DIY music PC!!

TSheaZ28

Well-Known Member
First of all, I have to say thanks to Shadowlord for the inspiration to make this PC. This is my progress thus far. This chassis is a Pioneer PDM630, 6 disc changer that I bought from ebay. Motherboard is an Asus P5KPL with an intel 2 Ghz core duo and 2 gigs of ram. 1 TB WD caviar green, and running Windows XP. This is 2 weeks worth of work doing it little by little on break time at my place of employment. I would not have been able to do this if I did not work for a company that makes industrial computers! Here are some photos so far. Real tight fit. The orginal power button works and I'm debating on putting a slim drive cd/dvd drive in and making some of the other buttons work. I'm also going to be putting a Thermaltake medialab VFD in place of the old display, so I can have a remote to play iTunes from. I will be getting an external DAC to run this into my reciever also. Just thought I would share and tell everyone what audiokarma is making me do!!!!:music:

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thats impressive..curious to what your bosses and peers think. What DAC are you thinking on using ?... yup, pretty cool and good work..!
Hbar
 
The owner of the company thought it was pretty cool. He gave me the go ahead to use some of the equipment and metal. Thank god for the Pem Serter we have!!!:thmbsp: As of right now, my funds are very limited, so I'm thinking of getting the Fubar II for right now. It's inexpensive and I think it will be a good DAC to get my feet wet.
 
That is frikkin awesome!
Finally a use for BPC!
Maybe I will steal your idea and build one for myself!
 
Actually this was one of the easiest things I've done. Basically all I had to do was cut metal, put pems in, and hook everthing up! I encourage anyone and everyone to do it! It wasn't to expensive (so far!) either. Everything you see here cost me a little over $300. I'm going to put another $250 into it, including the DAC, and it should be good to go.
 
Somebody from Chat just showed me this thread.

This was a great idea and it came out great. Sweet !

:thmbsp:
 
Thanks for all the replies! Just wait until the fronts all done!:banana: Just a couple more months and it should be all ready to go!
 
Neat toy. Keep us appraised of what else you are doing to that lil box.

Either way, its a great party joke on someone "hey there bob, go turn on the cd player..." "sure, bill.. wait.. wtf, i think i just broke your CD player..."
 
Yeah, what makes it better is the cd player has a cartridge style loader, and if someone would push the little flap in where the cartridge goes, they will see the hard drive. I haven't been able to work on it much lately, due to money being tight, but I will update when I get some more work done. Thanks for all the great replies!:music:
 
Here is a little update so far. I was able to find some unused LED's at work, and took a couple different colors we had, and made 1 yellow, 1 amber, and 1 green LED to use as the HD LED. I eventually chose the green, as it looked the brightest. I drilled a hole in the headphone jack and that is where is resides now:D. Other than that, the only other thing I did was order the Fubar II DAC. I thought this would be a good DAC to start with. I did put the cover on it to monitor CPU temps, and it was getting pretty hot. I hope I can get away with maybe making some slits like my Yamaha CR-620 has on top to help with the temp, but I think I might have to add another fan somewhere. That might be a challenge! The only other piece I need to complete it will be a MediaLab VFD by ThermalTake, and it will be complete!! :music: Anyway, here are the pics!!!!

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If you don't plan to be adding PCI cards, a fan would probably be best between the motherboard back-plane, and the power supply. You may be able to squeeze a 80mm fan there, but will likely have to settle for a 60 or 70mm. Adding this exhaust fan, with a couple cutouts on the bottom between the motherboard and front panel should do the trick just fine. You don't really want a fan on the top or bottom of the chassis.
 
I'll have to take a look and see, but I don't think I can get a fan there. The motherboard is kinda high, and the fan would proably be too deep. What would the disadvantages be of having a fan on top? I've never built a computer before, so airflow is all new to me. If anyone has some more suggestions, I'm open to anything and everything. Thanks for the help!
 
I'll have to take a look and see, but I don't think I can get a fan there. The motherboard is kinda high, and the fan would proably be too deep. What would the disadvantages be of having a fan on top? I've never built a computer before, so airflow is all new to me. If anyone has some more suggestions, I'm open to anything and everything. Thanks for the help!

If you didn't plan to stack anything on top of this PC, there would be no concerns other than aesthetics. However, if you plan to stick this in an audio rack or something, than you will want want to exhaust on the sides only.
 
I went home last night, and there is no way a fan is fitting in the back. The motherboard is fully against the back. I don't have a rack, so I don't plan on putting anything on top of it. My audio gear is on an Ikea bookshelf, the expedit? The one that has an open back, and it is on it's side, longways. My turntable, cd player, and reciever all sit on top. I plan on putting my DAC and cd player (cd player is a PS1, due to it being small and compact) in one of the cubes underneath the receiver. So the computer, turntable, and receiver will on be on top side by side. The aesthetics of the fans might be an issue, but if people look at it as a cd player, they might be intruiged by the fan:D Plus, they make those cool LED fans! HAHAHAHA. :smoke: Thanks for the insight. I'll just have to play around a little and see what I can come up with.
 
A final option is to put a fan on the bottom of the case in the front area, and have it blow into the case. Adding a hole in the rear by the CPU will allow the positive pressure air to carry the heat out.
 
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