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The Decomatic HTPC

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slipperyskip

Gawd
Joined
Feb 8, 2005
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527
Here is my latest:

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weird, I was just thinking about starting a wooden pc project myself.


looks fabulous man, superb work.
 
khanable said:
weird, I was just thinking about starting a wooden pc project myself.
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Do it! It is a lot of fun.

Of course you will have to take a lot of grief from amateur engineers who will tell you that it will overheat or catch on fire.
 
Could you post some more shots? I realize they're in the link but it kinda eliminates the point of being a gallery post.
 
I love how you did the vents on the bottom of the case--that's a great idea!
 
slipperyskip said:
http://slipperyskip.com/decomaticsmall/002.jpg[IMG]

[IMG]http://slipperyskip.com/decomaticsmall/003.jpg[IMG][/QUOTE]

I was talkin gallery size as well :D No biggie though, I moved to the main forum. Probably gets more looks here.
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slipperyskip said:
Thanks. I've got some internal trickery going on as well There is a single fan that pulls air in one vent and pushes it out the other.
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Could you post pics of the internals so we can see what's going on in there?
 
Mohonri said:
Could you post pics of the internals so we can see what's going on in there?
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I will take some more photos when it gets back from Vegas. It is on display at SilverStone's CES booth.

It is fairly simple though. Imagine an internal airtight barrier running front to back. The fan is installed on this barrier.

Take it one step further and position the fan on the barrier so it blows air directly across a passive CPU heatsink. :cool:
 
Here is an interesting (I think) picture from the Consumer Electronics Show. An organic creature in a sea of black and aluminum. Very artsy fartsy.

silver_custom.jpg
 
Mohonri said:
I'll bet your case garnered more interest and second glances than any other!
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Some sites gave me a pic and a mention. Others didn't. I asked the editor of XYZcomputing why I was passed over. He replied "I guess I tend to focus my coverage on the items that are going to have more of an impact on consumers and will one day reach the market."

Generally, reporters like my work but........their editors don't want to give media coverage to someone they'll never receive ad revenue from.

Besides, there was a big black tower with pretty flames on it nearby.

Moths.
 
Mohonri said:
Could you post pics of the internals so we can see what's going on in there?
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As requested:

011.jpg


That is a Gigabyte GA-8I945GMMFY motherboard with 2GB of Crucial DDR2-667 memory and an Intel T5600 Core 2 Duo processor. The system's one (and only) fan is shown mounted next to the processor's aluminum heatsink. Hot air is forced down and out the exhaust vent to the left.
 
012.jpg


Here is an opposite view showing the intake plenum and fan assembly. The space was made available by removing the Silverstone's included 1U-sized power supply. The exhaust vent is approx. twice the size of the intake vent. This is to allow for the expanding hot exhaust air.
 
So where will the power supply actually go?

I was surprised at how small that CPU heatsink is. Very nice!

 
Mohonri said:
So where will the power supply actually go?
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I am using a 120W picoPSU. I'm using a 110W external power adapter so it's really only providing 110W.

The picoPSU doesn't take up any space because it plugs directly into the motherboard.

021.jpg


Before I start getting a lot of "no way that can work" messages let me make it little more interesting.

Here is the video card I am using:

017.jpg


That is a Gigabyte GV-NX76G256HI-RH. It is a fanless nVIDIA 7600GS 16x PCIe video card with HDMI and HDCP. It is not available to the public yet. This is a pre-production sample.
 
Heheheh. I love how people think they need 450W or 500W PSUs when they're running a C2d and a single video card.

I was wondering if you'd be using a PicoPSU in there, as there didn't appear to be any space available for a "normal" ATX, uATX, or 1U PSU.

 
Shhhhhh! How are they suppose to sell all those monster power supplies if everyone found out they don't really need them?

Here is a picture that I consider interesting. I was trying to illustrate the flow path of the cooling air.

020.jpg


The flow of air first passes over the CPU heatsink. It should be noted that this air is at ambient temps and not just recycled internal air.

The green barrier is the riser for the video card. This forces the flow to go left of the riser after catching some of the Northbridge heatsink.

If you look closely you will see the video card's heatsink fins sticking out from the left of the riser. You can see the fins more clearly in the video card pic in a prior post.

Air flows across these fins and is forced directly out the case. The exhaust vent can be seen at the end of the journey. The case's original vents and other cutouts are sealed by the cover so the only path the air has to go is down and out.
 
What kind(s) of wood did you use for it? I can't tell from the pics...

BTW, I'm a "real" engineer (electrical) and a kinda-sorta amateur woodworker.
 
White oak and red mahogany veneer applied to basswood and birch plywood. Each "leg" has 43 individual pieces of wood. I build structures up using small blocks of wood in lieu of taking a large block and milling it down.

I'm working on my amateur woodworker status. I did most all of the woodwork for this project. In the past I have relied on my cabinet shop friends to do a lot of the heavy lifting.
 
Mohonri said:
Heheheh. I love how people think they need 450W or 500W PSUs when they're running a C2d and a single video card.
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Don't forget this system has a mobile C2D, which makes a difference in power consumption. So while it's true that a 450W PSU isn't needed for a desktop C2D and single graphics card, I doubt a PicoPSU could power such system.
 
Shaman said:
Don't forget this system has a mobile C2D, which makes a difference in power consumption. So while it's true that a 450W PSU isn't needed for a desktop C2D and single graphics card, I doubt a PicoPSU could power such system.
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Yes, but.....there is only a 30W TDP difference between the desktop and mobile variants of the C2D. It really depends on the graphic card being used. The nVIDIA 7600 GS is overkill for a dedicated HTPC.

I wouldn't bet that the pico could not power a Conroe system that used a lower powered video card.

The onboard graphics of this motherboard is good enough to run Vista Aero. The only reason I added the video card was to gain a DVI and HDMI port.
 
slipperyskip said:
I wouldn't bet that the pico could not power a Conroe system that used a lower powered video card.
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I would stay on the safe side and bet that it could power the Conroe, but only when using the onboard graphics.[/QUOTE]
slipperyskip said:
The nVIDIA 7600 GS is overkill for a dedicated HTPC.
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l wouldn't say the 7600GS is overkill, it's just about right. If you want to record/play HD content with the PureVideo decoder, which is the decoder to use, you would need at least a 7600GT to enjoy all the PureVideo features as indicated here. So in this case the 7600GS is actually underkill, but it's sufficient for most.
 
AuroraProject said:
Very nice, I imagine it's extremely quiet, which would be my main concern with a htpc.
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Thanks! Hopefully it is quiet enough to score points in the contest. The Intel Core Challenge has aesthetics, acoustics and usability as the judging criteria.

The Decomatic is currently sitting in Intel's headquarters in Santa Clara. A preliminary judging round will take place tomorrow, March 13th, to determine who will go on to the final round.

I am quite excited about the fact that my work is being judged against the best that Dell, HP, Sony and others can muster. I know I won't win the main competition but Intel did announce that they are holding a "People's Choice Award". I think the Decomatic will do well in that scenario.

We'll see.

028.jpg


026.jpg
 
smizack said:
I voted. Good work. ;)
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Thank you for your support.

In the immortal words of Al Capone...."Vote early and vote often"

Now if I could only convince Steve or Kyle that Intel's $1M PC Design Contest is actually real news.

I guess they'll figure it out after reading it somewhere else. Oh well.
 
slipperyskip said:
In the immortal words of Al Capone...."Vote early and vote often"

Now if I could only convince Steve or Kyle that Intel's $1M PC Design Contest is actually real news.

I guess they'll figure it out after reading it somewhere else. Oh well.
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I'm sure that once you win, they'll notice. You can count me in for a vote (or two). Yours is the only case that I would want in my living room. The rest look too much like....well, computers!
 
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