Project Silver Box Recorder
Finished: October 8, 2003

As you probably know, one of my hobbies is computer and everything concerned with it. And I became to be keen in modding recently. Modding is modifying of the appearance of the computers including making of the new cases or modifying existing ones, monitors, mice, keyboards and even mouse pads.

My idea was to create a computer case as small as possible (but also functional), capable to operate with ordinary TV as a monitor. It is useful to take it to my parents or friends, who does not have a computer, to show some movies or pictures. I planned to take it to my grandmother country house to use it as a movie and mp3 player.

First I had some computer component parts such as:

• ATX Power supply InWin/PowerMan 250W;
• CD-ROM drive Acer 52x;
• Hard drive Seagate 40Gb.

I needed a small motherboard and something to make a case of. Once I saw a tool box in a store. Something prompted me It would be a good case (size: 13.5 x 11 x 4.8in (340 x 280 x 120mm)).

The tool box	The tool box opened

But I started working on it only in half of a year. The problem was to find a small motherboard. First I planned to use any micro-ATX motherboard, but all of them were too big — there was no space for other parts of the PC.

Everything changed, when I found a computer store selling VIA EPIA mini-ITX motherboards. I bought VIA EPIA M10000. Its size is only 6.7x6.7in (17x17cm) and it has lots features:

• CPU VIA C3 1GHz;
• Four USB 2.0 ports;
• Two Firewire ports (IEEE 1394);
• Hardware MPEG 2 decoder;
• TV-out NTSC/PAL;
• Six-channel audio;
• LAN 10/100 Base-T Ethernet adapter;
• Supports up to 1Gb DDR RAM.

It has weak 3D graphics performance, so it is not suitable for the latest 3D games, but all the rest is perfect.

The result of about a month of working in the evenings you can appreciate yourself:

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