Alpine Carputer - Part 06

I am originally posting this project on the Overclockers Australia (OCAU) forums) in this thread:
Specific Hardware Topics > Modding > Alpine Caputer. This is post #38.

I've gone ahead and ordered the motherboard mentioned in my last thread. I ordered yesterday morning, it'll be interesting to see how long it takes to get to me.

So, a bit of cleanup has happened. I've peeled off this sticker:

I've also peeled off these things which I assume are thermal interface material:

I still have to clean up the back plate of the amp housing but I'll need something to actually clean it off. Peeling the stickers off doesn't seem to be working. I came across this a while back too which may be helpful to clean off some logos: http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-remove-Logos-from-your-PDA--cell-phone-wit/

In keeping with the tradition of using dead components, I've also found this in my junk pile:

It was a 7 port powered USB 2.0 hub. When turned on, it just reports USB devices as unrecognised and gets extremely hot. Looks like this might be the problem:

There's also some thin, copper strands running across the insides but they're glued there so I'm assuming they served some purpose. Doesn't look great though. Anyway, I gutted the thing:

And now for some size comparison:

Hopefully this one will serve as a housing for the SD card adapter mentioned in the last post. The 2.5" caddy will house the CF card adapter. Still have to figure out how to mount them.

That's all for now. It's not much but it's been a bit of a busy weekend. I'm waiting for the motherboard to arrive next. After that I'll have to work out positioning and where to cut. I'll be getting a Dremel for my 21st in a few weeks so I'll be trying to hold off on any cutting until then.