Does such a HTPC case exist?

[FuturDreamz]

you could drill or make some holes on top of where the cpu cooler would be adding more airflow, and maybe a small fan inbetween cd drive and 3.5" to increase airflow

The current hight of this system is just barely taller than the motherboard's io shield, so on formulator I have a big grill overtop the motherboard and a smaller one to the left of the motherboard.

It has four 50mm fans now, two in the front (between optical and 3.5" drives, one on the side between the optical drive and the psu, and another on top, also between the odd and the psu.
The back only has room for a small vent below the graphics card, and the psu bypasses the case and has it's own intake vent.

 

[FuturDreamz]

So I switched to a slim drive and a TFX power supply, and now it's a bit smaller while having the same power:

Dimensions: 354mm (13.9") Wide, 68.6mm (2.7") Tall, 309.5mm (12.2") Deep
That rectangle around the motherboard ports is the IO shield, making it have very little room in the back for venting.
I don't know how I'm going to mount the drives, because there's three different drives stacked on top of each other (5.25" slim, 3.5", 2.5") facing in different directions.

And internal components:

Newegg.ca - Phanteks PH-TC90LS 92mm PWM fan UFB (Updraft Floating Balance) CPU Cooler

SAMSUNG 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model MV-3V4G3D/US

Transcend TS128GSSD320 2.5" Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) Desktop Upgrade Kit

Phanteks PH-TC90LS 92mm PWM fan UFB (Updraft Floating Balance) CPU Cooler

HIS iCooler H775FN1G Radeon HD 7750 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card

Intel Core i5-3470 Ivy Bridge 3.2GHz (3.6GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 2500 BX80637i53470

ASUS P8H77-I LGA 1155 Intel H77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Mini ITX Intel Motherboard

Western Digital WD Green WD30EZRX 3TB IntelliPower 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

Vantec Thermoflow 60mm Double Ball BearingTemperature Controlled Case Fan - Model TF6025 (x3)

SeaSonic SS-350TGM Bulk 350W TFX12V modular PSU

Sony BC-5640H Slot Loading Slim Blu-Ray Combo

I'm thinking the modular PSU would be nice because I can use just the right size cables, but I don't know where to buy the cables and i don't think the PSU comes with them...

 

[Pedroc1999]

that looks good

 

[Pedroc1999]

what kind of specs do u want to run with it

 

[FuturDreamz]

what kind of specs do u want to run with it

Slim Bluray drive
350W PSU
intel i5-3470
Radeon HD 7750
8GB 1600 Ram
H77 chipset motherboard
128GB ssd
3TB HDD

I think it can run Crysis...

Turns out that this motherboard supports LucidLogix Virtu MVP, which seems to be actually pretty cool.

 

[Pedroc1999]

get the 3570k if it is in your budget, it will last longer than the 3470 in terms of needness of upgrades

 

[Pedroc1999]

may be if you can fit it get a wireless card if you need it

 

[FuturDreamz]

get the 3570k if it is in your budget, it will last longer than the 3470 in terms of needness of upgrades

I think I will; if the Virtu MVP thing works as well as claimed, then it would be good to have a decent iGP also. I'm just not sure if the phanteks cooler can handle an unlocked chip, as i need a low profile cooler to fit the case.

may be if you can fit it get a wireless card if you need it

I possibly could... but the ITX board only has one PCI Express 3.0 slot which will be used for the video card, and the case would be unshielded acrylic so i don't know how good the reception would be. I'm perfectly happy using a USb card with a stand if needed, but I would definitely prefer wired internet.

 

[Pedroc1999]

ok, as long as you dont raise the voltage for the time being the temperature between the unlocked will only be like 2-4c in difference. so if you run the chip with no overclock the temperature will be almost the same, even by raising the multiplier it will be the same, the heat comes in when you add voltage when you overclock higher. basicly you can run the chip at 3.9ghz without adding more heat, but if you want to get past 3.9-4.0 when you might need more voltage meaning more heat

 

[FuturDreamz]

I don't think I would need to overclock that much...

And the cooler should handle it fine, as reviews show it handles overclocked CPUs just fine.
So far i've got the case roughed out in formulator.
I have to figure out what size of standoffs I need before I can figure out the back, and i need to figure out how i'm going to mount the drives.

 

[Pedroc1999]

mount the drives so all the extra wires can fit inside well, also think about getting a quick release support as it will come in handy special considering the size of the case. also raise your multiplayer untill your computer doesnt start anymore, this way you can find out how much you can get without creating any more heat, it is processing power for free

 

[FuturDreamz]

mount the drives so all the extra wires can fit inside well, also think about getting a quick release support as it will come in handy special considering the size of the case. also raise your multiplayer untill your computer doesnt start anymore, this way you can find out how much you can get without creating any more heat, it is processing power for free

Yeah, a drive cage may be the best solution. I'm still figuring out how to attach it to the case.
I'm hoping to get custom power cables so I don't have to worry about excess wires as much, but I think the front cables will tuck behind the SSD just fine.

If I'm getting an unlocked CPU, then it definitely makes sense to see how high i can go. Though i think it may be more involved than that...

 

[Pedroc1999]

as far as i know all you do is raise the multiplier untill it wont boot, so raise by 1, reboot and run prime 95 10 mins, shut down, rasie multiplier again and so one untill the pc itself wont boot or the prime 95 fails. dont forget to run it before tring the overclock

 

[FuturDreamz]

But that doesn't tell me how the system runs at the higher clocks for extended times, and I'm not sure if it's guaranteed that the OS will jump to maximum clock during reboot.
My understanding is it's possible to have an unstable clock that still boots.

 

[Pedroc1999]

prime 95 will stress your cpu to its max so any errors related to unstability of an overclocked will be revealed. to check if the system has recongised the overclock use cpuz and look on the bottom left, it shows you current clock and when prime 95 is on it will show your pc's max speed

 

[FuturDreamz]

I redesigned it a bit. using only laptop drives clears up some room:

It is a little bit takke, but that allows for 80mm fans and PSUs with the optional fan on top.
Also: note it can support 5 hard drives. That should be almost as useful as 3TB drives, but you can make these drives redundant.

I'm pretty sure I can get the optical drive to not conflict with the fan.

Dimensions are:
340mm w x 87mm h x 284mm d (13"w x 3.4"h x 11" d)

 

[Pedroc1999]

Looks good. Have you thought about cable management(cuting small slabs or small vents on the bottom and getting some cable ties?

 

[FuturDreamz]

Looks good. Have you thought about cable management(cuting small slabs or small vents on the bottom and getting some cable ties?

Not really no, I'm still toying with the configuration of the components.

 

[Pedroc1999]

what is the top of the case going to be like?

 

[FuturDreamz]

I don't know. it wouldn't be entirely useful to have any windows, because the optical drive obstructs the view of the drives and the gpu faces down.