Comments on: DIY: 200 Dollar PC, Part 3

By: Aaron Eiche

Aaron Eiche — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 22:43:32 +0000

Paul, several weeks back you commented on my NAS (which was inspired by yours – http://aaroneiche.com/2009/03/31/my-diy-nas/) and you mentioned you’d moved from this machine to a larger PC essentially for brute force. Have you thought of upgrading your little PC to do the heavy lifting? How much power do you need for your media machine? (Are you using it as an HTPC?)

By: rob

rob — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 09:36:08 +0000

as for the finishing of the plexiglass edges, just use a propane torch and run it along edges. it will smooth them out nicely

By: Ken Hansen

Ken Hansen — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 01:10:09 +0000

You should look into the dual-core, hyper-threading Atom CPU on the Intel D945GCLF2 mb – it has gigabit Ethernet, PCI slot, tv. (composite) output and a very well supported GMA950 video section. It is also MiniITX and sells for about $85.

By: mode9

mode9 — Sat, 24 May 2008 19:41:48 +0000

Hi Paul

Nice DIY, I’m thinking of building this setup with the TV out board. I would like to build it to stream netflix videos to my bed room TV. Does anyone know if this will work ok? or would it be better to get the non TV board and add a nice video card? note not aiming for HDTV

By: Filip

Filip — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 06:24:52 +0000

Nice rig,
only one question, have you done any measurements on the powerconsumption?
would be great to know.

/Filip

By: James

James — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 18:29:08 +0000

Once again, thanks for the prompt reply!

I see, so all thats needed is a short on the pins when a PSU is connected! Thanks, I’ll let you know how mine goes.

James

By: Paul Stamatiou

Paul Stamatiou — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 18:24:52 +0000

@James – well you can’t use a jumper as that would put connectivity between the two pins at all times, probably creating an incessant shutdown-restart cycle.

By: James

James — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 18:23:05 +0000

Thanks for the quick reply Paul, so could I simply use a jumper in place of the switch as mine will also be on 24/7?

BTW great site, love reading the articles, keep em coming!

By: Paul Stamatiou

Paul Stamatiou — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 18:19:56 +0000

@James – I had a BERG-pin switch lying around that I have attached but since it’s a server I don’t really need to turn it on/off much at all so I tend to not have a switch and just short the 2 pins with a key or something if necessary.

By: James

James — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 17:55:45 +0000

Hey Paul!

I’m in the process of building a machine just like this one together with a DIY case. But how do you switch you one on and off without a power switch? Did you make one yourself?

Thanks
James

By: Paul Stamatiou

Paul Stamatiou — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 05:27:59 +0000

@Harold – You can get the plexi/acrylic/lucite and nuts/bolts at any good hardware store like Home Depot.

By: Harold

Harold — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 04:29:06 +0000

Great project Paul. After reading your article, I was interested and will build my ITX PC, too. I will follow your recommendations. Thanks for your advices.
Best wishes,

Harold A.
Virginia

PS. Where can I find materials to build a case like the one you use?. Gracias (thanks) again…

By: Kevin S. Peterson

Kevin S. Peterson — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 04:16:51 +0000

What, no neon?

Seriously, when I’m looking for a machine on the cheap, I usually go to the local computer chop shop. I can usually pick up the top of the line machine (from 3 years ago) for pennies on the dollar.. Best part is most of the components are already well documented and drivered in most linux flavors.

Is ‘drivered’ a word? I guess it is now.

By: Timothy Andrew

Timothy Andrew — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 10:33:19 +0000

I’m not sure if its the same thing, but this is a similar setup with a LEGO case: http://home.hawaii.rr.com/chowfamily/lego/ :)

By: James Cassell

James Cassell — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 08:07:48 +0000

Nicely done!

I as I was reading, I was hoping to see that you had gigabit ethernet.

With my server, I have gigabit ethernet, but samba will only go to about 9.7MiB/sec, which is a far cry from gigabit speeds.

Anyway, I like the case. It is very sleek looking.

By: Michael Krog

Michael Krog — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 13:12:40 +0000

Hey.. Great articles.

Im in the process of developing a POS system in Java, with Linux as the main platform. Im very interested in this board for that purpose.

Yuor articles answered a lot of my questions about it.

Regarding the slow net, I found this at the ubuntuforum, while searching for “sis900 slow”:
———————————————-
Hello Fellow Ubuntuinians,
I just wanted to let you guys know that I was having the same problem with the lag/nil activity on Ubuntu through this sis900 lan as well. Removing the router’s DNS address from the resolv.conf cleared the problem right up and I couldn’t be happier!
Thanks for the great info!!!
Matt
———————————————–
Link: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=157577&highlight=SiS900+slow

Best Regards
Michael Krog

By: Panther

Panther — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 20:49:17 +0000

Impressive! A buddy of mine was just talking about building something like this, your method will definitely appeal to him. Pretty slick that you have it running in so many ways, a time machine backup and a media server for your roomies. Congrats on your achievement none the less.

And by the way, FancyZoom is pretty slick. (That’s coming from a lightbox user)

By: Bradley Payne

Bradley Payne — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 17:20:12 +0000

yeah… i totally forgot about lexan… my dad works at GE and he could probably get some for me for nothin… Thanks!

By: Phil

Phil — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 15:15:26 +0000

Instead of using regular plexiglass I urge you to try lexan. http://www.rplastics.com/lexan.html
We use this high durability plastic on our robots for the First robotics competition. The plastic can easily be cut with a band saw, table saw, or even a jig saw. Hope you enjoy.

By: Paul Stamatiou

Paul Stamatiou — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 18:54:20 +0000

@Brad – it will be fine without a mobo tray, i just had one so I used it. You can just get some plastic standoffs.

By: Brad Payne

Brad Payne — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 17:44:22 +0000

First off, I wanna thank you for making this section… I was planning on making a fairly basic pc for my room and i was thinking about slapping it between two pieces of plexiglass or something of the sort but i didn’t know it was possible… then i saw your article on gizmodo.com and I was like “YES!! that’s what i need!”…. but anyways… my question… Is it necessary to have a motherboard tray? As far as i can tell… It should b fine w/o as long as i put some spacers in when i bolt it to the “case”…

By: …You can build your own 200 Dollar PC? at Didnt You Hear…

…You can build your own 200 Dollar PC? at Didnt You Hear… — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 06:16:45 +0000

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By: Jordan Patton

Jordan Patton — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 20:52:37 +0000

I think it turned out pretty well, Paul. I was a bit skeptical about the plexiglass case until I saw what all you were packing into it. Does that create any kind of cooling problems in your room? (As in, does it make your room heat up a lot more than before, or is the increase hardly noticeable?) Regardless, the final result is that it looks really nice and is probably much easier to tinker with when needed.

I’m also impressed with how much soldering you did on the main board. Probably a good idea, given the space constraints. Overall, a great project! Thanks for the coverage!

By: Paul Stamatiou

Paul Stamatiou — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 18:09:12 +0000

@Kevin – FZ was built from the ground up to do just this.. zoom images. It is fast and lightweight compared to the other (bad, if I may say) *box alternatives.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 17:00:55 +0000

I’m curious why you chose to use FancyZoom instead of thinks like lightbox and thickbox.