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DC7600 Media PC Upgrade

The DC7600 is a perfect size for a media PC. It's about the size of an older DVD player (VCR). I love the fact it has so many USB slots and easy-access audio ports. The power supply is only 250w, so that'll have to be replaced. The box I got also only had 1gb of Ram, which is also something to upgrade. Because we'll want to hook it up through HDMI, we'll need a new video card (another reason for the power supply upgrade). Also, while the 80gb drive is good enough to install an OS and stream media, we'll upgrade it by installing two 500gb drives.

I used the following tools:

1 Flathead Screwdriver
1 Phillips Screwdriver
1 Pair of Metal Snips
1 Single-hand Hack Saw
1 Hot-glue Gun

And I bought the following supplies:

1 DC7600 HP Slim PC
2 WD 500gb SATA Harddrives
1 SATA Cable
4 Crucial 240 Pin 1GB DDR2 Ram Chips CT12864AA667
1 GeForce G100 512Mb DDR2 DVI/HDMI Video Card Low Profile
1 20 to 24 Pin M/F ATX Power Converter Adapter Cable
1 Chiefmax MicroATX 450 PSM-CM-450W-24PIN Power Supply

I already had the drives, so this project cost me about $200.

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Step 1Remove Case Cover and Power Supply

Unscrew a screw located on the back and press the two tabs on the sides (clearly marked) to slide off the case cover. The power supply swivels and pops out of the case easily. Unhook all the power cables for now.

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4 comments

Nov 14, 2010. 2:28 PM

Awesome-aniac says:

What OS are you using?

Nov 14, 2010. 9:30 PMAnubis (author) says:

I'm going to dual-boot Windows XP and Ubuntu (or some other Debian-based). I think there's also a bootable XMBC disk out there I was going to play with. Going to look into doing a DVR setup with MythTV or something. I'd like to add a PC fan that fits in a PCI slot if I can find a short one. I don't want the video card section heating up the case too much. I'm also swapping out the CD drive with a Bluray drive (going to use an IDE-Sata converter on the secondary HD and hook up the SATA cable to the Bluray player I suppose.