Student's Windows-based media center brings our own slacker childhoods into perspective
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted April 26th 2010 5:36PM
posted April 26th 2010 5:36PM
When Andrew Macdonald was asked to design a product for a high school class, he went above and beyond the call of duty -- not only did he dream up a piece of kick-ass kit, but he took the next step and made it reality. Taking cues from his Xbox (and doing away with the front-facing lights that drive him to distraction on his current DVR) this bad boy is passively cooled, features the usual HTPC connections (HDMI, optical and coax S/PDIF, eSATA, and USB) as well as 802.11n WiFi and a hot-swappable drive bay. Under the hood, one finds a 1.6GHz Atom 330 with NVIDIA ION graphics, 4GB memory, and the OS (a custom Windows XP hack running Boxee Beta) runs on its own internal flash drive. Things have certainly changed since we were in school, when our home entertainment experience usually amounted to taping Rebel High off of USA Up All Night. Check out the gallery and video (after the break) to see this thing in all its glory.
Because building a PC is SUPER HARD!
@KillaChaos
Wifi, HDMI, Coax + S/PDIF, USB, and eSATA? He must have to custom build his own -
Oh, right: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813500052&cm_re=atom_330-_-13-500-052-_-Product
@KillaChaos Let's see you build it and look that nice.
@KillaChaos
I thought about saying something to that effect but decided not to.
Good work guy, i'm sure the school was very happy!
@KillaChaos A lot of companies make a lot of cash for doing a worse job of repackaging standard components than this guy.
When I was at school these projects were more about the process than the product anyway and he seems to have it well designed and documented.
Gratz buddy - that's a good looking media centre.
@KillaChaos
No assembling a PC isn't hard for US. I found out the hard way that regular people can't do the things we can. But this kid didn't just put a bunch of components in a case he bought from NewEgg. He designed that case from scratch.
@KillaChaos
Wow, way to be a jerk. A kid in school makes his own Media Center and all you can do is hate? You know what's easier than making a Media Center, making a snarky comment on a gadget blog! Way to go!
@jamo
Meh, I can side with both of you. It's a nice project, good looking case etc. And as someone said your graded on the processes and steps you take not so much the end result.
Although I am also in high school, and have built my main pc, media server, clients for around the house and a pc for my gran, as well as a custom case gaming pc for my bro. So no, it is not hard, and 'even kids' can do it.
But quit flaming him for it, it's a nice case, and passive cooling is doable (obviously) but requires thinking about. Nice work mate ;)
@KillaChaos This is not passively cooled as much as I can tell from the video. Plus, it's the Atom 330 which does require a fan. Heat-sink without the fan is pretty much only for the single version of the board if you run the CPU at high loads.
@Schmich
The atom 330 is passively cooled. in the link I provided (the exact same one he used, I believe) you can clearly see that the board has a heat sink but no fan for both the chip and the northbridge. My atom 330 box uses a mobo that came with a sink/fan for the northbridge and not for processor itself.
@KillaChaos
I do not recall seeing this product pass through the FCC...
@Solipsism As stated in the LinuxMCE wiki the 330 requires a fan because it generates more heat. Of course if you only use it for a word processor isn't doesn't matter but for more demanding tasks you should have a fan (or good airflow).
http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/ZOTAC_ION
Anyways in the video at around 3.18 he screws on the fan so the article is wrong in that detail.
@FORDY I have to agree with you, I'm in high school too and thought nothing of building my computer, but it's amazing to see the shock on people's faces when you say that you did. I thought this was neat but then again I haven't gotten to build or mod cases like the other people here probably have. It's just nice to see more people going off what is typically the beaten path.
The music is epic...
As nice as those specs are for an HTPC, its freaking ugly. Might as well convert a gamecube case to be your HTPC. I would personally want something that resembles a DVR or VCR.
@j4g3rb0mb3d
Ohhh man, gamecube HTPC? I think I just found my summer project.
@Nitesh
i thought the same thing but i think only via makes a board small enough.
@tobsmonster2 Two gamecubes then.
"Bad Boy" and "Atom" don't belong in the same description. Ion or not.
Good thing he used low power components, otherwise that thing would overheat.
UM, no TV tuner?
He needs to get hired by Palm maybe he can revitalize them. Lol. Oh. Tim Tebow sucks.
I'm not sure if I'm missing something here, because there is nothing impressive about building a PC. Almost anyone can figure that out. All this looks like is a small form factor PC build, wheres the impressive part?
@Nitesh
I built my first PC at the age of eight or nine. I'm sure there are many who did it earlier.
@PhoenixFox
Yeah, I built mine at 12. I'm not seeing whats impressive about this.
@Nitesh
It depends on the case, how much of it he designed and built himself. If it is an off-the-shelf mini-ITX media case, then you are right and this isn't much more than "I build a PC". If he actually designed and built the case himself (even with help), then that's damn impressive.
@Nitesh I would imagine the case would be the "impressive" part, yet nowhere is there proof that he built it himself. Neither the photos nor the video show this case "before" he assembled the entire machine, so I'm leaning more towards the idea that he bought a "build your own case" kit and then assembled what is essentially a small form-factor PC. Not incredibly awesome, but something the guy should take pride in. It cost him money and time, after all.
@Nitesh
What's impressive is how fast he built it. /sarcasm
@bebop Yeah I totally agree, it is very hard to design casing, and it usually takes 4 years at an engineering school (BS in MechE).
Getting the thermodynamics right and everything plus figuring out how to space it all (not as hard but still).
That's damn impressive... well done man. Can't wait to see what you do at M.I.T
@Nitesh
Did you watch that video? He meticulously documented the whole process! He was snapping pics the whole time. I bet he wrote step by step instructions for the process too!
Side note: Coolest part about all of this, (at least for him) is being on Engadget. LOL.
@NickD
Ah, now I get it. I liked the box but head no idea what the slot and disc were. If it took a while too build, it is probably some ancient storage technology he used.
What is that silver smaller box in the one picture?
I like that one better..
@Eli Haj
Doh...I fail..:P
so let me guess, the unofficial fruit blog is on fire and the fire truck hasn't made it there to put out the fire, all the the net fbi / cia fruit followers are here to ....
nothing special. i built my first own pc with 14 and installing boxee box beta is nothing special ;-)
the only special thing here is creating the beautiful case
When I was his age, I was building star fighters and pod racers in my sleep. Although, i was immaculately concepted by the force. Apparently
@Lord Vader I can't say it enough you rule, but in all fairness you were quite an annoying child.
@Goolick. If you are referring to Anakin, then yes, that name no longer has any meaning for me
@Lord Vader
That's not the word you're looking for.
(I believe it is "conceived.")
@Lord Vader
If you want to get technical, the Immaculate Conception refers to Mary being born without original sin, not the Virgin birth. Just sayin, very common mistake.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immaculate_Conception
Signed,
Recovering Catholic
P.S. -- I doubt you built any starfighters as a kid, otherwise you would've left Tattooine long before Qui-Gonn ever showed up. A swoop or a speeder, yeah maybe...
*gurgle* ah, damn *wheez* force-choked...*crunch*
That shit is tight!
@Springdaddy that's what she... nevermind, it's so easy :D
Where can I buy one? Can't be bother to put one together....
lol i don't understand...iv'e been building computers for years and i'm 15. It's not hard at all
Pretty cool school project though
They do it faster in China.
Ugly box, slow components. Building an htpc is trivial these days. Don’t see anything special here.
As long as I live I will never understand what drives some people to discredit another's accomplishments with the "I did that at (insert age here)/I can build that for less/that's nothing special" comments.
if you did it before, bully for you mate! I'm sorry the interwebs were not there to applaud your efforts. Nevertheless, why not just let the kid have his moment of glory instead of coming off like a bitter old codger?
@O
"codger" ! I had forgotten that word!! You put a smile on my face :)
@O The point here isn't so much that he did it, it's great that he did. But to be featured on Engadget because of it? There has to be something unique about this person that makes him worthy of being written about, otherwise why not feature every kid that builds a computer in high school?