This is the first of a series of worklogs which I shall be posting on Project Argent, which is a comprehensive home network, of which this HTPC is just one part of a larger whole. After 2 years of planning, it is finally being built.

This thread is on the HTPC component, which constitutes a part of the home theatre system.

Specs are as follows:
C2D E6600 cooled by Zalman CNPS9500
Abit AB9 QuadGT modified with Zalman heatsink
2x 1GB Kingston DDR2/800 with added black heatspreaders
Gigabyte 7600GT 256MB fanless
Leadtek 7100GS 128MB fanless
Silverstone LC-18 (with 7" touchscreen LCD)
Creative X-Fi Elite Pro
3x 320GB Seagate 7200.10 HD
Lite-On DVD-RW
TDK DVD-RW
Silverstone FP34 card reader/front panel audio/USB/Firewire
Silverstone ST75F 750W modular PSU
4x 80mm Coolermaster silent fans replacing the original 2x Silverstone fans (Silverstone fans did not have RPM sensors)

Some pics to start (Left to Right):
1. Some of the parts I bought for this: Motherboard, PSU, Sound Card, LiteOn DVD-RW, 4x CM fans, Leadtek 7100GS, HDs, SATA cables and C2D E6600 CPU. The Zalman is a CNPS9700 which I wanted to install in the HTPC, but turns out it is too tall for the LC-18 by a few mm. So I had to switch to the CNPS9500.
2. Silverstone LC-18 with the touchscreen



Attached thumbnail(s)

how u wan to do it....just put the hardware...or some modding to the case
hope can c more in ur modding bro..anyway keep up

This post has been edited by peaceofluck: Apr 5 2007, 11:42 AM

More pics (Left to Right):

1. The inside of the LC-18.

2. Removed the HD cage, the Optical drive cage, and the HD fan cage. You can see in the lower right of the pic, the entry vents for the 2x 80mm intake fans for the HDs (these fans not provided by Silverstone).

Since neither of the 2x 80mm Silverstone exhaust fans (behind CPU) had RPM sensors, I removed them and replaced with CM silent fans with RPM sensing.

3. Abit AB9 QuadGT motherboard. The black heatsink on the mobo at the lower left section is a Zalman northbridge passive heatsink I had lying around, and it replaced the original Abit heatsink which was less than half the height.

4. Mobo with the Zalman CNPS9700 heatsink installed. It later turned out the 9700 was too tall so I had to replace it with the CNPS9500. Next time, must remember to measure height of casing and heatsink first.


Attached thumbnail(s)

how much did u splurge ? in total...

Considering the casing is about RM2.5k, I won't mod it unless I am very sure it is something I absolutely have to do. I will stick to mild mods of the heatsinks, cable routing, etc. At least until I get my IR equipment in, then may look at some mods to include the IR receiver in a suitable location. I won't be putting in any lighting as this HTPC needs to be able to sit in a dark room without attracting any attention away from the movie being screened

wad IR device are u getting ?

Don't dare to total up...

From Left to Right:

1. C2D E6600 before being smushed with thermal paste
2. Mobo installed in the casing (with Zalman CNPS9500)
3. Installed the HD fan cage in the casing
4. Optical drive cage - 2 DVD-RW drives (new LiteOn on top, old TDK at the bottom), and the Silverstone FP34 card reader/front panel audio/ports

After this pic was taken, I had the swap the location of the two drives, because if you look closely, you will notice that the TDK drive is longer than the LiteOn, and this presented problems because the mobo's 12V ATX power connector was being blocked by the TDK. Swapping the drives made it a little easier.



This post has been edited by Traveler: Apr 5 2007, 11:57 AM


Attached thumbnail(s)

I haven't gotten one yet, as I think I will get one bundled with my TV tuner card. Thinking of getting the Hauppage WinTV-PVR500 dual tuner card since I only have 1 PCI slot free.

owh i c....since the case cos u 2.5k mayb bettter don mod it if u don sure...
i also don wan do that if it is the price... ...
mayb here can c well internal management u can do with this baby...
waiting to c...

i believe you will only get the best of the best stuffs around.. heheh Great HTPC !

From Left to Right:

1. 960GB of storage, and I still have space for 2 more HDs!
2. First cacing - routed one of the HD fan wires under mobo to reach mobo fan connector. The Kingston RAMs do not come with heatspreaders. Bought some cheapo ones.

Good thing the AB9 QuadGT has 6 fan connectors! And apparently Abit has provided software to let me control the fans that are connected to the mobo, and so I have decided to forget about fan control devices and use the software route. Saves me some additional wiring and cost.



This post has been edited by Traveler: Apr 5 2007, 12:09 PM


Attached thumbnail(s)

yupe...since the htpc is gret, the hardware inside must be also a best of the best stuff..hehehe...

This post has been edited by peaceofluck: Apr 5 2007, 12:07 PM

From Left to Right:

1. Installed the optical drive cage. Note the tightness of the 12V mobo power connecting with the optical drives. I had to put the shorter drive on the lower bay, to allow some space for installing the power connector. The mass of cables coming out of the lower part of the cage is from the FP34.

2. Routing the 2nd HD cage fan under the mobo. Note the wires coming from the fan on the left, under the mobo and coming back out on the right and just barely reaching the mobo fan header.

3. The HDs as they are installed in the HD cage, blocks the 3 SATA headers closest to the HD cage. It's not a problem right now as I am only using 3 SATA headers (and I will use the 3 furthest away from the HD cage). Should I add more HDs later, I will just readjust the positions of the HDs in the cage further forward, as I would have to remove the HD cage in that event anyway.

4. The cacings come out to play: Front panel switches/LEDs, 3x USB headers (2 for FP34, one for touchscreen LCD), HD Audio, Firewire header (one left dangling as FP34 supports 2 Firewire headers but mobo only has 1), fan connectors, plus the VGA connector for the touchscreen LCD.



Attached thumbnail(s)

From Left to Right:

1. Installed the 7600GT in the x16 slot, the 7100GS in the x4 slot, and the X-Fi Elite Pro in the PCI slot next to the PSU. The PCI slot in between the sound card and the 7100GS is reserved for my TV tuner card (probably get it later this month). It's a tight fit, especially between the sound card and PSU due to all the USB, HD-Audio and Front Panel headers and their cables there. I tied some to the cables with cable ties to help keep it neater a little, though I am concerned that I may not be able to do much for the cables between the sound card and PSU.

2. I started putting in the power cables to the HDs, mobo, optical drives and sound card. Made a few rudimentary routing efforts, pending improvements. I realized that using a rounded IDE cable may not be possible, as due to the shape of the cable, it would hit the Zalman heatsink's fan blades when I plug them into the drives. So I may have to switch to the flat ribbon cable.



Attached thumbnail(s)

bro, just a suggestion, is there a way for you to erm.. lay the Front panel cables beneath the mobo ? it's gonna look a lot better that way.

This is not a worklog. A worklog means work in progress for a modded rig. There r no mods at all here. Just the assembly of a rig. Thread closed. U can post the complete rig's pics in the Forummer's Casing Database or Silverstone league. Pls PM me to reopen thread if there are any mods planned for the rig.

This post has been edited by ianho: Apr 5 2007, 07:33 PM