Home[made] HTPC chassis

[pablo villa]

Hi there!

Ive been reading this fine forum for a couple of weeks, trying to peice together a HTPC. I had finally narrowed the basic parts when I started measuring the cabinet I was going to place the computer in. I was going for a Antec Fusion case, but it became clear it wouldn't fit. Since no other cases would fit either Im down to building my own case now.

Ive created a drawing of how I want to place the parts:




This is only a basic overlay of the positions of different parts, right now Im mainly interested in two things: will the air flow be any good and what materials should I use while building?

Components decided on so far:
Motherboard: Asus M2A-VM HDMI
CPU: 65nm Athlon 64 X2 3600
CPU: Arctic Cooling

Since Im but a poor student Ill be needing to get some tools also, so I want a material that is as easy as possible to work with...

Tank you in advance!

[[F]bernZ]

You sure you don't want your PSU to suck in fresh air from the other side? Pop another opening there and your PSU will be sucking in fresh cold air constantly instead of having to deal with the air that your CPU warms up.

[pablo villa]

You sure you don't want your PSU to suck in fresh air from the other side? Pop another opening there and your PSU will be sucking in fresh cold air constantly instead of having to deal with the air that your CPU warms up.

My plan was to use it to create air flow through the chassis. Would I need another fan in the system if I suck fresh air with it? I could move the power supply to the other side and have it beneath the pci cards in that case. But wouldnt a slower extra fan be louder than fewer faster ones (assuming I could keep them down to reasonable RPM:s)?

[vanhelmont]

Fewer fans at higher speed are generally louder than more fans at lower speed. Of course it depends a lot on which fans you use, too.

Whether the psu fan should have its own cool air or be used to ventilate the case may depend on how much heat the computer generates. With older cpu's that create more heat, or with a power hungry video card, cool air to the power supply and seperate ventilating fans for the other stuff is probably a good idea. With cooler processors and on-board video, you aren't generating much heat anyway. In this kind of system I use the cpu fan as the exhaust fan, and the air coming out doesn't feel excessively hot. If you use the on-board video and don't add a pcie card, I think you are OK to use the psu fan for exhaust.

[jhhoffma]

I would reconsider the location of the intake fan. It creates a direct sound path to the user(s). Perhaps locating it on the side or on the bottom would be a better choice.

[MikeC]

Show us photos of where you want your PC to go, and the dimensions of that space. We might even be able to find you can case you had not considered.

[Bluefront]

That's a difficult first project, if you ask me. The location of a full-sized optical drive like you show, sure gets in the way of decent airflow. I'd use laptop drives for a small project. And that front intake fan needs to go.....too noisy. Install a 120mm fan in the rear blowing outward, and put vent holes in the case where the HD will sit......and a few other places. If you flip the PSU over, it could draw air from outside the case.....never ramp up the fan. Lots of possibilities, lots of work also. Buying a ready-made case would be much easier.

[pablo villa]

Thanks for all the help! Im working to get hold on a camera for pictures of the cabinet, but in the meantime Ive made som measurements: 38cm or 15" deep, 56.5cm or 22" wide and 32cm 12.5" high. Its got two compartments and I really wanted to fit it in the one where I keep the stereo, but that probably wont work (then it can be just 16cm/6.25" high).

The cabinet has doors at the front. For cooling I was planning on removing the back side all together and maybe put a mosquito-net there for dust. I dont want to move the cabinet further from the wall then I have to...

[pablo villa]

[edit]Off topic, moved to a new thread instead...[/edit]