Project: Obsidian: A Scratchbuild "HTPC"

[Cheron]

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2295/...fe46f3.jpg?v=0

Hi I am Cheron, this is not my first case I mod. But it will be my first Scratch build case. I have been a ghost on this forum for about 4 years, And loved what I have seen and learned here. Its my turn to give something back.

To the point. I wanted to build a HTPC for a longtime, and never really had an Idea of what it should look like. but now things have changed. I don't have renders like some of you, but I have made drawings. For now I would like to show you what I have done so far.

Obsidian

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2302/...ca3d29.jpg?v=0

Short overview of the hardware:

• Main board: An old Msi Board K8N Neo2
• CPU: AMD 64 4000+
• RAM: 2Gig kingston (didnt know I had it, but was still on the board)
• GFX: NV 8500 hdmi passive cooled
• PSU: Seasonic S12 350 watt (should be enough)

Some pictures of Fabrication
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2103/...eda55d.jpg?v=0
Some fresh sheeds of styrene from my local hobby shop. Those will make up the base.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2338/...5e8d1d.jpg?v=0
After I added some constructional support. I started to bondo it to make it a bit smoother.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2004/...b9ff6b.jpg?v=0
After a lot of sanding it became smooth (and i mean a lot of sanding)http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2061/...cec402.jpg?v=0
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2352/...a6c2e6.jpg?v=0some work on the side panels which I cut using a scroll saw.

The next part needs some explaining.

I trying to make this PC as silent as possible. Therefor I have a lot of passive coolers inside this case eventually. Airflow is important so I thought this out.(I hope you can see it in the drawing) http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2369/...d12711.jpg?v=0 It's a tunnel to redirect airflow to where its needed. (I hope it works)
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2050/...01f38d.jpg?v=0Here you see an fried MSI MB Due to Some stupid water cooling mistakes. But that makes it an ideal mock up board. The hard drive is for mock up too. As you can see on the right side. there are the first pieces of the tunnel. the marks on the left strip are future openings where air can flow in.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2101/...6ceb64.jpg?v=0Glued the sides to the base after I cut out the holes. The top of the tunnel is still lose in this stage. First i have to cut an hole for the PSU bottom fan.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2222/...efe926.jpg?v=0The fan is in the base of the PSU. As you can see I still need to cut the hole.

But that is for an other Update.

[jdbnsn]

Now this looks like one wicked scratch build! Welcome to TBCS and feel free to post your other mods for us to see.

Jon

[J-Roc]

The HTPC craze going on right now is huge! I'm glad to see more people like myself getting into the digital entertainment segment of computer use. I cant wait to see how you mod progresses.

[Cheron]

Thanks for the positive feed back and I will show my other mods soon.

It wont be a "true'' HTPC since I wont be watching cable tv trough it. but other than that it will be a music data base and movie data base. It will be hooked up to a 26'' samsung lcd tv

[Cheron]

UPDATE 1

First of all the "tunnel" is finished have a look http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2018/...72b4a8.jpg?v=0

After that I tested the airflow using a Sigaret(Dont go Smoking is Bad on me). And found out that it works fine and even better than expected

I also finished my Harddrive rack.http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2387/...2696ed.jpg?v=0
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2375/...32a6e6.jpg?v=0
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2063/...23bd47.jpg?v=0Added some support to the sides.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2241/...c04b4d.jpg?v=0In its final position(but not yet fastend)

While I removed the mockup drives. I discoverd that it needed some more support. so I added a piece of Styrene Between the two sides.http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2241/...9d2b05.jpg?v=0

Thats it for today.....

[p0Pe]

nice work with the styrene m8!.. keep it coming

[The boy 4rm oz]

Nice work, I am interested to see how this goes.

[Cheron]

I hope to make an Update at the end of the week, but I haven't been feeling right the last 2 days so I haven't really did something.
But I Did make a thread About one of my other mods. since I promised that I would post them later.

Here is the Fallout 2.0 Thread.

[Cheron]

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2264/...b39a86.jpg?v=0

UPDATE 2

It has been a wile... But I'm Glad to say that I have done some work. Also some changes have been made. I'm no longer using a ATX Main board but an micro ATX. this will help me with my quest for slimness and tininess. But to be honest its still a big thing compared to some creations. So what have I actually done.

As you can see I placed MB standoffs and found out this ain't the way as told before.http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3086/...776497.jpg?v=0

So I decided to use an Micro ATX And since i am using this I could use an old slimline case and gut out the MB tray. This makes everything a lot easier. http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2080/...bd4d01.jpg?v=0
(Still the image above) After I cut it to size I took off its sharpness. and after that I test fitted it (Image below)http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3159/...5faf56.jpg?v=0

I made a small mock up with the actual components. to see if all would fit.http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2020/...3e08ed.jpg?v=0
And discovered NO. the Hard drive rack I made earlier would not fit (Image below) because of the MB tray. so I decided to cut it off since it wont be needed any way.http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2350/...eb1a6f.jpg?v=0
After I solved the hard drive rack problem I decided to do an almost full mock up to see if I would run into more problems. and lucky me I didnt.http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2286/...a526e8.jpg?v=0

So far so good. stay close and please give me feed back on this question: should I take of the spare space on the right side of the case or should I use it for 2x 80 mm intake fans running on a very low speed?

Thanks in advance.
Cheron

[Braveheart]

dang thats cool man, where did the mobo tray come from?