# Project Mini-punk (Zotac ION N330 - HTPC)



## denis6902

...continuing

I managed to get hold of some pretty flexible and cheap 3mm acrylic, not that i wanted it to be flexi, but i didnt have a choice of colour or quality.

My main idea is to have a uni-body design (even though it wont be uni-body design, get it?) Neither do i...anyway...my idea is to have the main structure of the case with the lesser joints as possible. (less joints are not always good







) but specially in my case they could be really helpful as my main acrylic part is only 3mm (thick). More joints could be much somehow good as it would reinforce the sides and etc...resuming making the main part firmer and stronger, but i been quite busy over here studying for my pilot license exams. Therefore dont expect this project to be updated with regular daily pictures because you will get disappointed in the end.

So far i had the idea of putting the slim bluray drive under the mobo which wasn't so difficult to make. I also managed to the HDD in position and i also managed to figure out to have less cables and wires to simplify the project and not let the Medusa wiring take over the project. If you think well mini itx boards are cutey and tiny and a small case is always way to go, but if the wiring gets too messy u loose airflow prejudicing the lifetime of your beloved hardware by taking them to hellish temperatures.

Here are some pictures of how it looks so far, and i will try to get some more pictures of the acrylic base project without the hardware on it, so you can see how simply i tried to create the layout of the components, ok? ....here are i am talking to much again...gotdammit.....

so lets move on for some shots (Please forgive me for the quality of the pictures, mum's camera is sony, and if you are a little cleaver take this as a recommendation dont buy sony, it suqks!)


----------



## denis6902

installing pc...


----------



## Jrice00

Looking pretty sweet


----------



## denis6902

edit: English mistakes all the time, sorry
*update status:*

1080i playback on WIN7 ULTIMATE is not happening! Does even move a frame (VLC)

I Installed a Ubuntu Karmic Koala 9.10 also x64 and BLU-ray on VLC also does not happen!

What got me a little closer to the reality was XBMC which managed to play the full HD .mkv movie reasonably well, but still kind of....not perfect lets say.. a bit slow (you can kind of see the pc struggling to play the file) Well...at least it plays, better then not playing at all like VLC on WIN7 or just plainly on Karmic.

A bit sad actually because i thought this mobo was going to be capable of doing this job easily when it doesnt!







Just sad really!

Anyhow..... I am struggling at the moment to find a cylinder with 7mm diameter to make the round shapes on its sides. Been going to several places likes skips, and metal work places and i cant find anything on that diameter. It has to be on 7mm as it will just fold perfectly! Has anyone got any ideas on what else i could use instead of a metal cylinder? So i can warm the acrylic to fold on its sides? Something _plasticky_ that can hold a higher temperature then the acrylic itself?

Quote:

Adding: WIN7 is happening to be quite annoying atm, probably because i been trying to jailbrake my iPhone lately, and been messing up with iTunes, installing and uninstalling and so on, been getting quite a lot of blue screens, and not having much time to redo it right now. So Linux is just perfect for now!

Quote:


Originally Posted by *Jrice00* 
Looking pretty sweet

Thanks bud!


----------



## the_milk_man

This mod has me all excited! what exactly do you have planned for the case? also, did u OC that processor and gpu at all? A lot of ppl OC the 9300 to 9400 speeds and get the CPU clock around 2Ghz and that makes a world of difference(might wanna slap that fan on the top of the heatsink).


----------



## CallmeRoth

That board has 1080p playback all over it's advertisements, and the thing has a 9400M IGP. I find it wierd that it doesn't fulfill what it was made for.


----------



## Somenamehere

Quote:

did u OC that processor and gpu at all? A lot of ppl OC the 9300 to 9400 speeds and get the CPU clock around 2Ghz and that makes a world of difference(might wanna slap that fan on the top of the heatsink)..
You can probably get 1080i playback with an overclock.


----------



## denis6902

wow, msgs are coming fasts.

Quote:



Originally Posted by *the_milk_man*


This mod has me all excited! what exactly do you have planned for the case? also, did u OC that processor and gpu at all? A lot of ppl OC the 9300 to 9400 speeds and get the CPU clock around 2Ghz and that makes a world of difference(might wanna slap that fan on the top of the heatsink).


This board ain't the Zotac 9300. Its an ION GPU integrated with an INTEL ATOM N330. I have a Intel stock cooler for Duo Cores on the heatsink just for precautions, and system is running quite quiet and cool, so is the HDD.

The Zotac 9300 has an extra x16 PCI Express slot for those who want to slap a nice and stronger gpu on the mobo, but this version doesn't unfortunately! Zotac just released a similar board, but now i am not so sure if it comes with the Dual ATOM N330 like my mobo or if it has the new Via processor. I need to search on that, because i am not sure. But this new mobo just release has an extra slot for a better dedicated gpu. Mine is a Nvidia ION integrated with the Dual Atom N330 (x64)

Quote:



Originally Posted by *CallmeRoth*


That board has 1080p playback all over it's advertisements, and the thing has a 9400M IGP. I find it wierd that it doesn't fulfill what it was made for


Thats correct, it does have all this but your statement is almost correct, its not a 9400M IGP chipset. Its an ION IGP

Quote:



Originally Posted by *Somenamehere*


his mod has me all excited! what exactly do you have planned for the case? also, did u OC that processor and gpu at all? A lot of ppl OC the 9300 to 9400 speeds and get the CPU clock around 2Ghz and that makes a world of difference(might wanna slap that fan on the top of the heatsink).


Thanks for the compliments! Actually this was going to be a substitute on buying all Home Theatre equip. However dad was not so please with the pc performance neither was I. My aim was to change Dad's point of view, proving he woundt have to spend thousands, buying blu-ray player, Receiver. I almost made it tho, because its almost there. My point with dad is that a HTPC would be much more power saving and GREEN!







and that he would save much more bucks having an HTPC then all this equip pumping WATTS through the mains.

Unfortunately dad was very disappointed and ended up buying all the gear he was having eyes on. And now i keep hearing some funny and uncomfortable comments about my hopeless project!









In regards to OC, i am not familiar with. The Bios seems to be quite steady and user friendly actually, but i dunno how to OC and i dont want to put this project uo in smokes more then it is already


----------



## CallmeRoth

http://www.zotacusa.com/zotac-ionitx...therboard.html

Says here 9400M.

Regardless it is still crap that you can't get smooth playback out of that board.


----------



## denis6902

Quote:


Originally Posted by *CallmeRoth* 
http://www.zotacusa.com/zotac-ionitx...therboard.html

Says here 9400M.

Regardless it is still crap that you can't get smooth playback out of that board.

You are right, iam so sorry my bad!

Actually its really revolting to read the Overview

Quote:

_Experience fluid and vivid high-definition video playback with the ultra-compact ZOTACÂ® ION platform_?????. The mini-ITX form factor ZOTACÂ® ION combines a high-performance NVIDIAÂ® ION graphics processor with a power-efficient IntelÂ® Atom processor for the ultimate eco-friendly platform that has no troubles handling regular web browsing, e-mail, & productivity and _HD video playback tasks_?????.

NVIDIAÂ® PureVideo HD technology harnesses the power of the ION's 16 high-speed stream processors for _high-definition Blu-ray playback capabilities_?????. PureVideo HD technology decodes HD video formats and enhances standard-definition videos with the ION GPU for _flawless HD and superior SD video playback_?????.
Funny isnt it? Can i claim my money back? It would have to be OC to work properly i think? It should be out-the-box thing! Specially cause i put 4GB of ram, i want to cry! :swearing:

EDIT: Perhaps its not NVIDIA but the combination with the useless dual atom processor? My gf got a dell laptop (Vostro 1510 ***i think) and it has Nvidia 9400M and it works acely!!!! can even play FS X smoothly on my 40"HDTV at FULL HD. But its not an dual atom but a Duo Core!


----------



## Gunslash

it's gota be the CPU, I've a 9300 integrated mobo and it does any form of HD video without a hitch..granted my CPU is a E8600 but those with even a cheapest dual core don't seem to be having any issues on these boards..


----------



## identitycrisis

There is some sort of offloading technology built into this config where it has success playing HD content. I believe that is your issue. the cpu is supposed to offload certain high def codecs onto the gpu. Im no pro on the subject, and I don't own one, but was thinking about getting one of these. Hope this helps!


----------



## D3FiN3 SiN

I love those Ion boards, especially Zotac!

EDIT: Problems suck.


----------



## denis6902

This board could have a stronger cpu and perhaps a n300 chip, would performe better! but then i dont know if the 90w power supply would do


----------



## denis6902

*Update status:*

Yo all,

Since my revoltance against NVIDIA, i recently opened a thread at nvidia forums to complain why dont i get what i payed for sort of thing.

Since i am lucky and unlucky of having a big mouth, i managed to get some help from buds over nvidia forums and for my delightment, i was wrong, and badly wrong i must say!

Firstly i though VLC was the best video player u could get, since it got so much features and stuff. However i found out i was wrong again, as VLC just does not support .mkv videos so well for these not soooo powerfull tiny gpus.

I hope this can help anyone who gets into the same situation i did, so if you having any troubles like i did, please *read carefully* and good films with pop corn for you guys!

So i found out there was a lot of stuff missing for the setup to fire the 1080p .mkv videos i had downloaded.

I installed a bunch of new stuff actually.

*Here is what i did:
1- DirectX End User Latest Install
2- Nvidia Pure-Video Decoder Software
3- K-Lite Codec Pack 544 FULL
4- Matroska Codec Oack Full, now called CCCP (Combined-Community-Codec-Pack)
5- MPC - Media Player Classic Home Cinema x64*

A lot huh? but that isnt just it yet.

Now we need to go to MPC to edit some settings ok?

All credits to Hilbert Hagedoorn from guru3d for making this happen!

*Settings time :*

*1- Open MPC*









*2 - VIEW>OPTIONS*









*3 - OUTPUT (WITHIN PLAYBACK)*
now here its marked on EVR CUSTOM PRES.** *but here worked better with EVR (VISTA/.NET3)*

Feel free to fool around with some of the other settings.

Small note, after each Direct Show change is is wise to select apply and then exit the program. Then startup again, that way for sure the new setting will be activated.









*4- Internal Filters*








Sound - Go to Internal Filters. This can be a bit of a culprit. If you playback audio through the PC soundcard (multichannel) analog over speakers, you might just want to leave things as they are. I however use a SPDIF coaxal pass-through, the automatically selected embedded audio filters for DTS and AC3 where not properly in sync. I disabled them and just used a free to download software AC3 filter.

Your choice of course. Don't be afraid to play around with it. *If* it works fine, don't fool around with these settings.










Next to the DTS and AC3 settings I've highlighted Matroska. Matroska is the MKV / x.264 file container format we want to have accelerated. We strongly recommend you to check the Matroska flag, so that the internal filter will be used, key to x.264 GPU acceleration










Once you've finalized configuring the software I again recommend to just close the application and restart it again, after which you are ready to go. The settings will all be saved. So you only have to do this once.

If you click on the screenshot above you'll load up a 600 KB (compressed) screenshot where we are now accelerating 1920x1080P sized x.264 content with the help of the GPU. Mind you that we used a Core i7 system to make the screenshots, but the result is the same on a low specced machine. Which we'll demonstrate exactly that with a video in a minute.

*5- Shading/Depth*
Having a dedicated graphics card for the best quality possible is recommended, but not a requirement. It's recommended because dedicated cards can hande shaders much better. Let's have a look at the shaders features in the software we can enable to enhance image quality.










During movie playback you can access the Shaders menu through the pull down menu (or just right mouse click on the movie playing). If you click SHARPEN, a shader program will be fired off at the graphics processor enabling pixel sharpening. In a seperate menu you can even configure shaders and their intensity (more/less sharpening etc).

Utilizing the shader engine of the graphics cards is the icing on top of the cake really, especially on bigger Full HD - HDTVs you want a little image sharpening or darker background. Observe the 'combine' function that is highlighted. Now, next screenshot please.










Of course it would a shame if you could only use one shader at a time, like image sharpening .. yet you love the de-noise function too. The software has a solve for that, you can select multiple shaders and run them simultaneous. Here's exactly where the integrated GPUs on motherboards will run out of computational power. But as stated a dedicated Radeon HD 4650 at 69 USD does a remarkable job, well worth the investment. And that's not different for the NVIDIA GeForce card either of course.

I advise you to select and combine the following shaders:

*
Sharpen Complex or Edgde sharpen
*
16-235 -> 1-255 (will give you a nice dark screen)
*
optionally de-interlace: but most movies are de-interlaced already

Once you've made your selection and added the shaders you would like to run, hit OK. And you are good to go.

Here's a fun tip, during playback use the following key combo: CTRL+P to enable and disable the pixel shaders, you'll spot the difference instantly.










So the last screenshot I wanted to show you is GPU usage during 1080P x.264 content playback.

Radeon HD graphics adapters allow us to monitor how much the GPU is stressed. We playback a 1080P movie, x.264; now we enabled two sharpening shaders and 16-235 -> 1-255. As you can see, the GPU is roughly 30% stressed at best. Depending on bitrate and shader selection this can vary a little of course. But this was some really heavy content.

if anyone is up to read the whole thing, grab it here


----------



## denis6902

right going to bed now and will try to stay awake watching the whole movie, will let yus know if it freezes or glitches!


----------



## Manyak

Now the real question is, can you get it to work in media center?


----------



## mypcisugly

have you tried gom player ?
I use it and it works great and it is free..

link http://www.gomlab.com/eng/


----------



## AMD+nVidia

Damn if only I had seen this sooner.

Yeah, VLC is NOT good for HD playback, MPCHC with that render are what you want!


----------



## denis6902

Quote:



Originally Posted by *Manyak*


Now the real question is, can you get it to work in media center?










To be honest i havent tried it on Windows Media Center yet. From what i understood of all this, the codecs installed replace and enhance functions and features on the system.

Yesterday i managed to watch the whole film (Brilliant film btw) and i had many other applications running on the background too, like firefox (memory buster), rocketdock, Eset NOD32, tuneup utilities, besides, i am also running a Dual monitor scheme which requires even more gpu and memory power.

The film played perfectly, not glimpses, glitches, nothing! It was smooth like a baby's bum!

When i get the opportunity of putting the setup on the HDTV linked with the yamaha receiver, i will make sure all features work well like DTS and alike.

Quote:



Originally Posted by *mypcisugly*


have you tried gom player ?
I use it and it works great and it is free..
link http://www.gomlab.com/eng/


I used that before, ages ago to play realplayer videos, and i did like it, but i havent tried that for now, and i am not planning that either, its working fine for now! Its like that old saying: If its working dont mess with it!









Quote:



Originally Posted by *AMD+nVidia*


Damn if only I had seen this sooner.

Yeah, VLC is NOT good for HD playback, MPCHC with that render are what you want!










VLC was not able to play it as i mentioned before, its workign brilliantly on Media Player Classic Home Cinema.

I will still try to play it on VLC, windows media player, windows media center and see what happens now the new codecs are on the vains!

Regards to all and thanks for the comments from everyone.


----------



## denis6902

i am sad







dad told me to sell this junk!

Not junk is it?


----------



## Manyak

Quote:



Originally Posted by *denis6902*


i am sad







dad told me to sell this junk!

Not junk is it?










Just like anything else in the world, it all depends on how you look at it. I mean, its true that even a Pentium 4 is a gazillion times faster than the Atom, but it also uses a gazillion times more power, needs a heatsink the size of my foot, and heats up my bedroom in winter. So for an HTPC I'd prefer to have one of these, but for gaming I'd take the P4.

Why does he say its junk though, because of the speed?


----------



## denis6902

Quote:



Originally Posted by *Manyak*


Just like anything else in the world, it all depends on how you look at it. I mean, its true that even a Pentium 4 is a gazillion times faster than the Atom, but it also uses a gazillion times more power, needs a heatsink the size of my foot, and heats up my bedroom in winter. So for an HTPC I'd prefer to have one of these, but for gaming I'd take the P4.

Why does he say its junk though, because of the speed?



No, he doesnt understand much about pcs, thats the problem!
But i think hes just being stupid now, unnecessary comments sometimes...

all old school militar people tend to be like that i guess. They think they are better then anyone in anything! Big ego! I asked him if he could do better and he told me i was insulting him







when i wasnt


----------



## Manyak

Quote:



Originally Posted by *denis6902*


No, he doesnt understand much about pcs, thats the problem!
But i think hes just being stupid now, unnecessary comments sometimes...

all old school militar people tend to be like that i guess. They think they are better then anyone in anything! Big ego! I asked him if he could do better and he told me i was insulting him







when i wasnt










You know what, he probably just doesn't appreciate the whole caseless thing. When I used to run caseless sometimes when I still lived with my parents my pops thought I was crazy and actually bought me a case because he saw it as..for lack of a better word.."ghetto". Then again, it kind of _was_ lol.

I bet if you got a nice, fancy small case to stick it all in he'd see it completely differently. Or hell, take your build one more step and build the rest of the case around it with acrylic. Whichever way is still better than holding the CDROM down with scotch tape


----------



## denis6902

Quote:



Originally Posted by *Manyak*


You know what, he probably just doesn't appreciate the whole caseless thing. When I used to run caseless sometimes when I still lived with my parents my pops thought I was crazy and actually bought me a case because he saw it as..for lack of a better word.."ghetto". Then again, it kind of _was_ lol.

I bet if you got a nice, fancy small case to stick it all in he'd see it completely differently. Or hell, take your build one more step and build the rest of the case around it with acrylic. Whichever way is still better than holding the CDROM down with scotch tape











hahahah the build was started already, the acrylic underneath will be its main body part. atm i am struggling to find a 7mm diameter metal pipe. Cand fidn one in any store i want the side to be half circunference for better airflow of fans i will install from the bottom and one on top for exaustion of hot air, i have all the acrylic here to. Just need to find something exactly 7mm diameter that wont melt as the same temp the acrylic does.

Any ideas on alternatives besides metal pipe are welcome!


----------



## Manyak

How about a wooden stick?


----------



## denis6902

that can be good too, thought about that, but i couldnt find anyone to lathe one sharp for me.


----------



## Manyak

Quote:


Originally Posted by *denis6902* 
that can be good too, thought about that, but i couldnt find anyone to lathe one sharp for me.

I'd offer to, but I think customs might find an oversized toothpick a bit weird.


----------



## denis6902

hahahahhahaha definetely!


----------



## denis6902

Watched:

Transformers 2, UP, Mosters vc Aliens !!! Excellent fimls! GOD IS 1080p







way better to watch film in hd btw, its another thing!

Gran Torino and Black Hawk Down coming soon!







cant wait!


----------



## identitycrisis

Quick question for you OP, were you watching Blu Rays? or 1080p Digital Content when watching these videos?


----------



## denis6902

Quote:


Originally Posted by *identitycrisis* 
Quick question for you OP, were you watching Blu Rays? or 1080p Digital Content when watching these videos?

Both, 1080p .mkv as well as blu-ray dvds


----------



## denis6902

btw, how do i setup Media Player Classic to play the 1080p videos .mkv with DTS Decoder? If i ran the files through windows media player, my receiver automactically recognizes from PCM to DTS which is way better, but if i open it with MPC it only plays it with PCM, do i need to download another codec pack?


----------



## Funcrazy1

I'm subing to this thread !


----------



## Daveleaf

Wow, I just bought one of these for my dad, $300ish total for a system, case and memory. I was so impressed, it does everything he needed and more. Runs WIN 7 64 just fine, its quite (120mm low rpm fan). Tried to play bunch of 1080p and 720k MKV, using MPC-HT and absolutely no complaints.

I am so impressed, I am getting one for myself, and will move my main rig to the office


----------



## denis6902

done some work on the case today, will hit some pics later bois, keep an eye! or two if u want!


----------



## denis6902

right, as promised here shots of the update,
please bare in mind that i never done a sketch for this, it just pop the idea/concept and i began doing it as i can, doing it all by eye. As you will see, lack of _mangos_ means lack of tools, so I got to improvise as i could.

however i plan doing the back i/o and front panel cut on the cnc so its nice and tidy.

Breakfast anyone?






















































This is DOG MARLEY btw


----------



## denis6902

quick action vid,

PART 01:


YouTube- Project Mini-punk (Zotac ION N330 - HTPC) denis6902





PART 03 Coming soon.... uploading...


----------



## denis6902

sorry guys, 3rd video somehow isnt uploading, in case i manage to fix it and upload it successfully i will add it on the post above, otherwise that wil be it for now


----------



## Daney

Awesome case









Great to see Mini-ITX builds still looking great


----------



## denis6902

thanks man... not looking good yet, but it will!


----------



## Killhouse

Nice acrylic work there Denis! I'm glad to see you're having success with your motherboard because I'm going to be building a compact version of your build this summer!

Subbed.


----------



## denis6902

Quote:



Originally Posted by *Killhouse*


Nice acrylic work there Denis! I'm glad to see you're having success with your motherboard because I'm going to be building a compact version of your build this summer!

Subbed.


Nice man, please let me know when u start this, will be happy to follow it up.
more compact then that will be hard man, but looking forward to see your plans and ideas.

I started this project on the eye measuring, no tapes, no or plans, just though of the concept and started building it, and as you can see i am a little struglling with tools here







Not even a vice or clamps i got anymore.


----------



## Killhouse

It'll be a tight squeeze but I'm going to surprise you









Doing some research on the hardware for it at the moment, trying to get sponsored for the project eventually.

EDIT: IB4 "thats what she said"


----------



## Liighthead

Quote:



Originally Posted by *Killhouse*


It'll be a tight squeeze but I'm going to surprise you









Doing some research on the hardware for it at the moment, trying to get sponsored for the project eventually.

EDIT: IB4 "thats what she said"


:O wooot nother "tight squeeze" case =D carnt wait x)

and this case is nice toooo


----------



## denis6902

cool killhouse, looking forward to see that!


----------



## denis6902

sorry for the disapointing update, but had to sell the mobo









so build is paused until i come across another mini-itx. I think i will continue it when i start my CNC build, so i can get another mini-itx to run ubuntu on the cnc pc.

First need to finish my rig (monez saving time) then onto the deathbox xbox 360 project, then next will be the CNC


----------

