Ongoing I blame MediaPortal ;) (1 Viewer)

[Jay_UK]

Hi there,

I started off playing with Mediaportal several years ago now... then about two years ago I decided to build a HTPC.

I kinda jumped in at the deep end - with advice from here I selected the various components and started building

I followed the trend/mainstream of what people were doing... Antec case/PSU, AMD energy effecient CPU, onboard graphics, 4 GB RAM, usual stuff....

Over time I have tweaked the setup, 8GB RAM, SSD, separate graphics (tried a few of them!), silent PSU - all the time striving for the perfect HTPC (which doubles up as a server in a multiseat setup).

For some reason one of my goals was silence for the case... even though I ran passive on my CPU, a silent PSU, passive GPU, I still had a fan for a little air flow (albeit a Noctura running at < 600 rpm) I still wanted more (event hough you cant hear it!)

Plus I couldn't put any more drives in my case (now running a 2TB, 3TB, SSD and bluray)

I looked all over for a new case, that would allow for all the above - none existed, and the ones that came close, were ££££.

So... I decided to build my own case!

I did have lots of pics of the inital stages, but unfortunately I lost them all (don't ask!!)

So what you have here is mid way....

This is the base of the HTPC - busy drilling and threading holes:

Here you can see the back panel and the heatsink sides:

This is it rough fitted:

Here are the HDD brackets - as you can see it can hold 3 disks. There are two banks of these, so six 3.5" disks in total

These are the brackets for the 2.5" disks - the case can hold 4

As this is a completely passive case (no fans), I need a way of transferring the heat from the CPU and the GPU. The sides of the case are the large heatsinks, I will use heatpipes to transfer the heat to these. 4 heatpipes for the GPU and 4 heat pipes for the CPU (yes a big over kill, but I want the ability to upgrade the processors at a latter date - the heatsink side panels can handle larger disappations).

Therefore I need an efficient way of mounting the heatpipes at each end....

The above two plates will sandwich together around a pair of heatpipes (these are for the CPU at the heatsink end)

These two are for a pair of heatpipes from the GPU (heatsink end):

The below is the sandwich plate that bolts to the graphics card (temporary screws and not finished). It takes 4 heatpipes, and when bolted to the graphics card, they both only occupy a single slot

This is the sandwich block that sits on the CPU (again 4 pipes):

How much copper!!

The front vertical piece is to hold the MS IR receiver:

Hopefully in the next few weeks I can get it powered up.

Hope eveyone likes it

J.

 

[powermarcel10]

Nice man!! Would like to see more pics!

Good luck with It..

 

[Peter2]

Wow, awesome!
Love to see more pictures.

 

[porky996t]

Nice one Jay. That is a bespoke system...


Who says manufacturing is dead in the UK??



M.

 

[psykix]

That's really nice work Jay! You have some patience!

I'm never happy with my setup - it's in a Fractal Design R3 at the moment, which is really nice and quiet, but I would love something that would go under the TV stand.. however I only have about 140mm in height to play with :-(

 

[Jay_UK]

Hi guys,

Thanks for the comments.

Back panel - trial fitting the 4 tuner Digital devices card and the HD6670 (currently with fan fitted taking up two slots - but will drop to one slot once the fan is removed):

From above:

Example of how the 3.5" drives fit (another bank on the other side):

The copper sandwich plate on the CPU:

Lid fitted (temporary screws holding the bluray drive in place):

View from the back (oooer):

Slim drive in place (reason its so low, is so that everything in the front pannel is equally spaced (power button, IR receiver hole, bluray drive slot):

Here is the graphics card with the fan removed and the copper sandwich plate (half of) fitted:

Here you can see the original twin backing plate, but how it wont be required for the sandwich plate:

Heres a trial fit with the card in place and the top on the sandwich plate (screws will be countersunk later):

Started to countersink all the holes on the copper blocks:

Well thats it for now...

Next step is to carefully measure up the heatpipes for bending, then get the front panel laid out and made. Once everything is trial fitted, I can finish the pieces, get then anodised black and do the final assembly

When I get chance to do more work, I'll take a few more pics

J.

 

[Shadime]

Any more news or pics

 

[Jay_UK]

Hi there,

Work has been slow...

But I have been doing cabling work (which I am going to redo - not too happy with it).

I also have my heatpipes too

I'll post some pics over the next few days.

J.

 

[porky996t]

I look forward to seeing them. This is a really good build.



M.

 

[Jay_UK]

Hi guys,

As promised some updated pics.

Progress has been slow (as stated above I havent had much time).

Apologises for the power quality of the pics...they were quickly taken with my iPhone at night under flourescent lighting.

The cabling is my second attempt, the first attempt I used some cable I had laying around, and it was to thick. This new cable is thin walled and is alot easier to work with (and easily fits within the connectors).

This is not all the cables, I still have about another 10 to sleeve.

Before anyone comments - I do not like individual sleeving on each strand.. I prefer to bunch and sleeve (its what sleeving is made for). And I am more a functional type person, than a "pretty" type guy... hence my sleeving doesnt have to be 120% perfect

Now for some pics of the good stuff. Custom made heatpipes!

I am using heatpipes for the CPU. Yes I know I could use less, but I am playing safe incase I ever put a high power CPU in it:

The copper blocks are not properly fixed in place (there are loose or sticky taped)

I am also using heat pipes for my graphics (again playing safe with the maximum transfer capacity)

I deliberating shaped them like this to allow for any PCI cards I may wish to fit (highly unlikely, but you never now)

Well thats it for now...Hope you all like it!

J.