Htpc V 2.0

the-one1

2[H]4U
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Jan 16, 2003
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Time to redo my HTPC since I want it to sit with the rest of my Home Theater equipment in the shelf.
This is what it used to look like, woody.
insidecorner.jpg

This is what I want it to look like:
HTPC2.JPG


I went looking for some plexi, originally I was going for a dark smoked front, but Home Depot didnt have any in 1/4" thick, so clear will suffice, then I'm going to paint the inside black.
The front of it will be made of plexi , i dont really care what the back and sides look like, so I'm gona make those oout of wood left over from HTPC v 1.0
After cutting the plexi with a utility knife, long time and hard to do. I screwed the front on with 5 screws:
fronthtpc.JPG

That silver thing is a 4 port USB hub screwed on for the game controllers, as this will also act as my emulator.
I fed the usb cable through a whole with the connector in the back:
sidehtpc.JPG


With the motherboard test fitting after the brass standoffs were installed:
htpcrearmobo.JPG

That purple thing is going to be a wireless thing for my mouse, I'm going to strip it out of its tiny little case too.
One last pic.
htpcmobo.JPG


Tomorrow I start on the sides and back I/O panel, which will be either plexi or wood, depending on how hard it is to cut.
 
Out of curiosity...
Wireless keyboard? mouse? lan?
Remote control?
Wireless gamepad/joystick?
So the only wires left would be power and video/sound?
Integrating the wireless recievers into the unit is a good idea.
I may have to steal that one for my htpc. Dunno if I've got the
guts to take the casing off...
Looks good so far...
 
I wish it was wireless everything, only control to it would be the wireless infared mouse, thats its. Its connected to the lan via ethernet, and S-video to t.v. Sound via Digital to DSP Receiver.
Gamepads are wired usb from the front. No remote control, no money. Its mostly controlled via remote desktop of Radmin.
 
Next day:
After 2 hours Its starting to look alot like a box now with the back plexi and wood sides, with everything held on by screws.
frontb.JPG

It will have no power led, the usb led will act as the power led to show that its on, other than that, NO lights at all.
sideb.JPG

Alot of sanding to do now before painting the inside black. And I decided to add a nice rack mount look to it.
fronthandleb.JPG

They will be painted black when I'm done. I was going to buy either black or silver metal handles, but they cost $3 each, so I went with white plastic at 97 cents each.
frontsideb.JPG

handleb.JPG

Note the cd rom hole, I have an old slot loading cd rom from an old compaq, so its easier to do the cd rom instead of cutting out a shape for the tray.
Dang cd rom hole took a long time and was the hardest to cut, loud too, mind you thats it was 8 pm and I'm doing this in my apartment witht he building manager living right below.
Im debating if I should paint the wood black too or stain it for an old school HiFi look.
More to come when I cut out the I/O and pci slots........
 
Tools I had :
tools.JPG

Now onto the power button, I took a scrap pice of plexi and drilled a hole then attached it to my dremel and soun it on a saw. To cover up the hole I thought about using a nickel and sanding it smooth but too much work, so I melted some solder into a dime size and flatten it when it was still hot, then I shaped it and sanded it smooth
buttonseparate.JPG

buttontogether.JPG

Its attached to the switch like so:
powerbutton.JPG


The rear look like this after alot of drilling and chiseling:
rearfan1.JPG


Holes for the air intake, again more drilling:
inatkehole1.JPG

intakehole2.JPG

This is how it looks like all together:

buiultrear.JPG

finsih1.JPG

This is the exhaust fan duct made from old take rolls:
duct.JPG
 
This is how I mounted the cd rom:
bracket1.JPG

cdrombracket1.JPG

cdrombracket2.JPG


The hard drive is mounted fromt eh bottom up with screws. And the PSU is mounted on standoff with the power socket extended all the way to the rear which Im just starting to drill out for.

Tomorrow is painting day and finishing day........................
 
Good start but as a helpful hint. Go buy a metal bending brake (Harbor Freight has them for $20-30 and some clamps ($10). You'll be able to bend your own sheet metal so you can make your own custom brackets to fit on your cdrom....

example:

bends2.jpg
bends1.jpg
 
Good idea, but that would have costed me more money, And I wanted to do this for as cheap as posible, $27 for the supply so far.
 
DONE! :)
done3.JPG

After some laint I get gloss :)
gloass3.JPG

gloss1.JPG

gloass2.JPG

I used a piece of wood with holes drilled in to hold the cards in:
cardbracket.JPG

Rear with mouse and usb fed through to the front, nice duct too:
DONEREAR.JPG

DONE1.JPG

And the infra red mouse reciever:
DONE1.JPG

This is in its home under the rarely played PS2
homeplace.JPG


All in all, it came out decent, close to my original plan. The handles can actually hold up the wieght of the unit like a rack mounted unit could.
 
You used 1/4inch plexi right?
Did you screw it all together? or use some form of adhesive?
That looks nice.
 
3/16" ~ 1/4" so yes qurter inch thick, hard as heck to cut with a utility knife and breaking it. And drilling tiny holes big enough for the screws to fit yet small enough that it wont crack it. And I lok 2 drill bits due to those whole. Note: dont stop when drilling or else the melted plexi with harden and hold the bit in. No glue to hold it together except fot the wiring inside.
 
Looks good, once I finish modding my desktop case I'm going to have to start out building my HTPC case (poster board mocks up later this week though :D).
 
If the usb ports were infront of the hub, I would stealth it, but its on the sides, so it actually looks nice like this.
 
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