well, im thinking I will be able to get at least the heatsink for this within a week or so. The PSU will likely come at a later date. This is what I get for planning around such a small casing. XD

Can you make the power supply external without ruining the case?

well, at the moment, I will be putting the whole setup into a Mini-ITX case, so I can get the GUI worked out. I just have to get the heatsink before I can get started on that. I also still need to cut the holes for the rear fans. Money has been a real issue with this mod, even though so much of it was free or stuff I already had.

if you run an external like dh said, you could probably sleeve whatever wires you had to run from the psu super tight so it would look like one cable and you could make it "plug" into the back like some basic 9v power supplies do. just more soldering. i understand the whole money pinch its ridiculous right now. i cant wait to get married in two months so at least i get a little something in the bank. its too bad you have to cut holes in the case for fans. its so sleek lol. im picking up an airbrush kit of my own, so im going to be getting some practice hours in. who knows by the time your ready to send that case up, i might be way better than the basic level im at now. and if im not youd be amazed what my tattoo artist friends can do with an airbrush lol. it will be in good hands.

**safety note**

awesome. Ive been thinking of alternatives to the power supply issue, and if I do build a external PSU, i would want to use a really tiny one. the point of the project is to build it all internal, but it may not work out like that.

As for the GUI, I am still looking for a good frontend thats similar to Windows Media Center, but far more customizable.

I will be revisiting the Freshwater build soon, with updated images, specs, and possible questions...As well as a possible new Casebuild...

Try Arch Linux with a light weight window manager like fluxbox. You can customize it to have an old school look if you want and there's tons of multimedia apps for it.

www.archlinux.org

well, that might be a very good option, as long as it will run everything the way I want to, and use the controller as the mouse. you have to keep in mind this wont have a keyboard or mouse at all except for initial setup. Its a dedicated "console" that will be for game emulation.

I did look through Arch's repository, and saw quite a few emulators, but I dont see a CPS/CPS2 Emulator(I use WinKawaks for that under Windows.) I will need a CPS/CPS2 emulator...

I remember you said you were softmodding an xbox.

I know its probably a bit late but have you thought of using it. In my opinion nothing beats a softmodded xbox for playing emulators on a TV.

I have thought of that, and wile my xbox is modded, the hard drive is full of other games. This mod is more of a challenge as well as a useful mod for me. Its the smallest thing ive ever tried to build, and my main goal is to get it all in there. The other thing is that the xbox cant do 1080p...and once I get my own HDTV(and that might be soon) I would want this over the xbox anyway.

The original xbox can do 720p and 1080p if you have a component cable.
I recently made my own component cable and hacked one of my xbox's because they disabled HD in europe and it now looks amazing in xbmc.


MediaPortal has a similar look to MCE and at one point there was a emulator plug-in but I don't know if its still works/maintained, you should have a look into that.

I got to looking at MediaPortal...and it looks perfect. feels like Media Center, but has thousands more options.and If I ever wanted to take it to a friends house or family members house to watch a movie, i can. as long as I take my external hard drive. XD

Ive been using mediaportal for about 5 years now and its a great highly customisable program. My favourite plugin for it is the my TVshows one, I've not found any other program that can organise TV shows half as well as it.