Project: Interface

[Peter Vaughan Truslow]

The Story:

I think the best place to start is with a bit of backstory. my parents are remodeling the kitchen, and we were talking about recessing a TV into the wall. jokingly, I said "why don't you just put a touchscreen PC there?"

My father thought I was serious, but I realized that it really wasn't that far off, so here we are.

 

The Goal:

The Goal of this build is to create a computer where you see the interface, a 27 Inch acer 1080p touch monitor. absolutely nothing else of the computer should be visible, or even known to exist. it should serve as an entertainment hub for the kitchen, providing easy internet access, streaming, live TV, and windows 8 Apps. the final goal of the system is to achieve everything while having a computer that is completely silent and idles at <30 watts

 

The Design:

To accomplish our goal of making the computer invisible, it will be hidden in the wall of the adjacent office. air will be drawn into the wall cavity on the office side, down through the wall cavity past the computer and my networking components, and forced out around the fridge, cooling the fridge and also making that operate more efficiently. the system will be covered with a plexiglass or Lexan door, and on top of that will hang a picture, so that only we will know what lies behind it.

Front and center of our build will be our monitor, we chose the acer T27HL-BMIDZ, which can be found online for around $600. It is a pricy monitor, but it is sleek, has USB 3.0, and provides great color and viewing angles with an IPS panel, and of course, edge to edge glass with 10 point multi-touch. 

To power the machine, we chose to go with a Corsair CX430 V2. it's quiet, Reliable, and has 80 Plus Bronze Efficiency to keep it within a small idle power envelope. it can be had for around $40 or occasionally as low as $20 with rebates

for the motherboard, I decided to go with a Haswell board that would be reliable, easy to work with, low power, and high value. the closest fit to this i have found is the ASUS H87m-e. it has all the interfaces I need, supports Haswell chips and systems have been reported to idle at around 25 watts with this board. coming in at about $99

our choice of CPU is still a bit undecided, but it will be a Haswell I3 or I5 with GT2(hd 4400 or 4600) graphics. needing little more video oomph than for youtube and angry birds, we decided that Intel integrated on Haswell would be enough, after testing out our monitor on a windows 8 laptop with the inferior HD4000 graphics(on which I am writing this Log)

for storage, we will use a 90GB OCZ Vertex 3, which is being transplanted from the main rig for upgrades. It's simple, It's fast enough, and has plenty of storage for programs in this system. additionally, the system will have a mechanical drive for network backups and possibly DVR functionality.

to cool the little beast, we will have 4 Cougar 120mm fans pulling air into the wall cavity, two dedicated to the system, two to the network(seperated by a beam in the wall cavity. for our CPU cooler, we plan on using a Noctua NH-L9i, which should be plenty for the processor we use, and keep the system quite quiet. $45

for memory, we plan on using a dual channel kit of two 4gb 1600mhz sticks for a total of 8gb of Memory, which should be plenty for a basic windows 8 system. we expect to spend around $75 for this

Sound will likely be taken care of with a pair of In Wall speakers powered by a Dayton audio Class T amp, but that is currently undecided.

 

 

This is where I plan to hide the components. once complete, the cavity will be drywalled a few inches above the bottom of the picture, and will be a window above that that can be opened to access the computer and network.

 

Components  procured as of now:

Power Supply: Corsair cx430

Monitor: acer t27hl-bmidz

Ram: Corsair vengeance 2x4gb 1600mhz gold

SSD: OCZ Vertex 3 90gb

[Peter Vaughan Truslow]

Reserved

[TheRoss0411]

Welcome to the forum

Can't wait for updates

[Peter Vaughan Truslow]

If anyone can offer any suggestions, or has any questions, post in the comments. this is my third Build to date, and appears to be my most challenging build yet.

does anyone have any recommendations for connecting a custom switch and LED to the board? what voltage LED do I need for my power and activity Lights?

[Guest]

Hmm, you are smart and picking some of the right components for this build. However, is the Noctua CPU cooler really necessary? The system wont be gaming and the stock Intel cooler is good enough. Also I would pick up a few USB 3.0 extensions and try to make the female connector be flush with the surface. Have you thought of getting a TV card? Or is that not applicable to you?

[Peter Vaughan Truslow]

I am building this computer into a wall. i am gluing a motherboard tray to the inside of the wall and mounting everything to that. I wanted a cooler that would be very low profile and would also be quiet, something that the Intel cooler just doesn't do for me. with a 3.5 inch cavity, height is at a premium. I won't be needing any USB3.0 extensions, as the monitor has three USB 3.0 ports, so i just need a very long USB A to B cable. to handle the TV, I am thinking a Silicondust HD Homerun prime. that will remove the need for several cable boxes in the house, justifying the cost. of course, I will hide that in the wall as well.

[tristan1035]

I am building this computer into a wall. i am gluing a motherboard tray to the inside of the wall and mounting everything to that. I wanted a cooler that would be very low profile and would also be quiet, something that the Intel cooler just doesn't do for me. with a 3.5 inch cavity, height is at a premium. I won't be needing any USB3.0 extensions, as the monitor has three USB 3.0 ports, so i just need a very long USB A to B cable. to handle the TV, I am thinking a Silicondust HD Homerun prime. that will remove the need for several cable boxes in the house, justifying the cost. of course, I will hide that in the wall as well.

Noctua has some good low profile coolers.

[TheRoss0411]

Noctua has some good low profile coolers.

Noctua coolers are massive

[tristan1035]

Noctua coolers are massive

You obviously haven't looked on their website.

[TheRoss0411]

You obviously haven't looked on their website.

Oops, i didn't realize they did LP ones, i just know the normal ones are massive

[bob345]

Looks like a promising build. I'm looking forward to see how it ends up

[Peter Vaughan Truslow]

in fact, I just ordered the HD Homerum Prime. I've been watching it for a while, and the price dropped by $50, so I jumped on it. looking forward to see how well Comcast handles setting up CableCard devices. for anyone interested in them, it's down to $100 on amazon.

[stevv]

Nice project.
 
a couple of things.

• camera in wall for video calls =).
• If you had a LEAP motion to add on, that would be cool too.
• kitchen = grease.  Hope Monitor can be easily cleaned. (assuming your talking about TV in kitchen your remodeling)
• protect hardware from falling dust/particles in wall (a shroud on top o setup maybe)
• Alternative hardware: I guess you already got the components (but I'll just put it out there in case it might be helpful to anyone)
  • A nuc i3 or i5 or similar system.  Smaller, and would be easier in the case of troubleshooting (and mounting).  
  • For motherboard a Q87 chipset would allow the whole setup can be controlled and administered through just a network cable.

[Peter Vaughan Truslow]

a camera is not a bad idea, and would not be difficult to do, as I have USB right there. I think Leap motion would be cool, but unnecessary and probably not be used much. as for grease, it is at least 10 feet from the range, so the only grease to worry about is from hands. a bit of isopropyl and a microfiber cloth has worked so far. I don't have all the components. all i have currently is the monitor, PSU, SSD, and the "case" fans. I also have my Mobo tray, which i pulled from a 1998 mATX system

a nuc wouldn't really serve all the purposes I need, as it will also serve as always on networked (Homegroup) storage and using a 3.5" drive with a nuc would pose a bit of a difficulty.

also, q87 would give me features that i would never use for a $30 premium

 

does anyone have any suggestions for a way to mount the monitor? I want something that can extend from the wall with pan, tilt up, height adjust would be cool, but not necessary. the most important thing, is that the mount does not move too easily, so that it can be touched without turning while extended.

[Peter Vaughan Truslow]

Decided to go with corsair Memory and got that ordered. 8 gb of Corsir 1600 for $65 on newegg isn't a bad deal. it's gold, which I don't care about, but it lines up with the yellow on the motherboard, so that helps with aesthetics a bit, although i wont really care being in a wall.

[stevv]

Decided to go with corsair Memory and got that ordered. 8 gb of Corsir 1600 for $65 on newegg isn't a bad deal. it's gold, which I don't care about, but it lines up with the yellow on the motherboard, so that helps with aesthetics a bit, although i wont really care being in a wall.

 

Instead of picture frame... just the glass (clear or frosted with some pattern) + dark back = mirror.  Then flick switch to see computer components haha.

[Peter Vaughan Truslow]

Instead of picture frame... just the glass (clear or frosted with some pattern) + dark back = mirror.  Then flick switch to see computer components haha.

Sir. I think you may be up to something. I'll have to talk to the local glass man and see if he can get me some partially mirrored "one way" glass suitable to be used as a door.

I think the toughest part will be what to do in the kitchen, where the display will be. the great search for the perfect VESA mount is on!

[EpicGeekonFire]

Sounds good but I am pretty sure of problems along the way...

[Peter Vaughan Truslow]

Sounds good but I am pretty sure of problems along the way...

I absolutely hope so! the problems make it interesting. fun even.

" not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too."

I've got most of it figured out, except for how I'll mount a few different things such as the drives, which i would like to include a Blu Ray drive. within a 3.5 inch space of a wall of course. that and the display, the interface for which my project is named.

[Peter Vaughan Truslow]

I made quite a bit of progress on the computer, primarily mounting the monitor to the wall. I started by cutting away the plywood in the wall on the other side and replacing it with 1.25 inch plywood. then I cut a hole in the side of the wall cavity that the monitor was being mounted to and mounted it with the display against the wall, and the mount within the wall.

here is the finished result of the mount, as close to the wall as I've ever seen a dispaly mounted

I've also got in my wiring harness so I can power on the motherboard, and I have the motherboard coming in within a few days, so now I can start building the computer and integrating it into the system.

[Peter Vaughan Truslow]

over the weekend I made some more progress on the build. I am nearly done with the functional parts of the computer. it was a bit tricky.

to start it off we began painting the wall cavity black to make it easier to hide behind something without standing out. then we mounted the motherboard tray and motherboard to get a feel for where everything else would land. the tray was salvaged from a very old IBM machine, and cut down to be not much larger than the motherboard. it was then painted and screwed down to the wall.

next we took on the arduous task of mounting a power supply within the wall. we cut a bit of extruded right angle aluminum to fit. a slot was cut in the studs and the first bracket was slid into place. we notched the stud on the outer side with a chisel and screwed the second place of aluminum angle into place. then we screwed the power supply and hdd down to the aluminum angle, in the holes that we had drilled earlier.

it was a good challenge getting the holes to line up, but after a bit of forcing it, we got it all sorted out. next, for good measure, I ran a piece of wire from the aluminum to the motherboard tray, so that everything would be grounded. I'm not sure if this was necessary, but it didn't seem like a bad idea to me. 

then I made up a short ethernet cable to go to the router, plugged everything up that I could for now, and called it a night. up next is making a bracket for the other side of the HDD, mounting the SSD, which will probably involve velcro.

once I get my CPU in, which is expected around the 26th, the system will be up and running, awaiting installation of windows 8.1 Pro with WMC

I'm starting to get really happy about this build. what was once just a crazy idea is quickly becoming something tangible.