[Scooterr]

I have built and tested a new HTPC after getting some help on this forum and though I would share how it went.

Components
[u]ASUS E35M1-I DELUXE___________________£124.50
4GB Corsair XMS3 DDR3 1333MHz__________£31.90
Wesena Mini ITX7-2 Case________________£109.99
Wesena 120w PSU______________________£34.99
Wesena 12v 10a Power Supply Adaptor_____£29.99
Sony BC-5640H Slot Loading Blu-Ray Drive__£83.00
Philips RC260 Remote & IR Receiver________£29.99
40GB Intel 320 SSD_____________________£69.59
Arctic Cooling Arctic F8__________________£4.44
Total_________________________________£518.39[/u]

After checking the depth on some newly built shelving the Antec Microfusion 350 was slightly too deep so I went for a Wesena ITX7-2 case. The case is well built from 3 & 5mm aluminium and it looks quite nice in black. With the options required on this case (PSU, Power Brick & IR Receiver) it was £212, almost doubling the £109 basic price. The case is also limited to a slim slot loading drive which I like but they are more expensive than full sized. It was still cheaper than the similar looking & very nice Origen AE M10 which includes an LCD display but it missing the ITX7-2's front ports.

The build was generally quite easy. The only problem I faced was that the drive tray would not slide in from the side (pictured below) as it hits the power supply module using this Asus motherboard. I was able to flex the case without damaging it to drop it in from the top, not ideal but it worked.

When setting up Windows 7 I stopped unnecessary services from windows 7 using this guide, removed the login prompt at start-up and resume (in power options), turned off all notifications and put XBMC into the start-up folder. This works quite well so that I can control it solely with a remote just like my trusty old XBOX. From time to time Windows 7 gets in the way, I would have preferred to use Linux but the Blu-Ray player requires Windows. After trying quite a few different options (Alaska Mod, Transparency, Rapier, Aeon Nox) I am currently using the Slik skin by Jezz_X which navigates and works really well with a minimal look Screenshots.

The SSD helps it boot to XBMC in just under 30 seconds and the interface and video playback both work really well at 1920x1080. Without the case fan it was totally silent having a heat pipe on the motherboard, I tried unplugging the fan and playing some 1080P video but the CPU got up to 70°C & GPU 90°C so I plugged it back in. It is a shame the fan is required for cooling as totally silent would be great, the 80mm fan supplied with the case is noisy so I ordered a quite one to replace it.

The IR setup with a Harmony 650 required some playing around using the XBMC MCE Remote add in, also Showkey really helped to get it working. Another useful program is XBMC launcher which replaces the MCE remote windows key to launch XBMC and make it full screen. The Wesena supplied RC260 IR receiver isn’t great, you have to point the remote towards the sensor plus the Red and Blue buttons don’t seem to work and I haven’t got the power on by remote working yet either.

I connect it to an AV receiver using HDMI for both Video and 5.1 Audio and I am very happy with the new setup. A later addition may be to get a little keyboard with touchpad for web browsing as the motherboard has Bluetooth built in but I usually use a laptop for that anyway.

Thanks for all of the helpful info people have provided here on the XBMC forums and for the dev’s who provide such excellent software, I have been a very happy user since it was XBMP and couldn’t live without it.

All the bits


Motherboard installed


PSU & Drive Tray Problem


Everything in place



HTPC Setup

[outatouch0]

Love the SFF !!!

[Robotica]

Your temps are very hot while others ran this setup fanless. Maybe chechk again....

But this is one of the best possible builds! Only thing I would have done is using Lov Voltage (1,35) mem (cas7).

[eskro]

very nice HTPC in deed!

have a read at prongATO's build here --> http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=104468

he inserted a small 120mmx120mmx12mm in his
because temperatures were getting WAY too high!

[QLink]

nice HTPC! congrats !


is this a klipsch promedia speaker shown on last photo ?

[Scooterr]

@Robotica, thanks for the temperature tips, I see that HansP got different results using the Asus software. I tried installing Asus probe II but the install crashes on Win7 x64, even using compatibility mode, I will reboot and compare the HWMonitor results to the BIOS.

@eskro, that 120mm fan looks very nice, it may not work in this case as the drive tray is in the way and there are no holes in the top of the case. I will see how the new 80mm fan goes and if that is loud may have to drill some holes in the lid and try this type of setup.

@QLink, that is indeed a Klipsch Promedia 4.1 speaker still going strong. I replaced the speaker cables, bought a Klipsch C-20 center and power it with the AV Receiver for 5.1 and it sounds pretty good. Here are the front speakers, the other 2 are used for surround.

[voip-ninja]

Scooter, not sure if you are still monitoring, but I am very interested in this case. It is not clear to me what the maximum height of cpu/fan can be in the case and not intrude into the drive mounting bracket area. Do you have any idea of what this number is? I have a PSU/fan right now that is 40mm thick, I understand that this, as low profile as it is, might still be too large to accommodate this case.

[Scooterr]

Hi Voip Ninja,

I had a quick look at my PC and the distance from the top of the motherboard PCB to the underside of the Drive Cage is around 40mm as below (The perspective in the picture makes it look a bit different).



If you have a 3.5" HDD installed this may be even lower. See page 7 of the ITX7-2 user manual.

[voip-ninja]

Ack! I have an H67M-ITX ASRock motherboard and a 40mm cooler, so it looks like it would not fit, which stinks, because I was really leaning towards this case! Thanks though for posting the information. Looks like I would either have to purchase an even lower profile cooler that would fit, or I would have to go with a different Wesena case (they actually make a pretty sharp looking component sized low profile one, but it's about $159 without PSU and has noisy 60mm fans in it.

Thanks again for taking the time to respond.

[Balinus]

Nice build! I love this case. Sadly, a little bit too expensive for me.

Finally, is your new case fan more quiet?

[Scooterr]

Voip_ninja: The fan would fit up inside the drive bracket if you can go without the 3.5" drive, might be a little tight getting it in but you can flex the case without breaking it to drop the drive bay in from the top.

Balinus: The new fan is much better than the original, not totally silent but I never notice it during quiet bits in movies and we have a wooden floor with a big rug in the lounge room so the sound travels more than a room with carpet.

[voip-ninja]

Voip_ninja: The fan would fit up inside the drive bracket if you can go without the 3.5" drive, might be a little tight getting it in but you can flex the case without breaking it to drop the drive bay in from the top.

Balinus: The new fan is much better than the original, not totally silent but I never notice it during quiet bits in movies and we have a wooden floor with a big rug in the lounge room so the sound travels more than a room with carpet.

So you think that if I had a 2.5" SSD and I opted to put an optical drive in it would still fit if I had to cut/modify the 3.5" mounting bracket?

[voip-ninja]

Looking at the schematics for the case it looks like the 3.5" drive bay fins could probably be bent or dremeled out of the way to make more space for the cpu cooler.

Is the drive tray made out of metal or plastic?

[Scooterr]

Voip_ninja: Both the optical drive and 2.5" drive go on top of the drive tray so if you are not using a 3.5" HDD underneath your cooler should easily fit, the only problem is sliding the tray in from the side.

The drive tray is metal so you could remove part of the 3.5" underneath area to allow it to slide in from the side past your CPU cooler.

[publicENEMY]

very nice build. what remote did you use?