Xmas Project

[SBD]

So when I go home from uni this Christmas I want to have a play around with some of my old kit. I have an AMD 64 3500+ 1Gb ddr1 ram, an Asus an8 SLi premium I think that’s what the mobo is called and a 200Gb hard drive.

I have no case, power supply. I have an x850 xt would this be ok to drive HD films? or would it be better to get somthing else? I was thinking about making a budget HTPC. Since I’m a student I don’t have much cash so what’s new i'm thinking £100 max but if possible i would like to spend less.

Anyone got some ideas for a small case or can you really not get a small case for an atx mobo? If so I can sell my mobo and buy a cheap 2nd hand matx to fit into a small case. I don’t think I’m going to buy a HD or blue ray drive so I can just run the HD content off the hard drive.

 

[misterPK]

If you want something media centre ish then you probably are better off trading in for a matx board if you can find one. Lian-Li do some nice smaller full ATX cases (i have a G50) but they do tend to be a bit on the pricey side. Of course if you want a real challenge you could make/mod up a case of your own. Old desktop cases are usually good for this.

The only limiting factor with the graphics card will be the resolution you want to go play your films at, my old x800xl is currently running on 1400x900 with no problems, but thats not exactly big!

Hope that helps, look forward to seeing how you get on!

PK!

 

[SBD]

How easy is it to make a case are sheets of aluminum cheap to buy or is it better to use steel? Would i need to weld? Is grounding an issue?

Would be a lot of fun making a case

 

[misterPK]

If you're interested in that you should take a look around at some of the projects in here. It might take delving through the older pages for a while but you should be able to find a few examples of what people have done before.

If you havent had much experience with metal work I'd reccomend messing around with an old cheap case rather than going for your own from scratch.

PK!