), but I can tell you that your PSU is very deep and is going to create problems in a small case. ATX psus are all 150mm x 86mm, but the depths vary, and that one is very deep at 160mm. Many other very good comparably powered PSUs like the SeaSonic S12II 380B, FSP Aurum Gold 400, or the Antec EarthWatts EA-380D are only 140mm deep. That 20mm difference is HUGE in a case like that.


In a small case you also need to trade off the advantage of wire storage in using a modular psu with the reality that modular wires tend to stick out a little farther before they can be turned and thus sometimes it's better to use a non-modular psu and just deal with the extra wires.


If you really want to solve your size problem and still use the ML03, might I suggest considering using an SFX power supply instead of an ATX, such as the SeaSonic SS-350SFE, the FSP 300-60GHS-R, or perhaps even the Silverstone ST45SF. They are all 80+ Bronze certified, they are MUCH smaller, and I believe they all come with a bracket to mount in the ATX-size mounting hole.


Perhaps someone else here who has built in the ML03 can comment on the use of the optical drive and perhaps the use of an SFX PSU in that case.

 

[Ruiner]

I'm currently using an A6-3500 system in the 5000b.

The 5000b was cheap (

 

[JGFreeh]



Quote:
Originally Posted by ages_devil  /t/1416803/nmediapc-htpc-5000b-or-silverstone-ml03#post_22153638


hi,

i'm going to buy either one of them for an htpc i wanna build, my problem is that i like the silverstone more but i'm afraid of the psu and dvd not to fit (bit-tech review said it's tight and things might not fit and i read on AVS that normal sized DVD RW and PSU might not fit or will be extremely hard to fit them in the case)

is the nmediapc 5000b any good ? i'm going to ship them to egypt so these 2 are my only options because of the shipping costs .. the nmediapc 5000b will cost me about 680 EGP while the silverstone ML03 will be 615 EGP (both prices including shipping and customs)

The HTPC will probably has AMD A6 , 4gb ddr3, Thermaltake Smart m450w 80 PLUS , Samsung DVD-RW, DVB card, 1TB HDD ... haven't decided which mobo yet.

so which one should i get ? are there any other good cases within the same price range (and weight) ?

Honestly, if that was all I was putting in a system, I would go with a mini-or-micro atx format. I have the 5000B, but I kind of regret not going smaller.

 

[renethx]


5000B is a microATX case ... yes, it's much bigger than ML03.

 

[JGFreeh]



Quote:
Originally Posted by renethx  /t/1416803/nmediapc-htpc-5000b-or-silverstone-ml03#post_22153901


5000B is a microATX case ... yes, it's much bigger than ML03.

Yea, large enough that I forgot it was microatx. lol.

 

[KevBel]

I recently built my first HTPC using the ML03B and I'm quite satisfied with the case!

I can measure the room you'd have between the ODD and PSU tonight.

 

[ages_devil]

the problem is i'm stuck with whatever PSUs available in Cairo (you can find them in this link ) and it can not exceed 300EGP because of the tight budget and I can't order a PSU with the case as it will cost me a lot in shipping

and because there are no HTPC cases here i decided to buy one online so the 2 i mentioned before fits my budget (and are around 10 pounds so i will only pay about $30 for shipping)

if the silverstone will be a problem i'll go for the 5000b if there are no other alternatives within the same price range.

 

[Zon2020]



Quote:
Originally Posted by ages_devil  /t/1416803/nmediapc-htpc-5000b-or-silverstone-ml03#post_22154461


the problem is i'm stuck with whatever PSUs available in Cairo (you can find them in this link ) and it can not exceed 300EGP because of the tight budget and I can't order a PSU with the case as it will cost me a lot in shipping

and because there are no HTPC cases here i decided to buy one online so the 2 i mentioned before fits my budget (and are around 10 pounds so i will only pay about $30 for shipping)

if the silverstone will be a problem i'll go for the 5000b if there are no other alternatives within the same price range.

The Corsair CX430 is on that list at 295, it's a better power supply, and it's shorter.


I'd wait and get KevBel's measurements before deciding, if I were you.


EDIT - BTW, if you want to read about the CX430, read JohnnyGuru CX430 V2 review

 

[Ruiner]



Quote:
Originally Posted by JGFreeh  /t/1416803/nmediapc-htpc-5000b-or-silverstone-ml03#post_22153942


Yea, large enough that I forgot it was microatx. lol.

Svelte it aint. Upside, it will support reasonably tall (ergo quiet) cpu coolers and full ATX PSUs ( a plus if you're reusing old stash). It takes full height cards, but with the cooling as it is I wouldn't put a hot dGPU in it. There are better but more expensive cases.

 

[renethx]



Quote:
Originally Posted by ages_devil  /t/1416803/nmediapc-htpc-5000b-or-silverstone-ml03#post_22154461


the problem is i'm stuck with whatever PSUs available in Cairo (you can find them in this link ) and it can not exceed 300EGP because of the tight budget and I can't order a PSU with the case as it will cost me a lot in shipping

and because there are no HTPC cases here i decided to buy one online so the 2 i mentioned before fits my budget (and are around 10 pounds so i will only pay about $30 for shipping)

if the silverstone will be a problem i'll go for the 5000b if there are no other alternatives within the same price range.

 

For ML03, make sure to select a PSU with:

 

- 140mm depth (this is the standard depth of ATX PSU, some are longer than that.)

- Non-sleeved cables (stiff sleeved cables are much harder to handle inside this small case.)

 

[Zon2020]

Have you looked at the ML03 manual by the way? It's right on Silverstone's website (ML03 Manual) and says "The ML03 supports power supply with depth of up to 140mm. Power supplies with modular cables may have connectors that protrude out too much and interfere with the optical drive installation. If you must use a modular power supply, please choose the optional SilverStone TS03 slim optical drive adapter for installing a slim optical drive." So you should probably find a non-modular PSU of 140mm or less (like the Corsair or similar).


Also, you should search on YouTube for ML03 and will find quite a few videos of people building in that case. In this one, for example, it doesn't look like they had a problem installing both a PSU and optical drive, using a Silverstone ST50F-P PSU which is also 140mm deep.

 

[ages_devil]

if that;s the case maybe the CX430 is a better choice (i totally forgot about it) ... my only fear is that i order the case and try to install the components and something doesn't fit, if this happens i'll be stuck with a case i can't return

i'll wait for KevBel's measurements and will check both the cx430 and the optical drive measurements and i hope they will fit, i really like this case more than the 5000b but if something went wrong or if i couldn't find the cx430 i'll order the 5000b i guess it's not that bad even though it has less quality.

 

[Zon2020]

Really, go watch some Youtubes of builds in that case. That will show you what you need to know.