Stockist for new DIGN HV5 case...

J

John_N

Guest
After a lot of hassle and emailing the manufacturers followed by the german resellers (no resellers in the UK) I got the following links:

If you bring up this website and click on "Bezugsquellen" you will get a list of dealers. The ones who supposedly stock the HTPC will have a cross against "HTPC". The little icons to the left of the listings are hot links to the (german) websites.

http://www.amisos.de/

And here - following the trail from the above website, is a stockist who appears to be selling the DIGN HV5 for 399 euros (approx £279)

http://www.benedictus-shop.de/shop/csc_articles.php

PS. When you get on the above site, search for DIGN in the "Suchen nach " search box.

PPS. You can use http://world.altavista.com/ (babelfish translation service) to translate the entire web page so you can make sense of what is going on - type the URL into babelfish to let it translate the web site.

Rgds
John
 
And here is some further information on this case:

http://www.dignint.com/product_hv5.htm

Looks good don't you think?

I've ordered a silver one to see what it's like. According to the german site, silver is in stock with black, gold & titanium taking 2 weeks. So assuming that babelfish was up to the job hopefully I'll have one in my hands shortly...
 
It's all very nice, but a bit expensive, i'll being going for the LMP case for sure when i get some money, much cheaper, and just as good from what i've heard.
 
I like the LMP case but am presently put off by the slot-load drive which means that you have to use the noisy pioneer slot-loaders and also you can not use a DVD writer. Now I know that ltos of people will probably say the pioneer 106 slot load is not noisy - I'm just saying what I heard.

I believe that Andy Paton (LMP) is looking at a way of getting tray-load into the LMP case so then that will be a good combination.

I've spoken to Andy and he is very helpful so I wouldn't be surprised if LMP bursts into action with a mighty roar with a tray-load offering one day..

John
 
This case looks really nice, but I was put off by the thought of using the 200watt psu. Is that the only one that will fit, or do people know of others?

Andy
 
I like the LMP case but am presently put off by the slot-load drive which means that you have to use the noisy pioneer slot-loaders

There is a util that will quieten the pioneer down avail from HERE don't know if the util applies to the new 120 drive though.

This case looks really nice, but I was put off by the thought of using the 200watt psu. Is that the only one that will fit, or do people know of others?

I fitted a 350w whisper quiet Enermax PSU to my LMP case, there is no problem fitting it in either.

I've had my case for a while & i tell you it's build quality is superb.
If you just want a dedicated HCPC get one, you won't regret it :D

I did a brief write up on the LMP on my webpage check out my sig'.

I've no affiliation with LMP, i'm just a happy customer :smashin:
Fanks.
Tim.
 
Originally posted by Tim Cooper
There is a util that will quieten the pioneer down avail from HERE don't know if the util applies to the new 120 drive though.
Apparently not. I have the 120 tray loader and mailed Pioneer about it. They claimed to have no plans to get it working on the 120 series. :(

_
 
You can get the same case but badged "Accent" rather than "Dign" in the Uk.

Try http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/product.php?subcat=1

They supplied me with one a couple of months back.
Comes with IR kit but i ended up ditching it and wiring in the guts of an IRMan as works far better with girder.
 
No.

The cases above are the DIGN 3 and 4 cases. The case I'm talking about is the DIGN HV5 with the centre tray in the picture. This isn't available in the uk yet.

Note that you can get the above cases (badged accent) a lot cheaper from www.quietpc.co.uk :)

Regards
John
 
Originally posted by Tim Cooper
I fitted a 350w whisper quiet Enermax PSU to my LMP case, there is no problem fitting it in either.

I've had my case for a while & i tell you it's build quality is superb.
If you just want a dedicated HCPC get one, you won't regret it :D

Hmm,

I have a LMPC too and, while I like it a lot, especially the fascia - simple and elegant, I would not go so far as to say that it has supverb build quality.

I found it quite flexible and found that it would twist on its front to back horizontal axis. I had to bend my MoBo quite a bit to get some of the screws in and even at that, there are still some that I could not get in.

Even now, the whole MoBo seems to "slope" with PCI cards furtherest from the edge fitting perfectly but those at the side requiring a good deal of pressure to get the pins in properly due to the MoBo being that much lower down.

Also, I found that spacer wedge under the PCI slots to be very fiddly.

Having said that, though, I'd probably buy another as the layout is great and, as mentioned, the front lloks perfect. It would be nice if it was not quite as hight and supported a wider ranged of LCD units (I had to hack my inner caasing with a jigsaw to get my Matrix-Orbital to fit.

Just my 2c

Peter
 
Hi Peter,
Did you use the supplied motherboard risers? all of my cards fit perfectly bar one the capture card it was a pain to fit, the previous capture card i had fitted OK so i assumed that the new capture card was at fault. The flex on the case chassis that you mention is also on mine, i thought this was because of the "open" nature of the inside of the case where everything is easily accesible making the chassis weaker than it could have been, these minor quibbles aside i reckon it's good value for money esp' when you consider how much an original DIGN case cost & the grief some people had with build quality.
Cheers.
Tim.
 
well I've ordered the DIGN HV5 case from the german supplier above:

http://www.benedictus-shop.de/shop/csc_articles.php

and I'm just going to get it from ParcelForce in the next few days. They tried to deliver it today but of course I was at work.

Here's another picture: :)

http://www.kolbu.com/audio/htpc/dign-hv5.jpg

I gather it's available in silver, black, gold and titanium finish.

Comes with 200W quiet PSU and VFD display with IR receiver fitted.


So I think I'll do some performance/temperature measurements with my existing athlon HTPC system in the new case before I start building my new machine. Might tell me something about how the different components affect temperatures.
 
Hi John,

That is a nice looking case:smashin:

Does the dvd pop out from a pulldown/spring loaded flap or does the drawer front attach to the dvd drive drawer?

Cheers
 
It sure looks nice... I'll be very interested in reading what you think about it.
 
:smashin: Hi John S

I'll let you know what it's like when I get it. According to the screenshots here (you can click on the small pictures for an increased size shot) - the front of the DVD tray is an aluminium front which you use as a replacement for the snap-on plastic front that comes with your standard DVD drive.

This was one of the reasons I went for it rather than the LMP case, despite the fact that it has just cost me £290.. I decided that as a "one off" purchase it had to be right. I would have loved the slot load idea but no DVD writer available in slot-load and to be honest I think computer slot-loaders are set to be a rarity - meant that this was the most important issue for me. I'm looking forward to the first "blu-ray" writers to come out and of course I'm sure they will be standard tray loaders.

Anyway. When I have it set up, I'll post some pictures and a review of it for people's interest.

J
 
Hmm just showed my brother this case and now he wants it!!:laugh: may have been asked before but would like to know if the PSU is replacable?? with one a bit more powerful:confused:
 
Hmmm, the engraved DVD logo on the drawer front.:cool:
 
Unfortunately it looks like the sparkle PSU supplied is smaller than full ATX specs (40.5x81.5x150 compared to 150x85x140) shame cos this case looks nearly perfect otherwise, I just don't think 200w is enough for what I'd want :(

Looking forward to a full review though.

Owain
 
Hmm me too...would a Asus P4P800 and P42.6C be out of the question then!? :)
 
Yippee :clap:

I got it last night. I haven't had time to mess around with it but first impressions are;

a) The PSU is about half the width of a standard ATX PSU. It looks like a micro-atx PSU and the part number is a Sparkle FSP200-50SNV "with noise killer" whatever that means.

The case has space next to the PSU for an extra fan and it looks like the case <might> take a standard ATX power supply as well. I need to experiment with this. So I'm not ruling out the fact that the 200W micro-atx PSU could be replaced by an ATX one. Or even a higher-powered micro-ATX PSU come to that.

b) Fit and finish appear very nice. Front panel is thick alloy and protected via plastic membrane. Came adequately packed in polystrene and foam wrapping. The lid is held on with six small stainless countersunk screws along the left and right edges of the case. I would have prefered no fasteners personally but I don't find these too offensive.

c) It comes with a fitted VFD / IR sensor and a button marked PC / HDTV that are all wired up into a USB connector. I assume this is all accessible via software. It also comes with a bag of goodies including the alloy drive tray cover. According to the instructions you pop off the plastic tray front and replace with the alloy part. There is a strip of peel-off adhesive stuff to aid adhesion but the back of the alloy is machined into a shape that looks like it will fit around the tray - it's not just flat at the back.

d) It comes with a fitted fan on the back panel that looks to be about 60mm. Don't know how quiet it is or whether case will take a bigger one.

I haven't measured the internal height of the case yet so I don't know whether the zalman flower or the thermalright SLK800 will fit.

I'll post a full review soon along with temperatures. I need to order a few parts first though so bear with me...

J
 
:clap: :smashin: excellent!! thanks for the info John!! How long did it take for delivery? and how much did it end up costing altogether if ya don't mind me asking.
 
Hi Loafer.
The case was dispatched from Germany on Thursday and arrived here 4 days later. The main hassle was getting payment to the vendor who couldn't process my credit card for some reason. I ended up getting his bank details and IBAN (international bank account) number and performing a transfer. The funds came to 420 Euros - so the transaction came to about £295 all told. This compared to £210 I think for the LMP-PC case with fitted slot-load DVD drive (but no PSU) so it does work out dearer. But then again I liked the look and I don't plan to buy a new HTPC case very often.

My main bit of research now is on the PSU. I've found out that you can use a micro-ATX powersupply or an ATX powersupply with an ATX board. The main difference is obviously in phyiscal size and in power delivery capacity.

I've found a supplier for a 250W micro-ATX power supply but I'm going to see whether an ATX PSU will physically fit in the case as a matter of interest. It would be nice if it did because it's nice to know that you can fit a superquiet ATX PSU as an alternative.

I doubt my HTPC system will overstretch even a 200W psu because I'm planning:

asus a7v8x-x motherboard
Athlon Thoroughbred B XP2200+ underclocked and undervolted
256mb RAM
1 * seagate barracuda 120gb drive
1 * DVD+/- RW drive
1 * nebula digiTV PCI card
1 * panaflow 80mm fan
1 * radeon 9000 pro card

Nothing too flash as you can see. I just want to play the occasional quake 3 game, surf the web, watch TV and play MP3 and movies so I don't need a cutting edge system in the lounge.

My server upstairs will be upgraded with extra disks to provide the mass storage over the nextwork hence allowing me to keep just one disk drive in the HTPC. I even thought about trying to use a solid-state drive or network boot but decided against it in the end.

As I said. Pictures and full review to follow in a few days when I get the bits.
 
:(

Just had a look in the case and an ATX PSU will NOT physically fit because the motherboard is right next to it and in the way. There is quite a bit of wasted space in the case overall. AT least it should be good for airflow.

So in the unlikely event that I need more than 200W it looks like I'll be buying a 250W micro-ATX PSU or else putting a 300W fanless ATX PSU in a custom silver matching box and making a custom cable to run between the two units.

I don't think I'll have problems though.

I've just changed my mine about CPU cooler at the last minute and ordered a zalman 6000 copper flower cooler to go in there. I'm going to do some experiments with cooling i think...

Like I said. full review when parts arrive and assembly starts.
J
 
Thanks john....i'm planning a system for my brother....he has a reasonable budget and was thinking of Asus P4P800 and the 2.4C (FSB800) with 512 RAM you reckon this could be overkill...everything else was identical to yours. I can understand why he wants this case because it would look at home with his new Arcam Amp and Cd player. He plans to get sound via a decent soundcard with a budget of around £100-150...however i don't really know what decent card wouldbe suitable to output to his Arcam Amp (Stereo only use BTW)

thks
 
An M-Audio revolution can be got for about £60-70 and should give excellent sound qulaity, don't have one myself yet but they are well-regarded on here and on avsforum.com.

shame about the PSU in the Dign, is it possible to get a properly quiet microATX PSU? You don't seem to see many reviews of them.

Owain
 

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