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Scratch Build – In Progress Wall Mount PC

Discussion in 'Project Logs' started by rwb97, 5 Oct 2013.

  1. rwb97

    rwb97 Addicted to modding

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    Hey Bitty, wow its been a while!

    So, firstly welcome to the Wall Mount PC log, the first of hopefully many from me (or us as the case now is)... Let me explain... I (rwb97) have teamed up with good friend and fellow modder "madmodmole" to be able to do more, and better. We both have many years experience building, modding, and dreaming PC's for both ourselves and others, and enjoy experimenting with ideas that we've never done before.... Anyway! enough of that boring shenanigans! LET THE MODDING BEGIN!!! :clap: :dremel: :rock:

    In this scratch build we aim to mount a rig to a wall, where it can be seen by all who set foot in the lair that is madmodmoles man cave. The idea came about when we were putting up some "wall art" made from dead boards, cards, you name it. I mean c'mon, who doesn't lurv a bit o' matte black PCB as much as they do their Picasso and Monnet! :naughty:

    Here are some scrappy sketches to give you the gist of what we're planning:
    [​IMG]

    This one shows the hardware layout on the board that will be fixed to the wall, the whole lot will be on monster standoffs to let wires behind it to keep things tidy, and to make room for some LED strips for some shnazzy backlighting!
    [​IMG]

    The hardware will keep changing throught the build but eventually we plan to watercool the lot which will mean we'll have to choose a more permenant solution.
    For now though, a gigabyte board will find its home here.

    To get the ball rolling, here's a little teaser of whats to come, Someone's definitely been breathing too much of that paint!
    [​IMG]

    Over and out for know, but stay tuned as we hope you folks are gonna enjoy this as much as we are so far!
     
  2. Darkwisdom

    Darkwisdom Level 99 Retro Nerd

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    Good idea. Seen a few of these and I can never seem to see one that looks tasteful.

    [​IMG]

    This for example is horrid.

    Will be watching to see how you get on.
     
  3. Guinevere

    Guinevere Mega Mom

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    It's all a matter of taste. This forum is full of (IMHO) awful 'mods' which seem to consist of nothing more than people buying nasty plastic PC cases, splashing a bit of vinyl dye around and braiding some cables... or making the damn thing look some hot-rod monstrosity because PCs and Cars are both awesome right?

    This on the other hand while not being to everyone's taste (I'm not a fan of those barber poles) is quite a clever mod. I like it.
     
  4. Maki role

    Maki role Dale you're on a roll... Lover of bit-tech

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    No NO NO NO NOOOO! Gah I've had exactly the same idea (admittedly with rather different execution). I love the concept of a wall mounted PC, the real trick is incorporating everything into a neat package. The Max Planck PC posted above I find quite interesting, but it's also huge. I remember from his reddit post that the radiators are also off tot eh side somewhere, so it's not a complete wall build.

    Either way, best of luck, I'll be keeping an eye on this one.

    P.S. Just to give you an idea of how close some of our concepts are, here's an early, quick concept model render:

    [​IMG]
     
  5. tp148

    tp148 Minimodder

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    No need to undermine the guys work though...
     
  6. Darkwisdom

    Darkwisdom Level 99 Retro Nerd

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    Not undermining it. I just think it's a bit in your face. I'd love to see a wall mounted mod that wasn't all lights; something sleek and minimalist.
     
  7. rwb97

    rwb97 Addicted to modding

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    Wow Maki, we'd never thought of having water cooling channels built into the board, or block as yours is - If you can mill that out of a block of acrylic like it is in the render that would be very, very cool! Unfortunately we don't have the tools to create such pron but a CNC is another of our little projects on the go currently, should hopefully be finished soon... ish...

    Thanks a lot and all the best to you too! :thumb:

    Thanks for the interest guys, it means a lot and is surprisingly motivational when someone cares for what you do! We'll probably be taking a Kingsmill 50/50 approach to this, as we've not quite decided on a signature style for ourselves yet, and so feedback like yours will guide us to it.

    Update coming soon :D
     
  8. TheL4mka

    TheL4mka Minimodder

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    Will be very cool! Nice project
     
  9. rwb97

    rwb97 Addicted to modding

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    Thanks very much TheL4mka it means a lot. Hopefully she'll be cool literally speaking too being open air!
     
    Last edited: 7 Oct 2013
  10. rwb97

    rwb97 Addicted to modding

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    So, We present to you some updatery from the realms of madmodmoles moleman cave!

    First up we chose melamine as the material for the back board due to the glossy nature of the laminate covering. To get the metaphorical ball rolling, or the blade moving, or the bit spinning.... you get the idea, we opted to make some cable management holes for wires great and small to pass between the two sides.
    [​IMG]

    After playing around with the layout of the hardware on the back board and drilling the holes for the ends of the cable cut outs, we joined them up with a jigsaw to get pill shapes.
    [​IMG]

    Surprisingly not to our surprise, the jigsaw cut horribly through the chip boardesque melamine, but fear not we have a plan for eve... just about everything.

    Some paint and grommets from a donor case!
    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    To get the grommets to sit right, we had to trim them down a bit. The problem was that the inner lip that is supposed to sandwich the thin metal of the case they were in, wouldn't sandwich with the inch thick wood :rolleyes: So to the cutting board we went, armed with scalpel and gag for the patients...
    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    Tha's all for now folks, being at school and all our weekends are our only real opportunity to get warranty voiding done :waah: but we'll try and get a backlog of stuvs to keep the posts regular(ish) through out the weeks.

    Tanks for watching!
     
  11. Meelobee

    Meelobee What's a Dremel?

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    Intresting idea, but please do yourself a big favour and use real wood instead of a pressed pulp board, as it will be so much easier to get clean cuts.
     
  12. rwb97

    rwb97 Addicted to modding

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    Thanks a lot :) yes, you are right melamine is pretty disgusting to cut but we forgot to add earlier that this is going to be a 'trial' run through to see if the concept works and everything fits together nicely. The final product will be made of something far more flamboyant, at the moment we are thinking of adopting a theme..... but we shall not reveal this at the moment to add to the suspense. ;) :jawdrop:

    Over and out :rock:
     

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