[mythtv-users] Computer case recoomendations

Nemo Inis nemoinis at telus.net
Sat Jan 27 15:59:36 UTC 2007


On Jan 26, 2007, at 3:23 PM, Brett Kosinski wrote:

>> - Design flaw: the front plate (heavy brushed aluminium) is NOT
>> grounded. In theory this should be ok because it's covered with a
>> varnish so it's isolated from you, but in practice, the tiny recessed
>> bevels of the front panel buttons is not varnished (I guess the bevel
>> was made after the varnish had been applied).  In my carpeted
>> living-room, the computer would crash -hard- every time my finger got
>> close to the power button, whereas it had worked fine in my computer
>> lab.  After grounding the front panel, this problem disappeared.
>> Unacceptable in such an expensive case, IMHO.
>
>
> Weird, I've *never* had this problem.  I wonder if this was a bad unit?
>
It's been reported by others as well.  For example 
<http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=754651&page=1&pp=30>  
and in other reviews.
Of course, whether or not you run into the problem depends on the 
carpet in your room :-)
I had the machine setup upstairs for weeks in the lab and did not run 
into the problem.


> - Design flaw: the LCD display area indeed has space so you can add 
> your
>> own IR receiver, and it's not difficult to do.  However, the glass
>> window in front of it is covered with IR-opaque paint. Duh...
>
>
> Yeah, that ticked me off, too.  A bit of high-grit sandpaper solved 
> that
> problem, though.
>
> - Design flaw: the case ventilates extremely well, however it's a bit
>> noisier than I was led to believe by the ads.  Especially noticeable
>> during the quiet passages of a movie.  I'm thinking of  disconnecting
>> one of the two case fans (they're the source of the noise. My heatsink
>> fan is silent).
>
>
> Well, keep in mind, the fans are multi-speed.  The first thing that 
> should
> be done is to slow them down (though, make sure to monitor case temp, 
> to
> make sure ventilation is still adequate).  At top speed, they do put 
> out a
> bit of noise (though they're still remarkably quiet), however given 
> their
> diameter, you can probably run them at low speed without a problem.
>
They're both set to low speed. While you can't hear them above ambient 
noise during the day, they are audible in a quiet living-room at night 
(when I watch movies).  Though it could be that the furniture & corner 
that the computer is in accentuate the noise in my room.

> - Annoyance: there's a HUGE volume-type button on the front of the case
>> that I can't use because there is no Linux driver for it and no
>> information is available (that I could find)  to write one.
>>
>
> This works just fine in Linux.  It shows up as an imon IR receiver, 
> and so
> you can use lirc to receive events from it.  See this thread for 
> details:
>
> http://www.mythtvtalk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3280
>
>
Thanks for that, I missed it!





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