MythTV HTPC

This for the NES pc, or another project?

But at any rate, beige boxes are both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, people like us can't stand them and are the whole reason behind why we mod - on the other hand, they're blank canvases for us to work on. All these "pre-modded" cases out there are making it harder and (ironically) more expensive to get plan boxes to work on.

ADDITIONAL MINI-KINDA-UPDATE: I have now decided that this case is going to be silver rather than black. I put the in-process case in the entertainment center where it will live, and see that (aside from the TV) more things are gray than black...so, as cool as it would look itself, it just won't look right with everything else.

The ones that seem really hard to find are ones with nice, flat fronts - no air intakes, or molded curves...you know, so you can make your own air intakes and molded curves. :lick:

Another micro-mini update: I'm still waiting on some parts, so work is some-what on hold. As mentioned, I wanted to add some USB ports to the front, so I'm awaiting those hookups. I ordered that cable, plus some impulse buys of fan-filters, rubber case feet and a needed fan cable from FrozenCPU on Friday. The package actually arrived yesterday, which is fast and appreciated, but - wrong USB cable. It was a simple mistake on their part, and they were more than helpful in getting it resolved. I just need to wait a little while more for the part. No biggie.

This is giving me a chance to go back over the project and tweak a few parts that I wasn't happy with. So, really, things work out. It's always good to be forced to slow down and take another look at things.


One other note: Luke122's comment below made me a bit paranoid :rolleyes:, so, since the system itself is working, I watched some TV last night with all the fans hooked up. Being that they aren't in the case, they were brighter than they'll be in the finished project. Thankfully, they didn't distract me at all. So that's good.

Hey! We're back! Someone spill coffee on the servers?

At any who, here is this morning's update:

As I had mentioned before, waiting for parts gave me a chance to redo some parts I wasn't pleased with. The main part of importance was redoing the fan hole on the chassis.

I didn't care for how the fans would mount, nor the solidness of it, so I put a piece of metal in and remarked the holes.

Here it is, cut with fans mounted (with and without bezel):

Here, I temporarily put the nose cones on. I stuck them loosely with tape. (You can tell this by the fact that the lower one started to fall off right as I snapped the picture.)

Okay...nose cones removed again, it was time to test fit the whole system before I paint it. It is certainly a tight fit getting it all in there. In fact, I ended up ordering a shorter, round IDE cable to allow better air-flow.

So, everything in place and closed up, and here we go:

Now, as soon as I get the gumption to take everything back out, I can get it ready for paint!

Hey all! For those of you still reading, welcome to another weekend update!

The end is in sight, and things are progressing very swiftly. This weekend, I actually began on painting. First off is the chassis. If you remember, here is where we left it:

Most of the upper part of the back is sanded Bondo, which I am hoping will be blended with the metal when painted. After using compressed air to plow off the dust, and a quick cleaning with glass cleaner, I applied a few coats of self-etching primer to the chassis.

Not too shabby - and, yes, the bondo section is getting covered nicely. For the main color of the chassis, I decided to go with black. This is mainly because I had originally wanted to do the whole thing in black, but it wouldn't match the other equipment where it was going to live. Since I had a can of black paint, and no one would see it, I figured - what the heck?

It's unfortunate that no one is going to see it, because I think it looks quite good. Here is a shot of it with the front fans mounted with rubber vibration grommets.

I thought that it might work better if I split this update in to a few sections.

Another part that I took care of today was the spinners for the turbine fans. Here they are, roughed up to aid adhesion.

No, I didn't paint them red - that just happens to be the last color I painted on this rack.

Primer:

Final color:

There we go, they're ready to go. I'll probably attach them to the fans tomorrow.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Luke122

Are the fans touching in the middle?

Looks great in black, I still think you should go ahead with the build in black, since the finished product will look somewhat like a subwoofer, it would be good place down beside the stand, rather than on it.

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First question: No, the fans are not touching. There is a slight gap between them, as that was needed in order for the them to line up with the duct work on the front bezel.

As for the second question, it's funny that you should mention a sub woofer - that's actually the reason that I had decided to make it silver, as my woofer is silver. :)

Sorry for the horrendous picture...My camera doesn't take good ones from across the room:

Next chunk is the outer panels. Here is theyare , sanded, cleaned and ready to go:

After a light coating, certain imperfections become more clear and then need to be fixed with spot putty:

This was true of both pieces, but after a little work, a full coat of primer is applied:

Finally for this weekend, the bezel.

Like the side panels, it needed some work before-hand with some spot putty.

Also, it need some modification to add a "light bar" I put together for the HDD and power LEDs:

I had originally planned to make these a part of a unit containing USB ports, but after looking at the cable when it arrived, I decided that it was going to be too much work and more complicated than I wanted to get in to for a projec that really didn't need them.

Here it is with hole cut and bar inserted:

Then, the bar is trimmed down to fit:

...and some more spot putty to fill in around the edges...

Don't worry, the putty comes off the plexi rather easily:

After that, I placed some carefully trimmed tape over it and gave it the first coat of primer:

Once again, some more pock marks and such appeared after this coat, so I patched them up.

And that's about it for this weekend. There will be some more work during the week, most likely, and I will keep you all posted.

Yay! More updates.



We're in the home stretch here.

Currently, the glue is drying on the nose cones, as I attached them to the fans. First step was to remove the stickers from them.

After that, it was a simple matter of eye-balling them and centering them on the fan.

Returning to the painted panels. Here they are, one painted silver and one still silver:

I painted the other and left them sit to dry. Then, it was back to the bezel:

All patched up and prepped for paint.

I added another coat of primer, and then several coats of silver:

NOTE: A trick of the light sure makes the part of the bezel in the lower side of the picture look dented. I assure you - it is not.


Final touch-up and assembly is all that is left.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by nevermind1534

Well, it's a little painful stopping back on dial-up with all the pics to load.

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Well, lucky for you, I have some more!


Here's a few last "work" pics.

The final touch to the top panel was to add the silencing grommets and the U-channel.

A little tip: I like to use a few dabs of super glue to the u-channel. Helps keep it on the case while you're going around a tight turn - like an 80mm fan hole.

And here are a few shots of the "guts" being put in to the case:

I must say, I'm a fan of the black chassis. At least the next project in the pipeline can be all black...