Modding Uber Noob - HTPC mod concept - help advice etc

Hi All,

Been dressing my living room with Home theatre equipment recently, and using an old 1.2 duron as a media PC (via svideo through receiver to 100hz tv)

It sits in a cheeeeepy ebay case which is rattely, has a noisy old fan and is generally fugly as hell.

My idea is to create a HTPC (case wise not necessarily internal spec wise) which will look the part when next to my other black seperates equipment:
Yamaha rx-V630 receiver, Pioneer DV636d dvd player

So I have an old CD player JVC like this

dimensions W 356mm x H 108mm x D 279mm

Do you think I could shoe horn enough stuff in here and it not be too hot?

one other thing, my motherboard appears to be full lenght ATX but it looks much narrower than the dimensions ive seen on the web for ATX (more rectangular / less square) does this sound like a variation on ATX or mATX?

Im going to start gutting the CD player over the next week or so, but it does work perfectly so if you think itll never work please save me the angst

cheers
Quinn

 

More thoughts.

Components:

1 x atx mobo
1 x AGP ATI home theatre card with SVideo out
1 x network card PCI
1 x Sound Card PCI
1 x DVD player CDRW
1 x PSU (yet to buy to replace POS old one)
1 x 80G hardisk (yet to buy - only have a 20 gig one in there now and its noisy)
fans, no idea how many are needed

would prefer to have the connectors inside the case with extensions of necessary outputs only visible on the rear (ie audio / svideo / lan)

remove and fill buttons not necessary on the front

somehow add volume control to the front of the case (no idea how to do this)

have a display where there is a display at the moment

hide the dvd player

my next purchase will be a dremel, been looking for an excuse for ages.

Q

 

The display is easy, with a little soldering you can get a $25 LCD (make sure it has a 44780 controller) and hook that to your parallel port.

The volume control is just as easy, but you can do this in two ways. You can add two buttons and hook those to the serial port, and use a program to poll those buttons and adjust the volume accordingly. You could also use dual potentiometers for each stereo channel (front/center/back etc), or just regulate each speaker seperately, which means using one pot per speaker.

I think you should be able to get all your stuff in there, only why haven't you included a TV card? That way you turn your PC into a harddisk recorder too . Make sure, however, that you add sufficient fans at the back to blow the hot air out.

I think just putting your DVD drive behind the CD bezel would look great btw.

 

I am thinking of doing this too! I am currently on the look out for a suitable case! I'll be keeping a close tab on this thread!

 

excellent, thats cheap for a display. what sort of stuff can you display on a lcd? the same as a vfd?

not planning on recording onto the HTPC as i have a sky+ box for all that.

Im def gonna have a think about sound controlling from the front.. guess it depends on buttons layout as to what will be the most cool

what sort of other stuff would you recommend controlling from the front?

>>Ryszvaldo

Yeah.. ive seen lots of HTPC cases and they all still look like PCs to me. cept for the feet that is.

 

An LCD has exactly the same functionality as a VFD, only it uses a different method of displaying stuff. Where a VFD is active and actually outputs photons, an LCD display relies on ambient light or a backlight. I believe VFD's have a slightly better viewing angle, but cost a hell of a lot more.

What else would you want to control from the front? Stop/play... what you could do is use the LCD to create a menu, not quite sure how to DIY though, but I know that you can do this with at least some displays. You then use the front buttons to control that menu.You could put all your commands in that menu, like open/close, select file etc.

What I'd do is get one of those wireless keyboards that has a joystick in the top right corner instead of a mouse. That way you get all the PC's functionality in one simple unit. It's probably less labour intensive that fixing up a 25-key keypad to interface through the LCD display Looks like a cool project!

 

There's a thread on cheap UK LCDs in the Bargain Bin forum right now.

 

watercoolingshop.com got 4x20 lcd for 20£ ready wired. they are pretty good. abot volume controlle on the front there is an thread in the modding section. post it when i find it. i do the same in the moment with an old tape deck. u should think about an matx board couse u dont got that much space. also lowprofil pci/agp card couse of hight.

 

http://www.bit-tech.net/article/54/
here u go! dont know if u can make this with a other soundcard, anyway u can give it a try.

 

It's been done before - youll easily be able to get a mobo in it as long as you glue some hex standoffs in it - you can buy em from maplins.
This mobo will provide you with everything you need. Has onboard video, tv out, 6 channel audio, lan, 4 SATA ports. DVDRW drives are only ~£40 now too. Pop in a gig of ram and a 2800/3000+ and you're sorted. 80/120/160gig harddisk prices are all almost the same, id go for bigger = better for HTPC then you can throw as much as you like onto it.

 

hmmm

Thanks for the comments peeps, it all helps, unfortunately due to budget (which is already allocated to hard disk and PSU) I have to re-use componets i have already..

which screws my case idea, just measured everything up and it just dont fit.. hieght is the real problem.

so the cd player gets a last min reprieval from the gallows. (ill bung it in the study for the time being, maybe ill comeback to it in the future..

Plan B.
Get an Amp / poweramp / receiver from ebay.. much better sizes, and cut holes for dvd and display.

something like http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=3272&item=3872875602

should give me the playroom i need inside. 5.31/16.54/11.02 (13.50/42.00/28.00 in inches). (is it possible to get really nice clean cut edges with a cheap dremel alternative? or even with the real thing?

Love the idea of using the large rotary dial for the volume rather than up and down switches.. Ill have a search of bit-tech im sure theres some stuff out there.

The only other thing i need to consider is how to stealth the dvd drive, with a "flush" fabricated door / or maybe one ripped off another cd/dvd player (ebay central)

I may post the shortlist of cases for your ratings.

Q

 

Go for a nice VFD behind that smoked glass rather than a LCD. They look cracking.

You may be able to incorporate some of the existing buttons as play/stop buttons for the PC too.

I used an old DVD player case for mine: http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=37144

 

wow

thats some seriously compact equipment you have in there.. wish i had such diddy components..

maybe next time, i feel as my first mod Im going to go with somethign a little larger scale

Q

 

gotcha

Right.. and now i can begin..

Just got this one off ebay for 36 quid (amazing seing as it was like 800 when new).. nice and old = nice and big (full size - 17.1" *14.2"* 5.3" INCHES)

enough to take mobo + full height pci card, bit too man buttons on the front for my liking but should do the trick..

gonna be a shame to rip it to pieces seeing as it works, ho hum.



at least i dont have to worry about the idea of a rotary volume knob now!

off to buy a

 

Heh heh heh...KILL IT!

Good luck, dude...you should seriously consider a tv tuner or 2 once budget allows, though. I know you mention you already have something for that, but why rent a unit or pay a monthly charge for something you can do yourself and have far better control over? Besides, with true HTPC (at least 2 cards) you can record on one channel while having full pvr functions on another card. Not to mention, with a couple of the HTPC programs now, you can also program it from the internet if you decide you want to see a show and you've already left for the day! And the more cards, the more you can record at once while watching, or farm it out to other HTPCs in your home so multiple TVs get PVR and the ability to watch the recorded shows without needing anything but a network card. Add a wireless network and you'd have a whole-house HTPC solution...drool...

Oh, and a lot of the cards come with remote controls, just to add to the cool factor and make your life even easier.

Anyhow, just something to aim for, since you're already getting your feet wet, you should plan for future expansion!

 

I agree with ya!!!! Check out what somebody over at snapstream did, they call it Hydra and it looks sweet!

-Fiz

 

Good Luck

I have been working on my first mod - an old SmartUps that is roughly the same size - take a look - it was harder than I thought to cram everything into it. I am enjoying the mod though. What you are doing was my original idea - I just didn't have any spare cash to even purchase an old used receiver. Your width may make it easier for your to stick the PSU into it. Good luck on your mod! I will definitely check in on your progress.

 

wow.. thats some serious stuff.. a little outta my league for that many tv cards

- UPS mod

almost exactly the spec of my case.. eeeeeeeeeek!!!!!

dear god i thought i had loads of room to move. you appear to have the same dremel as i am buying at the weekend .. is it any good?

 

Quinn,

Yeah, the boys over at snapstream have WAYYYY too much time on their hands. But even without going too crazy with it, they are insanely useful and you would be able to take one box away from your TV room to replace it with something far more functional. just my $.02 worth...that and another dollar can get you a cup of coffee.

 

The Dremel is great - I use the extension all the time - I could always use more toolls for it - but I have pretty much used the drill bit, cut-off wheel and the sander. I thought I had tons of room when I started as well - Everything will fit - it is/will be hard to make it look really clean though - You do have a little bit of a height and depth advantage.