building first htpc

[emo-neo]

hi im building my first htpc
and as i am short of cash i am using an old pioneer amp
i was just wondering how hard is this going to be to do
i know i will need an agp riser card
but is there any other problems i may come across?

[tybrenis]

First off, welcome to the boards! I think you will find the community very helpful, everyone here is friendly and quite eager to help out a fellow modder.

Your project sounds pretty neat, if I read your post correctly then you're planning to use an old pioneer amp as a case for a HTPC? That sounds like a pretty cool project, and very doable.

Pictures are always helpful, if you could post some pictures of the case and maybe give us some dimensions than we can help you a ton.

[emo-neo]

well i havent gutted the amp yet as i didnt know if it was doable
but the measurements are w:41 cm d:30cm h:8.5 cm
will this take a standard atx board?
it looks like it would
also i dont know how to post pics on here.
thanks

[tybrenis]

Could you give me the dimensions in US units? ATX size is roughly 12 x 9.5" I believe, but that's not exact.

Here is a guide I just wrote on posting pictures:

http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/forum/showthread.php?t=6360

[emo-neo]

w:16" D:13" H:7.25"
sorry i forget about imperial and metric

[tybrenis]

Sounds like it should work all right. My only worry would be fitting a power supply + cd drives + hard disks in there. A motherboard, no problem. But it'll be a tight fit for a whole computer. Once again... pics would be great.

[emo-neo]

sorting out the pics now
i was thinking of keeping the power supply outside of the case in a custom built enclosure ( like a power brick)
and possibly a slimline dvd burner

[emo-neo]

http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s318/emo-neo/Image008.jpghttp://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s318/emo-neo/Image007.jpghttp://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s318/emo-neo/Image006.jpghttp://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s318/emo-neo/Image005.jpg

[.Maleficus.]

If you're worried about space and want it for just a HTPC, you could go Mini ITX instead of ATX. Probably save some money too.

[jdbnsn]

Looks like a tight fit, probably can't get an ATX power supply in there as is. I would consider extending the height or making it a separate component to stack it one where you can stash lager components. Evere see those Harmon Kardon "pre-amp sitting on a bigger amp" setup? That would look nice! I couln't find the exact look I remember from what I was thinking, but here are some similar setups (the one I had in mind was very simple yet elegant on the face, black-painted brushed steel with only a blue LED power light)

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f395/jdbnsn/misc/harmankardonhk1400.jpg

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f395/jdbnsn/misc/xx-xxpr1.jpg

[d_stilgar]

I would suggest going with a 1U PSU. They are small, and you would have to build in a way to mount an ATX PSU anyway, so go with a 1U PSU, like this:

http://www.rackmountmart.com/ps/ups.htm

[progbuddy]

Mini-ITX would fit. Also, a nice custom logo would look cool.