C

chug

Audioholic Intern
As you may or may not be aware, I am in the process of building an HTPC type setup into a Teac 500 CD player, I'm using the matching amp, which is the main motivation to do so. Also to get rid of the large PC I currently own. The PC needs to be relatively potent, competently play games, Run CAD programs, photoshop etc. I have an idea the spec I'm after, but nothing is confirmed yet as I still need to shift the other one to fund it. Probably a 2500k or possibly the other i5 k.

I looked at some dimensions before buying and worked out that the mini itx board will fit in the 300 systems, and the micro atx will fit in the 500 setup. The latter I've just found out is very tight, and leaves minimal space around the edges to mount other hardware.

So straight away I've had to sacrifice the tv card due to the smaller board. Bonus of that is a sfx psu fits in its case with only needing to modify the plug, might even try and use the OE teac plug.

I will still have a decent sound card (looking at Asus D2 or the STX) now intending to get a board with a wifi card fitted to a pcie to remove and fit the sound t with an extension cable. Hopefully i'll be able to find a decent usb DVBT. Anyone got any recomendations on that? Needs to be able to record in HD. Probably stand more of a chance finding a decent usb sound card, but the issue i have is I do not want to run a receiver anymore due to the poor stereo reproduction.

Idea is to use the sound card with analogue outputs to the 500i for stereo and a 3 channel power up for the surrounds. Might even chuck it in the 500 tuner rather than the legacy case, maybe a 300 amp case and modify the volume nobs to work on the front of the unit rather than the rear.

The other issue I have is a full size graphics card doesn't fit by about 20mm in height, shame. Decent low profile cards are a premium last time I checked. Which leaves the only option of mounting it sideways on brackets of some description. Could be a pain, but I will need the card.

Already had a Noctua D14, which again is 10mm too tall, so that needs a rethink. Will do some investigation. If the extra toys wern't needed it would be an easy build I'd say.

Hopefully end up looking something like this...

75733936.jpg

Will stick some pictures up as and when I sort bits, won't be a quick build. Any thoughts and advice is always appreciated.

This was my original plan for a mini itx teac 300 cassette deck, still got the dismantled case so may still knock something up out of it.



Anyone want any Teac guts? :)
 
A

All-Or-Nothing

Audioholic Intern
Nice....can't wait for updates. I'm planning on gutting an old reciever and doing the same thing.
 
C

chug

Audioholic Intern
Cheers. Which one are you planning on doing?

I did take a few pictures, but failed to put the memory stick back in and have lost the cable.

I got the power supply today, a power supply I should say, they were out of stock of the modular SFX silverstone I ordered, and decided to send the non modular version instead. Thanks for the casual downgrade Novatech.

Done me a favour though as I've tried fitting it with a few other bits and it'd be very tight. Which led me to remove it completely and start fitting the other components and realise it's going outside. Keeps that heat out, means I can get a full ATX modular and just extend the wires (hopefully saving any warranty issues from not having to take apart its case)

Graphics cards, are they are all standard height? I have a 550ti and a 6870 here both the same card height (cooler slightly different) the 6870 just fits length ways, but the top of the pcie male end is flush with the roof of the case. If there was a card that the actual board was say 10/15mm shorter it'd go in.

Not paying a £80 premium on a low profile 7850.

Anyway, I tilted the card say 30degrees and that'd fit, looks pretty ghetto but it'll go in with the extender on the top and full size 120mm fans, hell I might even make a little air box for it.

Bought some nylon rod to lift the motherboard up, considering raising it enough to fit the hard drives and ssd's underneath, maybe the sound card too.

Now the psu is out the way I can't see it being too difficult. (famous last words) Will sort some pictures soon.
 
C

chug

Audioholic Intern
Had a rejig, might have found the winning combination....

Drives as per the picture, 2x SSD in the bottom right.

Replace the graphics card with the sound card(s), TV Tuner top left with that one drive raised 5mm to clear the card (back of card is very slim)


DSC0515999.jpg

Raise the board just above the drive level (now matx)

Graphics on the left with a riser and extension. Which should just about leave enough for the laptop bluray drive to slip underneath it and over some very low profile ram.

DSC051633333.jpg

Anyone got any wiser ideas?
 
A

All-Or-Nothing

Audioholic Intern
Me personally, I will be using an AMD APU when I start my build. No need for a video card so it will free up much needed real estate inside the gutted reciever.
 
C

chug

Audioholic Intern
Someone else mentioned that, probably a wise move, but I'm after more power than that.

Talking out loud and making notes for a poor memory, better than a notepad a build thread.

Hard drive, I'll chop up the nylon drill a hole x 4, drill a hole in bottom of the cd deck, get some long m3 screws. Done. Same for SSD's.

All cards will be bolted to the rear panel, the tuner doesn't have a mounting hole at the end, so I'll make another spacer for it to rest on, should be rigid from the front and pci anyway. The sound card I'm looking at seems to have a nice hole in the bottom corner of the card, so that should do nicely to mount to the case sideways.

2x 100m scythe slim for intake on the left, gpu and cpu fans will have their own intakes through the roof of the case, 2 more scythe 100mms for exhaust on the other side. Although I may loose one to mount a card sideways of possible. Always have the possibility of adding an 80mm exhaust on the front right hand corner if my numbers aren't too bad. No space on the back panel. Case will be cheese gratered but I'll satin black that and the amp's shell to match.

Thinking of trying to get the OE switch working for the power button. Think the computer shop down the road does microboard soldering. Should be cheap enough.

Here's a good questions if anyone is reading, laptop disc drive, eject button is usually on the bezel, could that be edited with some wires run possibly to work with another switch? Could leave the eject as software only but it'd be nice to have.

Anyway, bought an Asus Z77 pro, hopefully I won't get one from the dodgy batch! It was about the only one that had all the bits I needed. Was either that or the Sniper.

2x 4gb of samsung VLP ram coming too as well as 2x 100mm scythes.
 
C

chug

Audioholic Intern
Tis going to be very tight...

Nylon turned up, wasn't looking forward to trying to get a screw in that. Stumbled across motherboard standoff's on ebay in every length possible. So I've got them in 35mm length. Picked up some rubber mounts for the HDs.

They should space it up just enough to fit SSD's underneath with 2mm clearance and hopefully the back of the DVB card too.

Board, cooler, and ram is here. Heard a clatter through the postbox and the sound of something metallic hitting the floor. That'll be the S/H Bluray drive I bought of ebay for cheap wrapped in merely a jiffy bag, ie one thin layer of bubble wrap. What a tard.

Now first issue is the drive is going to foul the cooler. I'll trim the back of the Teac front as much as a can, but it seems the cooler can only be mounted 90 degrees round from where I pictured it. Might have to dremel the basted.

Cooler looks really good, fan feels pretty cheap.


Another day....

The bluray drive is really cocking up the feng shui of my Teac. Needs to go into half the cooler pretty much and a fair bit of trimming of nice new shiny heatsinks. Not ideal.

So I now need a similar style heatsink, but with a larger gap between the heatsink and board its mount. Thinking Noctua again, don't want to shell out for another cooler that doesn't fit.

Also on remeasuring I don't think I'll get those rubber mounts in. Which is a shame.

Which leads me to think I had a bit of a laugh building a freenas box into an old bakerlight stereo recently, but the network speed via dlink isn't too hot, so the idea was flawed unless I want to start throwing cables around the house.

But that doesn't mean it couldn't go upstairs now. I also have a gutted matching Teac tuner it could go in. Would have to be an atom type board, passive cooling. I've got 2 3tb drives already, one more could make a nice raid setup with everything backed up properly.

Could run windows on it, chuck in my old m audio sound card and an imon remote setup and it could be a headless music player once setup, and torrent box, maybe controlled by remote desktop. Or just chuck it in a big ugly case in the cupboard on a freenas type setup. Or just sort the network out.

I don't know yet. Think I've got to buy another cooler and see if it'll all go yet, just thinking a raid outside the case might be a wise move for storage.
 
C

chug

Audioholic Intern
Having had a couple spare hours today, thought I'd knock this up out of a few spare bits.

AS Rock 350m1 board, 500gb HD, and a psu board that worked out cheaper than a pico....

Only needed an angle grinder, a drill, a screwdriver and a pair of pliers if anyone is wondering.

20130204_002.jpg

20130204_005.jpg
 

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