Finished my garage PC install

[blackgold]

So last week I mounted a 22" monitor on my wall and threw an older gaming rig in the garage for Pandora and searches for info while working on a car. The PC was super loud and annoying and just so damned big... The day after I did it I found the Zotac Zbox series of HTPCs. Ordered it for 340 and a 40 dollar MIB. I got it on Friday, it came with a 250gb HD, 2 GB of ram, bluray player, intel dual core atom processor and USB 3.0 ports. I had some issues with the 3.0 ports. I could only use the 2.0 ports pre windows. Anyways, I upgraded it to 8 gb ram (only lsited it was capable of 4gb) and a 500 GB hybrid drive with 4gb of NAND (same as a SSD), installed win 7 X64 and updated everything.. I am using a combination of a Lenovo handheld KB and a logitech Dinovo KB. You can see the KBs on top of the tool box. I ordered an HDMI to DVI cable to make hooking it up a lil easier. The system comed with a VESA plate to wall mount it and hang off of so that was nice. Anyways, it's running pretty good. I haven't done anything too ******** on it but wireless signal is decent and it's quick enough. It is also relatively quiet and small.. Here's a few pics. First pic is the original PC, the rest are of the Zotac..
Brian

 

[FreddiFiche]

Nice!!! I have occasionally taken the laptop out to the garage for doing those 'Quick lookups', and always been afraid that I was going to do something stupid. This is a nice way of going, 'cuase the worst your going to do is loose a keyboard.

I'm going to have to follow your lead.

 

[Eloquaint]

I like it! Small and clean. The only thing I would do in addition is some flexible grey wire loom for super stealth and maybe mount it to the back of the monitor..

 

[ratdoggy]

If I had that in the garage I'd just look at **** all day and never get anything done!
Seriously I think I'll pick up a used flatscreen and do something like that myself

 

[atotalnincompoop]

So last week I mounted a 22" monitor on my wall

you lost me pretty much right after that. i'm going to have to get one of my kids in here to translate the rest of that technical jargin!

 

[blackgold]

The mount is from Amazon. It was 17 dollars? Pretty reasonable.. I could mount the unit to the back of the monitor but I'd need a different mount and need a different way to mount it. It wouldn't lay as flush as it does now.. The monitor does lean a little.. That's due to the hinges I guess.. I might adjust the VESA mount to tilt the monitor a bit to straighten it up. I'm Happy with how it turned out!
Brian

 

[eastbaysubaru]

I've got a similar setup minus all of the new PC gear. I'm using a small form factor Dell that's about 10 years old running WinXP. I mounted it inside a cabinet to prevent dust issues. The only problem is that the fan inside the damn thing is loud as hell.

I use it all the time for researching "how to's" and playing music from the house server. At some point I will be adding a splitter off the master bedroom DirecTV receiver so I can watch baseball games in the garage as well (probably listen to the game on the radio with the T.V. going for any replays that might be worth watching).

-Brian

 

[BackTracker]

I have to hand it to you, that looks great and is functional.