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[Project Log] Silly Little Box.

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I'm back from the dead.

A lot has happened since the last time I posted a project here. And there are a couple of project threads here about things I abandoned due to a lack of time (and eventually, motivation).

I came across an old mod of mine. It was an old "HTPC" build that was rather silly back then, but fun to do. It was collecting dust for several years and I was thinking about doing something with the hardware. Then, an opportunity presented itself.

I purchased a 2nd hand sound setup for my living room and was left without a sound source for all my digital format music (since I didn't use an HTPC for videos - I'd just hook up a laptop). Connecting a laptop purely for music got annoying fast, so I decided to put the old silly box back to use. Unfortunately, I have no room to place the old case in, so I decided to re-package the computer a bit.

The HW I am going to use is the following:
Motherboard: VIA VB7001 (VIA C-7D single-core at 1.5Ghz, yikes)
RAM: 1GB DDR2
PSU: HEC 250SR-T
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 500GB (Yep, the famous suicidal drives. I need to make sure this one has updated FW)
Video card: 8500GT PCI via a PCI riser (why even bother? I have the card and the riser and I want to make the case usable with other hardware as well, so I'll provision for expansion slots. The riser can always be replaced with a PCIe variety later on for more advanced boards).

The build material is going to be wood, since I cannot work with anything else given my lack of talent, ability and tools :banghead:

It isn't really a HTPC, since it is weak as heck and any video that needs any decoding (and the 8500GT cannot take care of) will grind it to a halt, and honestly the only reason I am even putting it together is because I have the parts for it already and I want to build something with them. The board has coaxial S/PIDF output, which is good enough to pump out 1s and 0s for my receiver, and that is pretty much all that matters (unless it has such shitty clocks that the sound won't be reassembled right. I couldn't figure out if my receiver re-clocks it or not).

The general idea is to build a VCR-sized box that would fit into the TV stand.

Here is a pic of the crappy hardware that's going to go into the build and the planned layout of the contents of the box. I'll get around to buying some wood to work with over the next few days and then I'll post regular updates of the progress.



The idea is to stick a fan under the video card to help cool it, plus the visible fan sitting on top of the motherboard. Both will be 120mm fans undervolted as low as they go. That should provide enough airflow to keep this cool while remaining pretty much silent for all intents and purposes.

Cheers!
 
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You going wood? Metal? Could also go with a horizontal 2u rack case and remove the ears maybe.
 
Joined
Sep 24, 2008
Messages
2,665 (0.47/day)
System Name Dire Wolf IV
Processor Intel Core i9 14900K
Motherboard Asus ROG STRIX Z790-I GAMING WIFI
Cooling Arctic Liquid Freezer II 280
Memory 2x24GB Corsair DDR5 6667
Video Card(s) NVIDIA RTX4080 FE
Storage AORUS Gen4 7300 1TB + Western Digital SN750 500GB
Display(s) Alienware AW3423DWF (QD-OLED, 3440x1440, 165hz)
Case Corsair Airflow 2000D
Power Supply Corsair SF1000L
Mouse Razer Deathadder Essential
Keyboard Chuangquan CQ84
Software Windows 11 Professional
I believed I mentioned wood somewhere in the wall of text :D

I am trying to keep costs down lest the female wrath strike me down with fury, and some plywood costs less than a 2U rack.
 
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