My Sister, a photographer, and her Husband a computer artist, have been saving up for their first computer. (They both have been in college and quite low on cash, I am sure many of you can relate) They purchased and shipped all the parts for the PC to me, as they will be in town for Thanksgiving. And on with the project log.................
This computer is intended for very heavy graphic design, video and photography use. So to start I choose a Athlon 64 3200+ CPU ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Retail shot of the case, a AMS eMONO Features: Cheap (no PSU), Good paint Dual USB, Firewire, Mic, Headphone at front of PC. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I picked out a case that was both cheap, but good looking. This case has an automotive like, shiny paint, and a nice plexi front. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- As this is a school PC also, a Zip drive, Floppy, and DVD burner were all included. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Floppy and DVD Burner came black in the first place, but the were a very flat black compared to the nice paint on the case. So I vinyl dyed them with a shiny black vinyl dye that makes the perfectly match the cases original paint. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This images shows the reflectivity off the Vinyl Dye on the DVD drive. (And shows of my new MX700)
This case has a green theme, since this PC may be on all the time, super brightness is not needed, rather a subtle effect of lighting. I may put a laser etch into the blank area on the front of the case. (Above the air holes, and the laser is on it's way soon) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Two six inch cold cathodes create light out the front and sides of the case. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Inside the case is open and clean. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- One CCFL is mounted about 1/4" from the air holes, this lets enough light out without blocking incoming air. The other is verticaly mounted as that created the best effect through the side slits of the PC. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- One thing, I wanted to provide, was a way to shut off the Cold Cathodes. But I didn't want to cut any holes into this case, as this was a weekend project, and need to be 100% done before thanksgiving. So the best solution? Replace the reset switch, with an On/Off switch. The Reset switch on a PC is not totaly needed, as you can simply press the power for 4 secs and power back up if needed. The reset switch was re-located inside the case (You can see it in the CCFL image above) I replaced the switch with an identical push button switch, except that the new switch is Push-On/Push-Off. I ripped it off some piece of equipment years ago. The new switch was soldered in and works perfectly to control the lights. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I also replaced the existing Blue Power LED (Which was dim) with a normal green, to keep the theme together. The IDE led was not changed, as it is not used with a SATA harddrive.
The system specs are: AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Biostar VIA K8T800 K8VHA Pro Motherboard ASUS nVidia TI4800 128MB Graphics Card 1GB of Corsair 400Mhz DDR 530-watt Dual-Fan PSU Western Digital 250GB 7200RPM SATA Harddrive (Rated at 150mb/s) 56K modem ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The awsome 250GB harddrive. Man, does SATA wiring look nice ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The beautiful, and huge TI4800 This card was choosen as there are specific optimizations for it in the programs that my brother-in-law uses.
More vinyl dye goodness This was a purple Wacom Graphire Tablet. I have had it for years, and used it very little. I figure a photographer and graphic artist could use it more then me. The eye is Mike, from a DVD promo for a Monsters, Inc. DVD It is placed under the translucent lift on top of the pad. (For putting images to trace) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Some speakers aquired cheap from a used PC store. They were white of course. The cases were all vinyl dyed in shiny black They are Altec Lansing 33's and have very good bass with a wood subwoofer, not bad at all. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The mouse used is a Logitech MX300 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It received a small modification: Changing the red LED for a 13,000 MCD Green LED ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The last part of the case, the keyboard. Sadly, no modifications needed , it is black with green leds ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Money shot again, and that is it. All put together and lightly modded in just a weekend. /Edit: The total cost around $1200
Clean finish Does your MX700 give you any charging problems? Mine started to go AWOL after two months of use and right now I'm considering getting a second MX500. The cord is a pain, but much easier than having to recharge the batteries externally and then putting em back in....
It must kill you to do such a 'mundane' mod after everything else you've been doing in the last year or so. It still has a certain Zapwizard touch to it though, and it's dripping with class. Very nice.
They are low in cash? Athlon64 3200? DVD-burner? 250G HD Doesn't sound so.... I would've opted for something cheaper on these parts and maybe invested in more (and faster memory). But anyways, its a pretty cool case with the complete overall unified look!
looks very smart - great job. did you shorten that S-ATA cable? (I've never had the chance to use S-ATA but didn't thnk such short cables would exist...)
It sounds quite strange to see a so low-modded creation from you Zap, anyway it's a great cabinet and I love the black/green theme... Me wants that HD!!!!
