[Stompp]

Hello folks. I'm just about to start off my first attempt with a "real" HTPC and thought I'd share my WIP. I played around with XBMP and XBMC on the Xbox in the good old days but since the 360 landed it kinda fell into obliviousness until a few months ago when I got tired of all dust collecting components and cables below the TV

I began looking for parts back in December and I've gone thru more than a handful of possible setups before landing on one based on Intel's new Sandy Bridge CPU's. The main reason being running off the integrated GPU.

Most of the media will - for now - be served from a D-Link DNS-323 and hopefully I'll be able to integrate live TV as well. Tho it will most likely be a pain in the a$$, at least if I want HD (which I do ). My goal is to get rid of all separate boxes and run everything from the HTPC.

Components:
CASE: Karma TF8 with OLED display
PSU: Cooler Master Silent Pro M600
MOBO: ASUS P8H67-M EVO REV 3.0
CPU: Intel Core I5 2400S 2.50GHZ
FAN: Scythe BIG Shuriken <- changed to stock cooling due to this little issue.
RAM: Kingston 4GB 1333MHZ DDR3 CL9
HD: OCZ Vertex 2 2.5" 60GB
BR: LG CH10LS20 BR-R/DVD-RW

Pics will follow as I progress

[xecutionx]

Please be sure to update! That case is beautiful. Mind sharing the price?

[Riffmaker]

I really like the case too. Just glancing at their site I see they have a beautiful mini-itx case and an IR kit that can be installed internally on all their cases. I can't find any U.S. vendors for them tho =( I'd pay some good money for one of those cases plus an IR kit.

[t2ffn]

Bit of info on prices here:

http://www.avforums.com/forums/home-ente...cases.html

Its another forum but here are the ROUGH prices if the link gets removed:

I rang the guy on the aumro website Click here for contact details and the TF8 was €149, TF11 €169 plus €149 for shipping iirc, also the OLED was €79 & IR €39, don't take this for gospel as I didn't write it down, he seemed very helpful and shipping times didnt take that long. But for the same price or less inc shipping you can get the Origen AE s14v complete with VFD/IR/Remote which is a full aluminium case so I went for that.

[Stompp]

Please be sure to update! That case is beautiful. Mind sharing the price?

Will post updates as I progress

It was a bit of a hassle to get hold of the case. Finally I found a local distributor here in Sweden and the price landed on roughly €200 incl the OLED kit. I've tried to get hold of the UK distributor for buying the HD case but no reply so far.

[Stompp]

Finally the parts are here...well almost. Still waiting for the case Hopefully arriving tomorrow *keeping fingers X-ed* Anyway updates and pics later in the week

[Dumb ?]

Here's the contact info and website info below. I'm looking at the TN model coming soon:

********************************
Jackie Chen/ Sales Manager
Aumro (Xiamen) Electronics Co., Limited
Dir. Tel: +86-595-28861880
MSN:[email protected]
Skype: cannonchen007
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://www.aumro.com
************************************

[Stompp]

Here's the contact info and website info below. I'm looking at the TN model coming soon

Woo, looks neat. I'd get one too if I'd have a place to put one somewhere

Update: still waiting for the case

[Dumb ?]

I just found out that they won't be making that TN model
I'll wait til you get your case since it seems like it's taking a while for you.

Which OS will you use? I'm interested in seeing how you get the OLED display to work.

[Stompp]

Which OS will you use? I'm interested in seeing how you get the OLED display to work.

Gonna use some flavor of win 7. What can I say - I'm a Windows guy

I'm kinda curious about the OLED as well. I hope I don't end up writing my own drivers. It's been a looooong while since last

EDIT: S'pose I won't have to go that far but a wrapper maybe. Shouldn't be too hard - I hope...

[Dumb ?]

Did you ever get your PC case in? Let me know what your feedback is. Thanks

[Stompp]

Still waiting, but I got a reply from the distributor today. It's basically a one man company and the guy got struck by flu before he got a chance to drop it off at the mail office. I should have it by the end of the week...I hope

[Subliminal Aura]

Thanks Stompp

* Subscribed *

I've been looking at that OLED kit - it's relatively good value - Looking forward to seeing your results.

BTW Don't want to put a dampener on your build but have you seen this ?

http://www.aumro.com/TN.html

At 280mm diameter, it is a little too big for me but note the OLED kit placement

[Stompp]

I've been looking at that OLED kit - it's relatively good value - Looking forward to seeing your results.

Me too

BTW Don't want to put a dampener on your build but have you seen this ?

http://www.aumro.com/TN.html

At 280mm diameter, it is a little too big for me but note the OLED kit placement

Nah, looks cool but mine is going in the cabinet with the amp so rectangular is a go for me

[Stompp]

The case finally arrived a week ago and the game is on!

1'st of all sry for the late update but my week's been over hectic.

The case arrived neatly wrapped in cotton with the usual gadgets plus some extra goodies: note the complimentary long screw driver and the cotton gloves. My first overall impression of the case was robust and good quality. I still think it'll look awesome when finished but (always a but) it has it's flaws.

Unwrapping the case and checking it out I stumble upon two things that bothered me: the front panel door was loose. The pins holding it in place didn't do the job. Should have been an easy job to fix but we'll get to that later. And the door hiding the BR-tray squeeks when it swings open. Nothing some sanding and silicone spray won't fix tho.

First thing to fix was the front panel door. The pins holding it in place are placed below the IR and power on PCB's (ok, the IR PCB wasn't there from the start, I put it there). Removing the PCB's I realised the pins where placed with a mindset that they're not supposed to be removed - ever. The right one has one of the bottom pegs sticking up in a way that you can't even fit a normal sized bit to unscrew it and as for the left one the side panel fans also had to go. Anyway, the result was ok. I put some more tension on the springs and voilá, the door is no longer dangling around.


Case and goodie box


Goodies


The interior (the deformations in some of the pics are due to a wide angle lens)


Drive trays removed and OLED + IR PCB's installed