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Thread: Special Report: Project Z-Wave. (Yes, It's another Mod...)

  1. #1
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    Special Report: Project Z-Wave. (Yes, It's another Mod...)

    Hello team,

    It is time again for another mod by yours truly

    This one is special as the basis for Project Z-Wave has been sponsored by Zombie69! A big THANK YOU to Z for this opportunity.

    As it has not been decided if my Uncle wants the Z-Wave (Truth: It's up to Mrs. Uncle) when the mods are complete, it may be given to another team member. Maybe a simple contest of some sort, Like "Tell us why Z-Wave interests you" or some such thing...

    Anyhoot, what did Zombie send my way you ask?

    The hardware:
    Case: Cooler Master Elite 120 Mini-ITX (Link)
    PSU: Seasonic X-Series SS-650KM Fully Modular 650W (Link)
    CPU Cooler #1: Corsair Hydro Series H60 v2 (Link)
    CPU Cooler #2: Cooler Master GeminII M4 (Link)
    CPU Cooler #3: Deep Cool HTPC-11 (Link)

    First off, it is obvious from the list that there are two CPU coolers too many. The mod will use the H60 so the other coolers will find their way to others on the team for crunching use.

    Second and as obvious, the list does not include CPU, MB, HDD/SSD or RAM. So if Z-Wave does go to another team member it is with the understanding that she/he will add such items to complete this mini cruncher.

    Okay, with all that out of the way it is time for some pics. Yeeeeha!!! And sorry for the poor quality of some of the pics.

    Boxes & Parts



    Elite Pieces



    Bare Chassis Side



    Bare Chassis Front Detail



    Bare Chassis Front & Bottom



    On the assumption that Z-Wave stays and will serve double duty as an HTPC, I made up a list of hardware to complete it.

    MB: ASRock FM2A75M-ITX (Link)
    CPU: AMD A8-5600K Trinity (Link)
    RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (Link)
    SSD: OCZ Vertex 4 VTX4-25SAT3-64G (Link)
    HDD: HGST Travelstar Z7K500 HTS725050A7E630 500GB (Link)
    Blu-Ray Drive: Something off eBay (Link)

    Tomorrow I will start removing bits and pieces from the chassis so that's it for now.

    Oh, one more thing. I'd like to plug my last blog (Here)

    Until next post, Peace,
    F$

  2. #2
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    Re: Special Report: Project Z-Wave. (Yes, It's another Mod...)

    Update:

    This turned out to be much easier then I expected.

    To remove the HDD cage only required drilling out 7 aluminum rivets and then grinding down the four threaded fan mount points, which were just punch-outs of the sheet metal, where the front fan attaches. The only other adjustment needed to install the H60 was the addition of some rubber pads between the fan mount and the H60's radiator. The fan mount was a touch wider then the distance between the rad's end caps. The rubber pads allow the rad to sit far enough away from the fan bracket for all the mounting holes to properly line up. (See rad photo below)

    After getting the H60 mounted I needed to test it's cold plate (The part that you stick on the CPU) alignment on a MB. But I don't have an mITX board yet! What to do...?

    Answer: Use an old dead regular ATX MB. Of course one needs to adjust it's size to match an mITX motherboard. Dremel to the rescue! Yep, I hacked up an old MB I had in my scrap pile. I think this one came from AL or Mike but not sure. So like which one of you guys sent that Abit IS-7 board my way?

    Anyhoot, got the mockup MB cut to size. Then I had to fix the issue with CPU heatsink mounting holes. Mockup board has Intel Socket 478 (1st Gen P4 socket) which uses a smaller hole pattern then sockets 775/1366/1156/1155. So I used the H60's hold down bracket to help me locate where the two missing holes should be and marked them with my trusty Sharpie. Then I drilled the appropriate sized holes, cleaned everything off, installed the H60's backplate, mounted the mock board in the case, slapped in a P4 I had laying around and finally fixed the H60's cold plate to the P4. Easy peazy.....

    Time for the pics. Note that they run in reverse of the description above. I took the pics at the end, during disassembly. Just faster this way.


    All the major pieces fitted


    Top View: PSU removed


    Side View


    Front View


    Rear View


    H60 Rad w/Rubber Spacers


    Inside View: Front Fan Mount Bracket


    Outside View: Front Fan Mount Bracket


    HDD Cage and Mockup MB


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    Re: Special Report: Project Z-Wave. (Yes, It's another Mod...)

    Update:

    First thing, I failed to mention that last Friday my Uncle overruled his other half and transferred some funds to begin buying parts. So one AMD A8-5600k was ordered since Newegg had a code for 10% off. UPS says it should arrive today.

    As for the other components, he is putting off buying the SSD and wants to go with a 250GB HDD instead of a 500GB unit. I also discovered I had 2 sticks of DDR3-12800 which I think I got from Emsti. And the MB I listed in the OP has already been discontinued. Seems the Vregs were blowing up and/or catching on fire! ASRock has started shipping its replacement, the FM2A85X-ITX so that will be the one for this build.

    This brings me to the topic of the extra CPU coolers Zombie sent to me.

    Cooler Master GeminII M4 (Link)
    Deep Cool HTPC-11 (Link)

    If you are interested in one or both just send me a PM. Shipping is on me.

    Now to the fun part. Sometime early last Saturday morning I finished the rough out of the drive caddy. The caddy will hold the slim Blu-Ray drive and 2 2.5" HDD/SSD drives. I cannot finish Filling holes, sanding, clean up and painting until my Uncle can order the Blu-Ray unit, just in case I need to change something.

    Anyhoot time for the pics.

    Caddy Test Fit


    Caddy in the rough


    Caddy Top & Bottom


    Caddy - Mounts & Acrylic HDD Tray


    The slim DVD drive in the pics is an old IDE unit form a Toshiba lappy I cannibalized for parts. The HDD is the Seagate unit that died on my Uncle and the SSD is the one I got from DrPop. It died three weeks ago.

    Well it is getting there but it will take slightly longer then originally thought. The big microwave oven in the kitchen decided last night to give up the ghost. C'est la vie....

    Seems its been a bad couple of months for electronics in my house

    Till next post, Peace.
    F$
    Last edited by Fire$torm; 02-05-13 at 09:25 AM.


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    Re: Special Report: Project Z-Wave. (Yes, It's another Mod...)

    Well, still waiting on additional funds but I have been working out other aspects of this build.

    I was able to resurrect the Corsair Nova2 60GB SSD that flaked out on my several weeks ago, the one in the pics. Turns out the Nova2 needs to be zapped with its internal secure erase feature. And the easiest way to do that is using Parted Magic (link). This definitely helps reduce the cost of this build so it was worth the effort of Scouring the Net for this info. With that covered, its on to the OS.

    My original selection for the OS was Win7 with Windows Media Center GUI autolaunching. That changed when Mike called me yesterday and the topic of this build came up. That conversation rekindled my curiosity about XMBC and their pre-compiled Linux distro XMBCbuntu. A visit to http://xbmc.org/ and I was pleasantly surprised to discover their latest release, version 12.0 aka Frodo. Great nickname btw (And yes, I read the books looooong before the movies came out).

    The XMBC download page (Link) offers two distros of the Linux ISO. One for ATI/AMD: xbmcbuntu-12.00.Intel-AMD.iso, and one for nVidia: xbmcbuntu-12.00.Intel-NVIDIA.iso. After DL'ing both versions, I fired up my fav thumb drive ISO installer, YUMI (Link) and added the AMD distro to my trusty Toshiba 16GB drive. Next I disconnected all the HDDs in my desktop and connected the Nova2. Plugged in my thumb drive and fired up Nexus. Then.... fizzle After trying a reboot or two with no success, I was getting erked! Maybe a bad ISO image? YUMI did not report any errors so maybe not. Hmmmm I thought to myself, what is it that the XMBC doesn't like about my system? Then I recalled hearing something about Linux not liking rigs with mixed brands of GPUs. Since the distro I was using was for ATI hardware, duh! 5 minutes & one CUDA card excised later... EUREKA!!! (Great TV series btw, too bad SyFy canned it )

    I must say that I really, really, like the XMBC user interface. Blows the doors off of Windows Media Center. The install had no issue detecting my HD 5830 or any of the hardware in Nexus. Sweet! And the XMBC experience is highly customizable, enough so that I will need to do some serious reading to get up to speed. <3 learning new things

    User Interface sample
    xbmcexample1.jpg

    Overview of XMBC's use of "10-foot UI" (Link)

    Now for one little tidbit about hardware for Z-Wave. As the TV in the front room is an older standard definition rear-projection model, this build will require some means of converting VGA/DVI to the 480i format of std. def TV. At least until my Uncle receives this years tax returns . So after digging around on Newegg I think I've found something suitable and that won't cost an arm and or leg. The BYTECC HM105 (Link) got good user reviews & costs only $29.99 before Newegg's 30% off with Promo Code EMCXVWS79, which expires today.

    --Till next post, Peace,
    F$


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    Re: Special Report: Project Z-Wave. (Yes, It's another Mod...)

    I can't wait to see this fully up and running so I can build my own. After you work out all the bugs of course. Good fun F$. Keep it coming.



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    Re: Special Report: Project Z-Wave. (Yes, It's another Mod...)

    You know how sometimes in life there always seems to be some a$$hole that comes along and bursts your bubble and you just want to stab this person in the face?

    Well... http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/320106/

    Supports the Swiftech h220 (and all other inferior 240mm CPU coolers ) As well as 120mm coolers.


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    Re: Special Report: Project Z-Wave. (Yes, It's another Mod...)

    Quote Originally Posted by John P. Myers View Post
    You know how sometimes in life there always seems to be some a$$hole that comes along and bursts your bubble and you just want to stab this person in the face?

    Well... http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/320106/

    Supports the Swiftech h220 (and all other inferior 240mm CPU coolers ) As well as 120mm coolers.
    Dual 3.5 inch HD tray? Seems silly for an ITX case. Especially with 2.5 inch Laptop drives easily hitting 1TB and more. But that does look sweet.

  8. #8
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    Re: Special Report: Project Z-Wave. (Yes, It's another Mod...)

    That's a sweet looking case!

    The critic in me sees a problem shared with most mini-ITX cases, airflow. It as plenty of active intake air but almost no active exhaust. Even the PSU cannot contribute to exhausting case air when configured in ATX setup. In the SSF setup one can flip the PSU fan over to push air out through the right side of the case.

    My idea with Z-Wave will be to mount one or two quiet 120mm fans on the right side. Although I may have to dremel out many of the slots (make them longer) to reduce noise caused by air turbulence with the OEM side venting.


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    Re: Special Report: Project Z-Wave. (Yes, It's another Mod...)

    Update.

    Got impatient/bored so I went ahead and painted the caddy anyway..... Finished the wiring today. so now the caddy is setup with x1 Slim SATA Data/Power connector & x2 Standard SATA Data/Power connectors. Now just need optical & storage drives.



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    Re: Special Report: Project Z-Wave. (Yes, It's another Mod...)

    Hooo Hmmmm...

    Well, a few days ago I switched gears and took a slightly different tack. Used the blank drive-bay plate to finish off the caddy. Still needs a touch more work to clean up the edges of the cutout. I may end up spray painting the whole plate with GunMetal Gray.

    Almost there.....


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