Many of us use computers to power our home theater experience, but the last thing anyone wants is a noisy PC tower uglying up the living room. Here's how reader aec007 converted Ikea's Besta media console into a well-hidden, well-ventilated HTPC.
You can accomplish something like this in a number of ways, and with a number of different setups; if it sounds interesting, here's one such method to help you get the ball rolling.
The Parts
Made from honeycomb paper and particle board, the Ikea's Besta is a tough but easy to modify piece of furniture. By setting up your HTPC in cabinets like the Besta, your server should lead a long, extra quiet life. Not to mention it'll look great doing it.
Anyone that has had a PC near the floor understands how big a problem dust is. So outside of ventilation, filtration is also key to the setup.
I decided to use the largest and cheapest filter I could possibly fit from Home Depot ( a 12" x 20" x 1" in this case). The filter helps lower static pressure increasing the overall longevity of the fan, and lowering their rate of replacement.
Prepare Your Cabinet
Cutting the hardboard is simple but dusty. I used a Dremel tool with a small saw disk to make quick clean cuts. You can sand the edge of the hardboard with a 200 grit sand paper and finish it smooth with a 400 grit. The color of hardboard is light brown, but I used some Black MinWax Oil stain to make all edges black so it looks like professionally made cuts.
The installation of the filter is straight forward. Cut a hole the same size as the filter on the top level of the base board and about 1/2" smaller all around to support the filter at the bottom of the base board. Take a look at the picture below for a close up.
Notice the soft foam gasket I installed at the bottom. The gasket is a 3/16" H x 3/8" W foam gasket from the weathering section of Home Depot, that is meant to keep the filter level flush with the top surface as well as seal the filter perimeter all around the bottom to stop dust bunnies.
I placed the fans in back where I felt they would be most effective for this setup. The fans themselves are SilenX Ixtrema Pro 120mm. They push 46 CFM but only have 11 dba thanks to their fluid bearings. They are also mounted on the silicone mounting posts they come with, eliminating any vibration and resonance in the cabinet. They are "KEY" to help move huge amounts of air out of the cabinet and ensure things stay cool and silent. The fans push 92 CFM in a space that is barely 2 Cu Ft.
I added additional holes to the back of the Besta cabinet and to the adjacent drawers to allow wiring of other components, e.g routers, cable modem power strips, etc. I also dyed all edges black so no cut edges are visible. Note the holes between partitions. This allows you to route all your PC cables through the cabinet as needed. I plug the left over hole area (after all cables are fed through) with cushioning foam to seal it up to prevent air leaks.
Now essentially you just finish assembling the cabinet as usual. I stand the cabinet on 4" stainless legs which makes cleaning under the cabinet very easy and allows plenty of air to filter through.
Putting It All Together
Assembling the computer case is a different ball game. The "frame case" is made of Poly Top (or Starboard) 3/8" that I had left over from another project. There is no reason why this cannot be done with quality plywood and wood dowels.
You'll need to size the board according to your motherboard and components. In my case, the PC is a gutted Dell Inspiron 518 Core 2 Quad Q6600 with 4 GB Ram and an ATI HD4650 with HDMI/ audio and DVI output. It's a great video card for this setup since it's extremely quiet and has great 3D gaming performance. Frame the size of your motherboard with power supply adding another 1" all around.
Once I cut the base and top, I located the motherboard mounting post locations and drilled small holes in order to screw the posts. Polycarbonate rods were used to form the columns supporting both the top and bottom boards. The rods measured 3/8" diameter and were cut to the appropriate height to clear all components including the PSU. I used a Fostner bit to cut clean 1/4" deep 3/8" holes for the polycarbonate rods to slide into and screwed in from the opposite side.
Place the motherboard before mounting the top.
Using two small posts and a 90° angle of left over PC HDD bracket, I added a support to keep the video card set with the motherboard and chassis.
Notice how the shelf that comes with the BESTA cabinet was cut short 1-1/4" from the back, leaving a gap at the front before the door. This is a critical step allowing air to go between the door and vent to the back to thanks to the fans. The 1-1/4" gap is plenty, and won't restrict airflow since it's 22" wide, more than adequate for the fans surface area. My fans on the back are positioned midway high on the back, so 1/2 of the airflow flows in the motherboard / PSU area and the other 1/2 goes through the top where the HDD / DVD are located.
The HDD and DVD are simply resting on the top of the PC cage. I stuck 1/4" dome silicone bumpers to the bottom of them so they don;t slide and still allow airflow under them. The HDD's are resting upside down, so the silicone bumpers are stuck to their aluminum faceplates and not the circuitry. The mouse and keyboard are all Bluetooth wireless.
I used a 1/8" thin grey foam to seal the door when it's closed to minimize air leaks and decrease sound.
I finished mounting all other components like any audio video cabinet with wires in the back so they're out of sight. I added a standard DVD Player and DirectTV tuner to the available storage shelves over the drawers. The other spaces act as great storage spaces for your video collection. I spaced the finished cabinet about 1" from the wall to allow exhaust hot air to exit the PC and cover any noise coming from the back.
The Results
In the end, the whole assembly is quiet enough not to be heard while running. I have left it on by mistake several nights only to realize in the morning that it was on. As far as temperature goes, after a 3 hr movie the Video card's ATI Catalyst drivers showed 42°C, the lowest it can register on the scale. The CPU heat sink feels cold to the touch.
It's an incredible HTPC setup that I also use as server backup with 2 TB of storage with plenty of room to grow. It's a powerful solution for the hidden HTPC.