2016-04-30, 19:33
Part 3
Preparing connections
Here is then the battle plan on how to wire it all up once inside. First we need to get mains power from somewhere. To do that we need to open up the ATX PSU and add a wire for that. Then we also need to get the audio from the sound card to the amplifier and lastly we need to bring the outputs of the amplifier to the back panel where you can connect speakers to it.
Lets start by modding the PSU to get what we need out of it. While we are at it we can take care of the ugly front panel display adapter cable from before. I simply cut off the adapter and soldered the wires directly in to the power supply. Once that was done i also soldered another cable on to the mains input connector and fed it trough a hole i drilled in the back of the power supply. Cable is fed trough a cable gland to hold it and keep it from getting cut on the sharp metal
Now that we have a power cable ready for the amplifier we still need to get some audio signals to it. First of all the PCI mounting bracket has to be swapped out for a low profile one, luckily the sound card comes with one of those. The card also has some connectors on the top for getting audio out of it, but those are only for stereo or SPDIF so are useless for what we want to do. Because of that i had to solder a cable on to the rear panel connectors to get all 6 channels i need for 5.1. The connectors on the ends of those cables can then plug in to my amplifier module.
Lastly we need to get the amplified audio out of the case so we can connect speakers to it. To do this i cut down a PCI bracket from a old network card in order to make it a low profile bracket and made a hole in it for the connector. A DB-15 connector (Used to be used for the game port in the old days) was then put on some cables and installed. A cable with a matching connector is then used to connect the HTPC to the junction box in the wall that brings in all the speaker cables.
Preparing connections
Here is then the battle plan on how to wire it all up once inside. First we need to get mains power from somewhere. To do that we need to open up the ATX PSU and add a wire for that. Then we also need to get the audio from the sound card to the amplifier and lastly we need to bring the outputs of the amplifier to the back panel where you can connect speakers to it.
Lets start by modding the PSU to get what we need out of it. While we are at it we can take care of the ugly front panel display adapter cable from before. I simply cut off the adapter and soldered the wires directly in to the power supply. Once that was done i also soldered another cable on to the mains input connector and fed it trough a hole i drilled in the back of the power supply. Cable is fed trough a cable gland to hold it and keep it from getting cut on the sharp metal
Now that we have a power cable ready for the amplifier we still need to get some audio signals to it. First of all the PCI mounting bracket has to be swapped out for a low profile one, luckily the sound card comes with one of those. The card also has some connectors on the top for getting audio out of it, but those are only for stereo or SPDIF so are useless for what we want to do. Because of that i had to solder a cable on to the rear panel connectors to get all 6 channels i need for 5.1. The connectors on the ends of those cables can then plug in to my amplifier module.
Lastly we need to get the amplified audio out of the case so we can connect speakers to it. To do this i cut down a PCI bracket from a old network card in order to make it a low profile bracket and made a hole in it for the connector. A DB-15 connector (Used to be used for the game port in the old days) was then put on some cables and installed. A cable with a matching connector is then used to connect the HTPC to the junction box in the wall that brings in all the speaker cables.
