I'm building a wooden HTPC case - what do I put in it?!

[shoelessone]

Hello from Thailand everybody! I've been traveling for the past 2 months in Thailand, and have three more months to go in Cambodia,Laos, and Vietnam, and Bali. Anyway, point is I'm a nerd, and my travel partner and girlfriend happens to be a anti-nerd, so while I spend most of my days and nights walking/swimming/riding a scooter in some of the more amazing places the world has to offer, I can't stop the "nerdy" part of my brain from spinning and it has little release, save for my imagination.

 

With that in mind, I've decided to build a HTPC case when I get home, and have been designing it in my head for the past few weeks (it's going to be beautiful, thin and sexy, made out of tongue and grove maple, which I'll be making myself of course!) but have just recently decided to put a "hackintosh" in the case. I'm no stranger to the hardware/software world, but am fairly green when it comes to the OSX86 project. My last (and only) attempt to install OSX on a "PC" was a few years ago when I installed 10.4 on a Dell 600M notebook. It installed fine, after patching wireless worked, but runing most programs caused things to break. I believe it was a chipset issue, something missing (quatrz rings a bell?). Things have much improved since then it seems (right?) and one can build a totally (or nearly totally!) perfectly running system now (right?).

 

Anyway, I'm rambling, sorry.

 

I'm looking for hardware recomendations for a budget hackingtosh computer that I hope to be as small and quite as possible. I'm no video/audiophile and so as long as it has some way of idealy outputting 720p and 5.1 audio, I'll be happy. My biggest "want" is something that is quite, NOT VERY HOT, and will live well inside of a wooden box without a million fans running.

 

I've read through the Micro ATX thread on this page, and while I hate to sell myself short, much of the info is "over my head" as I'm not AT ALL familiar with current offerings. In fact, I'm about a year or two behind as far as hardware goes, so when people compare two mainboards I don't really get the picture.

 

I'd LOVE it if somebody could recomed the "barebones" of a quite, cool, and cheap (sub $500 preferably), and small HTPC. I can figure out memory/CPU (though integrated Atom seems like it might be a good choice?)/HDD/etc, but the mobo, powersupply, etc are total mysteries to me. Keep in mind stability is important to me, and whatever I build needs to be able to run XBMC (in OSX of course!)!

 

 

Thanks in advanced for any help you can offer me, and sorry if I've somehow missed a similar thraed! I've looked through the first two pages of posts...

 

<3

[hackintom]

Buy a mac mini

[shoelessone]

haha, I thought about it, but it still leaves the issue of 1) me wanting to build a beautiful wooden case (which is 90% of the fun for me, and something about just building a box to put the Mini in isn't the same ) and 2) The cost of a new Mini is still above my budget. As I mentioned, I'd like to spend less then 400 for all components, but even better would be the 200-300 range.

 

I'll keep your recommendation in mind though

[ninetto]

haha, I thought about it, but it still leaves the issue of 1) me wanting to build a beautiful wooden case (which is 90% of the fun for me, and something about just building a box to put the Mini in isn't the same ) and 2) The cost of a new Mini is still above my budget. As I mentioned, I'd like to spend less then 400 for all components, but even better would be the 200-300 range.

 

I'll keep your recommendation in mind though

 

Here check THIS ONE out:

 

 

It is a German page, but quite straight forward, regarding hardware and the software that the builder has tested with his system, a micro-atx.

 

QUITE inexpensive to boot!

 

good luck

ninetto

[Zaap]

Interesting project. As for a micro ATX mobo, I'd recommend the DG31PR. There's not much need for confusion with this board, it just works very well with OSX.

 

I've seen a lot of really nice wooden PC cases, but there's a lot of stuff you should take into consideration.

 

If you can, suspend your components that make noise, rather than directly mounting them to the wood. Wood is more resonant than metal- things vibrating against it tend to get amplified like a hollow body guitar. A HTPC needs to be silent- a noisy one will drive you nuts. Wood dampens sound beautifully, unless it's resonant sound which it amplifies.

 

It may seem silly, but standard dollar store bungie cords make excellent hard drive suspension-mounts. I use them even in normal PC cases. Some people even use thick rubber bands, but I don't like them as they will eventually rot and break.

 

Keep thick foam pads between your PSU and the wood. Mount your case fans to blocks of foam, not directly to the case.

 

This guy's build project may give you some great ideas.

[shoelessone]

Wow, thanks for the great replies guys!

 

Zaap, thanks for the food for thought, ninetto you as well!

 

The DG31PR will go on the top of my short list - one question, is there a similarly loved board (OSX compatibility wise) with a similar onboard feature set (5.1 sound, etc) that might be pared with an Atom CPU? It just seems like an Atom might be a good option for me, I erally don't need much power, and from the (very) little I've heard the Atoms are much cooler and of course require less power, smaller PSU = less heat, and so on and so forth.

 

In the "Build a Perfect Mac for less" thread, the OP recommends the D945GCLF board from intel, but it has an older GPU and would most likely require a PCI sound card...

 

Thoughts on the Atom route?

 

Thanks again all!!!