Mini-HTPC Server

[PLOBBY]

Nope there working for me -- Great work by the way.

 

[shellshock]

Im home and the pics are working fine, musta been my schools internet

 

[ghettocomp]

The mesh panel on the front kept falling off, even after I pressed it on, and glued it to the plastic trim underneath. So the next task was to find a way to mount it similar to the way I really needed the case to look. many screws and fasteners were looked at, and I finally settled on these: Hex cap screws

and when they were used to mount the mesh:

One mounted near each corner held the mesh on in a most inviting industrial look. I liked that. The only problem at the time is whether to paint these or just leave bare metal.

=()=()=()= ​

Now that the power button is finished, I needed a place to put it. the best location for mounting, for both appearance and ability to mount easily, I drilled a 5/8" Hole in the center of the old LCD bezel and through the wire mesh. Well, its under there somewhere:

Then I shoved the wires through and was able to snap the modded button in place. The hole was exactly right:

cool so far, just as I envisioned it in the first place..

Next: Views of the reassembled box ...

Edit: I just realized how much dust is on that thing! really shows fingerprints dust etc in posted pics. In RL it looks quite clean. Oh Well.....

 

[Suma]

Look great so far.
I'm gonna keep track of this project.
GOOD JOB and keep it COMMING!!

Suma.

 

[ghettocomp]

Still Today-Update anyway:

I finally have the whole thing Almost done, about 95% so anyway.
assembled pic:

Oh Yeah, I like how this turned out from the origional box. The shine is so intense that it seems to outdo the hard black enamel finish on some furniture I have seen. This is only that plastic fusion type paint. Its not Krylon though.

now is time for the system hard drive to be put in. The Hard Drive I am using is some extra 10Gb drive I had laying around for some time. In the pic you can see a sample of the ghetto cooling for the HD, 2 of the 1.5inch Copper Pipe straps. Since I started using those, the HD seems to be a few degrees cooler. I dont have any real measurements of those temps to prove anything to y'all or me. Someday Maybe...

Sometime in the next month or so as many as 5 more HD's of at least 200Gb will be added. I will add an Internal SATA card, and take up the last of the IDE slots with any HD I find that is larger than 200GB. (edit: OOooo.... the redundancy....)

I love being able to store as many as 1000 or so movies in each server. When I go into a "Movie Watchin' Mode" The last thing I want is to get up and change DVD's.

Tomorrow, I will show How I watch these videos. the whole network thing I use is so cool to me!

because of the way this unit serves the video, I'm also thinking of integrating a 5 port switch in the back somewhere

 

[PLOBBY]

How do you get your movies onto the hard drive? Like i can rip them and all i just cant figure out how to get it into one big file which is very frusterating.(sp)? I ahve like 50-60 different files.

 

[-maddog-]

What kind of network you use? Gigabit? 108g?

 

[ghettocomp]

What kind of network you use? Gigabit? 108g?

I don't use anything fancy or "fast" like Gigabit for the movies. Read on! the whole thing is really great how it does work


Some more Pictures of the now almost finished server

there is a shot of the front with the lights on.

and a couple of shots of it with the lights out:

It looks really nifty setting there in the Living Room, Maybe it is my own delusion But, It looks more movie theaterish to me with the Red-Blue-Green Casefan there in front. I still have to do something about that power switch in front. The light needs to be "spread out" more inside. A little Silicone adhesive should help do that

This is what makes teh movie magic, The Hauppage MediaMVP:

Plays the video files I have with Near DVD quality with no problems ever. I have one on every TV in in the house, 5 in all. These adaptors reduce the video load on each server so considerably that it is possible to have as many as 11 or 12 working media adaptors at the same time But, I will say that by then the servers should be a little faster than mine are. I believe that something around 1.5 - 1.8Ghz is MORE than enough for that many Media Adaptors, but who would really have that many? Really, I have a TV in every room and 5 is enough for any family and my network can handle it with ease.

To eliminate the possibility of any network huccup, I have these media adaptor thingies attached to a dedicated central Gigabit switch. Each of these adaptors will max at only about 100Mb transfer in very short bursts, most of the time the data is transferred at around 10-50Mb depending on the movie, doesn't matter what the Manufacturer says. The way I have been abusing...Errr, using my network, it doesnt really matter. so anyway, I use the Gigabit switc to keep up (just in case). The adaptors can play DIVX, but really that is,,well, Stupid. It makes the server overload and requires at least 1.8Ghz to process the video. This leaves only power enough to view ONE Movie at a time, ONE adaptor only, Period. MPG is best.

Music played through this adaptor really sucks though. probably would be better if attached to a quality stereo system.

 

[-maddog-]

What is a good software to rip dvds onto one file?

 

[ghettocomp]

with a little practice and knowhow, a DVD can be ripped and in a .Mpg format for streaming in under 2 hours, at near DVD Quality.
the software I use id DVDDecrypter (and sometimes Smart Ripper), DVD2SVCD, and TMPGEnc. All Freeware, But I cheated and purchased a coopy of CinemaCraft Encoder ($58) to use with DVD2SVCD, this is where I have found the best combination of software for this transcoding process.

 

[ghettocomp]

Well, over the next day or so, I will be designing a Hard Drive rack from some of that mesh to use inside this box. possibly paint the insides black as well, just for kicks.

I think that the overall looks of this is really great but I am at a loss for doing something else. Any suggestions from out there would be welcome, but it must match pretty much how it looks/feels right now.

 

[Lord_Zoltan]

looks really good.

 

[ghettocomp]

I don't think I want to be done.....yet.

Well, I have decided that i am positively not done.
Next thing on a fair list of time consuming "to do's" for this project is to actually build one of those MediaMVP adapters into the case. Next, and possibly right along with that is to build in a 10/100 switch as part of the case as well.

First step will to construct an aluminum frame and racks for all the Hard drives, with a total of 16 available slots to fill.

To give the availability for that number of hard drives and also handle the 4Tb+ of space another mobo might have to be fitted in as well. I am hoping to leave the exterior of the box relatively unchanged. I really am beginning to like it.

Main purpose of this is so I don't have to chase all over the house to keep checking video servers.

 

[subtotal]

i know i said this before but i think a character LCD would be a really nice touch for a media-pc like this

 

[ghettocomp]

i know i said this before but i think a character LCD would be a really nice touch for a media-pc like this

I thought about what you suggested-still thinking, but might. The only thing I could use it for would be temps and maybe network activity. but nothing else really could apply..*I Think* The way this box is used it would be difficult to show info from 5 or so different connections (and the Media adaptors use linux on a different type of connection that I am unsure of)

 

[subtotal]

well, either way it's a very cool project. your big box project is cool to, but this is the sort of thing i could see myself building and using

 

[shellshock]

looking good!!!! do you have any pics of the back? I wanted to see how the I/O and the pci slots looked

 

[ghettocomp]

looking good!!!! do you have any pics of the back? I wanted to see how the I/O and the pci slots looked

Well, this is the back. It looks just about the way I want. I think about the only real thing left to be done is to paint the pack of the PSU black as well.
No PCI slots are cut in. Don't really need any. Nearly any other cards that I will use are for internal stuff anyway, so the brackets will be removed. For about 99.9% of the time this server will be used, there will not be any need for a Keyboard or monitor. Anything that needs adjustments can be redone from my main comp over the network. So, all I will ever need connected will be the network cables and power.

Edit:
Only thing to do to the back is add ports for the built in network switch and TV outs.

Also, I have to find a way to control the dust that collects on it. That box attracts more dust than my TV does, and that is a lot!

 

[-maddog-]

You can seal the box with a little caulk and filter the air coming in through the fans

 

[pik4chu]

btw if you lightly file flat the end of LEDs (only a little, dont go all the way to the metal) To give the end of it a rough look it spreads the light very nicely. Should help with the LED in the powerswitch for you you