VIA “Eden” EPIA-M Case Mod

Join the community - in the OCAU Forums! Date  1st March 2003 Author  Kevin "Baker" Baker with assistance from Tony "Dad" Baker Editor  Scott "Sciby" Eiby Manufacturer  VIA Installation and Conclusion The power supply positioning and mounting posed some problems as it was slightly too large to allow the top lid of the case to fit. To correct this we had to remove the power supply's top casing. We mounted it upside down to give added protection from exposed high voltage componentry in the event of the games consoles lid being removed while working on the machine. The power supply's fan was remounted to expel hot air from the componentry on the base of the lower case half directly beneath where it would have existed on the PSU case. We then added a small 40mm fan to the back of the PSU to intake fresh air from the side of the case, flowing air over the PSU componentry. Holes were drilled to allow air intake on the outside of the case and a small fan grill cover was added along with a hole for the IEC power plug. Another fan was added below where the motherboard to allow for greater airflow through the case. The power supply was screwed in place, similar to the motherboard mounting. The PSU mounting. The DVD was the hardest part to mount as we had nowhere to secure it to the case. We ended up securing it in place by using a piece of scrap metal that was taken from the front bay of a case - you know, those little pieces that you always cut your fingers on behind the 5 1/4 bays? For once, one of these actually came in useful! The DVD sits on the lower case ledge giving clearance above the HDD. The mounting of the DVD. This is how it ended up looking - with everything essential that’s needed to run a computer. Windows XP Pro with SP1 was installed as an operating system on her, and she works very well. With everything installed, and DVD-ROM open. Now come the finishing touches! Removal of the box that used to hold the controllers (for motherboard clearance) left a large square hole in the upper case. This was finished off by adding a perspex window, mounted flush so that the motherboard could be viewed. A 100mm cold cathode and inverter was mounted on the underside of the upper case to illuminate the exposed motherboard and a 6000mcd green and blue LED were attached to a drilled holes in the upper casing for power and HDD indicators. We also installed a momentary power switch to the right of the LEDs for Power On/Off. The inverter was soldered to a floppy drive type power connector and the LED's to their normal header blocks. Then, we hot-glued the whole lot (inverter, LED's, power switch, cathode) into their final positions. It's true, the hot glue gun is truly the modders friend! Perspex, cathode, power switch, and LED's. To finish off the DVD drive, we hacked up the facia from the original player that it was in, and glued that to the face. The effect turned out very well - I think it really looks nice. DVD Front plate attached OK, so this is what the final product looks like - it can play DVD's, stream MP3 and DivX through my network - and play emulated games! The final product. Conclusion Future plans - I plan to wire up some Atari, Colecovision, Mega Drive/Genesis and SNES pads, so that it will play all of the older systems - just like the original Colecovision was designed to! Check out many more amazing PC projects in the PC Database! << Back OCAU Main Page Select Page Page 1 - Page 2 -

All original content copyright James Rolfe.
All rights reserved. No reproduction allowed without written permission.
Interested in advertising on OCAU? Contact us for info.