[Niagara]

Folks, my apologies if this has been raised before.

I'm building my theater which has a stereo cabinet built into the wall. Behind the wall is my HTPC which is in a large tower case.

I'd like a unit for the stereo cabinet shelf that contains these controls for the HTPC:

• Power button
• Reset button
• Blu-ray tray
• a few USB ports
• IR receiver

What's the best way to do this? Should I just get a dummy HTPC case and extend all the wires back to the server box? (about 2' away behind the wall)
Would that be too far away for the SATA cable to carry the Blu-ray data?

 

[MrBobb]

Yeah you can just extend all these stuff, I bet a long sata cable should work due to the relatively low throuput of the ODD, but if you really want to make it neat, purchase a USB ODD instead.

Whatever you do, it's gonna be some DIY involved, there is no all-in-1, off the shelf box that I know you can buy.

Check out my CUSTOM MADE, external box. I have since modified it further and hooks to HTPC via a single USB cable, excluding the Apple TV connections. I don't have USB jacks in this box, but there is a USB hub in there, I could had easily use a bigger USB hub and bring those to the front of the case.

 

[Niagara]

Thanks MrBobb. Very nice setup you have there.

I don't mind DIY. I'll do something similar to what you have. Turns out SATA is good for 3' so I'm ok.

 

[lespurgeon]

Folks, my apologies if this has been raised before.

I'm building my theater which has a stereo cabinet built into the wall. Behind the wall is my HTPC which is in a large tower case.

I'd like a unit for the stereo cabinet shelf that contains these controls for the HTPC:

• Power button
• Reset button
• Blu-ray tray
• a few USB ports
• IR receiver

What's the best way to do this? Should I just get a dummy HTPC case and extend all the wires back to the server box? (about 2' away behind the wall)
Would that be too far away for the SATA cable to carry the Blu-ray data?

I built my HTPC in a shallow rack server case. I've got a thread from a couple years ago. Here you go:

http://www.avsforum.com/forum/26-ho...ng-workstation-build-thread.html#post23711187