Thanks Dark_Avenger! Yeah the frosted cover isn't the best, but it was worth a shot, and anyone out there with a white tv would probably prefer it. The dvd cover definately saved it from the garbage! I agree, the black one is definately going back up! I do like the way the shadows are cast apon the frosted one though. Luckily its just a cover. and can be changed out easily. When I took the picture, the flash was on. Look back at the tinted picture and look deep into the case, its pretty dark, even with the flash on. When you just look at this thing, you could shave in it. It is a dark tinted mirror. I do have the ability to get a mirrored one, but it will be a little bit before I can get that material in...(and the wife to approve the funding) Fod, Thank you Tominated, Thank you for the comment! I have thought of that and will probably be doing that soon. Not necessarily a clock, but a Matrox display or something similar so I don't need to have the tv on to perform simple tasks like radio, or music. So, after further studying.......Skreenname is very much correct, and thank you much for the catch. With this, I ripped the thing out of the wall today and began making it legal. 120 to the case, and tv. I will definately be moving the box down 1/2" next build. That plug just fit, and I can't find a flat plug that is also available in < 2' length. My video card was also getting really hot. So I ditched the pci tuner card, had to keep the dual tuner pcie card though, which happens to the the one blocking the fan. I used some small spacers to carefully space the tuner card away from the video cards fan. I also added another exhaust to the expansion card area. These steps brought my temps down from 70c to 50c idle. (I have to re-thermal the card, the thing always ran hot.) So no fires and all is up and running....again. Thank you all for the advise and help along the way
Wow, it's looking really great! Great job! That frosted cover looks good, but I think it would looks even better with a masking layer over the left and right side that left a vertical slice of the interior in the frosted/tinted layer. Just a thought, you know I think it's a great idea, and great adaptation in execution! :thumb +rep for you for awesomeness and skreenname for the catch on insurance loopholes and danger!
Its funny you say that. One of my first designs has the mask like you are saying with the open area in the center. The open area in teh center is a long oval with the top and bottom fan acting as the ends of the oval. I might take some of that Rowlux film and see what I can do for a mask. It is a great idea that I should re-visit!
Installation Video's I thought those interested in this build would like to see it go together, so I recorded it. Its has been a few months now and we are still loving it. Its pretty neat seeing others reaction to it, especially when gaming. You can tend to forget that its a PC.
Wow man I love it... Ive been planning to do a wall mount pc for awhile now. This blows anything I would have thought of out of the water. Simply amazing.
Thanks VadimWolf! And I am still working on getting the mirrored finish built! I promised the wife I'd sell off the basement full of these cases before ordering more, so it will hopefully be soon.
about that hot graphic card, they have high gpu and memory clocks in idle = high power consumption = high heat. I'm using ati tray tools with auto 2d/3d over / underclocking profiles. Default was 700/900mhz (gpu/mem) for 3d and 500/900 for 2d. Now I have 730/1050 and 160/200. Actually gpu is not that critical do underclock, memories are what matters (about 20w drop in idle) this problem had 38xx too, but they fixed it with new bios. With 48xx you have do it sw (above) or flash custom bios. New 58xx are finally ok (150/150 at idle)
very nice. Makes me want to do a mod like that too.... if I had the tools and expertise. Lol. I have one question though. doesnt the blue light from the computer get annoying if you want to watch a movie in the dark? Is there a button to turn it off? or just annoying in general since it competes with the TV for attention?
bfelda, this is an absolutely amazing project! some ideas though: - radeon 4850 is a great choice, however the reference cooler is really lousy in keeping the temps down, especially since your case is obviously not the best when it comes to pure cooling performance... might want to look into other cards with better thermals / better cooling solutions. - lose the leds! i can see myself at least, with a design like this you would use it mostly to watch movies, and the leds will disturb. or alternately, include an option to turn them off / on remotley - that empty space on the wall? some speakers perhaps? http://img.alibaba.com/photo/11610963/Mini_Portable_Nxt_Flat_Panel_Speaker_System_For_Laptop_MP3.jpg or of course you can always build into the wall some 'proper' speakers with more oomph - want to make money? my guess is talking with the millionaires in the world / agencies who specialize in the uber rich... show such a design to a guy with a zillion dollars when he's building a new £20 million house, and he won't even think about not ordering (i know the last part is so easy to say and oh-so-hard to actually get working in real life, but sounds great on paper) anyway, good luck in getting some well-deserved income from all this!
Thanks for the tip! It doesn't help that I have a tv tuner card right next to the vids air intake either. I am running Win 7 currently, and haven't tried ATI Tray tool with that yet. I'll give it a shot. With the frosted cover, the LED's were distracting. Not so much with the black tinted cover. I purchased a touch sensor that I tied to the LED's so they would only turn on when I was showing off the lighting and insides. The touch sensor attached to the front cover and is working well. Thanks!! Thank you! The TV actually has really nice sound that fills the room well enough for now. (5 month old babies room shares this wall). We are looking at doing something with the blank space though. I like your idea of in-wall speakers, especially for surround. Maybe some ceiling mount speakers? Now you got me thinking!! The first batch actually sold pretty quickly. I am not selling them for much over my current cost so I am definately not quitting my day job. The problem with millionaire's is that they are not geeks, or know how a computer could make their system better, (hopefully some new OS could change that). The people who are buying these are actually people who have their Media Center in a basement or closet and use extenders. They want them off the floor and out of the way. One person bought one for the office entrance to show off their components. Thank you Phaffen!
Sorry for chiming in late, but just had to post what a beautiful job you did on your project. It's stunning!
Final Pictures and Feature! Thank you Engineer! Here are some more pictures of the final install after everything was cleaned up and with the Black tinted cover back in place. This product got a feature at Geeky-Gadgets.com Its been running for 4 months now, no heating issues, no electrical issues, some fan noise, but I put in some dampeners inbetween the fans and the mounts and that took care of it. Not as much dust as I thought, as you can see, there is no dust catch for the air intake at teh bottom. I'll have to think of something for that eventually.