Ongoing Slimline HTPC (1 Viewer)

[tb205gti]

Finally I have decided to finish my HTPC after it has been sitting and looking at me for ages..

This is the hardware:

HTPC:
Pentium M 1.6GHz
1GB DDR Ram
ATI Radeon 9600 mobility oc'ed
60GB 7.200 PATA HD
Jabra A320S BT dongle
54MBit Wifi
1000Mbit LAN
Onboard sound

Case:
An old Dantax slimline DVD player

Amplifier:
Jamo DV50

Television:
Samsung 32"


The hardware is not the best you can get, but it is perfect when we are talking about space If I can get the SoundBlaster Exitigy to fit the casing i will use that to get AC3 Digital sound for my amplifier.

Picures:

This is still a work-in-progress, I need to rewire the DVD drive so I can move it behind the std. slot and rewire the wires on it so I can use the std. buttons on the front. I also need to find a very small LCD display that will fit behind the mirror front. I need to make some better heatsinks for the GPU and the CPU - so I can overclock it some more I also need a GOOD tv tuner (with hardware encoding/decoding) for both DVB-T and analog antenna signal. So far I have tried TerraTec and ADS InstantTV USB - both utter crap Suggestions?
At the moment I use a Sony-Ericsson K610i as a remote via Bluetooth, I'm still waiting for my MCE remote.

All the videos/music/pictures are stored on my server, so I really do not need that big a harddrive for it.

If you have any comments, please post them, I need input

 

[dm15644]

Very nice! Is it a laptop mainboard? Does the fan make a lot of noise?

How high is the case? Just make sure that you get sufficient airflow! Are you going to leave the back open as in the picture?

Any plans for a display? There are fairly cheap ones out that you can drive from the parallel port.

/jayrock

 

[mrkaras]

my usb TV tuner seems to work OK, ASUS My cinema U3000 Mini.
I haven't tried a lot so I can't say if there are better ones but i really can't complain. I don't know if this has been added to the supported list but I have a working setup for it and it already works in TVserver3.

 

[tb205gti]

Jayrock - yes I will leave the back open to get better airflow. I have removed the original thermal paste from the heatsinks and replaced it with Artic Silver. The fan almost never runs, only during boot. I would like to get a disdplay to sit behind the "glass" on the front, but the opening is only 6x1cm

Mrkaras: Cheers for your input.

 

[tb205gti]

A small update from me, I spent some time yesterday making some changes to the system. I placed the MCE remote receiver inside the casing, re-soldered the IR eye, so it now sits behind the mirror on the front, where the DVD's original eye was. Then I added the smalles USB hub I could find, re-soldered a USB connector from the hub to the front of the casing, just under the CD tray, and I re-soldered the connector for the MCE remote. This gives me a USB in the front, and two extra at the back + the MCE remote is always connected inside the casing. It was mostly a try to see if it could work - it does Next thing is to "re-design" the cable mess inside.. and re-solder the originale DVD drive, so I can use the CD tray. I'm also looking into getting a better soundcard, I have a SB Extigy, but it is too big to fit inside the casing and the CPU utilisation is too high for it.

Well here is a picture of the mess inside