I got this case quite sometime ago, prolly a year or 2, from someone in the Garage Sale.

When I got it, this is how it looked like:
(BEFORE)





I was not happy with the front panel, but the size was alright for a HTPC.

Started to "redesign" the outlook of the casing, and decided to go for the "plain-jane" power amp look.

The Project commenced with the stripping of the whole casing to separate pieces, and drilling out the rivets.

After that, procrastination took over and I junked the whole lot into the storeroom. Sadly, it collected dust, and nothing was done there on.

Came 2011. One of new year's resolution was to complete the project, or it was going to the bin, as the missus was spring-cleaning the store for the new year preparation.

Ingredients that maketh' mah HTPC:
G31 mobo
E3300 proc
2gb rams
Modded Huntkey PSU - dissembled the casing and drilled more holes on the PSU chassis for "better" cooling.
Illuminated power switch
1TB HDD
HD5770 Hawk GPU
a handful allen capscrews to bolt the front place to casing
2 units of 12cm fan filters
4 units of chassis feet off some faulty dvd player

First thing done was cutting of an alu plate to fit the front, and slowly cut out holes for the dvd drive. Holes were cut for the power switch and power LED as well.

Both sides of the chassis were cut to fit 2 units of 12cm fans.

After all that cutting and grinding and smoothing, sent the complete casing to a friend(who's working in some metal shop) to get a new skin colour, which is black . The front aluminium plate was anodized while the other steel parts were blackened.

All the stuff were put together a coupla days before CNY 2011. The front panel had a nice finishing....but wasn't too happy with the colour on the steel chassis. Too late to do anything, but to put everything together.

Sorry, no pics during the build...only got pics after completion...
(AFTER)




Put together with my bluray player. seems like the width of the bluray player is similar with the case...


Powered up...


Currently, I don't have wireless keyboard+mouse and a nice multimedia remote...was thinking of getting a Rapoo 2900 or something similar....but it will have to wait...

Recently added another USB extension hub at the rear...to have more USBs for "future proofing"
Installed with Win7, and utilizing the Windows Media Center for HTPC.

Would like to try other softwares such as the XBMC...but not too sure on how to set it up....noob here

That's what my current messy HTPC setup looks like now...

Anyway, thanks for reading/looking.

Cheers.

This post has been edited by ravewar: Mar 13 2011, 09:06 PM

cool, i got Hauppauge Win-TV Tuner card for MCE, interested?

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Added on March 5, 2011, 12:06 amwith USB-iRDA Remote Control for MCE

This post has been edited by ZHunter: Mar 5 2011, 12:06 AM

thanks for the offer...but currently saving up to get a mech kb for my main rig...

I wonder where u get the illuminated power switch from? I might interested in getting 1 too.

garage sales got few seller

hi there,

I got the illuminated switch from this guy in LYN garage...

illuminated switch - 22mm

there are 2 sizes, mine is the 22mm. very nice quality. worth getting.

thanks for reading.

cheers!

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Added on April 24, 2011, 10:14 pmthanks for the reply.

cheers!

This post has been edited by ravewar: Apr 24 2011, 10:14 PM

Thanks bro ravewar for the info. Might contact him later for my future project.

no worries. the seller has 2 sizes and 2 colours....22mm and 25mm, and white and blue illumination....so up to your preference, if u want bigger or smaller size...

cheers!

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Added on December 1, 2011, 9:27 pmSome update:

Got this keyboard(Logitech K400) with built-in touchpad from LingLoong in Garage thread.




Comments on the keyboard:
The size of the keyboard is just nice. Very handy. Comes with a tiny receiver, and an extension, which I didn't use.

The touchpad placement was superb. The keys are thicker as well...sort of like "raised" hence enabling easier pressing of keys.

General build of the keyboard is OK. After using it for awhile for surfing and watching movies, I felt the keyboard is built specifically for HTPC usage, which is SUPER. Just what I needed.

The price is also very nice, and coming from Logitech, I would prolly get another 1 unit and keep.


Anyways, back to the HTPC build. Recently took part in the A.P.E.S/MSI competition(which ends tonight), and had some pics taken.

Reposting the pics, as posted for the competition.








Current amplification hardware:
Amplifier: Rotel RA 970BX
Speakers: TDL RTL3
Cables: Cable Talk3 bi-wiring

At the moment, it's not a 5.1 system/surround....only 2.0 system. No budget to change to AV amp.

Well...the journey continues...

Cheers, and thanks for dropping by.

This post has been edited by ravewar: Dec 1 2011, 09:27 PM