I've had this in mind for about a week now, so I thought I'd better be starting the project now. It's all about a router which is standing on my desk in the corner. Some of you may remember my Helios case, which I am now using for housing the router. But, this is just what I am using at the moment... as you may guess I want something better/different. What I am planning on using: * Chicony CH-890A motherboard * Intel Pentium 120Mhz CPU * 16Mb of Kingston EDO RAM (2x8Mb) * 2x Realtek RTL8029AS NIC's * 200W AT PSU * S3 Virge DX 4Mb graphics card * 1.44Mb floppy drive * unex nexhub HA080 8port 10Mbit hub Software: * Coyote Linux (boot from floppy) I will be running the P120@75, so it can be passively cooled. At least one temperature meter will be built in, for monitoring the CPU temps. Maybe a second one will be built in for providing me with case temps. A new power switch will be added instead of the huge standard AT power switch. The keyboard will be replaced by a home built keyboard ghost. The PSU will come apart and will be built in naked inside the case. The fan of course will stay Probably a second fan will be added as an intake fan. I might replace the PSU fan as well with a stronger one, so I can run 2 stronger ones at a lower voltage, so they will be more quiet. Noise is an issue in this project, because the case will be standing in my bedroom, and will be running 24/7. The case will be built specially for this project. The plan is to make it blend in with my amplifier, which will be sprayed black, with an aluminum face plate. I havent made up my mind about the sizes yet, but the width HAS to be 43cm, so it will perfectly blend with my amplifier. A special feature that this case will have is a built in hub. SO to be short, I want to make a router which is as compact as possible, by using the stuff I already have, I want it to blend in with my audio installation, I want it to be quiet. Any questions or suggestions are welcome...
So here's a little text update. I wasn't feeling too good today at work, so I went home sick. Gave me a bit of time to think about my project a bit, and suddenly I knew what to do. I got myself a piece of wood from the attic, which will be used as a bottom plate for mounting all my stuff. So now I've drawn out the sizes on the plate and I will cut it to size tomorrow when I'm still not feeling good enough to go to work. Sizes are a bit more specific now. The case will be 30cm deep from the front, and it will be 43cm wide. Height is still an issue I'm thinking about, but it will probably be about 10cm. So now I'm back to the drawing "board"
http://members.lycos.nl/ramelair/bit-tech/bottom1.jpg http://members.lycos.nl/ramelair/bit-tech/bottom2.jpg What are you looking at? The finished bottom plate for my router project. One where it's been cut to size and with the motherboard spacers on it, and one with the motherboard and the PSU screwed on. As you already read, and can see, the plate is made from wood. You may ask, WHY!? WHYYYY!!? That's just because I find wood more solid than plexi. So I decided to use wood for the bottom plate. Don't worry, the rest will be built from plexi Also, the PSU has not been stripped. I don't think it will make a big difference in size, since the GPU is the biggest factor in height. So that's why I kept it like this (I did clean it out though, looks like it hasn't been cleaned since it was built...) *cough*
How painful can it be.... I was giving the P120 a test run, finding out that the graphics card didn't seem to be sending a signal. After half an hour of testing the graphics card on different computers, and even testing the CPU on another computer, it all ended... The motherboard... is dead... RIP How does this project go on? A few different options. Either get myself some brand new hardware, for which I actually dont have any money, or use the system I am using for a router in my new project. I'll be probably going for the last option, which makes my system specs change like this: P120 changes from P2-333@150 (probably passive cooling) Another problem is that the size of the motherboard is different from the other one, it's bigger Either I rethink my case sizes, or I start moving around hardware through the housing, and stripping some hardware. Probably the last option... I thought it was going to be an easy job, creating me a cool case which would blend in with my audio stuff...
I've been thinking it over now for about an hour, and came to this conclusion: since my AT system is dead now anyway, I will be using my AT case as a housing for my router. (why didn't I think of that before) I just put it down on its side, like as if it was a desktop computer. It's 20mm less wide than my amplifier, which will be covered by 2 wooden plates from each 8mm wide, or maybe 10mm wide. The case needs a few minor adjustments for fitting in my ATX pentium 2 system, but it will hopefully not cause me any more trouble...
No posts from me for a while in this thread... I've been working on a case for a friend of mine, and in between doing a little modding on my AT case for myself. What have I done so far on the case? - Redrilled holes for the feet. - Stripped as many metal from the case as possible without using a jigsaw. - Redrilled holes in the motherboard tray as my motherboard needs to be fit in, rotated 90 degrees. Today I'm too busy doing anything with the case, or my friends case, or whatever actually... But I might get to do a little shopping for my friends case...
Haven't had any luck on my motherboard lately, so I put it out for sale, including the CPU. Maybe some whizzkid can make something out of it... I took my little brothers P100, since he doesn't use it anyway. I just popped in my 2 NIC's, stuffed in the Coyote boot disk and booted. I've put the system neatly in a corner of my room. Blends in perfectly, hardly any noise. Glad this is over though, but the router project remains unfinished. I am pretty sorry to say now: The project is dead...
