Silverstone LC-11sm hacked by CHli

[CHli]

Ok these days I received lot's of private message about the modifications I have done on my Silversone LC-11sm (one of the finest external looking HTPC case IMHO).

So here is a complete description with picture of what has been replaced and modded in my case.

---------- PART 1 : Quest of Silence ----------

I bought this case ~18months ago, for it's external looking only. At that time I knew that microATX motherboard were not the most interesting and that there was not much room for extension in that case but anyway it was so nice and with the included remote it was perfect.

After having paid the case and the following components :

AMD Sempron 2600+
Asus A7N8x-VM 400
Kingston 1x512MB
NVidia Geforce Fx5200
Hitachi 160GB HDD
Sapphire Theatrix with Ati Theater 550 Pro onboard
Hauppauge PVR-500

I began to install the whole thing, and everything went fine till I booted it. Damn it was much noiser than I expected. All the Silverstone's fans were too noisy for me and I began replacing them.

I removed the side fan and replaced the front one with a PAPST 8412N/2GLE (80x80x25mm, 1500rpm, 33m³/h, 12db(A))
-> Still too noisy
I removed the HDD internal case and dropped the HDD on a small piece of foam to prevent vibration
-> Still too noisy
Changed CPU's FAN (80x80x25mm) with a 92mm fan which is running @ 5V instead of 12V
-> Still too noisy
I changed PSU's FAN. This was a bit tricky because the fan was inside the PSU's and it was a special form factor. I opened the PSU (/!\ disclaimer blablabla) and removed the FAN (a thin one). Closed the PSU and installed a PAPST 8412N/2GMLE (80x80x25mm, 2050rpm, 19dB(A)) outside of it.
-> Yeah I can't hear my HTPC anymore

Ok it runs sometimes a bit hot but who cares as long as it is stable

Internal view :



The PSU with the external fan :




---------- PART 2 : The Remote ----------

The included remote is an IMon PAD. Which is for me not very good to be used with MP because of the inaccuracy of the Pad which doesn't give a very good control in the menu.
So I bought an MCE Remote => Problem Fixed (+ a MCE Keyboard for the fun)

---------- PART 3 : The VFD ----------

I was very happy with my case, it was now running smoothly, everything was fine. Till the VFD didn't want to draw anything on it. I tried all the drivers, all the test software etc. It appears to be broken But of course the warranty was over and the only thing I thought of at first was to replace it with the same model available for the price of 100€ in some online shop (of course with a new useless remote included) !!!
A bit expensive for a simple VFD, so I began to search for cheaper one with the same size. That was exactly when Joe Dalton release it's graphical LCD mode for External Display plugin. Hurrray that was cool (thanks to him) now my aim was clear, find a graphical LCD which will suit my case with only small modifications if possible.
It was harder than I expected, first to find how things were working (controlling an LCD with the LPT port, how to wire the whole thing etc.) so I went to the conclusion that I needed an LCD with a Toshiba T6963C controller to have maximal compatibility. As I could see Graphical LCD aren't widely available for end customer and they are not very easy to find at least in Switzerland. I could find a company in Switzerland which was selling lots of LCD/VFD etc here is the link : www.vtec.ch
And here is the model I bought :

Resolution : 160X80
Model : BG16080ABNHBn
Colors : Blue / White
Total Size : 100X54mm
LCD Viewable size : 72.3X37.8mm
Pitch : 0.39mm
Controller : T6963C
Back Light : LED Edge White
Price : 99.- (CHF) => 60€





I found the wiring schema from the LPT to the T6963C on the internet (sorry I forgot the link, but it's a wide spread information), I had to put a variable resistor to modify the contrast and one constant to lower the current in the backlight led.

To insert this new LCD which was way bigger thant the previous VFD I had to cut in the front face of the case. Problem was that the old hole in the LC11-m for the IMon VFD was wider than the LCD I bought but not high enough. What I did is send an email to Silverstone support and I bought a LC-11s front face (the one which doesn't have any LCD/VFD) and I cut the size I needed (Thanks Sylvain the guy who did that for me because it's part of its job !) the last step was to cut in plexiglas a window of the good size to put in the hole to prevent dust to enter the case and to protect the LCD.

Once everything connected and installed I tried new External Display plugin and yeeeeeeeeah ! Great cool.

But after a while I saw that MP was stuttering a bit when watching TV and I look at the CPU usage, It was much higher than before. Yes sending picture to the LCD was very CPU consumming. So I looked into the code and saw some things that cool be optimized, I modified some code and send the patch to Joe Dalton which included it in the SVN repository. Fixed !

---------- PART 4 : ExternalDisplay.xml ----------

Ok my LCD was working but there wasn't anything interesting beeing drawed on it or at least it wasn't very well used. So I had a look at ExternalDisplay.xml the file which control what is beeing drawn on the LCD. And here is the final result :







Before :



After :

[jayrock]

Very nice work, congratulations!

What temperatures do you get inside the case?

/jayrock

[SmokeWatcher]

Beautiful mod work!!

[TimmyT]

Good Job CHli, it really looks amazing... Congratulations!

[CHli]

Originally Posted by jayrock

Very nice work, congratulations!

What temperatures do you get inside the case?

/jayrock

I will check this later after some hours of TV watching

[styriaman]

Hi CHli,

thanks for your detailed description. The LCD looks good. It helps me a lot to modify my LC11M.

Regards

Joe

BTW: What's the power consumption on standby/normal load (mine has 20 W/130-140 W). I've a temperature about 50-55C measured at the small fan of the supply (with the original fan)

[CHli]

I will measure my consumption on normal/standby but for that I need to shut down my server where I have the UPS which is the only device I have where I can measure the current wattage.

About my temperatures they are measured with speedfan after two hours of TV watching are :

CPU : 66°C (for me this is ok)
Case : 45°C (~OK)
HDD : 45°C (a bit high but I don't have any sensitive data on it, I'm using an external HDD to store most of the pics/vidz/music.

[jayrock]

Hm, I guess you should have lower temperatures. I have a very similar setup, with a Sempron 3000+ and a Sapphire Radeon 9550 SE, however my temperatures are much lower:

CPU: 38°C
Motherboard: 38°C
HDD: 43°C.

No front fan. Both CPU fan and case fan on the left side are running on 5V.

I found undervolting with CrystalCPUID most effective. did you try this to lower your temperatures?

/jayrock

[CHli]

will try thanks for the advice, but I never really took care of this because it was stable

[r8td]

With the PSU, did you remove the small fan too or just the 80mm fan on the side of the case? I replaced the larger fan but the small one is the loudest part of my system. What did you do with it?