A black desktop case? (1 Viewer)

[James Reyes]

I am looking for a black desktop (horizontal) ATX case for my HTPC. Any good places on the Net?

 

[Shayne Lebrun]

Dell.

Any case you'd like, and a can of black spraypaint.

 

[Michael D. Bunting]

I'm also looking for one of these as well.
I'm not that good w/ paint :frowning: And I'm kinda scared how it would turn out. I want it to look good/ok in my equipment rack - and If I did the spray painting - I don't think this would happen.

 

[Hugh M]

I like www.directron.com for cases and power supplies.
I've got an Antec 780B desktop which fits perfectly underneath my receiver. Its rooughly the same size as most AV receivers.
Then at avsforum there was a powerbuy organized for one of the members to make a custom HT front plate for this case. so about 150 of us got together and paid the $130 each. Its been 3 months now, and I think we are getting close to actually getting the custom retro-fits, but you never know, maybe we'll never see them.
If I do get it I will have a very sweet looking case..and I'll post some pics for you guys to see.
but anyways, the 780B isn't made anymore, but Antec does have some others, and they are good quality cases for sure.
just make sure you keep in mind the disadvantages to having a desktop case. They are usually more cramped, and heat removal is more of an issue because of the orientation.
but they are much easier to work on (at least for me, from the old school IBM PC days) and work alot better with AV and HT components and furniture.
I don't like to recommend the avsforum these days, but if you go there right now there is a thread specifically on this subject. go to the HTPC forum.

 

[Shayne Lebrun]

Heck, just go get a big enough piece of AV equipment; find a broken receiver or something, gut it, and mount your PC guts in it.

 

[Kevin T]

i say spray paint it. it's cheap and super easy. hell...go to home depot and buy a couple pieces of craft lumber and practice spray painting. it's not hard and the general rule i go by is side to side sweeps. don't go for total coverage on the first pass...usually pass one area 4-5 times for decent coverage. i promise...it's super easy. i spray painted my hp pavilion 4535 case black and gray...even too the cd burner face apart and spray painted it. now it looks like a dell computer (note: i didn't know dell was manufacturing black and gray computers until after i finished my project). give it a try and save some money for other upgrades / software.

kevin t

 

[Oscar W]

Check Color Case look in the mid-towers for most of the black cases. I have thier Neo CLassic I and really like it, very roomy inside.
There is also PC Case .
ooops. Just noticed you were looking for a horizontal case. All the ones above are towers. :b

 

[Hugh M]

there is also the option of taking the case cover to a auto-shop or somewhere else that can do some nice powder-coating.. I don't think it would cost alot for that, but then you get into the issue of having to do the buttons, and platic parts and stuff.

 

[Rob Speicher]

Link Removed
Antec SX 1030B
I have the 1030 (beige), and it's a fantastic case.
Edit - forgot that you wanted a horizontal case, sorry. This may still work if you turn it on its side, but I'd imagine that'd make inserting DVDs difficult.

 

[Ken Woodrow]

Here are some links to try:
http://www.caseoutlet.com/IPC/ct-a320/ct-a320.html Nice rackmount case in black or gold.
http://www.directron.com/blackcases.html Good source for black cases and components.
Link Removed Beautiful modded case; not sure if its available yet.
http://www.psivideo.com/pccase.htm Another superslick case; not sure about availability.
http://www.digitalconnection.com/pro...es/sr4u35x.htm A big, heavy duty industrial rackmount case from the guys at Digital Connection. Modded with sound dampening lining and quiet fans.
Just about any server case from http://www.servercases.com would work too.
- Ken

 

[DmitriP]

Hugh - Powder coating is done in an oven at 450F+.

 

[Kimmo Jaskari]

Check out the middle link up there in Hugh's list, the one with "PC Gehause" in it.

Great looking HT-styled case, 42cm wide like many stereo components and doesn't look like a typical butt-ugly PC case with external floppy drives etc.

Seems to be some issues with getting hold of one, but I'm going to try real hard to find the champagne colored version.

For motherboards, I'm getting one of the new Nvidia nForce-chipsetted ones, with built-in sound (with digital SPDIF connector), built-in networking and a built-in GeForce2 MX level graphics card.

The case takes MicroATX sized motherboards.