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Project: HTPC minus the PC

J

JoeKewl

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 18, 2001
Messages
133
For over a year now I have had the idea to make a HTPC that looks, and acts like a piece of stereo equipment, more than it looks / acts like a PC. So I have been researching parts of this thing for quite a long time, while other parts I am just starting to look in to. This is not going to be a gaming PC, or a web surfing PC (I have real PC's that do this stuff 100 times better than a HTPC can), it is strictly for recording/watching TV, and watching movies that are stored on the hard drive, and it will probably have DVD playback functionality. It will also have the capabilities to function as a mp3 jukebox, and a feature to copy pictures straight off a digital camera for storage, and display / review on a TV set.

The Hardware:
Case: SilverStone LC02
MoBo: Asus P4B533-M
CPU: Celeron 1.7ghz (more than enough for my HTPC needs)
RAM: 256MB DDR
Video: Matrox G400 Dual Head (see software for why)
TV Card: WinTV PVR 250

The Software:
This thing is going to run Linux, and Freevo. This is the reason for not needing a ton of RAM, and also the reason for the Matrox G400 video card. Anyone who has tried to get TV-Out working on Linux knows that this is probably the best supported card to achieve this. I chose Freevo because I have been using it for a couple years now, and it is fairly easy to setup, and maintain. The authors are always working on improvements, and new features, plus I will be adding a couple custom features of my own (eventually). The HTPC will also act like a file server allowing me to map a drive to the directory where the recorded mpegs are stored. This way I can edit out commercials, and then burn the mpegs straight to DVD from my main workstation.

On to the pics!

This case is awesome! I think it looks more like a true piece of home theater equipment than any other HTPC case I have seen. And when I am done with mine, that statement will be even more true!
htpc_1a.jpg


The back (everything was stripped out of the case at this point)
htpc_1b.jpg


Bottom (even the feet on this case look like real home theater equipment, no crappy rubber feet here!)
htpc_1c.jpg


Some of the components (mostly taken from my old HTPC case)
htpc_1d.jpg


You can see there is also a CrystalFontz 633 (USB) LCD in that picture. I plan to add this onto the front bezel of the case. There are also buttons on this LCD, I did this intentionally so that if my remote control is lost, I will be able to use these buttons to navigate the menu's in Freevo.

This brings me to my next picture, and first problem:
htpc_1e.jpg


As you can see the front bezel is made from a pretty thick piece of aluminum. This will prove to be very difficult to try and cut through with my dremel for all the necessary holes needed for the LCD display, and all of its buttons. I am going to look into paying to have the LCD holes cut via waterjet, or laser, as my dremel skills are not up to par with how good the rest of the front bezel looks, and I don't want to screw it up! I am also open to any suggestions any of you might have for getting all of the LCD holes cut.

More notes about this case:
This thing really is quite cool. SilverStone provides everything you need to make your existing components work, from the PCI / AGP risers to the slim cdrom ide adapter. I already have a standard tray loading slim cdrom I will be using for now, but I plan on purchasing a slot load DVD drive in the near future, and probably making some kind of custom aluminum bezel to go on the front of it so it matches the rest of the case.
 
Freevo, huh? This is the first I've heard of it- cool! I'll be watching this project- might even decide to build one of my own. Haven't given it much thought to building a HTPC but after seeing what you're doing I might be talked into it... :)
 
what version of linux are you going to use, is it free, and can i have a URL, i need a diff OS for my HTPC
 
zapperfish said:
what version of linux are you going to use, is it free, and can i have a URL, i need a diff OS for my HTPC
Click to expand...

All linux is free. Freevo is also free. I will be using Slackware 10.1 for my HTPC, but if you are new to linux I would suggest Mandrake, or RedHat.
As I said before Freevo is pretty easy to configure. What is not always east to configure is all of your hardware under Linux. Before you switch, do a thorough check for each of your hardware components to make sure each one is supported under Linux, and that there are good drivers for each one.
 
Another method you might consider for cutting into that front bezel is going a bit "old school", and getting a machine shop to do the work for you. A skilled machinist with a milling machine should be able to do that thickness of aluminum with ease.

If you're not familiar with milling machines, think of a combination dremel/router.....on steroids!! :eek: LOL
 
Another thing a HTPC should be is quiet. So I bought a Zalman 7000 that will be run in silent mode. Minor problem though, it didn't quite fit in the case with the CD-ROM / HDD rack in place.
htpc_2a.jpg


So, out came the dremel, and the grinding began. Not a lot of grinding really had to be done, but a few test fits were needed. It was a pretty tight fit.
htpc_2b.jpg


Next on the list was moving the motherboard towards the front of the case so that none of the ports stuck out the back, after all, I want this to not look like a PC.
htpc_2c.jpg


I simply placed the motherboard where I wanted it, used a pencil to mark each of the holes, punched them, and drilled em out. All of them lined up perfectly!
htpc_2d.jpg

It might be hard to notice, but there are little plastic spacers on top of each of the original motherboard stand-offs (these came included with the case). I super glued them on there to keep anything on the underside of the motherboard from rubbing on them.

After re-mounting the motherboard in its new location, you can see the Zalman is an even tighter fit.
htpc_2e.jpg


So if some of you are wondering why move the motherboard back inside the case, here is the reason:
I want the back of this thing to look as much like a regular peice of stereo equipment from all sides. So on the back of this thing, there are only going to be the following ports:
R-L Audio In/Out (4 jacks total)
RCA Video In/Out (2 jacks total)
S-Video In/Out (2 jacks total)
Coax In (1 jack for TV tuner card)

The only other remaining "PC" jacks on the back of the HTPC will be an ethernet jack, and VGA port. Of course there will also be a plug for the power cord.

The SilverStone case also comes with 2 USB / headphone / mic jacks on the side of the case, these will also be hooked up.

I am still unsure with how I want to "cover up" the back of the case though. While walking around Home Depot last night, I found a small (~4x7), thin metal roof shingle. I had this idea to just replace the ATX plate with a custom one that will include all the jacks I listed above, but it would be pretty easy to tell that it is still just a PC if you looked at the back.
htpc_2f.jpg

The cut down roof shingle is just sitting in there for now, but I would probably pop-rivet the corners of the thing onto the shell of the ATX panel.
htpc_2g.jpg


My original idea was to cover the entire back of the case with a larger piece of aluminum (I found this at Home Depot too!) and just drill out the holes I need for all the above mentioned jacks. This would cover up the PCI / AGP slot holes, and look a lot cleaner in my opinion. I just need to cut down the piece of aluminum I bought with very straight edges (I can never seem to get the cuts perfectly straight though). I would then mount this "cover" peice of aluminum to the back by drilling out the existing cases pop-rivets, and pop-riveting my new "cover" in the existing holes. I would also need to paint my new back "cover". Any other idea's / opinions?

I also have on order a couple sample jacks from http://www.frontx.com to see if I can re-use their ports on my new back panel. This would be great for me since their jacks already have cables attached to them that I can easily route to the correct port inside the case!
 
IMHO I think your wasting your time trying to keep the back from looking like a PC. I mean is anyone going to know besides you? Plus, it's still a PC internally. Nice looking case btw.
 
Adisharr said:
IMHO I think your wasting your time trying to keep the back from looking like a PC. I mean is anyone going to know besides you? Plus, it's still a PC internally. Nice looking case btw.
Click to expand...

Thanks :)

Makes a difference to me. I mean how many mods do you see on this forum that only one person (the creator) will ever see? Whats the point to modding anything then?
It's for fun. Sure it's still a PC on the inside, but the idea is to have all the PC components completly stealthed inside the case so from the outside, from all sides, it will look more or less like a DVR.
 
Nice project, I'm curious to know; are you going to use a Keyboard and mouse that are wireless, and are you going to even use one at all? And have you thought about doing major wire sleeving so the wires that come out of the HTPC resemble those that'd come out of VCRs, DVD Players, or a Cable TV Box? I'm also curious to know the size of the Hard Drive that you plan on using.
 
JoeKewl said:
Thanks :)

Makes a difference to me. I mean how many mods do you see on this forum that only one person (the creator) will ever see? Whats the point to modding anything then?
It's for fun. Sure it's still a PC on the inside, but the idea is to have all the PC components completly stealthed inside the case so from the outside, from all sides, it will look more or less like a DVR.
Click to expand...

I agree with you. Very nice looking, BTW. I hate looking at mods where you can see the typical "PC" back footprint. This way you can say you made a DVR, not a PC that LOOKS like a DVR. And, to add to the previous post, I hope you are NOT going to use a keyboard/mouse, in keeping with the whole theme.

I've been wanting to do this for quite some time now, and I will definitly try to use your worklog as a guide when I build mine. Of course, I'll have to change it up a bit, so we don't have any twinkies in the mix.... :D

Keep up the good work.

 
I don't plan on having a keyboard hooked up at all. A mouse will not be needed for my install either. If I do hook a keyboard it will be USB, and plugged into the side of the case as needed, but I don't anticipate that being very often.

The TV Card (WinTV PVR-250) came with a IR remote. I will hook that up, and see how it works, but the IR remotes I have used in the past pretty much sucked. Hopefully this one is better. If it does suck though, I will probably get an ATI Remote that uses RF instead. If I do that, I will definatly be putting the reciever inside the case.

As for the hard drive, I have a 180gb in my current HTPC which I am stealing most of the parts from (TV Card, Video Card, HD)

For the cables on the back, there will only be RCA, & s-video plugs, for which I will just use regular RCA, and s-video cables. So there really won't be a need to dress any of them up.

Sorry for the lack of updates, but I am waiting for all the various plugs, and cables for the back panel to come in the mail Hopefully they get here today so I can get some work done this weekend.
 
Yeah the remote that came with the 250 pretty much sucks and if you put the RF reciever into the case you'll get all sorts of interference with it, don't do it.

Remotes I would suggest:
Much better then the ATI remote and works with IR devices
Probably the best RF remote out there
Or take your favorite Universal remote and use it with your HTPC

May I ask if you could post some more pics of the front panel of the LC03? (looking for a pic of the back of the front panel and of the case without it on)
 
CrimandEvil said:
May I ask if you could post some more pics of the front panel of the LC03? (looking for a pic of the back of the front panel and of the case without it on)
Click to expand...

Sure can! Thanks for the remote suggestions too, I will check them out! Let me know if you want any more pics.
Back of the front cover:
htpc_3a.jpg

Close-up of the clear plastic covers where the LED's shine through, and one of the mounts:
htpc_3b.jpg

Front of the case with cover removed:
htpc_3c.jpg



And I have a small update!
No connectors arrived yet, but I did cut out the large peice of aluminum to cover the entire back of the case:
htpc_3d.jpg

You can see I cut a small slit in the cover to fit around the stock PCI card mounting bracket. I did this so later on if I decide to re-use the case normally the bracket will still be there.
Here is the cover taped into place:
htpc_3e.jpg


I am going to drill out the 4 pop rivets that are on the back of the case, and drill those 4 holes in my new cover, and pop rivet the cover right onto the back of the case. Of course it will get the RCA & other jacks installed, and will be painted silver to match the rest of the case first.

I have to say I like this a lot better than the filled in ATX back plate idea I posted above. I am also not sure about the slit being there for the PCI slot bracket. I have enough of the aluminum sheet left over to make another one, and I might just dremel off that PCI bracket, and make a new plate with no slit.
 
Well, still no deliveries today :(
I went ahead and worked on the back cover a little more, got the holes drilled for the pop-rivets, and did a test fit. Also sanded things down a little bit in prep for painting, but I won't be painting things till I get all the jacks test fit on the back cover.
htpc_4a.jpg
 
JoeKewl said:
Well, still no deliveries today :(
I went ahead and worked on the back cover a little more, got the holes drilled for the pop-rivets, and did a test fit. Also sanded things down a little bit in prep for painting, but I won't be painting things till I get all the jacks test fit on the back cover.
htpc_4a.jpg
Click to expand...


I wouldnt paint it at all! It looks awesome the way it is. Also the case isnt painted its just finished, you might want to look into getting something that can finish the back to match your case because the paint will look weird...
 
G.I. Jesus said:
I wouldnt paint it at all! It looks awesome the way it is. Also the case isnt painted its just finished, you might want to look into getting something that can finish the back to match your case because the paint will look weird...
Click to expand...

Actually, the front bezel has no paint (It is very nicely finished aluminum), but the rest of the case does seem to have been painted a silverish color. I will paint an extra aluminum scrap to try and match it up first though.

And finally a few of the connectors came in the mail today, coax, and ethernet.
htpc_5a.jpg


The ethernet jack is pretty sweet. It was one of the only panel mount ethernet jacks I could find too!
htpc_5b.jpg


Here are the coax connectors hooked up on my extra TV Card.
htpc_5c.jpg


I can't really layout where I am going to put the connectors on the back panel untill I have all of them though since the space is so tight in the back. So its more hurry up and wait for the other package to get here :rolleyes:
 
Looking pretty sweet so far. Cant wait to see some more.

EDIT: BTW where did you score those Ethernet Jacks? They sweet lookin jacks
 
That ethernet jack is sweet. Please inform where you got your supplies, if you haven't already.

 
nuclearfly said:
That ethernet jack is sweet. Please inform where you got your supplies, if you haven't already.
Click to expand...

I had to search for a stupid (panel / chassis / bulkhead) mount rj45 jack everywhere... easily 50+ searches on google/froogle. Finally I found these sweet look jacks on froogle, and sourced them at Parts Express.
If you go to the company's website ( http://www.neutrik.com/ ) they seem to have quite a few awsome looking jacks & connectors in a variety of colors (they lock in place too!). I opted to remove the locking mechanism, as I will not be using their locking connectors on my HTPC, and I will also be mounting the jack upside down (right side up to most of us PC'rs).
Also, they are a bit pricey (~$8 each), but compare to the other couple of POS jacks I saw, these are by far the best choice for looks (to me anyways), and more importantly it will fit in my HTPC case!

If anyone else can find a good panel mount ethernet jack, post some links!
No crappy keystone (little square snap-in) jacks, those aren't panel mount! I have already clicked through hundreds of pages of those things
 
Thanks guys :)

I was digging aroud in my garage, and found myself a VGA header off one of my old video cards.
htpc_6a.jpg


I am going to have to solder on a regular vga connector on the other end of it though (and maybe a longer cable too). This way I can still hook up a monitor, and do some debug / troubleshooting if I need to. Still no connectors from frontx.com (they better get her soon!).
 
you could make a little adapter for the video card so that it has pins on the end of it so you can just plug the cable into it
 
Well, I got sick of waiting for the frontx order to come in... So I went to a local electronics megastore, and began to grab things I would need to complete the back panel on my HTPC.
$28 later, this is what I got:
htpc_7a.jpg

The two 60mm fans are for the sides of the case, I got 2 different ones to see which one quieter, but I will test that later.

So as I am sorting through my newly purchased treasures at home, the mail man shows up with my frontx package (finally!). So I crack that thing open, just so I can see how the front A/V jacks are mounted. I was pretty sure that with my very limited space between the motherboard, and back panel of the case that they wouldn't work for my needs. I was right, here is the back of the frontx jacks:
htpc_7b.jpg

They actually seem quite nice, and if I had more than an inch of room to work with, I would definatly use them, but seeing as though I lack the space, I will be soldering up my own custom connectors for pretty much everything on the back panel.

Here is my two sets of RCA/SVideo connector (one set for input, other for output).
htpc_7c.jpg


While at the electronics store, I found two types of SVideo connectors, and I am not sure which ones I want to use, what do you guys think?
htpc_7d.jpg

I am leaning towards the top one (I can dremel down those rediculously large mounting ears), mostly since they had 2 of these in stock, and only one of the other one.

This should keep me busy for a day or two while I measure out where all the connectors need to go, drill/dremel out all the holes, solder up all the connectors, and finally mount them all.
 
I started cutting out the holes on the rear panel, and have mounted the rj45 jack, and the vga port.
htpc_8a.jpg


It was very time consuming to cut the semi square hole needed for the VGA port, but it was worth the time spent, as it turned out pretty good.
The rest of the back panel should be pretty easy since it will just be drilling round holes for the other connectors.
 
Made a little more progress today. Cut down both the svideo connectors to fit on the back panel a little neater.
before and after:
htpc_9a.jpg

both cut down:
htpc_9b.jpg


I also soldered up the internal vga cable. It just barely reaches... and it works!
htpc_9c.jpg


I also snapped a pic of how little room there actually is between the motherboard, and the back panel.
htpc_9d.jpg


That space is only going to become more crowded as more connectors are put in place.

Also, a friend of mine has a 160GB hard drive (new in box!) laying around he is going to give me. It's 5400rpm which is actually what I wanted for this project since it should produce less heat (and noise). That is going to be a very good thing since this case has very limited space.
 
Got all the back panel holes drilled, and jacks test fit... pics:
htpc_10a.jpg


htpc_10b.jpg


I will probably sand & paint the back panel tomorrow. I might also go by the metal shop to see about a time estimate for getting the front panel cut.
 
Adisharr said:
IMHO I think your wasting your time trying to keep the back from looking like a PC.
Click to expand...

Snap to this guy. I think he just proved you wrong good sir. Nice Job with the case so far.
 
i think you're doing a great job with that back panel. i just think it could be made to fit in a bit better... it looks somewhat out of place as it is. it just doesn't blend in right IMO.

i'm not sure if that's because it is a different color/finish/whatever than the rest of the case or because it isn't quite square (at least that's how the pics look to me)

very nice job so far, though.
 
all the stuff to make it not look like a pc from the back is reminding me of the phantom. The main difference here is that this guy does a better job and phantom blows.


Also, hitachi's 160gb sata 8mb cache 7200rpm hard drive (which I own) is SUPER quiet. I could run a defrag and never hear it. I am a sound nut, I went crazy to make my pc quiet. The only thing that you hear is the slight vibration of the pump and a small amount of air movement noise thru my radiators. Trust me, the hitachi is the way to go for quiet, it was also a great performer. http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=22-145-072&depa=0

there is an ide version also
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=22-145-061&depa=0
 
@BeeIzebub, I too think it kinda resembles the old school phantom, except better so far in every way including the fact that all the back ports actually connect to something!
 
@ CrimandEvil: Yeah..I'd say those two pics win. But the poster is still doing a bang-up job :) If he can blend it nicer in for the final end product this will really be a winner.
 
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