TouchME Media Center

[therantis]

This is my first ever case mod and has been inspired by the case at the following link:

http://www.origenae.com/product_x15e.htm

While this case is beautiful I didn't like the DVD tray and Media bays as they seem to disrupt the cases look. Plus the hefty $600 price tag helped discourage me as well. So I figure I can do one my self.

I've started with a black 17" Inwin tower case (17" being the standard width of home component stereo systems)

I've also purchase an 8" touch screen monitor from ebay to be mounted in the front of the case.

To Complete the system I am using the Following Components:
Intel Pentium D 805
ASUS P5V800-MX w/ optical output module
512MB RAM
200GB Hard Drive
WirelessG PCI Card
Geforce 5200 Dual Monitor out (VGA/DVI)
TwinHan 102g Satellite DVB-S Card

Grand total so far: $650 (I had the hard drive and video card laying around)

There will be no optical drives in the system at this point since room is looking to be a premium but if I do add one it will be a slot load laptop dvd+rw.

So Here we go!!!


I Started by stripping the case of everthing I could and marking around the case where I need to take out 3.5" to make the case fit with in standard home theatre furniture. I had to be extra sure about getting these cut lines straight and square so obviously I used a square.

The Case Stripped:

The Section marking of the material to be removed:

I was careful to make sure that the section I was removing didn't contain any neccessary mounts or such for the MB.

Oops forgot to take pictures of the cutting but it's done and the case has been MIG welded back together. I chose to section the case with a dremel since it is nowhere near as violent as a jigsaw. I also had to remove a portion of the inside of the drive cage for the motherboard clearence. You can't see that in any of the pictures.

The Case Welded back together:

I then installed all the components. Wow! They fit! Tightly though.

So I started on the Face of the case.

I started by removing all of the drive bay faceplates and the front usb ports. The gods must be on my side as the height of the monitor is exactly the width of the drive bays. I removed the cross members between the cdrom bays and the floppy bays and most of the material around the floppy bays.

Here is a picture of the lcd test fit (perfectly):

I then replaced the grill on the faceplate:

At this point I am planning on using some bondo to seal the lcd into place and paint the lcd housing black. I'm a little unsure at to whether I will paint the grill black or not as part of me likes the silver and the other part doesn't.

I then fitted the faceplate back on the case. another perfect fit as the lcd fits just between the face and the front metal of the case.

Well That's it for now. I'll post some more progress in a couple of days.

[OvRiDe]

Welcome to the boards!!!

Nice start.. Looks great so far... Can't wait to see your progress!!

[Custom]

WOW nice mod so far mate good luck and welcome to TBCS!

[legoman786]

Very strange... I give you that. Also, I give you a thumbs up for trying that! Welcome to the boards.

[invalid]

love it. how much was the lcd?

[therantis]

love it. how much was the lcd?

Well it was a little hefty but around $250. It operates on 12v so you could use it in a CarPC as well. And since it's a touch screen it would be great for a GPS solution. It's big clear and crisp. I decided to do this because I just hate having my 50" TV on to play music.

[jdbnsn]

I love it!!! That is almost exactly what I was wanting to do with my media center. I couldn't afford the screen though, so I opted for a different look. But I think yours look fantastic, great job and welcome to TBCS (again).
Jon

[therantis]

Well, my day hasn't started of that great. My raid 0 array had a failed member but luckly that's why I have it so my desktop machine is up and running. Funny store though, when I called Dell (sorry to swear) I ending up getting my wifes best friend from high school as a support tech. Haven't seen him in years.

Anyways onto the mod.

I started today with a few goals.

1. Don't break the LCD
2. Permenently Mount the bezel of the LCD to the Case
3. Don't break the LCD
4. Start the body filler work around the LCD bezel
5. Don't break the LCD

So i took the LCD apart and that wasn't bad. 2 screws and the back comes off and then 4 screws hold the panel in the bezel. Voila it's apart and I don't think i broke the LCD.

Next I dry fitted the bezel into the front face plate of the case.

Then it was onto permently affixing the bezel to the case face. I used Plastic weld on both sides trying to keep it all neet and tidy.

Hopefully I will be able to post some pics of the first round of body filler later this evening.

That's all for now.

[Aero]

wow, lookin good. What are you going to run on it? Window Media Center, Linux?

[therantis]

wow, lookin good. What are you going to run on it? Window Media Center, Linux?

Not sure yet. Most likely Windows Media Center or Media Portal (Open Source) what ever works best with MyTheatre satellite software. Of course the concept is to have the control software/ menus running on the touch screen and the video output to my HDTV via DVI