Project: A HTPC

[Kodiak]

Project A HTPC

Right, after a (long) period of unemployment, I needed something to do.
Something creative.
Something I needed.

During that time, I found the pleasures of XBMC and using it, found a fantastic front end for selecting and viewing my DVD collection.

However, the current PC case is an old Globalwin 802 (blast from the past!)
With 2 120mm fan holes and a shabby paint job, its ok for being used for a HTPC. But it looks more than crappy.

I found my project!

A new HTPC case. Something smart(er) than the old 802.

TO RHINO3D!

And after some time of playing with sizes, form factor and number of drives. I came up with this.

Not too bad.

With being a bit broke. Debts really mount up without a job. And choosing the right material is key.
I wanted to make it out of aluminum, but that can be a bit pricey.
So I went down the plastics route and decided to make the lid, base and all 4 sides out of acrylic.

Cheap and easy(ish) to work with.

With a quick google and ebay, I found a supplier for the aluminum angle and channel and someone who would supply and cut to size the acrylic.

Wonderful!

But, even before I started making, I hit a snag.

City Link.

The closest depo is 45miles from me and both suppliers used them

And they sent them at different times (

And I wasnt in both times

So 2 90mile round trips were in order just to pick up the materials.

All good to go?

Nope, the acrylic guy 'forgot' to send me the piece for the lid.

That will have to wait and hopefully, this time, City Link will deliver it to my parents house instead.


But, on with the build!

A quick drive to my parents house to make use of my Dads wonderful Work Shop.
Filled with a lathe, milling machine, bandsaw, pillar drill and belt sander, to name a few. It was the only real choice for making this. I have a table mounted jigsaw in my flat, but that wont cut the angle nicely enough.

I forgot to take a piccy of the raw mats, so you will have to imagine a stack of 2 meter lengths of angle and a pile of acrylic.

So, I started off with cutting the HDD stand offs.

The HDD rack will look like this.

Now it looks like this.

Then I started off on the back panel.

I used AutoCAD to dimension up the panel and printed it out 1:1 scale.

This helps loads.
Some fun with a band saw and I have cut out the PCI and motherboard IO access. Next the PSU was measured out and ready for drilling and cutting (later with a tablemounted jig saw).

Next up, the front.

<CG pic>

I settled on using a illuminated push power switch (blue), a similar sized reset switch (normally used as an ignition switch for cars) and a single HDD led (blue).

I also invested in some countersunk allen key bolts, but the supplier gave me security bolts instead.

I practised my drilling after a few failed attempts at home using a power drill, only to find out that acrylic likes to shatter just when the drill bit penetrates.

And I would need to drill a 16mm hole for the power and reset switch. The led would need only a 5mm hole.

A few tries later using this drill bit.

And I was ready to give it a go!

I marked up where i wanted the holes and drilled some smaller pilot holes.

I then held my breath and drilled very carefully . . .

SUCCESS!

Ahh, a feeling a relief. I would have hated to have ordered another front piece.

Chuffed that I hadnt broken anything (yet). I did a dry mockup to see what my case may look like

Smaller than I had thought, but very satisfying to get this far.

And that brought me to the end of day 1 of my build.

Tomorrow, I should finish the front and back plate. And I'll make a start on the drilling and mounting of the HDD rack.
May even get onto sorting the DVD mount too.

 

[Kodiak]

Day 2

First thing before I set off for the parents house and the workshop, was to use my table jigsaw to cut out the PSU and DVD drive holes.

Isnt she a beaut. Cheap too.

There was a few problems, but they can be overcome with liberal use of a coarse file.

And after some mad fileage.

Not bad. The DVD drive is a bit of a tight fit.
But I dont have a spare PSU to check the rear panel.

Now onto fixing the sides.

All the acrylic is only 3mm thick and is a bit too flexible. 10x10x2mm angle top and bottom for the front and sides (top only for the rear panel) help to stiffen the sides

My plan is to glue the angle onto the front and back panels. The sides will be screwed on. That way I can have a clean looking front.

I carefully measured out 3 holes for the screws.

A 10mm bar will be inplace of nuts and washers.

(My phone decided that the backround was more interesting and focused on that instead)

The first angle done.

Using the angle that already had been drilled. I was able to drill and tap the angle and bar for the rear of the case.

It was getting close to dinner, so I gathered all the bits ive made so far for some group shots.

And ofcourse, did a quick mock up to see what it looks like

A side view showing the 1 side already done (I know its on the wrong side, so its shown to be upside down)

Now, I should be getting some proper bolts through during the week and hopefully the lid too.
It wont be until the weekend 'till I can work on it again.
I really cant wait until I can.

Next weekend. Finish the otherside's angles, dry test the entire case, glue it if it fits, then i can make some headway into creating the dvd brackets and HDD brackets (i hope!).

 

[Kodiak]

Thanks for the replies guys.

The chap who is supplying the bolts is sending me some free replacements. They should be with me in the next few days.
I've not heard anything from the acrylic supplier. Gotta chase that one down.

 

[Kodiak]

silly question - cant you put the aluminium corner pieces inside so that it would be seamless acrylic?

They are on the outside purely for looks. I could have them on the inside, but i think it looked better on the outside.

 

[Kodiak]

Day 3

Up at the crack of dawn and ready to go!
The replacement bolts had arrived, woo!
But not the missing acrylic lid, booo!

First job, sort out the HDD mount.

Actually, First job setup the fan.

Its gonna be a scorcher today.

Ok, back to the mount.

Drilled the tapping holes in the channels

Then onto marking out the holes in the acrylic for the HDD screws.
I made a template for 4 HDDS in AutoCAD and printed it off 1:1 scale to make things a lot easier.

I pressed a scribe to mark the hole positions. A centerpunch would crack the plastic.

Sorry, i didnt take a piccy of the finished drilled acrylic. But then again, i need to use the jigsaw to cut the oval holes.

On to the next job, finishing up the corner angles. The left side had been all done. Just need to finish up the right.

Once that was done, I just had to mock it up again!

I had an old socket A MATX mobo, helps to position the tray and give a scence of size inside the case

Sexy socketA. Mmmmmm.....out dated

Inside view of where the HDDs will be. They will be move back a bit due to the long switches.

More HDD rackage

Where the DVD mount will eventually reside

The front. I think im falling in love. Ok, its not that much of a looker, but she isnt too bad

Ok, now back to the build.

The mock-up serves to help position where about the bottom angle will be screwed to the base piece.

Lots of measuring and handy use of a depth gauge. Thanks Dad for that. I had drilled, counter sunk and tapped the bottom angles to the base.

This took something like an hour to do. But its worth it, since its right!

Now I can start some gluing!
I cleaned the angle and roughened up the plastic, but only where the glue will be, to help it bond.

Then I took the plunge and spread some glue, thinly, to the angle and clamped it into place.

This was the most nerve racking bit.
The glue likes to slide about and I hope its not moved since I layed it down to set.
But that has to wait until tomorrow.

 

[Kodiak]

red text

I know its dead, thats why its in a dusty enviroment. I wouldn't use a new working board as it would probably be dead within an hour.

 

[Kodiak]

Day 4 (last Sunday BTW. I forgot to update)

I rushed back to see if the glue had set properly.

Sucess!

Onto fitting the dvd drive.

Dry fitting.

Holes drilled.

Waiting to be tapped. 2 with 2 holes (top) and 2 with 4 holes (bottom).

Screwed together. Again another dry fit to sort the hole locations.

Front view. Nice and flush, but im thinking of covering the dvd drive with a cutout of acrylic. Clean look then.

Drilling some mounting holes.

With that done, I could start to sort out the motherboard mounting. Now for some reason I hadnt brought any PCI cards to check the height.

Bugger.

10mm too short.

Que some swearing and sitting on the sofa in a huff. However, after i had cleared my head, I did come up with a fix.
A false floor.
I would cut out a new larger mobo tray, use some aluminium channel to gain the 10mm or so in depth and bolt the tray to the floor of the case (after a hole is cut).

Ok, its not going to be pretty, but its only affecting the back and thats gonna be hidden.

By this time it was getting late and the fix would have to wait a week.
In that time, I can glue the sides to their mounting angle and get the lid delivered.

Day5

Right. I had a few problems in the week.

No supplier for the aluminium for the new tray. (the 'bay was waaay too expensive and the local supplier had closed down a few months ago)
No lid. Im gonna cut my losses with this and go for another supplier. 3 weeks for 1 piece of plastic is silly.
I spent most of the day going around Hemel looking for someone who could sell me a piece of plastic or aluminium 300x300x2 or 3mm. And no such luck.

So, back to the flat and I found my old case that I made 5 or so years ago. Made from sheel aluminium.
My local Wickes sells some alu channel, so I got some 10x10x1.5.
Sweet.

After a bit of mesuring, the new tray was cut to 280x280. 10Mm eitherside for the channel.

I clammped the old tray to save some time drilling the mobo mounting holes.

Channel cut to length. 1 piece missing though.

Fastforward about an hour and Ive mounted the mobo and screwed the channel to the mobo plate.

A test fit to see if i have enough space this time.
Aaaand, i have. The back needs a bit more cut out to fit the PSU.
There will be a 10mm gap between the top of the IO ports and the back plate. I may cut a custom IO sheild to neaten it up a bit.

There is enough space for this to work up front.

The base all marked up ready for cutting.

And all cut out.
The bandsaw didnt have enough clearance. So I had to cut about ½ half of the hole with just that saw blade.
My fingers are still aching from it.

She lost her looks. Butt ugly. But working now. Some old PCI cards serve to help work out some measurments for the next part.

From the top. Enough space to fit the largest MATX motherboards.

Now for the PCI bracket mount.

I forgot to take some pictures here.

This was a 12x12x1.5mm angle, cut to 120mm long and one leg had 2mm cut into it. For the expansion cards.
This was then clamped to the cards and back.
The onto drilling and tapping.
Then remounted to work out the location for the holes for the PCI cards. I also cut another piece of angle and drilled it at the same time as the bottom mount. This would provide some more ridgidity and cover a hole.

Not bad. Nasty looking angle. Needs some tidying.

Better.

I cut another angle for the back, just under where the PSU sits. Helps to stiffen things up.

Another weekend down.

Jobs done:-

Mounted Mobo
Mounted DVD drive

To do:-

Mount PSU
Fix HDD mounts to base
Get the lid sorted
Do some soldering

 

[Kodiak]

Well some good news for me, the new supplier that im using for the acrylic sheet is a million times better than the old one. I ordered the lid tuesday night and it turned up thursday.
Result!

 

[Kodiak]

Ok, day7 and with the lid finally here. I can start to see the end of this project.

But first things first. I needed to sort out :-

The feet
The psu mount
HDD mount
Then start on the lid.

Ive been working hard all day and mostly forgot to take some pictures.

The Feet.

No pictures here, so a brief round up.
Found some old plastic feet that were used for tools etc. They were just tall enough for about 1mm clearance. So I packed them up a bit with a few washers.

Then I realised that a 25mm channel would be a lot neater along the front. So these feet are temporary. I'll put in an order for some channel next week.

The lid.

Well to fit the lid I would use the base as a template for the holes to fix the angle.

Its a shame i didnt get a picture of the setup of the drill. I had to extend the working area to support the lid/base properly.

Once drilled, it was onto drilling the angle.

Using the sides and front as a template to drill through, I could then fix the angle to the lid in the same location as the floor angle.

Hard to explain, but it works.

I had fun sorting that out.

I assembled the case to see what I have left to do.

A clear shot showing the angle attached to the lid. This will need glueing down to the front and sides.

Back shot

Not looking too bad.
Need to solder the switched and LED, glue the angle and tidy her up and she should be ready for some hardware.

And I still need to sort out that PSU mount.
Damn.

A quick pic of my most useful tool besides the depth gauge.

Shows what drill to use for tapping and clearance for most thread sizes.
Thats been used quite a lot in this build.

 

[Kodiak]

Day 8

Drilled the holes for the lid.

Drilled and tapped the top angle

The back angle needed some more holes drilled.

Glued the top angle to the front and back sections. That took a lot of fiddling to get just right.

Naked shots. Note the PSU mount has been fixed in place (at last).

While the glue was setting, I marked up the lid for a 120mm fan.

Unfortunatly I dont have a 120mm hole saw. So that gonna have to wait to sort that.

And that brought the day to an end.
This evening I assembled the case. It still needs the side angles glued on and the lid screws will be replaced with countersunk ones. And the switches need to be soldered (need to get some heat shrink oo).

Not much left and I can remove the rest of the protective film and install some hardware.

 

[Kodiak]

Working now.

 

[Kodiak]

Day 9

I started off by doing a little soldering and installing hardware.

Ok, no i7 with water cooling and crossfire here. Just a passively cooled HD2400 and a 1.8ghz Dual core chip. Its worked in the old HTPC and i see no real reason to change that now.
Well, that is until I get some more cash . . .

Onto the final bits of gluing.

The side top angles needed to be glued and they were gonna be tricky buggers.

But thanks to address lables, I could single handedly position and mark up where the angled needed to be glued.

I used a scribe to mark where the angle should be. Both the lines on the edge and angle should line up to indicate that its in the right position.

I mixed up some glue, positioned the angles and clamped them firmly in place.

The glue needs about an hour to set firmly enough to handle. So I then got on with some other minor jobs.

I tidied the cables (a bit).

And peeled off the protective plastic from the bottom. No more holes needed to be drilled.

That took me to lunchtime and a much needed cup of tea.

After lunch, the glue had been sitting for about 90mins, so it was time to scrape off the excess

And re-assemble.

I wouldnt put the lid on until the evening. To allow the glue more time to harden.

I wasnt happy about the looks of the IO ports on the motherboard. So I decided to make a cover out of some scrap 1mm aluminium.

This also allowed me to play, um use the new gillutine and press.

I cut the sheet roughly to size to see how it looked.

Not bad.

Using the old IO shield, I mesured up where about the holes needed to go.

A bit of drilling, sawing and filling later.

The sound, serial, VGA and parrallel ports where cut.

The rest done.

I trimmed the plate down a little so it didnt interfer with the expansion card holder.

More lable goodness. And clamped in for the drilling of the tapping hole. The acrylic would have the 6-32 thread cut into it this time. The aluminum is too thin for the thread.

Screwed in place.

Lid on and a Im done for the day.

Tomorrow, Im finishing the lid by cutting the fan hole for it and countersinking the fixing holes.

Then its just about done.

Maybe a panel to go over the dvd drive to stealth it abit.

 

[Kodiak]

Day 10, well about an hour of it.

Started off with a trip to the DIY store to pick up a 127mm hole saw.

I found a suitable bit of old kitchen work top to use as a base to cut into and drilled a ¼ inch hole in the center.

A bit of clamping down and a brief cut later and I have a 127mm diameter hole in my lid

Some countersinking and I can take off the protective plastic sheet

All done.

Its been a real experience building this case. I very happy with the results. It almost looks like the render. Maybe next time I'll look into making it a bit longer and taller. And look at putting the HDDs in a different place.

Next time, I think i may make a combined NAS Smoothwall PC case. 2 Motherboards ontop of each other.
Or maybe a full tower case.

 

[Kodiak]

Thanks for the comments guys.

As for the suggestions, I'm thinking about the strip along the bottom. Maybe a piece of angle or 1mm sheet cut and bent to touch the ground.