Hello and welcome to my project log (well more of a guide really), my goal is simply to build a htpc to entertain my family. I had a budget of £300 (not including o/s as ive got that sorted already). As ive said in my title this will be my first ever build, i usually get my hubby to build our pc's but this is my baby im not going to be doing any custom bits but i hope that i can be of help to anyone thinking of building a pc from scratch. I hope to get this completed by christmas... i know ages away but i'll only get a few hours a week to work on it due to work/family (3 kids) The main reason i wanted to build this is a mixture of sheer lazyness and children that love nothing more than to pry open dvd boxes and proceed to destroy the dvd anyway they can, and its getting to the point that i cant afford to keep replacing "insert overpriced disney dvd here" every few weeks!. Please note that this htpc does not have a dvd drive as ill be using my main rig to rip all my films and transfer them over... somehow (dont worry i plan to write a guide to that as well). I want to get the htpc to boot straight to media portal which i have no clue about lol but more on that later, i would also like to put some emulators on as well as pc games. Oh and before i forget this htpc wont have a tv card either its just a playback machine for now (i dont know if that means it isnt a htpc or what errr plz help?!) As for the components, i think i got a good deal tbh, all off ebuyer using the super saver option to save just that little bit extra and here they are Grand total was £304.41 which isnt too bad a little over but i can live with that *Price was correct on 25/10/2009* anyway on with the build, i will be doing this as a step by step guide to help other newcomers this way if ive done somthing wrong or typically blonde im sure you guys will help me out firstly i spun the case round and unscrewed the top panel like so put these screws somewhere safe as you dont get any spares now my case didnt come with a manual so go to THIS LINK download a copy, also be careful with the side panel as this is a cheap case mine easily flexed so i laid it flat on the floor out of the way. Inside it should look like this, just ignore all the loose wires for now, we will sort them out later. inside we have the motherboard tray... somewhere so next we unpack the mobo but before we pop it in we can install the cpu, heatsink and ram, this is far easier before you install the mobo into the case. Make sure you ground yourself before unpacking anything, just touch the bare copper pipe that feeds your radiator but be sure the heating isnt on the motherboard im using: Notice how ive placed the motherboard on that plastic bag it came in, this is impotant as its an anti static bag and will help to protect your mobo. First thing i installed was the CPU all you need to do is follow the manual, lift the lever at the side of the socket on the motherboard tray and pop it in oh and it only goes in one way dont try and force it in or you will bend the pins *note the arrow at the top left of the cpu* next i installed the ram, because i got an aftermarket cooler i didnt know if it would hang over the ram slots, again read the motherboard manual on how to install, cant really see it but i took a pic anyway. ok now we need to put the thermal paste on the cpu before we install the heatsink, first i got a plastic bag (make sure its clean) and wrapped it round my finger, then put a small amount directly onto the centre of the cpu and gently rubbed it to evenly spread it round the entire surface like so. ive also taken 2 pics to show you the difference in sizes from the stock heatsink and the one i got, yeah a BIG difference ok now to fit the heatsink and im going to be honest this was easy, anyway please read the manual that came with the heatsink and follow carefully. Installed should look like this. One thing i did notice when i installed the heatsink, was it did block one of the holes for screwing the mobo to the case, but ill let you know if thats a problem or not in 2 mins no no probs phew! So back to the case and onto installing the motherboard. Again and i cant stress this enough read the manual (both case & mobo) for how to install. First install the backplate, then carefully pickup your motherboard after grounding yourself and line up the holes, remember these and open the bag of screws that came with the case, your going to need the small gold ones, they look like these then screw the into the case now carefully pickup your motherboard and place it into position and tighten the screws but dont go mental and overtighten them sorry for bad quality pic stupid camera. Next we need to take the front panel off, the manual makes this look easy, but it isnt! do as the manual instructs, but youve really gotta put a lot of force lifting it out... then i heard a high pitched bang luckily all was well and it came off phew. next we will install the HDD to do this coolermaster says to use them black plastic strips that came in the same bag as the screws.... now your ment to get 10, i got 9 and yes the one thats missing is the hdd but fear not ive only got the 1 hdd for now (quick question guys who do i contact to get the missing one?) attatch said cheapy plastic thing to the side of the hdd (where you normally screw into not the tiny holes like i first thought ) Now installing the actual HDD was a nightmare at first i thought it wouldn't fit no matter what i did it wouldnt slide in, maybee i got a bad batch of cases i dont know? but luckily i had a spare dead hdd that i went crazy with after forcing the drive in tho i couldnt get it out so i had to wait for help finally managed to remove the hdd and got my new one in which went in no bother this time anyway heres a pic Now thats in next is the PSU. Now in the manual it says to place the fan facing downwards, after my hdd issues i say screw the manual besides over at www.motherboards.org they have a review of the case and they had there PSU fan facing upwards so yeah im gunna be a rebel and not follow the rules ok ran into a problem lol typical, if you do it this way the adapter for your psu wont fit so you will have to take out the screw below, now thats not a problem for me but you might want to mount it like the manual says. Heres my PSU im a little dissapointed the wires weren't braided (i think thats the right word) but they do provide you with some cable ties... 3 so ill have to be really careful with my cable tidying! heres the psu info for those who are interested So go ahead and install it like so Now for the wires i hate wires so im going to do the best i can any advice will be greatly appreciated It hasnt gone too badly, the PSU only has a 20-pin main connector so you have to attatch the other 4 pins but thats easy just do it before you connect the 20 pin first a few pics of my wiring its nowhere near perfect but im happy with it for now, since the machine wont have a dvd drive for now ive used that space to hide all the wires... anyway pics time anyone notice the mistake i made? hint its on the last pic... yeah i put a cable tie right thru the hole that the front panel needs ahh well nothing a pair of scissors cant fix right next up is the front panel, put it back in place and feed the wires back through the gap they came from, then get your motherboard manual and find the wires for the front panel and match them up like so... to tidy these cables i put them through what will be the bottom of the case like this and then taped them down (is this ok?) phew nearly done, with the elite 360 you get a speaker, now its up to you if you want to install it or not, i will because if anything goes wrong the beeps tell you what (yeah yeah look in the manua l) next up the sata cable for the hdd typically these are waaaaaay to long just do your best to make it tidy.... my attempt taadaa also i hooked the cpu fan wire to the motherboard heatsink so it definatly wont move about and potentially get caught in the fan right well thats the build done, ill borrow my main rigs dvd drive to install windows 7 on, then its off to setup media portal, thats whats gunna take the longest i think. Anyway let me know your thoughts etc and thank you for taking the time to read my project log... well part 1 anyway oh and before i forget, i put the supplied rubber feet on, my camera's batteries have died so 7hrs till re-charge total build time (including uploading pics and writing this as im working) 5 hours is that an epic amount of time for what ive done? mind you i have had a few cuppas excuses lol c ya soon
Seems like a nice build, but the category is deffo wrong. I reckon this would fit to the hardware instead.. Oh well, mods will decide. 5 hours? Well that's a start, once you pop, you can't stop, building new rigs can get addictive I haven't really timed any of my builds, but I'd say the normal switch from case to case is around 45 min or hour.. Including a couple of zip-ties here and there.
oh sorry how do i change it? Also ive ran into my first problem, i cant get any video output from vga or hdmi (vga on my monitor and hdmi on my tv) plus no beeps from the speaker i put on the mobo, does this mean the boards dead or am i missing somthing? thanks for any help you can provide
oh dear now ive dissapointed myself, i forgot to plugin the 4pin atx 12v power lead ill take a pic and ammend my guide/project log later sorry for the sheer stupidity ive just done! i feel really silly now if you look at this pic just below the bottom right corner of my heatsink i forgot to plug it in
Welcome to modding! Those who never make mistakes fib a little! I'll bet we could come up with some real mistake memories on this forum. Mod on This is just fine and don't worry about the time. I've spent hours just staring at a new case before I even begin. I do have to comment that that is one big HTPC case Full ATX I/O? john
Lol right after reading this I went through the photos to see which cable you forgot to plug in Been there, done that! I remember how upset I was when the system just wouldn't boot after swapping it from one case to another.
thanks for the comments, yes i suppose it is a big case but ill take a pic next to my antec 300 to show you the difference (the mobo installed is matx but it will take a full atx) ive now installed windows 7 and im currently in the process of installing all the drivers etc will update next sunday when hopefully ill have a bit more done. do you think the log/guide will be useful for other people then? would you like to see a mediaportal log as well? feedbacks always appreciated thanks again see you soon
