TV Cabinet MCE PC

[steveo]

OK, well I'm kindof a noob at mods. I had a case that I painted safety yellow one day at work, but it got stolen. That inspired me to build a pc built into the side of my tv cabinet that could be bolted to the floor. So far everything is going great, and I thought I would post some pics thus far to see if anyone had suggestions. Currently I am painting the DVD drive and PSU black (will post pics later on). I'm not too sure where to go from here, I was thinking maybe making the side panel into a tank for liquid cooling? I have no experience in working with plexiglass tho.

Cheers;
Steve

http://workingforest.com/steve/images/the-box.jpg
This is the cabinet... 30$ at the local walmart

http://workingforest.com/steve/images/the-parts.jpg
Here are the parts... P4, Asus MOBO, Ati graphics, and a WinTV tuner

http://workingforest.com/steve/images/board-installed.jpg
After installing the board

http://workingforest.com/steve/images/mechano.jpg
I used some old mechano to hold the PCI cards in place

http://workingforest.com/steve/images/initial-boot.jpg
It Works nicely

[JRSCAcura]

hahaha thats awesome nice work. Before I ready the caption for the picture of the install I thought to myself "mechano".

[Luke122]

I cant see the pics..?

Edit: NVM.. I'm dumb.. and impatient.

That's a great idea actually! Definitely need some cable management in there.. not only will it look good, but it'll help with airflow if you decide to close off the side (which I think would look good with a glass/plexi door, like on a stereo stand).

Also, why not cut out a slot on the back, and rotate the board 90degrees, so the connectors all pass out the back? That'll make a huge difference for you. You could even cut a hole and mount a fan as well to help cool it. :)

Keep up the good work!

[simon275]

Pretty messy but meh hey it works. May want to seal the cabinet up and put in fan holes. As that computer is sitting in an open cabinet on carpet. So some stray static or dust bunnies is going to kill it so be careful.

:up:

[armadilloben]

pretty nice i had my old viao hooked up to my tv for a while except the onboard gfx coudlnt display nicely so i scrapped the idea but your integration is pretty cool i would say have some more venting in there cuz it might get pretty hot

[steveo]

Thank you so much for the input! I think my next move... hopefully tommorrow... is to cut up the back of the cabinet. I will rotate the psu 90 degrees so that the power cord is right off the back. Also, I've been mocking up a piece of lucite to make like an input board on the back with all the female connecters i will need. There's some old plexiglass at my shop the boss is throwing out so that'll be my side too. More of that in the next couple days hopefully. Here are some pics of the new paint job.

http://workingforest.com/steve/images/painted-side.jpg
Painted the psu and cdrom.

http://workingforest.com/steve/images/front.jpg
Cut a hole in the front with the dremel for the stock power button from the old case. I cut it a little too big so used the lucite from the case.

[GT40_GearHead]

why don't you rotate the the mobo 90deg in any way, so the vga cable would go side ways along with the other backpanel conections, it would look much cleaner

though it looks preaty good in the last pic :D

congrats

+ rep for a good start

[cbelmo159]

Wire management, but still a good job and sweet idea

[ReignInPain]

Looks nice! Did you just screw the motherboard straight into the wood?

[steveo]

why don't you rotate the the mobo 90deg in any way, so the vga cable would go side ways along with the other backpanel conections, it would look much cleaner


The main reason why I left the mobo like that is so all of my cables would reach without problems. Also, I'm using s-video.


Did you just screw the motherboard straight into the wood?

Sure did. I used the stock spacers, and a couple wood screws. There wasn't quite enough room for the PCI cards, so I took out my buck knife and carved out a place for them to sit.

As for the cable management, i think that this will help out big time:
http://workingforest.com/steve/images/back-panel.jpg

Also, I'm pretty serious about liquid cooling this beast. It started overheating like mad when I put a temporary wooden side on it, had to add an old P1 cpu fan to the chipset for a quick fix. Are there any suggestions? I've never done it before. I was looking at the Big Water 735 from Thermaltake...

[steveo]

Cable Management.... check:
http://www.workingforest.com/steve/images/cable-management.jpg

Crafted it out of some old lucite.... Liquid cooling has been ordered and should be in soon hopefully

[armadilloben]

The main reason why I left the mobo like that is so all of my cables would reach without problems. Also, I'm using s-video.



Sure did. I used the stock spacers, and a couple wood screws. There wasn't quite enough room for the PCI cards, so I took out my buck knife and carved out a place for them to sit.

As for the cable management, i think that this will help out big time:
http://workingforest.com/steve/images/back-panel.jpg

Also, I'm pretty serious about liquid cooling this beast. It started overheating like mad when I put a temporary wooden side on it, had to add an old P1 cpu fan to the chipset for a quick fix. Are there any suggestions? I've never done it before. I was looking at the Big Water 735 from Thermaltake...

well i could easily told u that the thing was going to turn into a furnace lol ure still gonna need some way to get air from out of the case even with the big water 735 because the the rad fan needs cool air it will just expell hot air and take in hot air making your wc setup a whole bunch of heatsinks with tubes

[steveo]

well i could easily told u that the thing was going to turn into a furnace lol ure still gonna need some way to get air from out of the case even with the big water 735 because the the rad fan needs cool air it will just expell hot air and take in hot air making your wc setup a whole bunch of heatsinks with tubes

Yeah, it did exactly what I expected it to by overheating, afterall there's no fresh air goin in. I think that I'll end up mounting the rad externally on the back, and putting in a duct for one internal fan running at 5v

[Mitternacht]

Haha, liquid cooling? I hope it'll keep a 6-pack cool, too. You know, when gametime comes. :up:

Edit: w00t! 400 posts

[steveo]

Haha, liquid cooling? I hope it'll keep a 6-pack cool, too. You know, when gametime comes. :up:

Edit: w00t! 400 posts

LOL, well I've always got a 2-4 in the fridge in my kitchen...

I got a delivery today. It was my bigwater. So after 60$ in duty :mad: it was mine. Oh well, broke even with the canadian price. Now to get it plumbed up and running. Still waiting on a chipset water block so pics will be next week some time.

[SgtM]

Nice. +rep