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Project: CGR Box - Finally moved components in!

Discussion in 'Project Logs' started by Novakog, 16 Jul 2004.

  1. Novakog

    Novakog What's a Dremel?

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    First off, I'd like to state this is my first mod - so don't expect too much of me, but I have a friend who is an experienced modder who is "guiding me through" - so hopefully it won't end up too bad.

    Alright, now on to the project. It's called CGR Box. The mod is, for a large portion, based off/inspired by Bliss Unleashed here, which is, IMO, one of the best mods out there because it's really well done, yet simple (in appearance, not in the making) and elegant.

    First - the initial renders, made in Maya.

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    So yeah, you can see how much it resembles Bliss Unleashed. Please note, however, that visually, it will end up not looking so similar because the inside is going to be lit by green CCs - I was just too lazy to mock that up in Maya. Like Bliss was, I wanted to keep it simple in appearance.

    And yes, that is a 120 mm on the side - it looks better aesthetically than an 80 (with this design), and with it I can keep the same amount of intake as exhaust.

    [​IMG]

    Here's a picture of with the front grill and the fan slots cut out. As you can see, the dremel slipped and caught off a piece of the front bezel. I thought it wouldn't look very good even if we painted it - so we got another front bezel and just cut it with a bandsaw (which made super clean cuts, and took about 30 seconds). You'll see that version in later posts.

    [​IMG]

    First thing, we start with the simple stuff - we stealthed the cd drive. We also painted the drive tray black after I took the pic.

    [​IMG]

    Here, you can see we painted the interior black, outlined the top window (well, we still have to round the edges on the outline), and cut the piece of acrylic to fit in the bezel.

    Also, feel free to offer any ideas on how to mount the front piece of acrylic without the mounting being visible (initially we were gonna use hot glue, but we think it would show up too much).
     
    Last edited: 27 Mar 2005
  2. Vazzini42

    Vazzini42 What's a Dremel?

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    those renderings look amazing !

    Loving the sleekness of it from the renderings.

    One criticism I have is the letters seem to be out of place...

    Kinda seem out of place to me (maybe im crazy)

    maybe if they were blockier bubble type letters with curved corners (hard to explain) or if they were bordered with a rectangle somehow.


    It's your box you do what you think looks good tho :D

    im gonna see if I can find a font like what im picturing...

    <edit> closest thing i can find to what im picturing is the font "Comic Sans" but it still seems too skinny for what i was picturing
     
    Last edited: 16 Jul 2004
  3. KAMIKAZE-FREAK

    KAMIKAZE-FREAK What's a Dremel?

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    the render indeed looks great
    and about the window
    i would use sticky back tape (if thats the name)
    you know? the tape that sticks on both sides

    good luch with your project i hope it comes out great
     
  4. Novakog

    Novakog What's a Dremel?

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    Yeah, Vazzini, I agree with you - but I don't know whether it's an issue of the font or whether having text there at all doesn't fit - I just can't figure out what to put on that side; it looks too empty on its own. I'll think about it, and again any suggestions would be much appreciated (or if you have a font you think will work).

    As for double-sided tape, that's a distinct possiblity except the problem is that the acrylic isn't thick enough, so I need to set it out a bit which makes it rather difficult to use tape (look carefully at the bottom of the acrylic in the last pic, maybe that'll show what I mean). I may end up cutting another piece of acrylic, 1/4th inch, and then putting them together and then I could use tape.
     
  5. Novakog

    Novakog What's a Dremel?

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    Believe it or not, me and my friend, being the super procrastinators, in these 6 months have actually done some work on it. Here is the current state of things:

    Lit up - [​IMG]
    Off - [​IMG]

    Alright, first, the little stuff we've done. We painted the front door black, cut the window (which still needs a lot of sanding and so on), and mounted the lights. Not a whole lot for so long, but as I said we're the ultimate procrastinators ;).

    Okay, now here's the already sexy part: the hardware. I already have ALL my hardware, and it's running in a $22 case I got off newegg (that I'm using now). Here's the hardware:

    -AMD Athlon FX-53 (OCed to FX-55)
    -MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum
    -OCZ Dual Channel 2x512 Enhanced Latency Series Platinum Edition (2-3-2-5 stock)
    -PNY 6800 Ultra (I would've gotten a BFG or Asus, but I couldn't find one anywhere back when I got it)
    -2 x Seagate 120 GB HD, 8mb cache, 7200 RPM, ATA-133. The reason I have two of these instead of 1 250 GB one, is because I do work on this computer (CG stuff, as you have seen) and the second drive is only backup
    -Creative Labs SB Audigy 2 ZS
    -Creative Inspire 7.1
    -Shitty (actually, it's pretty decent, runs quite nicely) old Mag XJ810 CRT
    -Good Samsung Syncmaster 710n (12 ms, these are set up in dual monitor)
    -Lite-On 812s drive (I think it's that) - DVD +- R/RW (can be forceware hacked for dual layer also).
    -Old 40x CD-RW/DVD drive
    -Thermaltake Purepower 560w
    -Also have Zalman 5.1 headphones for LANs

    I probably won't do a whole lot on the case very soon - though I may very well move the computer into the case once I mount the front acrylic. Eventually, I'm planning on a CF 634 LCD in front door, a top window (which is already drawn out, but won't happen for a LONG time), who knows, maybe some mouse+keyboard+case feet and so on modding eventually.

    We also decided not to go with a stealthed CD drive, instead we're just gonna paint the front bezel silver and the tray black (the tray was already painted black, though not photographed).

    Anyway, sorry it's been so long, I'll do my best to respond to replies, though my email is down (which runs on the same server as my rendering before, so sorry about the lack of those) so I don't get notified (whenever it comes back up, I will though).
     
    Last edited: 15 Feb 2005
  6. Derelict

    Derelict What's a Dremel?

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    I like the lighting job so far...overall looks great!
     
  7. Bloodsmoke

    Bloodsmoke What's a Dremel?

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    5 red X's and 2 pics is what i see, the pics of your case are cool .
     
  8. Novakog

    Novakog What's a Dremel?

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    Yeah I know, sorry about the red Xs, I addressed that at the end of my last post - my main server is down (and I don't have backups of those pics), so sorry about the red Xs - it should (hopefully) be up soon, but it depends on my hoster.

    Alright, old pics work again.
     
    Last edited: 15 Feb 2005
  9. Novakog

    Novakog What's a Dremel?

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    Alright, finally finished mounting that front acrylic. Here, let me explain why it wasn't as simple as tape/glue/etc. on (though it was pretty simple), and what I did.

    Basically, the front acrylic wasn't wide enough to fit in the gap there.
    [​IMG],
    so, I cut me two acrylic strips to span the width, and glued em on. The reason I cut two, wasn't for top and bottom, but it's because the acrylic was 1/8" and I need 1/4" to be flush with the door. Anyway, here's what the back is after I finally put the acrylic on.
    [​IMG].

    Alright, now some more random shots (notice the front acrylic isn't held up by the roll of tape now! Yay! *sigh*)

    Two shots to show the interior paint job:
    [​IMG]
    ^ In this shot, you can also see that to fit the window, we had to cut part of the handle that releases the HD cage. It is still 100% functional, so it doesn't really matter.
    [​IMG]

    And another lit up shot cause I'm bored:

    [​IMG]

    As you guys can see, this has deviated fairly from the original concept, but I like it more. Anyway, I might move the components in there this weekend, who knows, otherwise most modding won't happen for a while.

    Oh, except, if someone can tell me how to remove the back rubber feet on an MS Intellimouse Explorer, I'll paint my mouse and possibly do a transparent wheel + blue LED thing, and if I get some sand paper, I'll smooth the window edges some.
     
    Last edited: 24 Mar 2005
  10. Anthony

    Anthony What's a Dremel?

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    Looking good, way to go!
     
  11. (X)TORNADO(X)

    (X)TORNADO(X) What's a Dremel?

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    UUh so nice... :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap:
     
  12. ginx

    ginx What's a Dremel?

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    This is REALLY nice so far, keep up the good work. May I ask though, how did you get the plexi in the bottom part of the front bezel?
     
  13. Novakog

    Novakog What's a Dremel?

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    We used a bandsaw to cut off the grill fins or whatever they are, then the bandsaw to cut the acrylic (it's 1/2" thick btw), and then mounted it as I said in my last post. Thanks, btw, for the comments!
     
    Last edited: 21 Mar 2005
  14. kaotic504

    kaotic504 What's a Dremel?

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    that's some really nice, clean work man, i like it a lot.
     
  15. Novakog

    Novakog What's a Dremel?

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    Finally moved the components in!

    First, some shiny hardware, for the shininess of it.

    Shiny hard drive (yeah, I know it's usual, but still nice!):
    [​IMG]

    Shiny OCZ RAM (2-3-2-5):
    [​IMG]

    Now, the uses of electric wire tape:

    Cable rounding:
    [​IMG]

    and mounting (I'll really mount these fans later on, I have some thin steel bars I can drill holes in, but for now I'm too lazy):

    [​IMG]

    Also, used a felt tip pen to make some scratches less visible (still visible, just not as much).

    Before: [​IMG] and after: [​IMG]... don't worry I also penned out the other scratch in that image.

    And finally - the entire interior:

    [​IMG]

    I know the cable tidying isn't the best (though it's not terrible) - but I don't really have anything. I had one molex y splitter, no rounded IDE cables, and so on. I went to Fry's today to get some stuff to neaten up the cabling a bit, but seeing as it's Easter they were closed, so next chance I get.

    My two hard drives:
    [​IMG]

    And my 6800 Ultra (and a corner of the Audigy2 ZS):
    [​IMG]

    Despite the hardware being moved in, I still have a lot to do. Soon I'll file down the side panel window cut (I went to the hardware store to get a grinding bit for a drill or a file or sandpaper, but the store was also closed), and of course top window, LCD, fan controller, the new CD drive, etc.
     
    Last edited: 28 Mar 2005
  16. Novakog

    Novakog What's a Dremel?

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    Well, in me trying to keep the thread/project alive, I'll post a few more pictures.

    Here is the classic "beast" shot (it's still not done, so it's not really the "beast" shot).
    [​IMG]


    And here is an older pic, before I moved the components in, that I think best shows what it looks like when turned off.
    [​IMG]

    And here, in the traditional bit-tech way, are my cats, which we have determined are clones or twins of Bandit_zoraK's (Project Rogue 5)'s cats.
    [​IMG]

    Edit: also, I've determined that I don't want to put the LCD and fan controller in the front door because I like how the front looks now, so I'll probably put the LCD in two drive bays, and not have a fan controller or think of some other way to do it (I want two CD drives too, and I don't want to put a controller in the 3.5" bays for aesthetic reasons).
     
    Last edited: 29 Mar 2005

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