[Help]Cheap Reliable mini-ITX, Picu PSU, Low Profile GFX. Inside 360 Bones

Hazeno

Hazeno

Hazeno

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27 Jan 2011
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Hello guys, I know this has been done 1000x times before. But due to having to many barebones Xbox 360s and loving the look of the black elite I want to modify one to fit a mini-ITX board. The advice im looking for is.

Reliable mini itx + processor that will play 1080p flawlessly
Wifi capability as I will be running xbmc media centre and remote control.
Low profile video card that will bear the brunt of the decoding of the 1080p backups. Must have HDMI as I will he using the gfx card for sound and video.
Advice on PicoPSU I have quite literally stumbled across this a few moments ago. And I have no idea on stockists or reliability.

Bear with me guys this is my first htpc. As I use my gaming rig for this job at the minute. And I hate having cables dotted around from pc to tv, and pc to monitor.

Any other advice on amount of RAM needed, im guessing 4gb is overkill for this? Is there anything im missing.

Is there a picupsu that could handle all this along with watercooling? Yes that's an overkill but would alleviate a need for fans. Advice on small size watercooling?
Thanks for taking the time out to read and post.
 
Really? Would require a lot of cutting for the IO shield and drilling holes to install motherboard standoffs. It would be easier to get a new case as it will look better and be smaller too.

Look at this build http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18360592 much nicer case than the 360, can fit a low profile GPU and is totally fanless so no need for messy noisy watercooling.

RAM is so stupidly cheap there is no real reason not to get 4GB as having two sticks is the most important thing and 2x2GB is only about £5 more than 2x1GB.
 
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Yes really. That's the idea behind it. Something that's a bit more of a challenge than sticking parts in a case. And its only 4 cuts small amount of bondo, and a few motherboard screws. Can even house the optical drive.
 
also not having fans for watercooling would require an expensive passive rad, that you'd be better to just use air
 
Maybe check out one of the slightly older Zotac ITX boards if you want it to be cheap. H61 or similar with some flavour of sandybridge cpu (i3 2100 perhaps?)
 
Something like the E45M1-I DELUXE should just about fit in there and is passivly cooled alternativly a Acer Revo RL70 and just rip its guts out and transfer them to the xbox in fact check Aikon359's thread for an idea of whats inside.

Both have AMD Radeon™ HD 6320 Graphics which will help with playback and decoding.

As for watercooling there have been a few projects where people have watercooled standard xbox's google should pop a few for ideas but with a passive cooled AMD E-450 noise shouldn't be an issue.
 
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