I believe that I found my case. They do have a stock problem. If you see any potential problems let me know. Thanks for commenting on the optical drive on the other case. I don't know whether there are slim friendly UHD drives available?
1. https://www.amazon.com/Razer-Tomahawk-M ... PMRTG?th=1
2. https://www.amazon.com/Cooler-Master-Tr ... B08G3PMRTG
3. https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/ ... html/specs
4. https://www.silverstonetek.com/product. ... 41&area=en
Going over what we discussed yesterday, I found that I like this case #4. You are probably shocked to hear this seeing tht I bought the dvd enclosure. I have other thoughts on that and I like to keep spares around too.
Right now I like the coolmaster and the silverstonetek and my final case will be eighter one of these two.
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What would make a good UHD HTPC
Re: What would make a good UHD HTPC
Last edited by Jamie on Sat Jan 02, 2021 6:05 pm, edited 5 times in total.
Re: What would make a good UHD HTPC
Hey Jamie, I'm confused. The 2nd case you linked to didn't have a position for an optical drive at all, and this latest case has another slot load only.
Since you mentioned you were wanting to make a UHD HTPC, I assume that means you want a "friendly" UHD drive, which I don't think you can find in slot load. Perhaps you don't care about the drive, or Blu-ray is good enough?
Regarding this last case, that is a fanless heatpipe case, which requires very specific motherboards with a CPU socket in the right place. They are nice, but that may further limit your options. If you go this route, definitely make sure you are choosing a compatible motherboard/CPU. Intel may be the only option, but I don't think that's a huge problem if you're chasing HDR in PowerDVD 20.
Since you mentioned you were wanting to make a UHD HTPC, I assume that means you want a "friendly" UHD drive, which I don't think you can find in slot load. Perhaps you don't care about the drive, or Blu-ray is good enough?
Regarding this last case, that is a fanless heatpipe case, which requires very specific motherboards with a CPU socket in the right place. They are nice, but that may further limit your options. If you go this route, definitely make sure you are choosing a compatible motherboard/CPU. Intel may be the only option, but I don't think that's a huge problem if you're chasing HDR in PowerDVD 20.
President, Chameleon Consulting LLC
Author, Chameleon MediaCenter
Author, Chameleon MediaCenter
Re: What would make a good UHD HTPC
Hi Paul.
I am going to be adding choices in the "I think I found my case post in order to keep stuff together. I now realize the Case # 1 is a slot load and so it's out of the running. I thought the the FH drive bay could be used a a Optical drive bay but now looking at a picture the bay might only be 3 1/2"
A optical drive would be a nice to have but not necessary.
You mentioned that you are currently building a new HTPC. Could you share the specs? especially the case? Coud you give some advice on what sites you surfed in order to find a case? The case is a problem that needs to be solved first and I am just treading water with these sites I'm searching. I don't want a regular size PC but I do want an option to put a GPU inside. If powerdvd doesn't work for the Nvidia card, I will work with Jriver as suggested by a member on the foxy forum. That means playing with Madvr. I will probably need a GPU no matter what..
Jamie
I am going to be adding choices in the "I think I found my case post in order to keep stuff together. I now realize the Case # 1 is a slot load and so it's out of the running. I thought the the FH drive bay could be used a a Optical drive bay but now looking at a picture the bay might only be 3 1/2"
A optical drive would be a nice to have but not necessary.
You mentioned that you are currently building a new HTPC. Could you share the specs? especially the case? Coud you give some advice on what sites you surfed in order to find a case? The case is a problem that needs to be solved first and I am just treading water with these sites I'm searching. I don't want a regular size PC but I do want an option to put a GPU inside. If powerdvd doesn't work for the Nvidia card, I will work with Jriver as suggested by a member on the foxy forum. That means playing with Madvr. I will probably need a GPU no matter what..
Jamie
Re: What would make a good UHD HTPC
The HTPC I put together for Aileen is not a HTPC case. It's just an HP off the shelf that met almost all the requirements I had: https://www.officedepot.com/a/products/ ... op-PC-AMD/
I see the price has already gone up, I was able to get it for $400. At that price, it was cheaper than the parts, plus parts were almost impossible to locate in time for Christmas. But ultimately, that PC's 3400G is a little weak in the GPU horsepower department. I wanted a Ryzen 4000 series (bought one for my mother recently, very nice performance), but for some reason AMD has highly limited availability in the US of the 4xxx series APU's. The one I got my mom was both more expensive and had silver/gray elements, so I preferred the HP's black case for a pseudo HTPC case. Since it was just going in her office and somewhat hidden, aesthetics were not the primary concern.
I did make sure that the drive was a replicable slim-tray unit, as playing physical 4K discs was a must-have feature for her.
It would have been smarter for me to buy Intel for this PC, probably would have been cheaper, plus full compliance with SGX & HDR for PowerDVD. But for personal reasons, I always choose AMD over Intel if I have a choice. Even though that's the choice I made, I don't recommend you do the same.
I see the price has already gone up, I was able to get it for $400. At that price, it was cheaper than the parts, plus parts were almost impossible to locate in time for Christmas. But ultimately, that PC's 3400G is a little weak in the GPU horsepower department. I wanted a Ryzen 4000 series (bought one for my mother recently, very nice performance), but for some reason AMD has highly limited availability in the US of the 4xxx series APU's. The one I got my mom was both more expensive and had silver/gray elements, so I preferred the HP's black case for a pseudo HTPC case. Since it was just going in her office and somewhat hidden, aesthetics were not the primary concern.
I did make sure that the drive was a replicable slim-tray unit, as playing physical 4K discs was a must-have feature for her.
It would have been smarter for me to buy Intel for this PC, probably would have been cheaper, plus full compliance with SGX & HDR for PowerDVD. But for personal reasons, I always choose AMD over Intel if I have a choice. Even though that's the choice I made, I don't recommend you do the same.
President, Chameleon Consulting LLC
Author, Chameleon MediaCenter
Author, Chameleon MediaCenter
Re: What would make a good UHD HTPC
I have always bought AMD GPU's myself. I wasn't concerned about overclocking and the NVidia card that I got with my Digital Storm PC had problems. I will probably go with Nvidia for this PC but a persuasive discussion could change my mind.
For CPUs I have always bought intel due to compatibility discussions when I bought the digital storm and the NUCs. I haven't jettisoned the NUC yet and if I could put a GPU inside I would stick with the NUC. I just think that an integrated ship will keep up with Madvr.
For CPUs I have always bought intel due to compatibility discussions when I bought the digital storm and the NUCs. I haven't jettisoned the NUC yet and if I could put a GPU inside I would stick with the NUC. I just think that an integrated ship will keep up with Madvr.
Re: What would make a good UHD HTPC
Before I bought the HP, here's what I was seriously considering:
https://www.amazon.com/SilverStone-Tech ... 954&sr=8-7
The SilverStone ML09 takes Mini-ITX motherboards, a slim-tray optical drive, and has room for two half-height and one full height expansion card. It also takes the smaller SFX size power supplies - these are readily available but make sure you get the right length (the longer one won't fit), and match the power to your CPU+GPU requirements. I would definitely plan on getting a motherboard with a M.2 NVMe SSD slot, as avoiding a 2.5" or 3.5" storage drive will definitely help in a case like this.
But this might be a little small if you are going into this expecting to install a modern video card. The problem is that finding a single-slot card that will fit this case will definitely limit your options, so make sure you research this before choosing a case like this.
If you decide this case is too small, you probably want to step up to a Micro-ATX case.
Silverstone's GD05 offers a full-size 5.25" drive bay, so that's pretty nice: https://www.silverstonetek.com/product. ... 41&area=en
And Silverstone's GD04 trims a few millimeters and offers a slim-tray slot, and is also available in silver: https://www.silverstonetek.com/product. ... 33&area=en
Probably the biggest thing you need to keep in mind with these cases in the CPU cooler. When an optical drive is installed, this limits what size (height) and shape CPU coolers will fit, as both of these cases have the drive above the CPU area.
- image.png (484.66 KiB) Viewed 8872 times
The SilverStone ML09 takes Mini-ITX motherboards, a slim-tray optical drive, and has room for two half-height and one full height expansion card. It also takes the smaller SFX size power supplies - these are readily available but make sure you get the right length (the longer one won't fit), and match the power to your CPU+GPU requirements. I would definitely plan on getting a motherboard with a M.2 NVMe SSD slot, as avoiding a 2.5" or 3.5" storage drive will definitely help in a case like this.
But this might be a little small if you are going into this expecting to install a modern video card. The problem is that finding a single-slot card that will fit this case will definitely limit your options, so make sure you research this before choosing a case like this.
If you decide this case is too small, you probably want to step up to a Micro-ATX case.
Silverstone's GD05 offers a full-size 5.25" drive bay, so that's pretty nice: https://www.silverstonetek.com/product. ... 41&area=en
- image.png (134 KiB) Viewed 8872 times
And Silverstone's GD04 trims a few millimeters and offers a slim-tray slot, and is also available in silver: https://www.silverstonetek.com/product. ... 33&area=en
- image.png (115.98 KiB) Viewed 8872 times
- image.png (94.56 KiB) Viewed 8872 times
Probably the biggest thing you need to keep in mind with these cases in the CPU cooler. When an optical drive is installed, this limits what size (height) and shape CPU coolers will fit, as both of these cases have the drive above the CPU area.
President, Chameleon Consulting LLC
Author, Chameleon MediaCenter
Author, Chameleon MediaCenter
Re: What would make a good UHD HTPC
I found a dream NUC but currently it is out of my price range. Too bad!!!
https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/intel-nuc ... ost-canyon
https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/intel-nuc ... ost-canyon
Re: What would make a good UHD HTPC
I recently learned in the past few days that the developer for madVR primarily uses nVidia GPU's for development and in their own ENVY product. For that reason alone, an nVidia GPU is the wisest choice for madVR use. Additionally, if your budget allows, a RTX class (20x0 or 30x0) class GPU might be extra nice, as those include Tensor cores which could be leveraged for extra-powerful graphics processing in a future madVR release (or so a birdy told me).
I also recently saw a product leak that nVidia might be releasing a RTX 3050 as an entry level RTX board, which has really caught my attention. I ordered a GTX 1650 for Aileen's PC, as that was the best low-power GPU I could find, and nVidia never released an RTX 2050. If your budget allows, a RTX 3060 would be real nice, but I think that's a $400 video card and probably over delivers for your madVR needs.
President, Chameleon Consulting LLC
Author, Chameleon MediaCenter
Author, Chameleon MediaCenter
Re: What would make a good UHD HTPC
Yeah, that's a real nice NUC, top of the line. It's really intended for gaming, overkill for HTPC use.Jamie wrote: ↑Fri Jan 01, 2021 2:29 pm I found a dream NUC but currently it is out of my price range. Too bad!!!
https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/intel-nuc ... ost-canyon
To keep you focused, if you want to use PowerDVD 20 with HDR, definitely confirm that HDR works with nVidia first, otherwise you need to plan on using an Intel CPU's integrated graphics.
Not only is HDR support broken on AMD, it's worse than broken. When I played one of the 4K discs, it popped up and said HDR wasn't available, did I want to play without HDR. I said yes, and then the disc menus showed and they were still in HDR, all I had was white blobs where the menu text should have been. It was completely unreadable and unusable. For me, having the option to use disc menus and access bonus content is a major requirement - something you can't do with MPC. Perhaps JRiver works with menus? I hope to have an answer on PowerDVD 20 + nVidia HDR support in a week or so.
President, Chameleon Consulting LLC
Author, Chameleon MediaCenter
Author, Chameleon MediaCenter
Re: What would make a good UHD HTPC
The razer Tomahawk is nice too. The NUC and Razr PCs came out last CES. Maybe the prices will go down for these models?? Too good to hope for??
https://www.theverge.com/2020/12/4/2215 ... rice-specs
https://www.theverge.com/2020/12/4/2215 ... rice-specs