Multi Media Frenzy

[crenn]

Mod Plan Name: MultiMedia Frenzy
Modding Difficulty: Medium
Modding Skills Needed:

Common Sense
Soldering Circuits (Including soldering attachments onto fragile circuits)
Ability to make a case from scratch
Ability to find the components needed for a 'great' media PC
Ability to take circuits out of casings!Modding Description:
This mod is not for the faint hearted (I've always wanted to use that!!) as there is several mods which include modding DVD Writers to be able to tell what 'state' the DVD burner is. This will only be a concept (until I have the money and means to make it myself) but will be detailed enough to allow other people to make it them selves.

Mod Conept Art:
Coming Soon

Recommended Parts:
Medium-High Powered CPU
Mini-ITX Or Micro ITX Motherboard
TV Tuner
DVD Burner (You need to be able to mod this)
Wireless (802.11g Turbo, ie 108mbps) USB Device
Low Profile 300-480W PSU
Video Card with TV Out
GigaByte i-RAM
4-5GB Of RAM (will become clear once I start giving more details)
Bluetooth USB Dongle
More to Come...

Other Comments:
I'll be able to help anyone making this mod as long as it posible for me to do so. Stay tuned as I plan to get the concept art up (sorry if my drawings are crap) as soon as I can and I'll add more details when I have more time to put them in.

[crenn]

Sorry to revive a dead topic, but I'm going to be planning to actually do this case mod. My old Soltek computer is going to be fixed and modded for this project. I'll let you guys know more soon, plus I'll have sketches.

I'm planning a few things for this, and let's hope it all goes well.

[CanaBalistic]

Im lost. I dont think your explaining anything but a parts list... Where's the mod? What is it?

I dont need all thoes parst to mod a dvd burner...

Pictures plz

[crenn]

Not yet. It will all be explained soon. But I've finished a rough sketch of what it's like.

[crenn]

Ok, here is a rough sketch. I don't have the time currently to explain it. But I will tomorrow. Until then, have fun looking at my crappy drawings.

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y81/crenn/My%20Art%20Work/th_img008.jpg (http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y81/crenn/My%20Art%20Work/img008.jpg)

[GT40_GearHead]

bloody **** dude, you should see mine(but i dont have a scaner)

[DaveW]

bloody **** dude, you shold see mine(but i dont have a scaner)

Don't take this the wrong way, but you remind me of FPS Doug from Pure Pwnage. Or it could be the guy from Ctrl+Alt+Del. (http://www.cad-comic.com/comic.php)

-Dave

[GT40_GearHead]

Don't take this the wrong way, but you remind me of FPS Doug from Pure Pwnage. Or it could be the guy from Ctrl+Alt+Del. (http://www.cad-comic.com/comic.php)

-Dave
Q: is this a good thing or bad thing from where youre seating

ontopic
edit: are you go'na use wood or clasic metal case?

[crenn]

Will explain when I get to school.

<Will edit this post>

EDIT: Since I've finally managed to upload the pictures of the future victim, you'll see why I want to mod the case.

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y81/crenn/My%20Art%20Work/th_1768a08e.jpg (http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y81/crenn/My%20Art%20Work/1768a08e.jpg)http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y81/crenn/My%20Art%20Work/th_2aab09f9.jpg (http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y81/crenn/My%20Art%20Work/2aab09f9.jpg)http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y81/crenn/My%20Art%20Work/th_d4416305.jpg (http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y81/crenn/My%20Art%20Work/d4416305.jpg)http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y81/crenn/My%20Art%20Work/th_0adf5c6b.jpg (http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y81/crenn/My%20Art%20Work/0adf5c6b.jpg)

It's about 3-4 years old now and in poor condition. The motherboard has 2 bulging capacitors (both still haven't been repaired due to lack of parts, but will bug my parents soon enough) and won't POST but I hope to repair it and use it.

Anyway, the design (as posted above) is actually adapted from the original idea. I'll post up later the original (exams coming up soon) design. But it still holds the general idea.


are you go'na use wood or clasic metal case?

Since Aluminium is fairly easy to work with, I'll be using that.

And now, I'll talk about the mod. I plan to cut off the entire front of this case and making a new front plus extending the case or make a new one from scratch completely (Would be better in long run, but it might cost more) but the main case will be metal. The front panel is going to be 2 way Mirror Plexi (from AC Ryan if I can get some in Australia) and the front planel will be mirrored until the computer is turned on. I'll have more later when details start to be finalised. But I'll be putting into the case, 2 USB hubs to give a total of 8 USB ports. But more details to come soon! (Most likely after my Physics exam)

EDIT2: Ok, got another short break. Most of the front panel will be hidden, except for a few lines showing the buttons and drive openings. But due to the properties of the 2 way mirror plexi, most of it will still be mirrored. But in the design, you can see 'semi-dotted lines'. These are things hidden by the plexi, these including indicators lights, graphic LCD screen, drives, etc. But whenever there is a light source behind the plexi, the plexi will turn clear and show the light. I'm hoping to use black drives for this but we'll see.

At the back of the computer, it's fairly standard except for a few things. There will be extra ports (for connecting to the TV, no adapters needed) and a switch panel. The switch panel is a output selector, allowing users to switch between front and back audio.

I'll explain more later.... got class now.

[crenn]

Ok, On yet another break, and I think I've edited the above post enough times. xP

I'm currently working on the electronics in the system, including providing power to the USB hubs, and a switch so when the fan is on High, the High LED (red) will light up and the Low one will go off (so far the best design is a electromagnectic switch) but it's just a few.

I'm going to replace most things in this case, including the existing 80mm fan (which doesn't have much air flow but is loud) and replace them with new ones. One of the changes includes changing the power LED for nice colour changing LED. Should provide a nice effect for the case.

[crenn]

Ok, I've got more stuff for this.... BUT I need help in deciding if SATA to USB2.0 is decent enough to run for media drives... as I'm hoping to get a few 300GB Seagate drives... which are around AUD$139 each while a 400GB Seagate drive is a lovely $299 each.

EDIT: After a small amount of research, it is decent. And the 300GB Seagate SATAII drives are AUD$149 each, still much cheaper to get 2 of these than the $299 for the 400GB!

[crenn]

Guess what my designed has changed again for new reasons. I've realised that this old P4 mobo just won't perform very well, but I have a solution! I'm now looking at an Asus AM2 Micro-ATX motherboard, be prepared for a major change in design, including new chassis design and water cooling!

[crenn]

Ok, got a slight problem, I need to know if it's possible to use Dual PCI Risers on normal Micro ATX motherboards, one similar to:

http://www.mini-itx.com/store/?c=8#p1906

I need to know as I have about 4 PCI cards, and only 2 PCU slots to work with!

[simon275]

I saw a great USB to SATA in this months atomic magazine

They recokend they were good enough

you can buy them at

www.anyware.com.au

For mroe info and bench marks etc. buy the july issue of

Maximum Power Computing
atomic

it cost like $8.95 i have a subscription.

[crenn]

Simon, already seen it. I decided it wasn't good enough for what I wanted it to do. It's too slow compared to a good PCI SATA RAID card.

EDIT: Note, I'm already a subscriber to the Atomic magazine.

[crenn]

This is the currently and newer concept:

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y81/crenn/My%20Art%20Work/th_UltimateHTPCSketch.jpg (http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y81/crenn/My%20Art%20Work/UltimateHTPCSketch.jpg)

I've been doing rough pricing and it seems it will cost a total of AUD$15k. But that includes water cooling, LCD Display at front of case <It's a USB one>, USB Fan controllers for upto 12 Fans, etc. More details to follow, I'm in a slight depressed mood currently, which is why I'm not saying more than this.