Project: HTPC minus the PC

LOL they're both PCs. One is of an HP box and the other is an Intel box (it was a barebones kit that you could buy on Newegg for a few weeks). You should check out Shuttle's new box.

BTW heres one from Samsung:
samsung_dm-t40.jpg
 
Quick google shows a pic of the front panel of the Intel case (Front = FUGLY!) http://msmvps.com/chrisl/archive/2005/02/16/36114.aspx
The back of the intel case though is most impressive.
The back of the HP is also impressive, very high $$$ though. The front of the HP is also pretty nice. They just need to dump the intel/windows/hp logo's off of it. (probably just stickers anyways).

The front of the samsung unit is pretty nice looking (not like a pc at all), the back though, I am pretty unimpressed, very pc looking.

Thank you for pointing out all these HTPC's though, as I had never seen any of them :D Given me plenty of idea's for my next HTPC project.

Anyways, getting back to this project, I worked too much today and had no time to sand / paint, so I just took a few more pictures to post for you guys.

This is how tight space really is in this case between the motherboard and back panel.
htpc_11a.jpg


Another one of the back of the back panel.
htpc_11b.jpg


About all I did tonight was wire up the ethernet jack (and test it). I am really hoping to sand & paint the back panel tomorrow so I can finish wiring up all of the other A/V ports.
 
you realy need to get more space where the conectors are!!, looks very clean so far your giveing my ideas for my HTPC i just need money
 
I had plenty of time today to sand and paint the back panel for the case, and here is how it turned out!

htpc_12a.jpg


The color is off slightly depending on the reflection / lighting, but for the most part, pretty damn good, or at least good enough for me :D

Hopefully will have some on the wiring done by tomorrow!
 
Dang.... I'd be happy with it. I can't tell from the photo. Great color matching job!
 
that looks much better now. it is just the top of the plate on the PSU side that irks me... it isn't quite straight, so it doesn't really line up quite right...

looks great other than that. am i the only one that bothers?
 
looks like the phantom well the one they sent [H] anyway, :p looking really great though hope it all goes well
 
nice job on the back panel, when its done have a few close up of it in the case plz :
:D
 
Well... That was like the 15th picture I took of the back panel that finally looked right...
I wasn't really happy with it, but I was going to keep it. Then I started to put the components into the back panel, and I smeared the paint pretty bad in a couple places. So I sanded the whole thing back down, and got some new paint that matches better (no pics yet, sorry). I am going to do a better job of clear coating the panel this time so hopfully I won't have the same problem. I will post some pics tomorrow of the new color, and some comparison shots of the old color just to show how much it really varied in the different lights.
 
are you going to lable the plugs, also i think it would have look better if they were maby a bit more spred out?!? personal oppinion
 
I did plan on labeling the plugs, not sure how exactly I am going to do it yet though. Anyone know of any inexpensive ways to acomplish this?

As far as spreading out the plugs a little, they actually are spread out a lot more than typical stereo equipment already. If I spread them out any more, I don't think it would look as good.
 
JoeKewl said:
Anyone know of any inexpensive ways to acomplish this?
Click to expand...

Got the perfect solution, courtesy of Bit-Tech . An entire artilce on decal making. Should do the trick.

All I can say is, wow. The back pannel really turned out sweet. Better than I thought it would. Nice find on the ethernet jacks BTW. Gonna keep an eye on this thread for sure. You gonna do anything special on the front pannel, or keep it stock?
 
Thanks for the decal suggestions guys. I will look into each of them.

Anyways.... I fucking hate painting :mad: :mad: :mad:
I got a better silver match, and a good clear coat going, except for some dust particles, so I very lightly sanded the clear coat, and re-clear coated, and its all fucked up again.... bad.
So, I gotta wait for the damn thing to dry, then re-sand it, and redo the silver, redo the clear coat.... I don't have the fucking patience for this bullshit... probably be a while before I update again.... argh!
 
what about if you ingrave the lables in, then paint the inside of the ingraving with black paint (ising a brush or you could use a perminate marker)
 
Ok, an update finally...

Been a busy week, and haven't had time to post / take pics of the new (final painted) back panel. So here is a little photo history of the back panel:

1st version (same exact paint as previous pic, just in sunlight):
htpc_13a.jpg

As you can see, the color matching when under sunlight is not all that great... plus there were visible sanding marks through the paint, I also accidently scuffed the paint in a couple places, and it ended up looking like crap... so sanded it down, got a closer matching silver paint, and tried again!

2nd version (disaster struck, as I grew impatient with painting, and tried to spray on one last clear coat after lightly sanding the first one, without letting it completly dry 100%):
htpc_13b.jpg

Aaagh! FUGLY... at this point I was pretty pissed off.... (see the "fuck painting" rant above) After waiting for this bullshit to dry, I once again sanded the panel down to metal, and re-painted again with the new color.

3rd (and final) version
htpc_13c.jpg

Finally a decent (but not quite perfect) color match to the rest of the case, and even photo'd in sunlight still looks good (or at least good enough for me).


Now, before I start mounting the various jacks on the panel, I really want to add some very nice looking labels to the thing. I looked at the transparent sticker sheets, and I am not convinced that this is what I want to do. I would really like to find a place that could silkscreen it for cheap (I don't think I will find one), or possibly get high quality sticker custom cut, and stick the inverse image of it on, and paint the labels on, and remove the inverse sticker (plus I think I can get a hook up on the custom sticker cut-out).
Anyways, there is an update, as always, let me know what you guys think!
 
Looking sweet dude. Are you putting a game switcher/selector in it or is all this running from cards?
 
GlobalFear said:
Why not include the power jack?
Click to expand...

Probably should of, but at this point, I don't want to re-make the back panel, as it has been a far more complicated project then I first imagined.

altec said:
Are you putting a game switcher/selector in it or is all this running from cards?
Click to expand...

Not sure I understand this question, but there will be no games / game related equipment in this HTPC.

_jd_ said:
use some nice rub-on letters. will need clear coat though
Click to expand...

I thought about this, but I want to do something a little more involved than just letters.



I hacked together a photoshop file with the label design I want to have painted on the back panel. I printed it out, cut out some holes, and took a picture for your viewing:
htpc_14a.jpg


I would really like to have this design put painted on the back, but I think I might end up having to resort to sticking a transparent printed label on the back.

I am still going to look into having a label cut out on a machine, and use that as a masking for getting the label painted on too.
 
Looking sweet. Anyway i wanted to know if your going to put a A/V selector so you can have other things like video games etc plug in to it.
 
altec said:
Looking sweet. Anyway i wanted to know if your going to put a A/V selector so you can have other things like video games etc plug in to it.
Click to expand...

Not sure I need one, I can just plug the video game systems into my TV directly. The only reason I would plug a game system into this box, is if I wanted to record what I was playing.
 
Small update.
I finally found some of the full page clear printable labels. Here is the results:
htpc_15a.jpg


Now that the label is complete, I can screw down all the connectors, and begin soldering all of the inner connectors. Hopefully I will have some more updates soon of the back panel all wired up.
 
Finally after a few weeks of no motavation, and some shitty work hours, and some vacation time, I started working on the HTPC again.
This is a pretty small update, but it took a little while for me to do, since my soldering skills aren't what I would consider great, still pretty good though.

htpc_16a.jpg


These are the "Input" plugs. These will all be plugged into the various ports on the back of the WinTV PVR-250. The svideo plug was probably the hardest one to solder since the posts are so small.

Next I need to solder up the ouput plugs. The video rca, and the svideo will get soldered to a male vga connector, and plugged into the second head on the Matrox G400. The right & left audio will get soldered to a connector to be plugged into the motherboard.
 
Wow awesome job man... lots of good ideas you have there! :cool:

- Fold [H]ard - - Or go [H]ome - ​
 
Well well, after a two month lazy streak, and a few PM's (thanks guys), and started visiting the forums again, and got some motivation to finish this damn project
I had some free time over the weekend, so I soldered up the Matrox VGA -> RCA / S-Video connections, and the output RCA audio connections. I now have everything on the back panel soldered up, so that it can be connected to its internal counter-part.
As always, here are some pics of everything installed.

htpc_17a.jpg

htpc_17c.jpg

htpc_17d.jpg



The next thing on my list is to cut out a small section of the upper shelf that holds the cd-rom and hard drives, this way the coax cable will have enough room to fit in there.
htpc_17b.jpg


I am all out of cutting wheels for my dremel though, so I will need to make a trip to the home depot in the next day or two in order to finish that up.
I must say, it feels good to be modding again :D
 
I've been looking forward to an update on this project. Good job. :)
 
pure awesomeness, great job so far.. very inspiring for me to clean up my own pc. haha.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top