Media Center Pc On Xbox360 Case! (power Supply Inside!) Options

[nachomans]

Well, I was looking for a great media center, but thats not so easy to find, so I decide to build a custom media center into an xbox360 case.

Can handle 720p and 1080p videos nicely, and I installed xbmc for best experience.


Hardware Used:

-Motherboard: Albatron KI-690

-Processor: Athlon64 x2 4600+

-Memory 2GB Sodimm dual channel DDR2 800

- slim DVDRW LG 11N

-HD 2.5 sata samsung 250GB

-1 xbox360 case

-2 USB ports

-1 400W power supply

-switch buttons

-Coolers, many

-Cables

-Windows Vista Ultimate 32bits

Let´s start:

Testing components placement. Power supply inside, MS can only dream about this

Front USB ports

Power supply plug (before usb and lan ports were here)

Half work finished, the media center can be used horizontally or vertically

Look all the connections that this bmotherboard provides, from firewire, to hdmi, to optical and coaxial.

Finishing connections, place hard disk, looks good.

Now, with the dvdrw drive.

Front view, the dvd drive open making little presure on the dvd cover. The power button works the same way like in 360, and the synch button, now is a reset button

All ready to test

To do:

-Add some nice connector in old video connector place

-Add a card reader in one of the memory card ports

-Later, change the dvd rw for a blu-ray

-Change the processor, still there is no need to do it


Time to complete the project: One afternoon

Thanks to: a mis padres, que según mis cálculos, un día de invierno, estaban muy aburridos y pensaron que no habría consecuencias....y acá estamos [carcajad]. Para la próxima, una estufa.

Y a vos, que me aguantás, aguantabas, aguantarás, mil cagadas


I hope you enjoy





More pictures


Front:

http://img81.imageshack.us/my.php?image=frentezb6.jpg


DVD DRIVE:

http://img81.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bandeja1oq0.jpg

http://img81.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bandeja2sd7.jpg


Air intake:

http://img81.imageshack.us/my.php?image=respiracioniw1.jpg

[Bandit5317]

Very clean looking mod, well done. That 400 watt PSU is insanely small, do you know what make and model it is?

[nachomans]

Thanks.

The power supply comes with a codegen ms-31 case. There is no need to use 400w psu for this, but its small and looks good.

I think that with a 250w psu, we can take more free space

[danked]

Only thing your missing is a TV tuner, but nice build

[nachomans]

hi, there is no hdTV signal in my country at this moment, so ill wait to add one

[Guily6669]

Very nice!

There is some videos on youtube from people who made the same thing

I thought u were even making a gaming pc lol 2GB ddr2 800... does a media center need all that?

Anyway ur wrong about finding good media center's, there are lots of pc cases for making media center pc's, and they look like a dvd player or something.

some examples:
...

ps: But yeah 360 does a really good hell of a job
Keep Cool

This post has been edited by Guily6669: Jan 20 2009, 07:32 PM

[nachomans]

Well. this is the first pc xbox360 with power supply inside, the other ones, have big psu outside the case, and poor hdtv connections, or non optical, coaxial output.

They were more pc oriented, this is media center oriented Every single port needed, is there

Anyway, the media center cases, are good, but A LOT BIGGER, really a lot


I have 2 videos:


General system test, emulators, hd movies...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMouGDrilw0


DVD drive...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeVYByAisPs

[d_johnsen]

do you have any plans for the ring of light? would look cool segment1 dvd-activity,segment2 hdd-activity,segment 3 lan link, segment 4 lan activity

from that pic of all the connections on the board, it appears that the ethernet link and activity leds are on the port itself, that would require you to solder onto the motherboard to get the
connections to hook up to the segments on the ROL, alot easier on mobo as the solder pads are usually alot bigger, nothing like D0 on the classic xbox lol

This post has been edited by d_johnsen: Jan 21 2009, 06:50 AM

[nachomans]

welll, I was thinking about the ring, hdd led sometimes is a need, LAN activity is a nice too, but Im not sure, too much ring led blinking, could hurt the media center experience, maybe I´ll dimm a little the led, to make it a little less brighter.

[Chancer]

Now added to the Pinned topics Here
Nice contribution
Thank You

[ToBbErT]

Can i order 1?

[nachomans]

I hope manufacturers pay atention to consumers demand, and start making nice cases, smaller, and media center oriented. I don´t want a small but 15 lbs case

This post has been edited by nachomans: Jan 21 2009, 08:49 PM

[MickRaider]

I hope manufacturers pay atention to consumers demand, and start making nice cases, smaller, and media center oriented. I don´t want a small but 15 lbs case

I think the issue is most media center users wants multiple hard drives 2+, and then when you add in a DVD drive, the power supply, the size of the motherboard plus a low profile video card, you start adding a lot of space really quick. So while some want it to be small and low profile, others want it to be robust enough to handle anything they throw at it.

[vinnie_mack]

nice! love this mod.. i have a dead 360 and just might try this... do you have a number figure for this mod? how much did it cost to build?

+bookmark!

[nachomans]

The hardware, here, is not so cheap, but the prices are aproximately this:

-x2 4600 = u$65 (now you can buy a 5000+ or better for this price)

-Motherboard Ki-690 = u$179

(thats unreasonably expensive, you can buy similar motherboards for u$50, like this one http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16813500010, but they arent available in my country, and I really want a video component output )

2gb sodimm ddr800 = dont know, but they are really cheaper

HD 250gb samsung 2.5´´ = u$60

DVDRW slim = u$45

Power supply 400w = got from a case, but cant cost more than u$10

Coolers, cables = nothing (anyway, there is no more than u$15)


If you buy another mini-itx motherboard, you can build a similar configuration for u$ 250

This post has been edited by nachomans: Jan 22 2009, 04:18 PM