[Sleeper Build] HP Media Center PC

[Aniallation]

Been quite a while since I've been active on here, but thought I'd post a little something from recently. 

 

Came across someone local giving away an empty case from a circa-2007 HP Pavilion Media Center PC that I just had to pick up, because although they were a fairly common sight for sale a decade ago, nowadays they're quite rare so it may be my last chance before they finally have all disappeared. It's one that's meaningful to me as it was my first "proper" computer from when I first got into PCs, and started spending most of my free time after school days on this forum, helping others and learning more myself along the way. Probably half of my 20k of posts were on that HP, and I have fond memories of upgrading it over that time, until I eventually did a complete new build.

 

I had always wanted to build a "sleeper PC" since back then as well, so this was a perfect opportunity to both do that, and relive the good old days of working in this case. I wanted a practical use case to keep this PC around so it will be used for a sim racing rig in the basement. With how I also didn't want to pour a ton of money into it, it would definitely end up being just a "mild" build using budget and used parts, but still decent enough to keep up today. 

 

Components:

 

CPU: AMD Ryzen 2600X - laying around 

 

Cooler: Random no-name cooler from AliExpress that was on a good sale, turns out to be really good! - $25 CAD

 

Motherboard: "Jingsha" literally also random no-name AliExpress AM4 board, works just fine though - $60 CAD

 

RAM: Silicon Power 16GB DDR4-3200 - $40 CAD

 

SSD: Timetec 512GB NVMe - $40 CAD

 

GPU: EVGA GeForce GTX 1080Ti SC2 - $100 CAD (used)

 

PSU: Seasonic S12II 500W - A particularly special one, this was the power supply I bought to upgrade that very HP back in the day and support a decent GPU. Those who were there back then and still are today will remember my main "thing" was encouraging the use of at least decent PSUs, and honestly how the effects still resonate on here to this day. In practicing what I preach, it was the first component I actually shelled out on despite not having much money, and it's personally really cool to see it come full circle. 

 

End Total: $265 CAD spent on the rig, which I think for the components and performance, even ignoring the nostalgia and emotional fulfillment reasons for building it, is still a pretty good value.

 

Pics from the build:

 

 

The main parts assembled into the bare chassis. Thankfully the GPU is short enough that I didn't run into issues with that vertical metal bar. There's a good amount of space without the big bracket that houses both the 3.5" hard drive as well as the slot for the "personal media drive", an external hard drive line that HP sold back then which could dock in to the case through a slot in the front, accessed by opening the door to the left of the HP logo. 

 

 

The front and top panels being piano black were a bit scratched up, so I did what I could on them with some plastic polish and a power buffer.

 

 

The top panel also contained a slide-open tray for storing discs with a pass-through for cables to the back. I remember having a 30-pin for my iPod ran through it! The case was surprisingly clean, but with it being old enough to buy alcohol here in Canada, there was still a bit of filth that I decided to fully disassemble it to get in all the nooks and crannies, and lubricate the sliding mechanism. 

 

 

The polish did a pretty good job on it, and door slides super smooth now. Still a few scuffs and scratches here and there, but definitely a lot better than when I got it. 

 

 

Although the hard drive cage isn't really needed as I'm using only the M.2 drive, I wanted to keep as much functionality of this case as possible, so I did install it as well as connect the docking port up (just has a standard SATA and a molex power connector). There's just enough room for it with everything else in there, and now it can indeed accept and work with an HP Personal Media Drive if I happen to find one in the future!

 

 

I was not sure if this pretty big tower cooler would fit and clear the side panel, but thankfully it does. Just barely!

 

 

I was totally prepared to have to modify the front panel connectors being a prebuilt case, either swapping the physical switch and LED to regular ones or splicing in standard 2-pin connectors. However as it turns out, the header on the board is the exact same as the plug on the case, even the correct pinout. Plugs right in and works perfect. Maybe fate really did have this board and case destined to come together on this day. 

 

 

Test boot before putting the panels on and closing it up. All seems to be working well.

 

 

 

Everything together and running! I was pondering for a bit over removing or leaving the old school stickers that came on the case, but decided to leave them for both the aesthetic and not having to deal with the hassle of getting all the inevitable residue off if I were to remove them. 

 

 

Temperatures turned out not nearly as bad as I thought they would be, given the cramped quarters and pretty poor airflow in this case. Loaded down with both CineBench and FurMark at the same time, the CPU steadied at 57c stock clocks/settings, and the GPU steadied at 74c but that's with a +200MHz overclock. The CPU cooler was a pretty big surprise especially for the price, feels really well made, very dense and HEAVY so I guess no surprise it performs this well. I put a Thermalright fan on it just as I wasn't a fan of the white-and-clear one it came with. 

 

There's just two things on it left to address as they remain non-functional which are on the front panel IO, the composite AV input ports and the FireWire port. The former I already have a good idea of how to accomplish though, I will just splice in standard male RCA connectors to the header cable, and connect them to a USB capture card to be kept inside the case and connected to an internal header. The latter though, I would need a PCIe x1 FireWire card with an internal header, which seems quite hard to find, as many do exist but only offer rear panel ports. I'm thinking worst case though I can just get one of those cards, desolder the rear ports, and just solder the header wires straight to those pins on the card. I don't see why both of those wouldn't work, but it's not like I actually have any composite video or FireWire devices to test my work with xD

 

Anyways, that's probably it for now. I will come back to those extra bits later, but for now I have to actually assemble the sim rig it's meant for! Thanks for reading!

 

[forss]

That is actually sick! And for the price it took to make it I'd say thats a win, even if its just for shows, which would be kind of an oxymoron with the whole sleeper build thing