Using sky box as mITX case

gnolan · 30-08-2011 7:16pm #1

Does anyone know if it would be possible to use a Sky Box with the innards removed?

Do you think these would be able to properly fit a mITX mobo with CPU GPU etc?

From another site:

There are different versions of Sky+ boxes, from different manufacturers. If you know the dimensions of a box we're missing, please contact us. Here are the box dimensions that we've managed to find so far :

Pace Sky+ Box v1: 422 x 355 x 74 mm
Pace Sky+ Box v2: 380 x 243 x 72 mm
Sky 160 Box: 360 x 242 x 68.5 mm
Thomson Sky+ HD Box: 380 x 245 x 80 mm

liamf · 31-08-2011 8:51am

Hmm

Not sure how that would work.

I am not familiar with the innards of digiboxes, but Sky+/SkyHD are basically metal boxes with plastic skins.

Different Sky boxes have different innards.

And if you gut them entirely, you're left with an empty metal box.

You'd at least have to drill them/mount posts for your motherboard if you wanted to fix those to the case (unless you go for some sort of stick-on solution?)

Plus their airflow is designed for the Sky internals so you'd have to be careful about fitting in a fan.

And you'd probably have an interesting time if you wanted to use an internal IR receiver (although less of an issue if you wanted to use an external USB one.

Will probably involve quite a bit of fiddling around. Would be amusing to get it working though

Alun · 31-08-2011 8:57am

I agree, unless you're doing it for the 'novelty value' then I don't really see the point.

Carter P Fly · 31-08-2011 11:47am

the blac HD box is reasonably good looking and better looking then a lot of miniitx cases. Id say give it a shot and it would be a good conversation piece if nothing else.

wandatowell · 31-08-2011 11:23pm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0aenI560Bs

One of the more conversational PC cases i've seen

Carter P Fly · 01-09-2011 9:18pm

Actually I just disassembled a Pace Sky+ box out of curiosity as I had one sitting around doing nothing and TBH using it as a case would be a waste of time.

It You would have to drill new mounts, hammer or cut out raised sections, cut out and fabricate the rear backplate, fabricate LED mounts and power switches for the front. The internal PSU is useless so you'd need a solution for that also. There is Just NO useable PC parts in there other then the HD and even thats mounted right in the way of any type of ITX board and new mounts fabricated.

For the amount of work it would take it would be just not be worth the effort as there plenty of inexpensive ITX boxes with smaller footprints out there that are way way better looking then a sky box.

Using sky box as mITX case

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