From the title, it's pretty easy to work out that this is going to be a HTPC and it's going to be cheap. At first, it will not have a TV card but I may add one in the future. I have bought a P3 733 processor which I think will be enough for my needs, and have bidded on a M-ATX mobo and PCI graphics card with TV-out on ebay. The aim is to make something out of wood which is about as wide as your average DVD player, and as short as possible, preferably shorter than 9-10cm. Will post here when something more significant happens.
Update: Bought a mobo, and some nice people on these forums have given me a GFX card (Banshee 16mb VO) and a heatsink (Globalwin FOP32), and I may be buying some RAM, a HDD and a NIC from someone on this forum. Just gotta wait till everything's here before I start thinking where everything's gonna go TBH, I'm no good at visualising distances, I have to have the components in front of me and arrange them.
Just my 2 cents (or pennies ) If you're building an HTPC you need a TV card. An OK tvcard'll set you back about 30 quid odd, sounds like a deal to me
That'll probably come in later. For now it will just be streaming ripped DVDs from the network and music from the HDD. When I get more money I will invest in a TV card.
OK, just a suggestion. I'm looking at taking an old AMD k6 mobo and turning that into a mobile PC. Good luck with your HTPC!
I want to build a cheap HTPC myself pretty much the same as yours I just want to stream divx and music from my server. I'll keep an eye on this thread to see how you get along. Stu
Thanks for the compliment. Dont be shy to post if you have any questions or sugestions bro. I may not be the best out there but I have seen allot and I know a fiew things.
Would you say a 7volt 80mm intake with a 80--->60mm adpater on it pointed right at the cpu, and a 5/7volt exhaust elsewhere, would be enough to cool this system?
This was my first time using sketchup. I know theres no PSU, I don't have it yet so don't know exactly what size it'll be. I'll probably try and squeeze it in behind and under the CD-Rom and HDD.
As you can see, I have nearly all of the hardware now, with the exception of the PSU, which should be coming next week sometime. I ordered a nice 1U one.
good luck with the project, i'll keep a close look to see how you get along i was thinking that placing the fans as you have might be a problem, but after noting that the graphics card acts as a kind of 'divider' i think the most important parts will be cooled sufficiently. no plans for infra red control? are you just going to hook up a regular keyboard and mouse? also, how are you going to go about making the front panel look decent? are you stealthing the optical drive? things worth thinking about i'm starting my own htpc project soon (well, i kinda already have tbh) and am looking around at the current crop of projects to try and get some nice ideas. i think for control i'm going to opt for an all in one wireless keyboard and mouse device. i'm still looking out for good ideas where making the front panel is concerned though good luck (and subscribed, so i'll be watching )
Stompy, Looking good! It will be nice to see where you take this. I'll be keeping an eye out, as I have my own HTPC that's half-built, but I haven't settled on a case for it and the wife demands that it be near silent (if not entirely). I used to have a p3 850 on it, but it was a slot chip and has that little tiny fan on it that whirrs like a jet engine!
It is actually going to be smaller. I made a cardboard model to get a rough idea of size and it was way too big. I've now edited the design so its a whole 10cm shorter on the side where it was 45cm. I did this by moving the hard drive to in front of the mobo. The mobo is actually smaller than standard Matx which is why i can do that. As for the case, it'll be made out of some kind of wood, and will have the minimum amount of openings possible. The front will have the power + reset buttons, plus a USB port and the cd drive. Yes, the CD drive will be stealthed. I may also use some smoked plexi on the front to make it a bit more classy. As for cooling, haven't really decided where the fans are gonna go since i've changed the design. Well I know the one with the 60>80mm adapter is gonna go right above the CPU, but I'll wait until the PSU comes to see what kinda fans it has. IR remote control is also planned if I can get a serial infra red reciever for not much money. Keyboard and mouse, will eventually be wireless ones, but for now will probably be controlled with VNC. Dego - yeh, plus slot chips are so huge they kinda mess up placement of other components if you're stuck for space.
