dunkyboy
Established Member
My friend and I were setting up an HTPC to drive my new home cinema the other day when we hit upon a rather unique idea for keeping it quiet and mostly out of sight: take it apart and stick it in/on top of the wardrobe!
This works because my projector is suspended on a platform just above the wardrobe, so the HTPC motherboard rests on top of the wardrobe, with power and data cables going into the wardrobe through a hole cut into the back. Inside are the hard drive, PSU, and DVD drive!
If my explanation doesn't make much sense, check out the pics at http://halogensunlight.co.uk/~duncan/pics/htpc and see what you think.
BTW, the computer was originally a Dell Dimension XPS-T600 which had a funky way of cooling the CPU - a plastic duct over the CPU/heatsink was connected to a 92mm case fan. I've retained the duct and case fan for cooling, only the direction of flow has been reversed - it now blows air over the CPU/heatsink, which I would imagine makes more sense in a free-air situation.
And this baby runs quiet! The fan cooling the CPU is a QuietPC 92mm which is nearly silent, and the noisiest bits (the surprisingly quiet PSU, and the rather whiny IBM Deskstar 34GB hard drive) are in the wardrobe!
By far the noisiest element is the projector... it's a Hitachi XGA business projector which looks great but makes a fair racket - something like 37dB. Maybe I'll figure out some sort of hush box for it in the future, but for now I'm happy to just put up with it (it is tucked away rather nicely and the noise isn't really too annoying during films).
What do you think of the setup?
Dunc
This works because my projector is suspended on a platform just above the wardrobe, so the HTPC motherboard rests on top of the wardrobe, with power and data cables going into the wardrobe through a hole cut into the back. Inside are the hard drive, PSU, and DVD drive!
If my explanation doesn't make much sense, check out the pics at http://halogensunlight.co.uk/~duncan/pics/htpc and see what you think.
BTW, the computer was originally a Dell Dimension XPS-T600 which had a funky way of cooling the CPU - a plastic duct over the CPU/heatsink was connected to a 92mm case fan. I've retained the duct and case fan for cooling, only the direction of flow has been reversed - it now blows air over the CPU/heatsink, which I would imagine makes more sense in a free-air situation.
And this baby runs quiet! The fan cooling the CPU is a QuietPC 92mm which is nearly silent, and the noisiest bits (the surprisingly quiet PSU, and the rather whiny IBM Deskstar 34GB hard drive) are in the wardrobe!
By far the noisiest element is the projector... it's a Hitachi XGA business projector which looks great but makes a fair racket - something like 37dB. Maybe I'll figure out some sort of hush box for it in the future, but for now I'm happy to just put up with it (it is tucked away rather nicely and the noise isn't really too annoying during films).
What do you think of the setup?
Dunc