Scratch Build – In Progress COMPLETED - Watercooled CarPC - November 12th. Danish CaseModding Champion! :)

That does look like a really great front end. This is an interesting project, and it's amazing how many of those you seem to produce. That seems to be what was missing back when I considered making a CarPC, well that, and the size would have been much greater 10 years ago. I don't remember if you said earlier on, but are you upgrading the rest of the hardware at all? I'd think that if you put a SSD in there the machine would boot almost instantly.

 

microsoftPerson <- Thank you very much for the kind words!

Yeah, I tried a couple of other frontends before, but fell in love with Centrafuse. They have a 30 day full trial version, and that's enough to get you hooked!

I am going to find an IDE SSD to put in. I agree that it would boot pretty darn fast! I also tweaked the XP down to about 200mb in size, that helps as well. It's going to increase a bit since I just bought wireless internet to put in the car, but it should still be pretty fast.

 

Congrats on the sponsors Angel .

 

Waynio <- Thanks.

Really cool that someone actually likes my stuff enough to help me out!
Just hope they get what they hoped in return!

 

Congrats on the sponsor man!
Front end looks amazing, all this is really making me want to build a car PC now

 

radiator like this one?



Krylon metal paint optional.

john

 

Editor22 <- Thank you sir! Yeah, as a modder it's hard to live without a pc in the car!

jhanlon303 <- I believe it's one like that yes! Send it over please!

Update:

Got a bit of milling in today!

It's the aluminum front that goes onto the Lexan.

It's not completely done, but It's getting there!

Edges:





Inside gutted:







Hope to get further veeeery soon!

 

Wohoo.. another angel mod Now I won't feel so sorry for the wii being done as there is more stuff from you. I really like how you will cool the whole thing with "spolarvätska" as we say here in swe. Just remember, that stuff is just as flamable as petrol. Something I remember learning at a firecours, however I don't think that will be any problem in your case as long as the fittings are tight.

Keep that machine working and feed me with more pics asap.

 

The_Gnu <- Yeah I know... I'm still thinking on what liquid I'm going to use. It would be so much easier if I could find something non-alcoholic that could work to about -20 degrees centigrade... Still looking though!

I shall do my best to serve you sir!

 

Use watered down alcohol. You should be able to get a mix that will not freeze and still not catch fire. Ooorrrr, you could just use car antifreeze...

Pretty sure you already know this, but around -20 to -30F hard drive bearings will freeze.

 

barry99705<- Yup, I'm actually looking into car antifreeze. It's not flamable, and could be a good idea. Gonna call a company and hear about Polycarbonate's resistance to monoethylene glycol on monday, if I can't find any info online.

Yup I am aware that there will be problems with the bearing, but I'm hoping to get a SSD during the summer so it's ready when temps go down! But thx for the advice, not everyone would have thought of it!!

Some of the engineers at work were at the South Pole doing flighttests a month ago, and they had huuuuge problems with their harddrives, so I've had a talk with them about the problem!

 

1st ever mod water cooled car PC Angel? I've never seen one. If there is another, I'm convinced yours will be the best! I love the design


Happy to see Mushkin sponsored your project!

 

Damn. You sure got talent!

Looking forward to see more

 

mnpctech <- There is at least one other out there:



But this is a complete "How to make sure there is no room in your trunk" mod...

Don't get me wrong, I had that type of ICE install some years ago in my corolla! But I'm getting too old for that and want to be able to use my trunk!

Thank you on the Mushkin contact, I blame you for getting them as a sponsor!

Shattriath <- Thank you very much! I'm looking forward to see more myself as well!

 

That looks sweeeeeet. Looks like it grew there, it is that tidy. Top modding dude.

 

If you are refering to the picture above your post, it's not mine!

 

I found out the hard way.... Tried to put a server out in my shed for semi-off site backup. Figured if the house burned down, the shed is far enough away to survive. Ended up just doing a nightly rsync over a ssh connection to my wife's office. I've thought about trying to get a job down at the south pole, just so I could say I've been past both the arctic and antarctic circle!

 

If you want to USE your trunk, be 19 and drive a brand new Hemi roadrunner. Sleep in that trunk. Just sayin.

 

Great work! I love how you bent the plastic front, such a simple idea.

 

An itty bitty update!

I got the stainless steel for the handles rolled and cut at a rough meassure.

They are about 260mm in lenght as of now. I put in a politically correct piece to give a hint about the size



And then I milled the holes in the aluminum front for usb, firewire, on/off, reset and minijacks:

[UR



With the (Un-milled so far) top on:



The testfit at home... I underestimated the size of the pins/solderings at the bottom of the mobo, so I got to mill about 1 mm more off of the inside bottom of the piece. But that's a cheap price to pay since I made this without a testpiece!



Slow but steady progress Cheesecake!

C ya soon with yet an update!