Project: Little Rascal - Mini-ITX Gaming Rig

Soldato
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Jetway J7F2 1.5GHz C7 CN700 Mainboard

It's not upgradeable as far i can tell, which is a shame. I'd bought it though for a CARPC project that never happened. Would be good for that sort of project. low power, small size.

Dont think it'd be too much use for you in a HTPC.
 
Soldato
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miniitx.jpg


Small pc's are awesome, built this for my (now ex) girlfriend. 1ghz c7 cpu, 1gig ram, 80gig hdd, ms wireless mouse/keyboard and some half decent creative speakers, came in at the huge price of £185. The 26" TFT TV i chucked in was more a lot than that :eek:

Does a great job of being a media centre for her.
 
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Jetway J7F2 1.5GHz C7 CN700 Mainboard

It's not upgradeable as far i can tell, which is a shame. I'd bought it though for a CARPC project that never happened. Would be good for that sort of project. low power, small size.

Dont think it'd be too much use for you in a HTPC.

I just sold a decent VIA Mini- ITX board with 1.2Ghz for £70. If you aren't wanting it i would suggest selling, they are going for fair bit atm.

Nixxeh - they're nice aren't they. Lovin' mine :D - im guessin you paid a little more for yours though as its 775 socket compared to my laptop 478 socket.

Like the work with the bending looks very tidy, good luck with the rest of it.
 
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how you going to mount the motherboard? are you pre-drilling holes in the motherboard tray area, in which you will just use the standard golden spacers?
 
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Strongbow is normally my drink of choice... well cider black :)

Pulse:Im still undecided on the board fixtures atm. Theres a few ideas on my mind, but ill probably create its own slightly raised mounting plate, as i might have some scrap coming up soon.

****** Update Time ******

Well, things still arent going to plan and im not completely happy at the moment. I am thinking about ordering some more aluminium and doing some parts again thanks to the way my bending break works (or doesnt work).

The HDD Caddy worked fine, no problems with it, but im having severe problems with bending short pieces, and some of the caddies and mounts are quite short. Sadly im having to resort to bending myself which isnt the best or easiest way of doing it.

1.jpg


Ive never done so much hammering in my life. Im thinking of remaking them but bending them before i cut, and then dremel it. That way i know im going to get nice accurate bends. I was able to get it to bend thouggh, but had to remove some of the structural wings which i put on just to boost structural integrity.

2.jpg


Considering the amount of hammering done, i think it turned out ok. Yet it has taken a bit of a beating on some bits:

3.jpg


This wont be seen unless you are purposely looking for it, but still.... i know its there so its going to bug the living crap out of me. Sometimes i hate being a perfectionist and a modder, its fantastic when it goes to plan, but if it doesnt i kinda go off the rails.

4.jpg


As you can see (and expect) its not smooth thanks to the amount of hammering required and im really not happy with it :(

Though, do not despair. There will be an even better update tonight or late tomorrow morning :)

Regards
 
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hey nick. James tells me you've put an order in for some new parts :D

I know you want to do this all by yourself, but surely it would be easier to give the plans to some professional and get them to do it? (yes i know it would cost, but you couldn't complain then except that you didn't do it all yourself?)
 
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to build a pc completely from scratch is a very tough thing to do

iv had some experience bending metal and cutting it for various projects and its not what id class as the nicest of materials to work with at home... not too bad with professional equipment but with a dremel and a hammer you will always struggle to get a good finish if building from scratch

iv seen plenty of nice cases destroyed by a dremel and a hammer as even just cutting fan holes is far from easy and can go disastrously wrong

bending metal is a definitely something to avoid without the correct tools... a hammer is definitely the wrong tool

good luck with your project but personally cant justify the cost or the time that would be required to get even a mediocre looking case

could get a silverstone case for the kind of cash this will probably cost which would also accommodate a better motherboard

if i was tempted to build a case id definitely get a removable motherboard tray as cutting around the holes for pci cards and lining everything up would turn into a very time consuming disaster

also doubt id work with metal... possibly 6 square metal sheets and knock together a mountain mod ufo clone.. although if i wanted one of them id probably just buy it
 
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