Unusual SFF socket 478 mobo (no psu used + low profile)

is there a way you could "buff off" that logo that's painted on there? looks kinda goofy :p I should be getting mine in the mail today!!! :D

also, how'd you make such clean cuts with a dremel? how'd you measure everything out? it looks like it was made for that case! great job
 
Looking good Morely!

That case has a nice low profile, looks to be 4 to 4 1/2 inches tall at most.
 
MATTRESS said:
is there a way you could "buff off" that logo that's painted on there? looks kinda goofy
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I could probably paint over it, but frankly I just don't want to bother. If I did that, I'd feel obliged to paint the silver DVD drive cover black, too. :p


also, how'd you make such clean cuts with a dremel?
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I handed it to my machinist and said, "Cut out those openings, would you?" ;)


how'd you measure everything out?
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Oh, that was the easy part. Just use a sheet of paper lined up with the corner of the frame and trace the ports; then cut out the port openings in the paper, double-check it to make sure the openings are right, and tape it to the outside cover. Mark the openings there and start cutting. There are also three "ears" on the inside that have to be trimmed off, that's the hard part.


it looks like it was made for that case! great job
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Thanks!

Now, as soon as strae gets those secondary IDE adapter boards, I can add some serious storage.
 
I got my case in yesterday (i got the same one morely did)

I Morely just cut the bottom half of the middle divider out, i just took the whole thing out. I found out if you pull and twist and tug on that thing, all the spot welds just pop out :D

I have a pair of nibblers, and I've been hacking away at the side of the frame making room for the side USB ports and the serial port on the back.

I plan on drilling a hole in the outer case and then go back with nibblers to cut a nice clean square out.

Morely -- how do you plan on putting the standoffs on? I put the mobo in the case where I want it mounted, and took a small screw driver and scratched the case to mark off where I want the standoffs.

I'm not sure what I want to do .. drill holes in the bottom big enough for the stand offs to screw in, or just tack weld the stand offs to the bottom...

How do you plan on covering the back of this thing too? We were thinking about taking some spare peices of sheet metal and tack welding it on to the back ... or just taking it to a metal shop and see what they would be able to do.
 
MATTRESS said:
Morely -- how do you plan on putting the standoffs on?
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Drilled clearance holes for 3mm screws and put them down from the top of the mobo, through 1/4-inch nylon spacers and the bottom of the case, and nuts with a little Loc-Tite on the outside. In the event a nut comes loose, it won't be rattling around on the mobo (and the screws are less likely to slide around as long as the case is more-or-less right-side up).


How do you plan on covering the back of this thing too?
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The permanent means will be a piece of 0.0625 plexiglas, cut out to clear the ports and the exhaust fan I added where the original power supply was. I'm glad I didn't finish that yet, because the squirrel-cage fan from the iDEQ's bones has failed (bearings are shot). I'm using an 80mm fan now. The gap between the edge of the fan housing and the edge of the PSU opening has been filled with one of those thin foam sheets used to seal behind electical outlets when you're weather-proofing a house. That, and the feet on the bottom of the case, are held in place with silicon sealer. Great stuff - absorbs vibration, waterproof, can be removed with an Xacto knife if necessary, and sticks to almost anything.

My last mod doesn't show from the outside. I decided against the front-panel audio jack, and instead, I took the speakers out of an HP Omnibook XE3 laptop that had died, soldered them to an appropriate cable and plug, and put them inside the front of the case. Used more silicon sealer to glue them down to the bottom of the case. Sound quality is, of course, laptop quality, but it is good enough to use for system sounds (right now I'm using this as a DVD rip and burn station, until I get the USB TV tuner). The onboard audio amp drives the laptop speakers to a good-enough-to-hear-clearly sound level, and that will be fine for now. The rear panel audio out cuts off the internal speakers, so when this box becomes my HTPC, sound will go into the receiver.
 
If anyone is interested...

I have 3 of these motherboards as well as the corresponding power supplies (Clevo/Sager from ebay) for sale.

Say $80/set shipped.

Basically covers my cost and shipping to you. Bought 4 thinking to make it into stations for my home, but can only afford to complete one!

LMK guys.
 
dam you wpd7 you're the one who bought them all!

good no-nonsense price though :)
 
aw man, i really could have used one of those, i have the second computer in my sig i want to make into a htpc :( if anyone has one and doesnt want to charg me 4x the original price id like one. i have some stuff to trade too.
 
Thermite Paste said:
aw man, i really could have used one of those, i have the second computer in my sig i want to make into a htpc :( if anyone has one and doesnt want to charg me 4x the original price id like one. i have some stuff to trade too.
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His price was not THAT bad..
The adaptors are selling for 40-50$ plus shipping, and the bords were 14+ shipping with the geekcode. That puts the total cost to the first person at ~54-64$ before shipping. Add maby 5% shipping for each product gives you 64-74$ total cost to the original buyer. That plus 10$ to ship to you ends at 74-84$. Hes not trying to make money on the deal, just come out close to even.
 
yea, i just realized that the power supplies cost that much, lol. sorry i misjudged you wpd7 . :)

Edit: still looking for one.
 
No problem Thermite...

Anyone else want a set? I have one pending and ready to go... Two left! :D
 
Want to get composite video out of the s-video port? Most of the s-video-to-RCA adapters are simply connected to the luminance line and ignore chrominance completely, so you get a black-and-white signal. Simple solution: Tack-solder a 470 pF capacitor across the top two connections on the back of your s-video jack. It won't degrade the s-video signal enough that you can see the difference, and it will put the color back in your composite signal.

Want to use an IR wireless remote controller with this board as a HTPC, but don't feel like major hacks to add an IR receiver? Geeks.com comes to the rescue again: USB IRda receiver
Hook this up to the internal USB port header and stick it behind a window on the front bezel, and voila!
 
i read the irda adapters are for data transfer only, and it cannot be used to receive remote control commands. correct me if i'm wrong! :)

also, any word on those adapters strae?
 
MATTRESS said:
i read the irda adapters are for data transfer only, and it cannot be used to receive remote control commands. correct me if i'm wrong! :)
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It will take a software hack, but IR is IR. Remote commands *are* data to a computer - *everything* is either data, or it doesn't exist. It's just a matter of making the data useful.
 
Morely said:
Want to use an IR wireless remote controller with this board as a HTPC, but don't feel like major hacks to add an IR receiver? Geeks.com comes to the rescue again: USB IRda receiver
Hook this up to the internal USB port header and stick it behind a window on the front bezel, and voila!
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Good find Morely, got one.
 
Morely said:
Want to use an IR wireless remote controller with this board as a HTPC, but don't feel like major hacks to add an IR receiver? Geeks.com comes to the rescue again: USB IRda receiver
Hook this up to the internal USB port header and stick it behind a window on the front bezel, and voila!
Click to expand...

Anyone know from experience whether this works with linux and LIRC?
 
sorry to bring back an old dead thread, but I have a question about this motherboard


is there ANY way to add a PCMCIA card slot to it?? Thanks!!
 
good idea, but I need to use mine for non-storage purposes ... at the bottom it says "do not buy this if intended for modem, etc"

almost there, sooo close....

something like this is what I guess I'm looking for:
p111_wlan_sunset_ripples.jpg

but not PCI ... USB or something..
 
What's the device? Perhaps it comes in CF form, or maybe that's storage-only too...
 
bringing the thread back from the dead again...

How did you guys go about cooling your CPU?

I tried making the socket adapter, but due to the mounting hole locations, I can't really find a clip on HSF.

I can't use a zalman, it's entirely too big. Is there anyway we could find the original cooler that was used in this laptop?
 
well yeah, it fits perfectly to the board ... it's just too big for what I want to use the board for/where I want to put it ... unless I do major modification to it
 
Swiftech mx-462. All I did was trim about 1/4" down one side, drill 2 new holes. I used the mounting equipment that came with it. It does a great job coolign the system down even with that litttle 40mm fan i'm temporaraly useing.



Picture 1 (227K)

Picture 2 (258K)
 
Anyone get an LCD from a laptop connected to this? I'm gonna try it tomorrow at work. Skeptical but it's worth trying.

Also, the miniPCI slot might serve a purpose for the person wanting PCMCIA functionality.

Anyone know exactly which laptop/PC this is from?
 
darkunderlord said:
Anyone get an LCD from a laptop connected to this? I'm gonna try it tomorrow at work. Skeptical but it's worth trying.

Also, the miniPCI slot might serve a purpose for the person wanting PCMCIA functionality.

Anyone know exactly which laptop/PC this is from?
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good luck on the LCD, I have a helluva a time trying to find the right parts and cables. They seem to be specific to the laptop motherboard

If you look through the thread some people found miniPCI cards for all sorts of things.

Again, look through the thread, there is a lot of info from where these came from.
 
Wow, I've read this thread quite a few times in it's entirety and I figured there'd be more success stories than what's here. I just got my board a couple days ago from a member in these forums, you know who you are (starts with a w and ends in a 7) ;) and i'm very impressed already.

I am currently installing Gentoo on it with a 2.4 GHz chip and 512MB PC2100 ram. I have a ten gig harddrive and a cdrw (IDE) hooked up to it. I'd like to get my laptop (Now dead but was an alienware area51m type) LCD and CDRW working in it, but that's to come hopefully.

I zip tied a heat sink and fan from an older Pentium III compaq desktop and it seems to be working just fine. Networking is working like a breeze too.

The main thing I want to use this for is a carPC and would love to get the LCD working. The LCD UXGA sweet LCD from my laptop has an inverter that fits the inverter socket perfectly. I'd love to get the LCD ribbon to fit, but it's not the correct size. Mine is more of an adapter than it is an open ribbon. Where might I find a cable that could work for me? Any help would be great!

If anyone has had success other than the ones who posted here (only a couple IIRC) please post the success you had and the main use you have it for. Thanks!

Dark
 
valve1138 said:
good luck on the LCD, I have a helluva a time trying to find the right parts and cables. They seem to be specific to the laptop motherboard

Again, look through the thread, there is a lot of info from where these came from.
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I think you're right, the answer may have been right in front of us.

Darklord, maybe try emailing the chaintech tech department for a replacement cable. They were offering the ac/dc power supply at the going market price so hopefully that cable will be inexpensive as well.

Let us know how it works out :)
 
Yeah, I tried to boot with no LCD and just connect the Inverter which seemed to fit, and got teh ole' snap, krackel, pop and smokey smell from the board. Unplugged the power and now it seems to still boot but man, something bad happened and I doubt I will get an LCD to work now. I would like to pick another one of these up possibly if the LCD seems more promising in the future...
 
MATTRESS said:
everytime I've tried to contact chaintech about this board they refused to help me lol
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you actually got a respose? They never even bothered replying to mine.
 
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