PROJECT: HTPC-4 Part 2

After sitting alone in the dark hot/cold attic, it emerges:HTPC-4.So I get a call on Tuesday or Wednesday from my wife. The power had gone out and when it came back on, the media center would not. Up till this point, I've been using the VCR case for my media center, with a narrow elongated PSU. It's worked out great. But either as a direct result of the power outage or impeccable timing, the PSU died. Since I didn't have a PSU of the physical description on hand, I though of my options... that pretty much boiled down to one: HTPC-4.

When I last left it, I had just finished gluing all the sides together:

I was just going to move all components from the VCR to HTPC-4, sans the irregularly sized PSU. But before that, I sanded, drilled the hole for the power button, made sure everything still mechanically functioned and fit. I needed to shave the edges of a 120mm case i wished to use due to the routing on the top was a little small, but despite that everything, uh, for lack of a better word, worked. Not precise, but with the tools and environment I have, I'm happy with it. So once I had everything fit and working, I took it all out, and began the painting process.

To paint this proper, I should have sanded more, painted slower, and applied more coats. Instead I sanded till I thought it was adequate, I painted a lot of coats, but they were too thick and still not enough... and since they were too thick, sanding was a joke. I then applied some clear coat, but both cans I had were 2/3 empty and one was having propellant issues. But I just wanted to get this done and hooked up to the TV. After it was all dry, I could definately see a lot of blemished and out right bad cuts in the MDF. But I was still OK with it. I installed everything and screwed the top down. Everything still fit and it powered on. Success.

I mounted the powerbutton on the side again, for child... well not proofing, more like resisting. I don't have any attractive buttons to use so I guess the big, attention calling, RED one will have to work for now.




I was able to get 1 120mm fan in there. I though I had some grill to cover it and the other holes, but I couldn't find them... have to keep looking I guess.



Here's a shot of the 2.5" SATA Hard Drive (commonly used in laptops) and the MicroATX PSU. You can also see a small ribbon cable connected to the FRONT PANEL header on the motherboard...


...I like to use hacked up floppy cables for this... due to the fact that I have a lot of floppy ribbon cables and no normal two pin connectors.


Sitting vertically next to the XBOX, once I get a couple of 25' HDMI's and a 25' USB extension, I'll be locating these two to the side to the couch and getting rid of the "media center" they are currently located in.

All in all, I'm glad I finally finished this one. I did perform a rush job, but it could have turned out much worse.