Help a noob plan their first HTPC!

i would have never recommended the AMD A6-3650 APU with the APEX MI-008 case...

all 100W TDP AMD APU's have cpu heatsinks higher then 40mm
which is the max cooler size the apex case accepts....

you should have read post #2 more carefully....
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid...pid1054275

Thanks Eskro . I wish I hadn't bought it now either but, we're doing alright now. Once I got those rubber feet on the fan milled off, things are good again.

I'm waiting for my SSD to arrive which should be tomorrow or Wednesday. Once that's going, I'll install Win7 and XBMC and start working on the software side of things.

Thanks for posting that picture of the fan in my case. I was wondering where that was going to go... Is that picture from a specific post or guide that you could provide me with? It'd be interesting to read any other stories of people building HTPC's with that case.

Thanks guys!

picture is from bluray's htpc

@magpie-

Let us know how it turn out after you installed everything! I know that APEX MI-008 is not a perfect case, but it fit most users budget and needs. I did have to trim off the plate in the rear too. But after it is set and done with some modifications, the case works great since day one....for about a year now, I never have any issue with the case!

Thanks bluray. I'll be sure to post pics once everything is all set up and good to go. Very excited!

"I did have to trim off the plate in the rear too"

Is this different than the heatsink fan's rubber legs? What plate are you referring to?

(2012-04-03 20:28)magpieswarble Wrote:  Thanks bluray. I'll be sure to post pics once everything is all set up and good to go. Very excited!

"I did have to trim off the plate in the rear too"

Is this different than the heatsink fan's rubber legs? What plate are you referring to?

It have been a while...I did several modifications to it to make everything fits the way I wanted. All the modifications didn't alter the overall function and the exterior structure of the case at all. If I remember correctly, I couldn't fit the HDMI in the rear HDMI port properly. I trimmed of the rear plate slightly to center HDMI port. I did have to trim off case fan housing slightly to fit on the side too. I did something to fit the discrete GPU too. I didn't bring it up anywhere in this forum, because I thought that it is part of the DIY process......

To me- as long as the modification don't hinder the overall functionalities of the case, you should be good to go......

If you want thing your way, you have to improvise and it is why I built most of my cables........

Here is one example of my work-

Hmm.. case modification is a little intimidating and I suppose I should have been more up front about that. I could see having to cut away the rear plate to expose the HDMI cable.. I should test that before I get too far head of myself actually. (EDIT: Just tested it, it plugs in perfectly. Phew.)

Bluray, where did you mount the SATA drive in your case?

if your talking about an SSD drive,
you can stick it anywhere u see fit
using double sided tape.

Err, Yeah. SSD Drive. Anywhere I see fit eh? I suppose you don't have to really safely secure this thing like a traditional hard drive since it's flash based. That makes sense.

#noob

Okay, so I'm trying to boot off of my USB external which has Windows 7 image mounted to it. Couple weird things I've noticed so far:

1. Heatsink fan is really loud. Did you notice that with your build, blu-ray? Should I buy a new CPU fan that isn't so loud? Suggestions?

2. Cool, you can use a mouse during the BIOS. I've never seen that before. Hold on.. my mouse's directions are all inverted and weird. Up is left, down is right, left is up, and right is down... what the .. f? I tried all 6 USB ports in the back and the 2 and the front; same symptoms. Could I have plugged in the USB interface wrong into the motherboard which is causing everything to be weird and reversed..?

3. I plugged in my external hard drive which has a Windows 7 boot image on it, it's recognized in the BIOS as being a USB device. However, when I set it as the primary boot device, it tells me that it can't boot from it. I'm wondering if this is related to the USB issues with my mouse above. If my USB interface isn't plugged into the mobo correctly, it's not able to work correctly much like the mouse isn't working correctly now?

Any advice would be appreciated!