So this is going to be my first scratch build and, infact, my first mod ever! The plan is to create a m-itx HTPC, which is small and sleek. I've done some basic designs on sketch-up to give an idea of what I'm aiming for, although it's the first time I've used the programme (I apologise for my lack of sketchup skill!) and it is lacking any great level of detail- but will hopefully give the general idea; BTW the case is going to be 120mm high, 200mm wide and 200mm long. Front (x-ray) Side Back/inside layout I'm using 6mm acrylic, using a selection of black, light tint, dark tint and clear. Which will be largely solvent welded together. As shown in the sketches, the hard drives will be mounted on the botton, bdrom drive above and the motherboard on top. Im planning to have the motherboard and optical drive on clear acrylic, slotted in, so the trays can easily just be pulled out. Hardware wise I'm looking at the following specs so far: MSI E350IA-E45 E-350 AMD Fusion M-ITX mobo OR Asus E35M1-I Deluxe 2 - 4 gb Hyper-x RAM Slimline Slot-in Blu-Ray drive Pico PSU 2 x 500gb 2.5" HDD 2x 40mm exhaust fans Blue LEDs + Power Button Im thinking of going with the MSI board, as it features a nice blue look, which should combine with the RAM and blue LEDs to give a nice ambient look. Im also thinking of having a blue LED power button of some sort. I've begun cutting all of the acrylic, now just got a few hours of sanding and adjusting ahead of me! Please let me know of any ideas/advice you might have as I'm sure experience here will be a great benefit
looks nice! BTW, the dremel is not ideal for acrylic, if you had access to a bandsaw that will give you sleek cuts.
Thanks. Yeah I realised that after a few of the pieces were cut, so am sanding down the bits I've done and using a bandsaw for the remaining pieces, providing I can wangle the use of the saw
Can't say I've ever used one, thanks for the tip though I'll look into it for the future Thanks a lot, appriciate the support, I may well take you up on that Cheers matey, thanks for the support! I will do my best to make it worth watching!!
Subbed. I am currently building a HTPC with almost the same specs (I went for the E351 Deluxe), but having a hard time finding a case that suits my needs. Might have to hack one up and mod it or make my own from scratch - I really don't have time to build one myself, so I hope to get some ideas from this build.
Sincere apologies for the slowness in getting this off the ground, have had a lot of personal stuff going on. Anyway as soon as I can afford the hardware I'll get to work with more updates Cheers nutman, will have to check yours out when you do it too!
