MediaBox Blog

At long last, the time has finally come. I have managed to get all the parts ready to go ahead with the build of the MediaBox. So I wont bore you any more and dive right in. Here is the full list of the hardware that the MediaBox was built with.

Follow up:

• Omaura TF5 HTPC Case
• Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H
• Hiper HFC 20820-C1 Low profile Cooler
• AMD Athlon X2 4200
• 1GB Corsair Memory (plain vanilla)
• 160GB Maxtor SATA HD
• LITEON DVD-RW Slim loading slot drive
• Small IDE to standard IDE converter
• M2-ATX 160W DC-DC PSU
• 150W Maplin power brick
• Panel mount 2.5mm DC socket
• 2 x small crimp blades
• 20 pin ATX extension cable
• P4 12v extension cable

So with the hardware all tallied up it was on with the build. Instantly I had a problem. The cooler backplate on the motherboard was held in place with plastic plugs, but the Hiper CPU cooler needed to be screwed into the backplate, so it wasn't compatible. Lucky for me I had an older motherboard lying around which had the metal backplate with screw holes for the mounting side. So by removing the stock gigabyte back plate and replacing it with a spare metal one I managed to mount the cooler no problem after that.

Mounting the gigabyte board into the TF5 was no problem, the only thing that I would say is that the ATX backplate for the external connectors was a tight fit, but that was more to do with the fact that part of the frame had bent during shipping.

Now the card reader, front USB, font audio and firewire was a little frustrating to connect due to the lack of documentation that came with the TF5 case, so it was a process of figuring out which connector goes where on the motherboard, but I got there in the end.

Here is a shot of the motherboard with CPU and RAM in place mounted inside the TF5 with the front connectors connected to the motherboard.

Moving on, it was time to connect the PSU. As explained in a previous post, I decided to go with a DC-DC power supply to keep noise levels down. And lucky for me, there where M3 sized holes in perfect position to mount the M2-ATX.

So simply mounting two M3 stand-offs in the holes was all that was needed and I was then able to mount the PSU on top

The M2-ATX comes with a 20 pin ATX connector and a 12v P4 connector, but unfortunately neither of them where long enough to connect to the motherboard so I had to purchase an extra extension cable for each.

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