Well while finishing up my first mod (Windows G5) I was brainstorming my next mod, HTPC. I finally decided to spend a few hours in photoshop to sketch it out. The tv stand in my living room was built by myself and has a 2 tone look just like the case I sketch up. Right down to the silver legs. I am looking for a little input, what do you think about the design, does it look better with the veris media station hidden? I have the PSU, DVD, Fans, Veris, 1 of the (2) 1Tb drives that will go in it and Ram so far. I'm still debating on wether to go with a mini or micro ATX board. Anyone have suggestions as ive never used a mini-atx and not sure if it is enough. I do not plan on playing games on it, just going to replace my DVD player and my WDTV.
finally decided on a motherboard to use. I've only built 3 pc and have always used Asus boards. But this time chose to go with Foxconn. From the reviews I read it is a decent board. Foxconn Cinema Premium AM3/AM2+/AM2 AMD 785G HDMI Micro ATX Once it gets here and I get everything planned out a little more I will begin my project log.
Well I pretty much completed it. just have to redo the backplate. There was too much dust from all the wood that I did not want to subject my Nikon to, so I do not have progress shots. Just the finished photos so will just keep it here in modding instead of project logs. The base of the case was made with just a 1/2" piece of sanded ply, The rest was made out of African Padauk and a piece of 1" hardwood. The finish is a wax buffed out by hand. Think it turned out very well, fairly close to what I had originally planned, didn't stay too far from plan like my G5 build. Shot of the parts used Running 2 320GB Scorpio Blacks in raid. System boots win 7 and automatically starts XBMC very quick. Gigabyte HD5450 plays all my media flawlessly. Have not tried running any games on it, but it did score a 7.1 in win 7 for gaming graphics. So I might try a few games out later down the road. Rest of the inside. Tried my best to eliminate some of the cables. Had to cut and re-solder a few (white sleeved cables). At first I was going to just keep all the cables their original lengths, but it was just a mess of wires. Had to desolder the USB connection on the Veris media station modify an extra USB cable to do away with the big external to internal adapter they provided. This shows the clearance. There is no back on it as of now. I miss aligned the video card cut outs, so will have to redo. Now for the overall shots. And running XBMC.....
Thanks yeah I do agree, I wanted a slot loading drive. But I plan on getting a blu-ray drive and the few slot loading ones I found have bad reviews. I have an idea for the front to some what hide the drive but still need to work it out after I get the drive. So hopefully the front will get a face lift later on down the road.
Nice, I would have to agree on the drive not been slot loading but thought as a solution you could reseed the drive by a cm and then place a piece of wood matching its surroundings. This way when you eject the entire piece of wood comes out. Other than that very nice workmanship!
Thanks for lookin and thanks for the comments. I think I have the solution to hide the drive. I ordered an Apple G5 dvd drive cover. I'll update once I get parts. Had to order another piece of wood also..
Finished the facelift. I am pleased with this one. Re did the entire front and this time concealed the drive behind an apple G5 door covered with a piece of veneer. Also ditched the old usb/firewire ports for just a couple usb since I have never used firewire port on any computer I own..Once again did not take shots of work in progress as there was just too much dust. I ended up covered in red dust and it is all over the porch. Here is the drive door. Wood cut and set up to see how it will go together. That's it for progress shots. The router came out to play so the Nikon had to go in the house. And HTPC back in its home......
Very nice, rounding the edges was the right thing to do definitely. How does the G5 door operate because to me it looks like a vertical sliding door?
