That was weird. Bit-tech, for some reason, switched all the fixes I made to them. Well they should be good now. Another small update without pics ( I'll take some soon I promise! ) I have both the side brackets all screwed together, and the alu sheets all masked off. I did another size fitting, this time with a standard ATX PSU, and I think I'm going to go with that. Found a 400w one for $11's from some texas company. That should be WAY more than I need power wise, so I don't think I'll put any sort of strain on it that could cause dreaded voltage fluctuations. Next up: Measure and cut alu sheets. Attache alu sheets to top and left and right sides. My brother also mention'd that my parents still have an old 200 disc changer ( that's broken ) sitting in the the basement. The entire front folds down just like I want, so I'm thinking, if not using the whole thing, at least ripping out that mechanism. If I remember correctly its about the same dimensions of this project.
Just a quick update. Got my new PSU today. Ordered a 400w single fan generic PSU. They sent a 500w dual fan powermax PSU. Yay. Got it for $11's shipped.
Been awhile since an update, but, "tis the season". Anyway, I picked up some of the parts I needed. I think I mentioned the 500w dual fan PSU I got. I haven't plugged it in yet, but I'll be swapping out the fans if they're too loud. I also bought a Radeon 7000 w/ TV-out to act as my TV-out port for now. It was only $30's, and I'm concerned about the quality issue with older Geforce chipsets. I really want to get a component out solution ( ie. YPrPb ) as my TV has the inputs, although its not HDTV ready. Thinking about trying one of the generic dongles.. have been reading endless amounts about it on AVS forums. Finally I also ordered the Aopen motherboard. Should arrive on Christmas Eve. Can wait to fire that puppy up. Should be sweet.
Just waiting for it to get a little bit warmer in my attic. Picked up a new PSU, again. It's an Aspire 520w triple fan / blue led, black painted psu. It comes with a built in fan speed regulator know, so I can turn it down and have it be nice and quiet. Will probably provide a more steady voltage. Also I got a 512mb PC3200 DDR dimm. Now all I need is the HD, CPU, and some extra fun things. This project has been scaled back to just be a dvd player and jukebox, because I want to go High def. To do that I need to buy a new TV and receiver though FIRST, and to get money for that I'm going to have to knock over a few banks.
Glad you found a mobo. Anyway the shuttle FN41 mobo is available alone on the shuttle website. Shame I didnt read this thread ealier otherwise I would have told you. But seems you made up your mind on the AOPEN. May it server you well
Good to see you're back on i man. Warm up?? what are you talking about, it was definatley above 0 this weekend.. well... maybe not Yeah I had to scale mine back, as in not gonna happen. But the good news is I have a new project along the same lines only worth money in the consumer sector (if not I get to keep the prototype )... ask me about it next time I see you later Devan
Yeah, I did see that, but its cost twice as much, and only has optical digital out, and I like to use Coax. Thanks tho. Devan - Tell me about it on sunday while we watch the pats masacre the cats.
Well, just a short post. I have all the internal parts. Got an 80GB WD 8mb 7200 HD for 19.99 from a sale at Office Max, and bought a 2400+ Mobile Barton from Newegg for $70's. So I'm thinking about just putting everything together so that I can get everything ( software wise ) installed and working. I've been studiously reading the AVS forums for the past months trying to get my mind around the whole AV situation. HDTV is out for me until 1080p go's mainstream, and even then I won't put it into an HTPC until they have a QAM enabled card available. ( Or cable companies start selling PC cards ) Anyway, I will be using it as a limited PVR and ( as space allows ) video media storage. The Aopen board also has two SATA ports available, so that's another two drives I can fit in there if needs be. With the 400GB drives coming out that's over 2.5TB's available ( with no RAID ). Raid would have to be software which could F things up.. but that's all way ahead of the game. The sides are still sitting all masked off waiting to be cut with the old scroll saw I picked up. Anyway, its not dead yet! ( Although I am thinking about just getting a Silverstone LC03, cheaper and easier )
Well in case you didn't guess, I've ended this modding project. Ended up getting a Silverstone LC03. Just didn't have the time to finish modding and have a life. BUT the HTPC is and has been working great. I have a Dual Tuner Comcast DVR handling the DVR stuff (much better then a computer could) so I really just use the HTPC for media storage/playing. When I get a HDTV, I'm planning on upgrading the video card so I can use it for gaming as well. I've also put a 200GB drive in to complement the 80GB drive, both of which are almost full now. All in all in only ended up costing me around $400's. The current specs are listed below: Althon-XPm 2400+ @ 2.2ghz 512mb PC3200 at 9-3-3-2.5 @ 200mhz ATI 8500 128mb AK79D-Max Motherboard Onboard(Digital Audio, Firewire, USB, MCP-T SS) 80GB + 200GB WD 7200rpm Pioneer DVD Player Atech 520w 3fan PSU (has speed adj knob turned to super low) This thing is dead silent, using a panflow and NMB 80mm and 60mm fans. (Panflow for CPU, and NMB for exhaust) Oh yes, these mobile Barton CPU's are incredible. Running it OC'd at 1.575v it will idle at 40c WITHOUT the fan attached. (Lapped SK-7 Heatsink) At load with the fan on silent it goes up to 48c. I haven't tried overclocking it farther because I'm happy with the temps as they are. I'll post some pics in a bit.
