In the website you’ll find the scheme and the eagle file.

Take a look here!

When I decided to build a definitive HTPC, I looked for a hardware that would fit my needs, nothing too expensive, but something that would play High Definition files without problems, and also could play some games, like Pro Evolution Soccer (best game to play with friends) or Tomb Raider. By the time, I had a tube tv with component video (good, but could be so much better), and 5.1 sound connected to my Home Theater Sound System.

parts

MotherBoard: ASUS P5W DH Deluxe, excellent MB for a HTPC, with many great features no it, like S/PDIF Port, a digital output for connecting to my 5.1 sound system, two on board 10/100/1000 network cards (two is good if you want to use it as a router or a firewall) plus wireless. USB, Firewire and eSATA makes file transfer to external hard drives easy and fast. It also have a remote control, so you can set the volume, turn it off and on (I don’t really use it very much)

Processor: I got a Core 2 Duo E6420, 4mb cache, very good for playing HD files and games.

Case: The computer case could be anyone, but a receiver looking case would be much cooler. Here in Brazil wasn’t so easy to find one, and getting it from USA would be very expensive. Luckily I found the M Station HT-3000 from 3R SYSTEM, a great case for my project. It comes with a small Blue LCD Display that can be used to show the time, current track song playing on iTunes or Winamp, the time of the film you’re watching or other things you can configure. It also comes with a remote control, very good one by the way, where you can use it to surf on your files, songs and videos, pause, exit programs, exit windows, or do almost anything the mouse/keyboard could do. Well, I believe this pictures show a little more about this case:

Memory: I got 1GB DDR2-667 Corsair RAM memory, It’s enough for the kind of HTPC I want, maybe someday I put more, but till now I don’t need more. Remember to get one compatible with your mother board.

Storage: For the start, I got a 320GB 7200rpm SATA-II, not so much storage, when you talk of High Definition Movies. So I got an External 500GB drive that attend my needs for now, and if I need, I can take it anywhere. Someday I’ll get more and faster drives, as I’m a media lover.

Video Card: I got an e-GeForce 7600 GT 256mb PCI-E board from EVGA, with component, vga and dvi output (before I was using component to connect to my TV). I’m using a DVI to HDMI cable to connect to my LG 32′ LCD Time Machine II screen, so I got now quality digital video on my tv.

Power Supply: For the computer, a 500 watts is good enough.

Mouse & Keyboard: Now I needed a wireless mouse and keyboard, and I choose Microsoft’s wireless mouse and keyboard 2000. They are very good, but the only problem that they don’t have a good range, so when I want to use it from far, I need to put the small receiver near, and it’s so nice, as I need to keep moving it all the time.

Software

Well, as I want it to be not just a media player, but a gaming computer, I installed Win XP (never Vista ^^), so we can play videos and games without needing to use Wine, less time and effort.

Programs I use very much:

1. Media Players: Here we have many options, first there are the HTPC software, like the open source project Media Portal, where you can browse your films, musics, read rss, watch forecast and much more, with big letters and everything, it’s a good choice. For a long time I’ve used VLC, great PLAY EVERYTHING software, it’s good if you don’t want to install many different codecs, as it plays everything. Some days ago I discovered GOM PLAYER, it works like VLC, you don’t need to install more codecs, because it already plays everything. And I’m liking it very much, more then VLC, as it have a better interface and works better with subtitles. If you don’t know it, I suggest you to check it out.
2. FTPD: A FTP server is one of the easiest way to transfer files across computers, as you have more control of the files being transfered. I’m not a big fan of transferring files using Windows Explorer, many times it doesn’t work, or if anything goes wrong while transferring, you lose it all, and have to start all over again. For FTPD I like GeneFTP, and for Client, I use FlashFXP on Windows and gFTP on Linux (soon I’ll be needing a mac version also).
3. VNC: When I need to install programs or do anything on it, I use UltraVNC, so I can access visually the computer from anywhere. Software I like is VNC.
4. Torrent: I love BitTorrent, and I use it almost everyday (downloading linux only, of course), and my client of choice is uTorrent, lightweight fast and very complete program, and one thing I like it the WebGUI, so I can check the process of downloading files and manage them from anywhere.
5. BackUP: For having my data safe, I use Syncback, the best backup program I know, and it’s free. With it I able to backup my stuff using FTP, from everywhere. I also like to backup my photos to 3 different places at the same time (some can be though windows network, samba or ftp).
6. Backup Your DVDs: For backing up my dvds, I’m using DVD Shrink, very good software to save your precious dvds to your hard disk. Also good to save that movie you rented and didn’t have time to watch it.

links

Here goes some good things to read and links before you start building your own HTPC. (I’ll add more links with time)

1. HTPC Forum
2. DIY – 200 Dollar PC
3. Geek to Live: Automatically back up your hard drive

I’m still looking for some good photo viewer, I would like to find something like the amazing PicLens, do you know any?
How would you build your own HTPC?

You can take a look of how it looks:

This feature will be available for everyone on the next OpenOffice.org 2.4.

Images from [Dual-Boxing]

What you will need:

• Pliers
• Stiletto
• IDE cable
• Spiral tube
• Tape

1st Step: Get the IDE cable and cut it carefully, I think the best way is to cut it with 4 lines space, but you can do it with 2 lines space if you want, but it’s way more work. Now you must be careful, because if you damage any line, it will become useless.

2nd Step: Now you should make a “spaghetti” with the cable, and it’s time to put it inside the spiral (find to buy in any casemod website), take a look at this pictures:

3rd Step: After making the cable inside the spiral, it’s nice to stick the sides with tape.

4th Step: Now that the spiral is well fixed, you can use some wire ties for a better look, and better quality.

5th Step: Cut the long parts of the wire ties using a pliers and you cable is ready to use.

Now that you have done your “home maid rounded cable”, it will look much better then before, helping in the air circulation inside your case and make a clean look in you case. And cool thing is to use color tapes for a better look.
That’s all!
Based on a portuguese tutorial from casemodbr.com

Material Needed

• 2 Sand Paper 500
• 2 Sand Paper 600
• 2 Sand Paper 1200
• Polishing Oil for Metal (For example Brasso Brass Polish)
• Clean cloth
• ToothPaste
• Alcohol

Intro:

• The principles of the cooler is to cold some heat source, for example an computer processor, it can be used on ChipSet’s, VGA chips, Northbridge, Southbridge or even in RAM memories. All those chips are cooled in many different ways, with FANs (most common ones), using water (water cooling) of just the metal par of the cooler, using the internal air to do it.

 

• Many people ask why lapping, and if it helps in any way. The main reason for lapping is to maximize the contact area between the cooler and the processor (for example). Usually coolers already comes with flash base, but they’re not always well polished, and this way, having a worst contact with the heat nucleus. So the finality of lapping is to make the surface of the cooler better polished, without fictions nor imperfections.

 

• The best combination for better performance is having your cooler lapped and a good thermal paste. It can lower your computer temperature and make it last long!

 

• This tutorial you can use in normal Air Coolers, without fan coolers and even in WaterBlocks. This isn’t a hard job, but it may take some time to do it, and if you don’t want to do all steps, it may work as well!

 

• I’ll explain how to make a cooler lapping with stuff you find at home, without any professional equipment. This way anyone can do it. In this tutorial, I’m using a WBK 38 cooler from Globalwin.

1. Lapping

 

Now you’ll need some items like sandpaper (400,600, 1200), metal polish oil, toothpaste (normal white), cloth (more than one) and alcohol (For cleaning)
Take the sand paper and fix over the glass using some tape. In this case I used the bathroom, because there is a very plan.
Lets start lapping using a 400 sandpaper, with it we can take some irregularities off. I advise you to fix the sandpaper using some tape, so its easy to handle.
Use water over the sandpaper and making circular movements rub the cooler over the paper, applying the same weight(not much, it may ruin the paper) so it gets equally flat.
The base must get homogeneous, it will look very scratched.
Do all again, but this time withe the sandpaper 600. And then after with the 1200 sandpaper, but this time keep doing longer, for 8-12 minutes. Wont be so scratched out anymore.
Now to finish this process, put over the cloth some white toothpaste, because they aren’t abrasives, and that helps with lapping. Do it for 15 minutes, and remember to use alot of force and make circular movements.

2. Polishing

To finish our lapping process, take the cloth and put some metal polish oil and rub quite alot, for around 15 minutes, always with circular movements. The cloth will get quite dark. In the end it will be almost like a mirror, just needing some final touch.
The last step is to make it look lika a mirror. So you need to get another clean and dry cloth and put more polish oil, repit the last process for around 10 minutes, and then 10 minutes more. This should be the last process for lapping. The base shound look like a mirror, but it may still have some few small scratches, but those are insignificant. Usually it happens when something gets between the sandpaper and the cooler.
Now the cooler base should be perfectly mirrored. Just some cleaning now would be nice. Using another clean cloth and alchool.
In the end, the result if amazing, the base is like a mirror.

Some images of the work done:

I’m not sure if I was clear enought in this tutorial, maybe sometime I take a look and rewrite if needed!!
Hope you liked and anything just leave a comment!!
Thanks for reading… And take a good look in our sponsors!!

With the price around €15, your rotatoin speed is about 2.000rpm and makes around 29dB of noise and air flow of 17CFM.
You can check two movies here:
[Video 1] [Video 2]

We have been looking at the ecosystem growing around VIA’s ITX and Nano-ITX platforms and we’ve just discovered what has to be the smallest PSU around.

The picoPSU, by MiniBox, is barely the size of an ATX connector. It’s 120W, and has a couple of molex connectors and a floppy connector, as well as an input jack for mains power.

It’s designed for use in embedded systems where space is at a premium. It’s 100% silent, has a lack of messy cables and provides enough power to keep a Pentium M or Via C3 processor juiced up, depending on the other peripherals in the system.

via [digg]