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amdmaddness
Limp Gawd
- Joined
- Dec 17, 2002
- Messages
- 179
With all of the hype around lately about SFF and HTPCs, I decided it was about time for me to try one of them for myself. I am one of the biggest cheapskates there are, so coming up with a plan was easy: find the necessary parts for as little as possible. I began searching through used and refurbished parts online. I already had a tiny Gateway case laying around from an old dead 600 mhz gateway computer, that would be perfect for the job, and the size made it perfect to set right atop the tv. Best of all... it was free! Thus began my search for parts.
(Case in original condition)
Parts list:
AGPB 180watt power supply MP4TX18B
PCCHIPS M581LU
AMD XP1800+ CPU
Kingmax PC2700 TinyBGA ram 256mb
40GB IBM deskstar HDD
Sony 52/32/52/16 CD burner DVD-rom combo drive
XFX GF2 MX400 64mb DDR PCI with TV out
Leadtek Winfast TV2000 XP expert
Speeze 1U cooler
The first obstacle was finding a power supply that was both small enough to fit, and powerful enough to work well. Due to the cases odd ball size, it would only take a Flex ATX PSU made for that Gateway case specifically. I settled on the AGPB psu, even though it didnt have a Pentium 4 style power plug. After I got the power supply, I proceeded to modify it and add the plug. It was easy; I just cut a P4 plug off of a bad power supply, and soldered it onto the PCB of the new power supply. After the modifications, I now had the Case and PSU. I was ready!
My next challenge was finding a modern motherboard small enough to fit into the case. After a little research, I found a couple of candidates. The SOYO SYK7VME, SHUTTLE MK40VN, PCCHIPS M581LU, and the MATSONIC MS8188E. These boards are all basically the same, except for minor color differences. Since these where the only boards I found that were viable, the decision was obvious: the cheapest one! So I selected the PCCHIPS M581LU for my project.
For memory, I used what I had laying around. The Kingmax turned out to be a good choice, as it runs cooler than most ram. I used the IBM hard drive because, again, it was what I already had in my possession.
I started assembly and all was going pretty well. I cut a piece of metal out of the case, to allow the motherboard to fit nicely in its place, then started mounting devices, only to find that the CD-rom I used, bumped into the CPUs heatsink, keeping it from fitting in all the way. So, next up came the 1U low profile heatsink, the max CPU it would cool. (the XP1800+ AMD CPU) Then came the Sony CD burner DVD-rom combo drive (which is very short). It would work perfectly. The next problem was mounting the hard drive. It wouldnt fit in the factory location because the ram was now sitting right where the hard drive was originally intended to be mounted. I decided it was an easy fix: stick it in the floppy bay! Who needs a floppy these days, anyway?
Now, for the video, I didnt want to use the onboard, since it had no TV-out option. I decided I wouldnt be playing any games with this box, so a low end PCI card would work fine. (I couldnt use the AGP slot because of the case configuration, not to mention the cd-rom now sitting on top of it). I settled on the XFX GF2 MX 400 PCI with TV out to fit the bill. The Video card was supposed to come with the low profile bracket but as my luck would have it, there wasnt one in the box, so a modifying I went once more. I cut the excess off of the back plate to fit the low profile case. Next, I wanted TV in and FM radio capabilities. Being the tightwad that I am, I settled on the new 10bit Leadtek TV2000 XP expert. The leadtek is a low profile card, so all I had to do was bend and cut the backplate just like I did with the GF2.
My next obstacle was to make it look presentable. Since it didnt have a floppy drive, I was now faced with a gaping hole to fill in the front plastic housing. I thought this was going to be easy to fix, but guess what? It wasnt a standard sized floppy hole, and no floppy drive bay cover would fit. I super-glued in a floppy bay cover that had gaps around it and used some stuff from my car modeling days called squadron green putty. Its basically bondo for plastic models. (This stuff has the texture of toothpaste, and dries pretty slowly when youre using it to fill a ¼ gap.) I sanded it smooth and panted the trim. Next, I had to get rid of the Cow Box on the front of the case. I removed it using a dremel, sandpaper, and green putty. I decided to go with a common color paint, to make for easier touch ups, and also so that it would match most other PCs. I settled on Krylon Ivory Gloss on the whole project.
After it was done, I did a burn in on it and found it was all running kind of hot. A simple coolermaster 50MM fan that I swiped off of a heat sink fit the back of the case nicely, and brought down the case temps to a normal level. I already have TiVo with my Satellite service, but I had to try this build to satisfy the competitive computer nerd at heart. I built what I set out to do 6 months ago. The project was riddled with budget delays and parts availability, but Im proud to say it came out nicer than I expected. So now you have it: my HTPC/SFF made on the cheap, total parts cost roughly $198. I also plan on getting a wireless keyboard and mouse combo to use it with my bedroom TV. (I will have my own HTPC with which I can check my email from the comfort of my own bed, or whenever Im just plain too damn lazy to haul my butt to the home office.)
I wish now that I would have taken pictures during the build but I hope my description paints the picture well enough. The Gateway computer started life with a Celeron 600 mhz CPU and an 80 watt power supply. The Gateway Essential computers are very prone to failure so finding a case might not be too hard if you decide to do this on your own.
~Peter
(Case in original condition)
Parts list:
AGPB 180watt power supply MP4TX18B
PCCHIPS M581LU
AMD XP1800+ CPU
Kingmax PC2700 TinyBGA ram 256mb
40GB IBM deskstar HDD
Sony 52/32/52/16 CD burner DVD-rom combo drive
XFX GF2 MX400 64mb DDR PCI with TV out
Leadtek Winfast TV2000 XP expert
Speeze 1U cooler
The first obstacle was finding a power supply that was both small enough to fit, and powerful enough to work well. Due to the cases odd ball size, it would only take a Flex ATX PSU made for that Gateway case specifically. I settled on the AGPB psu, even though it didnt have a Pentium 4 style power plug. After I got the power supply, I proceeded to modify it and add the plug. It was easy; I just cut a P4 plug off of a bad power supply, and soldered it onto the PCB of the new power supply. After the modifications, I now had the Case and PSU. I was ready!
My next challenge was finding a modern motherboard small enough to fit into the case. After a little research, I found a couple of candidates. The SOYO SYK7VME, SHUTTLE MK40VN, PCCHIPS M581LU, and the MATSONIC MS8188E. These boards are all basically the same, except for minor color differences. Since these where the only boards I found that were viable, the decision was obvious: the cheapest one! So I selected the PCCHIPS M581LU for my project.
For memory, I used what I had laying around. The Kingmax turned out to be a good choice, as it runs cooler than most ram. I used the IBM hard drive because, again, it was what I already had in my possession.
I started assembly and all was going pretty well. I cut a piece of metal out of the case, to allow the motherboard to fit nicely in its place, then started mounting devices, only to find that the CD-rom I used, bumped into the CPUs heatsink, keeping it from fitting in all the way. So, next up came the 1U low profile heatsink, the max CPU it would cool. (the XP1800+ AMD CPU) Then came the Sony CD burner DVD-rom combo drive (which is very short). It would work perfectly. The next problem was mounting the hard drive. It wouldnt fit in the factory location because the ram was now sitting right where the hard drive was originally intended to be mounted. I decided it was an easy fix: stick it in the floppy bay! Who needs a floppy these days, anyway?
Now, for the video, I didnt want to use the onboard, since it had no TV-out option. I decided I wouldnt be playing any games with this box, so a low end PCI card would work fine. (I couldnt use the AGP slot because of the case configuration, not to mention the cd-rom now sitting on top of it). I settled on the XFX GF2 MX 400 PCI with TV out to fit the bill. The Video card was supposed to come with the low profile bracket but as my luck would have it, there wasnt one in the box, so a modifying I went once more. I cut the excess off of the back plate to fit the low profile case. Next, I wanted TV in and FM radio capabilities. Being the tightwad that I am, I settled on the new 10bit Leadtek TV2000 XP expert. The leadtek is a low profile card, so all I had to do was bend and cut the backplate just like I did with the GF2.
My next obstacle was to make it look presentable. Since it didnt have a floppy drive, I was now faced with a gaping hole to fill in the front plastic housing. I thought this was going to be easy to fix, but guess what? It wasnt a standard sized floppy hole, and no floppy drive bay cover would fit. I super-glued in a floppy bay cover that had gaps around it and used some stuff from my car modeling days called squadron green putty. Its basically bondo for plastic models. (This stuff has the texture of toothpaste, and dries pretty slowly when youre using it to fill a ¼ gap.) I sanded it smooth and panted the trim. Next, I had to get rid of the Cow Box on the front of the case. I removed it using a dremel, sandpaper, and green putty. I decided to go with a common color paint, to make for easier touch ups, and also so that it would match most other PCs. I settled on Krylon Ivory Gloss on the whole project.
After it was done, I did a burn in on it and found it was all running kind of hot. A simple coolermaster 50MM fan that I swiped off of a heat sink fit the back of the case nicely, and brought down the case temps to a normal level. I already have TiVo with my Satellite service, but I had to try this build to satisfy the competitive computer nerd at heart. I built what I set out to do 6 months ago. The project was riddled with budget delays and parts availability, but Im proud to say it came out nicer than I expected. So now you have it: my HTPC/SFF made on the cheap, total parts cost roughly $198. I also plan on getting a wireless keyboard and mouse combo to use it with my bedroom TV. (I will have my own HTPC with which I can check my email from the comfort of my own bed, or whenever Im just plain too damn lazy to haul my butt to the home office.)
I wish now that I would have taken pictures during the build but I hope my description paints the picture well enough. The Gateway computer started life with a Celeron 600 mhz CPU and an 80 watt power supply. The Gateway Essential computers are very prone to failure so finding a case might not be too hard if you decide to do this on your own.
~Peter
