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New PC for my bedroom


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The first thing I needed to do was drillout the rivets on that old Lanboy case to get out the pieces that I wanted to use.

 

HTPC-4.jpg

 

After a little fitting up, I scribed some lines where I needed to cut and then whacked a couple of tabs and part of the motherboard tray off.

 

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There is a steel reinforcement plate that is used where the PSU mounts that also needed to be cut to size....a quick pass at the belt sander took off the razor sharp edge that was left after cutting.

 

HTPC-8.jpg

 

Now I could fit the two pieces from my PC graveyard together and get down to the business of measuring and figuring out how things will be placed inside the case....harddrives, optical drive, fans and vents, etc.

 

HTPC-9.jpg

 

 

Still a lot to do, more later B:)

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I've always been impressed by your mods and your workshop. If you don't mind my asking, what is your day job?

 

 

I'm a manufacturer's rep for automotive tools and equipment. B:)

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Why not rip your CD's with EAC then send them to your CD player digitally?

 

I personally hate fumbling with CD's. They get ripped into FLAC straight away; I never listen to CD's.

 

Well I considered that but I have hundreds of CD's already converted to mp3 that I use on everything from my car to my iphone and I just can't bring myself to spend the time coverting them all to something else. Another reason why I don't is because I spent over $800.00 on a CD/SACD/DVD audio-video player.....what good is it if I don't use it :lol:

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Looks like its going to awesome dude!

thumbsup4kk.gif

 

Are you gonna go with an analog look, with dials and meters?

 

Nope...it's going to be pretty minimal. An optical drive tray door, a power switch and a reset switch that's about it.

 

Got a little more accomplished on it this evening.

 

On the original Lanboy case there was a cross brace that ran from the back of the case to the drive bays. I want to use this brace in the new case as well because it will provide additional support for the rear panel and it also has a bracket that gives extra support to the PSU.

 

When I originally cut the motherboard tray I wasn't sure if I was going to use the brace and I'm afraid that I didn't allow enough room to fit it in.

 

So the first thing I did was cut as much support tabs off the brace as I could. What I have left is really more like a steel band that will go around the PSU than a brace but it will still be better than nothing.

 

HTPC-11.jpg

 

Even after cutting the brace down to the nub it didn't fit. It stuck out about a 32nd of an inch or less but was still enough to push the side panel out. You can see the gap at the bottom...not much but enough that it wasn't going to work as is.

 

HTPC-12.jpg

 

There was nothing left that I could do. The only way to fix it was to remove more material from the motherboard tray so that the entire back panel and tray assembly could be shifted over to make clearance.

 

HTPC-13.jpg

 

Some measuring, some cutting and now I have a functional PSU support that just barely clears the side panel.

 

HTPC-14.jpg

 

I went to Home Depot and picked up a piece of red oak for the side panels. You would think that when I carried it to the back of the store to be cut to the length I needed that that giant industrial radial arm power saw would be able to make a nice straight cut at 90 degrees to the side of the board.....and you would be wrong.

 

HTPC-15.jpg

 

I hate working with wood....well that's not true...I should say that I hate working with furniture grade woods. Let's face it, if you screw up a cut on a 2x4 who cares...your out maybe a couple of bucks. Red oak is $6.00 a foot at Home Depot. This is where that old saying comes into play "measure twice, cut once". When you want to cut a piece of wood exactly 16 1/2" long you can't just strike a line and hack away, you also have to take into account how much material the cutting blade itself will remove. So you measure the exact length you want but you cut to either one side of the line or the other not the line itself.

 

My saw has a very nice cast aluminum base with square straight edges that follow a guide very well. I use a framing square for the guide and lock it into place with vice grips. It has to be placed exactly 5" from where I want to make my cut which is the distance from the side of my saws base to the cutting blade.

 

HTPC-16.jpg

 

One side nearly done....still need to rip 1" off the top.

 

HTPC-17.jpg

 

And my PSU bracket just clears the side panel.

 

HTPC-18.jpg

 

Time to relax awhile, stay tuned. B:)

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How in the POOP did I miss this thread until now?! I'm going to write a script to auto-subscribe me to every Fueler thread from now on :P

 

I love following these threads. The work is phenomenal, but beyond that you always document it so well and explain the thought processes so logically. Good luck with it.

 

What OS will you be using for the HTPC interface?

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