The Hyperbox (Steam box/HTPC)

[kwlkid85]

1/5/13

I've been planning on making a media/gaming pc to put under my TV for a while now and while cleaning out my garage I found an old sky+ box from 2004 (When I watched TV) and decided to mod it into my media/gaming PC to make the project a little more interesting. I'll apologise now for the terrible camera phone photos for the first few pics but my camera was broken.

Planned specs (Could change):
Silverstone ST45SF Be Quiet SFX 300W
MSI FM2-A75IA-E53
AMD A10-5700
Noctua NH-L9a
2x 1Tb 2.5" HDD (Raid 1)

Kingston anniversary series 8GB 1866mhz DDR3

The sky+ box


All components removed and I have soldered a power button (2pin) cable to the existing power switch.


Paper templates of an ITX motherboard and a SFX power supply


Holes in front that I'm going to fill and then paint over, i'm thinking of painting it matte white and putting an acrylic logo on the front.

2/5/13



Added more io (2 more usb and audio), I used a drill and file to widen the card slot to allow the ports to fit through.




Wired in and tested a power and activity light leds. It looks really cool in real life, it turns from blue to purple when the activity light flashes.


My quick test setup.


Filled holes with 2 part white epoxy, may have used too much but i'll sand it back once it's dry.


Pretty much finished sanding it now.

Matte white spray paint has been ordered and is in the post however it might be a few days, also do you think I should spray the inside black, white or just leave it grey?

6/5/13

No pics today as nothing has changed significantly. Motherboard arrived so I used it as a template to find where I had to drill the mounting holes. I've also decided to paint the inside black to contrast with some white bits i'm buying.

10/05/13

Been painting, will post pics when I'm done.

11/05/13

 

I was given a second hand camera so thanks guy who wished to remain anonymous.


Finished painting all the black bits but ran out of white paint so have to wait for some more.


2x 1tb 2.5" Samsung Momentus (Will be in raid 1), bracket was gloss black so I have painted it to match.


Bolted to case. Idk why it was so dusty in this picture, I probably should have cleaned it.

 

Motherboard + ram.

 

The finish on this power supply is the nicest finish I've ever seen but I wish the sleeving got a bit closer to the end of the 24pin.

 

Noctua's beautiful packaging.

 

14/05/13

 

17/05/13

 

09/11/13

You may have noticed I never quite finished this build, unfortunately I had to sell the parts off because I needed money. I still have my modded case and I plan on rebuilding this PC one day. Perhaps installing the newly announced steam OS on it.

[DeadSurvivor]

WOW, nice work! WOW is the only thing that is coming out of my mouth right now other than great job! WOW

[TicTac]

Can not wait to see how this turns out nice work so far!

[Markus1712]

Nice Idea!

It will surely look awesome!

[bradscoolio]

Ermagerd, this is such an awesome idea for a foxtel box I can't believe I haven't thought of this.

Kudos!

[wolfman]

Looks really cool! :)

[Williamchan87]

nice use of casing available in your house

[XiaoPigs]

This really smart actually. I would have never thought of building a PC using a set top box as my case.

 

Looking forward to the completed the build :)

[ERSCreeper]

Epic, I should get my mom or the TV room one :D

[TicTac]

Its turning out well smart idea can not wait to see more

[simonyunhe]

Really nice CPU cooler, great performance!!

[extremescouter]

Looks great so far, and I cant wait to see more. Its a great idea to use that as a case, and its something I might try to implement now!

[911^NEmeSis]

Any update to this mate? Looking really nice.

[kwlkid85]

Any update to this mate? Looking really nice.

I'm on a month long holiday at the moment but I will finish this when I get back.