Scratch Build – In Progress Project: Small Moderately Audible HTPC

Hey all.
The idea here is a all aluminium HTPC based on laptop drives, mATX motherboard and a shuttle PSU.

The panels will be 2mm aluminium araldited and riveted to a frame made from 12mmx12mmx1.4mm L rail aluminium.
In terms of hardware im looking at a athlon XP/P4 underclocked with one 120mm fan over the headsink exhausting air out of the top of the case.

Drive Cage
The laptop HDD and DVD drive will be mounted in a frame made from .5mm sheet aluminium joined with araldite, 3mmx30mm flatbar aluminium and 12mmx12mmx1.4mm L rail aluminium (same as the frame).

I printed a template from sketchup and glued it using spray adheasive onto .5mm aluminium. Then cut it out using a jigsaw and tinsnips.

Next I bent the sheet aluminium in a benchvice.

 

Looks pretty good I like the idea, but that metal looks a bit flimsy.

 

U got some serius Alubending going on there ,this should be interesting.

 

if your getting the athlon XP for low power consumption consider getting a sempron 754 chip instead there about the same price, and as far as my experiance goes use alot less power.

 

You don't need 56k-warning in a project log, instead you can use the space to tell when the last update has been done

The sketches look interesting, silent computers are always nice!

 

@Supra55: At first the alu is very flimsy but once I bent it and added the thicker aluminium joining pieces it becomes quite strong.

@Kipman725: Yeah when i said Athlon xp it was more of a guess, Its all going to depend on waht i can find cheap. As well as what type of motherboard i can find in mATX size.


Once the glue dried on the drive mount I cleaned all the excess glue up with 600wet&dry sandpaper then test fitted the drives.

Exhaust Fan Mount


The Exhaust fan mount is made from the same .5mm aluminium as the drive mounts. It was cut using a sketchup template the same as before. At first the aluminium was very weak so I've bent 5mm sections of the edge to give enough strength to support the weight of the fan.

 

Looks good.

 

I like the case,simply and clean

 

you should go to onlinemetals.com and order yourself some thicker aluminum panels. it'll look better. otherwise the design is nice.

 

Yeah the .5mm alu is just for the internal mountings, the outside panels will be 2mm thick alu for the top, base, sides and back with 3mm alu for the front.

 

How're you printing that well from sketchup, and to scale?

 

The Sketchup templates can only be made in Sketchup 5 not Google Sketchup
To make them I first make tke 3D model im trying to create.
-Next I have to manually go through the model and make a copy of each of the outside surfaces.
-Then line the copyed surfaces up into a flat template.
-Select the print menu and set the print scale to 1mm:1mm.
-Then print them with a standard desktop printer.

 

Nice bendin on that cage

 

Base panel/frame


The motherboard will be mounted on screws though the bottom of the case. This allows the motherboard height to be adjusted to get the best fit with other components.


The mounting holes are drilled from a sketchup template.


The frame is then cut to fit the panel and attached with araldite and rivets.

Side Panel


The side panel is first sandwiched between two pieces of 3mm MDF and clamped, next the template printed form sketchup is overlayed on the MDF. I think drilled 1/8 pilot holes then finally 5.5mm vent holes.

 

Backpanel


The expansion cards are designed to be kinda tool less. The top of the card bracket sits in a slot about the cardports, it is then held in place by a piece of 20x3 flat bar alu with notches cut out of it.


I copied out a template then scored it into the metal with a knife. Then cut out each piece with a jigsaw.


The cuts were straightish but will require a bit more filing when i put it all together.

 

Side Panel


The original plan was to make a vent using a series of slots cut using a drill press and jigsaw.


Well that didn't work to well. I couldnt get straight slots using a template.

To correct this I cut a piece of .5mm aluminium sheet, clamped it between two 19mm chipboard pieces then overlayed a sketchup template.



I then used a drill press to drill 5/13 pilot holes then 5.5mm vent holes.




Original 2mm panel cut to fit.(still needs to be glued)

 

That DIY mesh got pretty warped. :|

 

thicker sheet shouldn't get so warped.
alternatively, get some mesh from elsewhere and put that inside a frame which you make.

 

I think you may have an easier time with SU6 and its new Template feature, but I've not yet tried it out.

 

Does sketchup 6 have a seperate template feature? I tried it and could only print perspective shots (same is google sketchup), i couldnt find any print to scale options?