Hello all, New to posting, not to the site or forums. I have had a number of htpc projects, and now I am onto my next. About 6 mo's ago I came into a old Packard Bell desktop legend (I believe, model #pb441a) and decided that I could make it my new HTPC case. I painted it flat black, did a little dremel work, and in the end, the power supply was my prob. The power supply then was a MATX, one of the cheap emachines, the case made it too tall, and it wouldnt fit right. Now, the I brought this old case back out to give it another try. The MATX powersupply has since been sold, and now i have a huge clunky old Dell atx power supply, which is even larger than regular ones. The problem is I need guidance on the layout, and possibly taking the psu out of its case and just mounting it caseless into the case. Whew....lot of words. Anywho, any help would be appreciated, I've included pics of the case, sorry for their ****ty quality. The dimensions are roughly, 16 in side to side, 14 front to back, I will be using a full size atx mobo, Asus Cuv4x I have no cash to spare, and I am limited with tool access, minus the trusty dremel. I've already made some cuts on the previous mod to the back, and a fan cut on the side of the top of the case toward the back.
Well, first i would try out a couple of layouts, it looks as if there is a cut-out for the PSU ( right-side behind the drivecages ). So that would be the place to put the PSU, then the drives...well the only place would be in the cages where they belong. This leaves you only one place for the motherboard, on the left side next to the PSU. 1 Try this layout, does it fit? 2 Rummage around until it fits ( If you are not able to fit it -> other case ) And for standoffs, i dont really use them, i place a piece of rubber under the motherboard and screw it to the case with 1/s screws. Z//
update This proprietary IBM power supply (yes, ibm aptiva) is resisting minimization, so Im gonna have to fit the whole thing in there. Here are the two optional layouts 1 Pro's: All I have to do is cut out fan/plug hole in the side of the case, and extend the ATX cable. Con's: The Power supply will be towards the front of the case, and I will have to plug the power in the side of the pc, not too bad, but takes away from looks a bit. 2 Pro's: power supply fits where the old one used to, and would be snug. Con's Have to cut side of the case for I/O, etc, and thus loosing my bracket to screw the cards in. Would also look ghetto as hell. Couple of questions.... Would splicing (electrical tape) be okay to lengthen the ATX cable (P1) cable? I have a spare dead ATX supply here and it would be easy enough to do. Would cardboard be okay to put under the mobo before screwing in to prevent shorting out?
Here is a layout, I cramped everything in, notice down towards the back where the HD cage is, I placed a 80mm fan sandwiched between the cage and the place where the power supply used to be, would this be okay to run a intake right there? Might help cool off the HD's. It's cramped as hell, but everything seems to reach, minus the P1 cable I have a 2 usb bracket that I was gonna mount right under the dvd-rom, only place I can get it in where it would reach its connections on the mobo. Damn shame too, would be nice over where the floppy was gonna be. Lot of cutting, but I think this layout might work...god its gonna be heavy as hell. 1 more thing, would it be worth placing a 120 delta on top of the case? intake or exhaust?
Umm, heres a dumb question, if the case is high enough, why not raise the position the psu is connected to so that it's "overtop" of the mobo on that one side? I've seen it done before.
No, I don't think you realize the dimensions of the psu, lol, it's like a friggin monster, biggest psu I've ever seen. It has a extra board in it for some reason, still havent figured out what it is. I wish that was a option, but then again, even if it was, how would i mount it? onto the inside the top of the case? Everytime I would move it, It would rip my mobo out, lol. (The whole top comes off)
Nah, what I'm thinking is take it apart, then see if theres a part of the psu's housing that you can form a shelf with (like the back and bottom of it, then trimm the back so it fits). That'll reduce the height of the psu drasticly.
I'll take a pic of the inside of the psu later, or in the morn, so you can see, it has like 2 different boards in it., sandwidched ontop of each other. If anybody would like to donate a old MAtx psu, or smaller, feel free too.
I believe I might have figured out a solution to the psu problem, if this other power supply works that I have.
Best advice I've ever been given: everything works, with enough duct tape. Have at err! I'm sure it's a simple fix
The psu problem is solved now, I just gotta do some cutting on the actual case, and gotta find a drill to use. found out that the cordless dremel is not that good for drilling holes, lol, thing ran out of power with the quickness.
Well, I knew it wouldnt go as smooth as it was, I ran into my first snag, sadly, I was nearing the completion of the project. My Sblive card is too tall, and is preventing the case from closing now. I have no idea what to do about this. I could cut a slit down the top of the case to allow the sblive to poke through, seeing how it isnt that much of a height problem, but that would look ghetto. I'm open for suggestions, this is the only fix I can see for it.
Cut the slit, then have a long contrasting or lighted tube on top. I suggest using plexi and LEDs, to show that it's on, so you can see it from afar.
Ugh, I guess I'm gonna have to cut the slit, unless somebody has a nforce/nforce2 board with apu and a xp cpu they would like to trade for a broken ps2 (doesnt load most games, or takes a long time) """Shameless trade plug, sorry
Fixed! just had to do a little trimming to the back, the top slides on the bottom of the case up top, there is a lip that overlaps the back of the case to secure it, I just had to trim it down, or off you could say, a bit. Still rises just a bit in the back, but I'm sure it will be okay for now, just don't want to set anything heavy on top of it. Anybody got any suggestions for mounting a usb bracket to a 3.5 bay cover? I'm hoping that the bay cover might fit snug enough to not pop out when I plug in and out. I guess a little superglue would reinforce the hold I need a pioneer slot load dvd, if anybody has one of these, I need to work out some trade for it. I could also you some super bright LED's for the case, since the one's i got are the suxor. EDIT: and a decent video card would be nice too, something that will do tv out at atleast 800x600.
Look no further than one of these for your floopy bay usb port access. They will attach with screws, so you need not worry about gluing or anything like that. The only limitation would be that your mobo would require USB headers. But most mobo's today have them anyway (infact, you would be hard pressed to find a mobo without them!)
Yes, I already have one of those, it came with my Asus board, so thats taken care of. I just took a 3.5 bay cover and cut to holes in it (ghetto for now) and I am gonna mount the bracket to the back of the 3.5 bay cover with screws. I'm just hoping it's gonna be strong enough for when I plug in it wont push the bay cover right out.
Well, I finished it, the psu was out of its case, and a metal contact on the psu power switch came loose and touched a cap, boom... Dead psu. Well, actually, It still powers up the mobo, I get no fan action, and no video, so I take it that its dead, and the cap is clearly melted, lol. Anybody got a spare psu they arent using?
