Widescreen Gaming Forum

OK, I'm starting this thread to act as a hold-all for any and all modding I do in the process of building my new HTPC.

First, let's start off with some specs... those of you who keep up with the Latest Acquisitions thread will have seen that some new toys arrived...



But, y'see that little SATA/power adaptor on the left of the 2.5" HDD? It doesn't fit the motherboard.

That's right - because the Zotac Ion N330 has the PSU integrated onto the motherboard (it uses a little 90w DC laptop adaptor for power) the outputs for the optical drive and HDDs all come from the motherboard.



And the plug on the motherboard is a female molex adaptor - the lead to the optical and HDD's is male molex to triple full-SATA. (Bottom left of the heatsink on the mobo pic above) Which doesn't fit on laptop SATA optical drives... only full-sized desktop SATA opticals.

And guess what? The power lead from that little laptop SATA adaptor requires a male molex - the normal sort that you'd plug into a normal optical or HD drive for power.



So. Some modding needed!

Let's take one of those 3-pin to molex adaptors that come with pretty much every 3-pin fan you can buy... mine actually comes from an Akasa Amber 120mm fan, but that doesn't mean much right now.



Upwrap it, and pop the little cover off over the wired pins...



The use a pair of tweezers to gently squeeze the expansion locks that hold the pins in place (individually) and remove them...



You might be able to see them in this picture... maybe not. Anyway, they are there.



Now, Akasa soldered the wires on, but that isn't really necessary...

Here's where I pinched the two blank pins from another one of the Akasa 3-pin to molex adaptors, as I couldn't be bothered to faff around with a soldering iron. So so far, the only material cost of stuff left unusable are two adaptors that I have no purpose for in the first place. The bugger is you can get the male molex pins, and the female molex pins online... but you can't get the pass-through pins. Or at least my quick hunt didn't turn them up. So there's no choice but to pinch 'em from something else.



Next, I cut the pin ends off the molex plug that was on the SATA adaptor for the slimline optical and took some of the plastic coating off too.



To give wires that can be inserted and then crimped down into the two 'free' pins taken from the second 3-pin to molex adaptor. I could have used pins from the first one, but couldn't be bothered to break out the soldering iron. Too much hassle for what should be fairly simple.

After inserting the bare wire into the free pin, I crimped it shut with a pair of needle-nose pliers (why spend £30 on a crimping tool when pliers do just as good a job?)



With both of the pins on...



Insert them into the open molex pass-through adaptor...



Now... I have to admit that getting them back in was a bastard - the shielding on the wire was slightly too wide for the space provided on the pass-through... a second compressing the plastic flat with pliers meant it went in more easily, but it still needed some care to get it in properly.

So, now I've got the optical adaptor all set as a pass-through for the motherboard-provided HDD power lead.



Which makes life a little easier. I did have an adaptor (that I couldn't find until after I decided to stop wasting time hunting for it and get on with doing this simple mod) that would have meant I didn't need to do this... but it would have meant about another 8" of wire inside this HTPC. And it's supposed to be small. So as little unnecessary stuff as possible was my intent.

...

Work on the case will start tomorrow when I've got my new Black & Decker Workmate...

OK, next bit:

Mobo tray!

(I'm deliberately avoiding detailing the sort of thing I intend as the final product as it's probably going to evolve as I work. ;))



The bit of wood I'm using for the mobo tray... the reason it's got a lump out of it is that I cut the mobo tray from it, then discovered to my distaste that the ply was dodgy...



Like so...

So, I cut another bit. Can I just say how much I hate plywood for those nasty burrs and rips at the edges you cut?



So it was cut with a lot of gap around where I wanted it, to allow me to sand it down all nice and neat...



I mounted the motherboard, and marked up where I needed the little mobo supports to be, then drilled straight through with a 2mm drill. Screwing the mobo supports in then required use of a cordless drill, as the holes were just too tight to do by hand and the 3mm drill was dead certain to be far too big. Below you should be able to see the metal of the mobo support peeking through the hole...



Once I had that done, I cut some gaps in the sides. I know what will fit in there, but I'll leave it as a surprise until later in the build... they'll probably get deeper than they are right now (by about an inch each) as it shouldn't effect the strength of the mobo tray and will give a bit more 'breathing' room.





Then cut it out with a fret saw... had a great time convincing it not to jam on the ply. Urgh, I tell ya, I hate plywood. Almost as bad as medium density fibreboard for pain-in-the-arse-factor... :(





A shedload of sanding later (I tried using the detail sander but it was more of a pain than a help working on those little cutouts and it's mostly done. I sanded the crap off the flat faces, and gave it a wipe down to remove any loose dust...



And finally, to show what I'm intending with the optical drive...



The little SATA adaptor I modded yesterday is a tight squeeze. Still, I made sure that the wires were as long as possible - it's not like I cut them in the middle... and it just fits, sooo... *shrug*





However, due to how tight the cabling is, I'll have to offset the optical drive in the case slightly. This isn't a problem, it just means I'll have to decide whether I want to offset the slot in the case, or whether I want a really wide slot that covers the front. I might do the latter (after all, I know where the drive is in the case, so it's not really an issue there) and it kind of offends my sense of the aesthetic to have the slot offset.

...

Actually, if I do cut those recesses a little deeper, it will ease some of the tension on that optical SATA lead, maybe allowing me to centre it better. We'll see. I'll probably be cutting a recess into the front (above where the optical drive sits) too - the less solid material in the tray, the better for the purposes I have in mind...

Anyone got any comments or suggestions?

Pretty cool, took me a few reads to comprehend the whole sata connector deal and i am still confused about it but the rest of it looks nice and I can't wait to see it finished :P

Edit: the whole power issue doesn't make sense still with triple full sata and what have you, if you could maybe explain quick it would make more sense but other than that.

Im guessing they gave you a lead with the mobo which doesn't fit laptop drives only desktop ones due to size, so you bought another one but it used the wrong connector then you had to splice it?

Nice work ! On the suggestions front I can't help you though. DIY is def not my strong point :(

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Ooh just made sense that little cable does power to the optical drive and then also gives a data output cord for the mobo?

Another Sata adapter off the first molex plug for hdd then?

workmate looks pretty useful, may have to look at them if i do some more woodworking.

Possible rec would be poly coating edges of the ply so they are less likely to fall apart, maybe some seal the whole plywood part so it doesn't change and split and crap with different humidity though since it is summer it will only shrink come winter.

Edit: Overclock ;) some people have pushed it to almost 2ghz but you need to have additional cooling, probably moreso than the stock fan probably a fan as big as the heatsink blowing down on it ;)

MDF would have been better than plywood, but you already knew that.

I'm looking forward to seeing the case... it should be epic.

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Pretty cool, took me a few reads to comprehend the whole sata connector deal and i am still confused about it but the rest of it looks nice and I can't wait to see it finished :P

Edit: the whole power issue doesn't make sense still with triple full sata and what have you, if you could maybe explain quick it would make more sense but other than that.

Im guessing they gave you a lead with the mobo which doesn't fit laptop drives only desktop ones due to size, so you bought another one but it used the wrong connector then you had to splice it?

Yeah. I'll shoot some picks of the problem for a more visual explanation a bit later today. :)

Nice work ! On the suggestions front I can't help you though. DIY is def not my strong point :(

Hehe. Thanks for the comment anyway. Hopefully I can get some more done today.

workmate looks pretty useful, may have to look at them if i do some more woodworking.

The Black & Decker Workmate is possibly the best workbench-type instrument you could ever buy for working with just about anything - not just wood. Although I tend to just stick to woodworking. ;) I've done some metalwork with it, but only basic stuff.

Possible rec would be poly coating edges of the ply so they are less likely to fall apart, maybe some seal the whole plywood part so it doesn't change and split and crap with different humidity though since it is summer it will only shrink come winter.

Yeah, true. I'd avoid using that plywood if MDF wasn't going to be weaker for the given task. I've had MDF break quite easily with fairly minimal pressure with sheets as thin as that ply, so I'm not gonna risk it. Also as I hate using it, I've not got any 'in stock'. :lol: I've got a tin of rubberising wood sealant somewhere around... I'll whip that out and see what it looks like, as it would help reduce vibrations too...

Edit: Overclock ;) some people have pushed it to almost 2ghz but you need to have additional cooling, probably moreso than the stock fan probably a fan as big as the heatsink blowing down on it ;)

I'm not mounting a fan on the heatsink. However, I am going to be putting a 120mm fan (44cfm) into the roof of the case, blowing straight down onto the motherboard. If that doesn't keep it cool, nothing will. I will not be overclocking unless the system can't cope with 1080p videos, in which case I'll try it and see if it makes a difference.

MDF would have been better than plywood, but you already knew that.

Yeah, but I absolutely loath MDF. Whoever came up with the idea needs to be slapped on the back for something so useful, then smacked round the head for something so nasty. It's vile stuff to cut, IMO.

I'm looking forward to seeing the case... it should be epic.

Hopefully. ;)

I'm going to start hand-sanding exclusively - my wrist is still complaining from just a few minutes of using that little detail sander yesterday. Fortunately, I only picked it up as an experiment (it was £13) so it's not a horrible loss. It did, however, speed up sanding times dramatically. Ah well, I'd rather sanding took ages than I got RSI or some other nerve damage 'cause of it.

Yea I have used those hand sanders before my writsts never get sore i would just have a bit of numbness afterward because of the sheer amount of vibrations but it got better. We have a 15GBP Ryobi sander and it is fine for my use never hurts any of our families wrists =P

Yea MDF is nice but kinda a Pain lol, tablesaws FTW and they are pretty nice. We cut some of it in woodshop and it is very easy I suppose cutting it by hand is harder than with a tablesaw.

No proper update today. Sorry. Did a little work (cut the bottom/top/sides/front of the case... and discovered that the thing I have that I thought would do 45* cuts... won't. So I need to go do a bit of thinking. I can set my circular saw to 45* and use that... but it's a PITA to keep it level and I can't afford to screw up these mitre cuts.

Also, I've barely done anything because I was actually inspired to write my thesis this morning. At least, I was until I encountered some wonderful problems with Endnote, at which point I then spent the next four hours cursing and swearing like a drunken sailor. So in a fit of anger, I'm not gonna sleep until I've got a whole chapter written. I don't care if it's not perfect, I just wanna be able to say I've got something actually done. Bah.

OK, had some time to think.

I'm gonna abandon the mitre joint idea and go back to my original butt/dowel joints. I can't find anything that will let me cut the 45* angles on the panels properly, unless I go out and buy a compound sliding mitre saw. And I'm not gonna have costs spiral that high for what was supposed to be fairly cheap. Current costs of PC hardware is about £250 for this system... current costs of wood and tools is... about £160. But £85 of that is the new Workmate, which I'd have needed anyway, so I'm not sure it counts. ;) And there isn't a small HTPC case I actually like that is a decent price, so on that front I'm not too bothered either. :)

Now I've finally abandoned the mitre joint idea, life is a bit simpler. ;) Maybe more'll get done tomorrow than today.