HTPC in Onkyo style

[_ferry_]

Modding engine is running at full speed In 1 evening i created the reservoir and prepared the pump. Although I have to finish him by filing down the edges and sanding+ polishing the whole thing.

The acrylic top is bigger then the pump itself. Should be fine for projects where space is not an issue. But this time it is.

So I did. I also did some port flowing on the outlet. Don’t know if its going to help, but it cant be worse either.

With the pump’s feet still remaining you can see that the actual size is reduced significantly.

But when I sliet in the motherbord tray I bumped against this fitting. Didn’t expect that!

But I knew i had a fixed corner somewhere, found it, and it fits perfectly. The tube has now the right height as well, I can fit in a PCI card without any problem, or maybe watercool the VGA

The pump will probbalby be placed over here. Not 100% sure, since some ATX motherboards have theyr S-ATA connectors over there. But I think the system will be charged with a m-ATX board and a CPU with low power consumption.

Gluing the reservoir.

And the glue dries under influence of light, which explains the unusual position.

Meanwhile I bend a piece of aluminium to hold the pump. I hope the shock absorbers work well. In my workstation the pump is mounted without them which causes some resonance.

But it looks and fits well.
Guess this weekend I will do some more modding on the reservoir, by finishing the edges and cleaning it up. And then I have to figure out what’s left to do.

First I want to create a working system, with everything working and mounted on the way it should be. Making some final adjustments or changes when necessary. And then I have to take it almost apart to paint the sides and top. But its getting colder by now, and I have no paint shop with heating and stuff like that. So the weather (and my speed) will decide whether I can paint it this year or in spring time.

[_ferry_]

Had a extra-long weekend, but it was raining all day long today, so it was perfect for some modding action

As a alternative for the cables I've created this. They're more hidden this way, and only 1 connector on each cable will make them both easier to use and hide.

There's room to solder them together, and I can connect them to the modulair PSU

Same story for the other HDD bracket.

Looks good, no cables above the brackets, so the top panel should just fit without problems.

Pump is done as well. Did some sanding and polishing, and filled it up with some very unique smurf-blood. (JK, it's just airbrush paint)

1 of the parts which need more (re)work is the front.

Drawing the lines so i know where to cut.

Hopefully I'll have more success with front #3, and it will have that nice looking brushed aluminium look!

It's all about the small details and finishing touches right now. And sometimes it makes me spend more time than it usually takes.
For example; Before I could cut the front panel the angle grinder had to be modified since the extra thin cutting disk wont fit in. So i took out the locking nut, and turned it down a couple of mm on the lathe. Problem solved, back to modding!

[Fuganater]

Loving the custom pump top.

[_ferry_]

The front panel is done!

The only downside is that this picture was made before anodizing, because it looks awesome.
But without anodizing it´s very sensitive to scratches and fingerprints.
I skipped the part of cutting the holes, a floor filled with aluminium dust after a lot of filing, and matching the LCD and blu/ray openings with the ones at the other panel.

While anodizing, although the phonecam is missing some vibrance, you can still see a lot of colour variation on the panel, grey, dark, bright, brown etc. I stopped the process after the panel colour was smooth and grey.

And done. This time it´s much more brushed, like the panels on the inside but not the same as the onkyo. The light makes it even a bit more white-brighter on the photo.

Well Onkyo has fancy machines for their front panels, probably different aluminium types, and better techniques for anodising. But I'm satisfied with this result. The dimensions and brushed look are fine, it's just more white, but I can't change that Anodizing means a layer of oxide on the alumium, and the oxide is a transparent white layer. As long as the HTPC is not standing on top of the amplifier you'll hardly notice The final set-up will probably be something like HTPC on shelf at the left, CD boxes in the middle, Amplifier on the right.

Anyway, this week will be used for building audio/video furniture. bought 3 MDF panels today to build it. Probably i'll do some modding in the evenings when I have the energy to do so.

[_ferry_]

It has been a while, but I'm in need of some extra space in my garage, since i'm doing the final steps at the audio/video furniture:

So it's time for final assembly before putting in some hardware I'm happy with the November MOTM nomination, especially by keeping in mind that this case is more for practical use, and less eyecatching compared to the others.

I had 1 mayor screw-up:

When inserting the connector i had to screw it in another 1/2 turn, i thought it was OK. But it wasn't. So after 10 seconds... SNAP!! after some words i won't repeat here i started to fix it. With a knife i made a V-shaped groove, to fill the crack with acryl glue. After that was dried I made a acrylic patch which i glued on to of it to gain some extra strength. And placed the connector back with liquid sealant (locktite) instead of teflon tape. Lesson learned: Use no teflon tape.

There were 2 push-in connectors leaking water. Never had that problem before, and i used many of them in other builds. But i replaced them with new ones, and tested the system. Used the paint-stripper to heat up the aluminium cooler. and turned on the pump+fan. I felt slightly warm air coming out of the radiator, although it took a while to cool down the aluminium back to room temperature.

Silverstone, Cooler Master, Lian-li, Origen, Zalman; eat your heart out

Did a lot of things, like placing feets beneath the case, shorten the sidepanel a little, tightened all the screws, glued the front together etc.

The front was given a threatment with "trim restorer" it's some kind of silicone based stuff to make the trims and dash of your car shine like new. Did the same on the aluminium Although there are 2 spots both left and right from the LCD which are slightly more white. Maybe it will be gone after more threatments.

And together with the cd+amplifier. In fact i could move my current system into this case instead of the cosmos. But it's to big and heavy right now to have it on my desk. It's heavy loaded with 2 speakers, 50L aquarium, heavy amplifier, 24"monitor etc.

To do:
- cutting a top-panel
- get a power supply
- finish the HDD power cables
- blu-ray needs a aluminium front
- getting the workspace tidy for the upcoming projects

Happy Christmas and maybe another update this year will follow.

[NightrainSrt4]

Looks wonderful. Keep up the awesome work!

[Stonerboy779]

That is so freaking beautiful, a real work of art and i hope that the cracked acrylic gives you no trouble in the future.

[_ferry_]

I hope so But I'm pretty sure it's strong enough right now. The patch with acrylic glue holds it together very well. I forgotten to make a pic of it but I'll do it next time.
For now i'm working on a selfmade turntable

[Stonerboy779]

I hope so But I'm pretty sure it's strong enough right now. The patch with acrylic glue holds it together very well. I forgotten to make a pic of it but I'll do it next time.
For now i'm working on a selfmade turntable

Can't wait to see your turntable project. I am hoping to get started on mine very soon. Granted mine is just going to be transferring all the working gear from another TT a Project Debut Carbon with just an Orfton OM10 cart. Going to give it a new body and make a plinth too and I am thinking I will use some blackwood.

[_ferry_]

Cool, i was first thinking about buying a debut carbon esprit. But realised that 400€ and maybe 200€ for a better cardridge is a lot of money for a beginner in vinyl. I'm listening to vinyl for +/-2 months so things are just getting started, better spend some €€€'s on vinyl and a goed element, and build a TT myself. Good project to improve my Lathe skills as well.