ditto here. Do you think that you're working on enough modding projects? My goodness All good work, though
I'm starting another shuttle to mod and sell I'll also be buying myself an SN41G2 for a LAN machine (nForce board and 8x AGP with onboard GF4MX )
I'd use silicon to stop the air from coming from around the edges of the fan .... TIP: to make ur silicon joint look good and smooth dip ur finger in washing-up liquid and run it along ur joint ... works very well
Not a bad idea... I've actually changed the way they will be mounted. Because the grill is slightly smaller than the circular hole to be cut I'm going to use laser cut grills on the outside and a mesh grill on the intake fan simply to prevent dust intake. It will be fixed with plastic pop stud type things (god knows what they are called - hey I know what I mean!) so it can be easily removed for cleaning. I've reordered the box from maplin the other day along with some other goodies Motherboard and PSU soon to come.
Wooohooo!! My goodies from Kustom have arrived! 32x Laptop CD-ROM. I don't know if I will be using it in this project yet. If not I have another project lined up 40-pin adapter for the CD-ROM drive 120w PSU. This is only 42mm deep. The tiny 170x170mm Epia C3 board with 800Mhz processor. I'm hoping the maplin stuff arrives today, but It's pretty late now. More pics when I get the rest of the gear [edit] On double checking the measurements, I realise that the box which happens to be 40cm long is HUGE compared to the motherboard. I could have went with a flex or micro board and have a selection of CPUs. I may order a smaller maplin box for this project and use the larger one in an upcoming project which I can't say anything about yet Thinking more on other boards, I would like to try one with an AGP slot, mount the board so that the ports are on the longest side. This would allow room for an AGP graphics card like an MX440 or something, using a flexible AGP extender. The only problem with these is, the one's I've seen only support 2x AGP
Pre-Emptive Modding The boredom of waiting on the maplin box has set in and it's time for a little PSU moddage. The fan on the PSU protrudes 7mm. This makes it flush against the inside of the case by my measurements The fan would normally sit above these heatsinks I have decided to leave the top off and expose the heatsinks to the airflow in the box instead. Bending a fin up to increase cooling potential shows that it will fit perfectly into the 50mm high box The heatsink fins bent vertical and angled 45° since this is the way the airflow will be going Another view of the PSU from the top The next job is to cut away some of the surround where the cables come from to increase airflow into the PSU area. The air will flow in through one 80mm fan, over the PSU from the end and out of the PSU area from the side. It will then flow over the CPU and northbridge and directly out the other 80mm fan.
My goodies have arrived!!! The aluminium enclosures have also arrived. A few very light surface scratches, but there is a protective sheet over all faces. I got some motherboard standoffs with female threads on both ends, but it turns out they are just as high as my brass ones Looks like some dremelling is in order Anyway, since I'm mounting screws and spacers etc to the inside of the alumuminium box I'm open to suggestions for adhesives. Let me know guys.
Today I tested the LEDs, wired them up and mounted them to the box. I salvaged these from my full tower that I may abandon. Look at my messy soldering. Jeez! Heatshrink is on its way from Maplin Marked out and ready to be drilled 8mm mounting holes drilled Chrome holders and clear LEDs in place. The power LED (top) is blue and the HDD LED (bottom) is red Another look at my appauling rushed soldering. I have a new soldering tip to re-do this now I ordered these to mount the board with. Turns out they are actually longer than standard standoffs because the bottom thread is missing, but the length is the same I ordered brass ones, but lucky they sent nylon ones. A quick slice with the Stanley and I have twice as many standoffs. It's just as well my standoffs are now smaller than standard ones, I calculated 1mm of free space heightwise with standard brass ones. That's it for today. I also stripped the PSU out of its housing for space reasons. I'm going to have to insulate a few connections and then mount the socket on the back of the box. More pics when I can be bothered
You might consider crazy/super glue for the standoffs. since you have twice as many, you can afford a mistake or 2. Seems like the project is coming together nicely.
They are already affixed with epoxy resin. Very strong and doesn't make stuff go a horrible white colour
Another tonne of goodies arrived from maplin and a few bits are on back order. Can you believe this was all I did today? Nice black heatshrink on the LED pins
A wee bit of soldering today. I got my 12A microswitch (it was meant to be 15A but anything over 5A is fine). I will be using this as a safety cut-off. If you open the box while it is on it cuts the power, simply because the only fans are on the top. Furthermore to this, there is a completely exposed PSU inside which would be pretty dangerous. The wires I salvaged from an unused european power lead and the microswitch I will be connecting The switch wired up and heatshrink applied. This heatshrink was a bit too big but it was the only stuff I had which would fit. It does the job anyway The power socket from the PSU with the live cable removed and the switch soldered in its place The connection between the other connector on the switch and the neutral pin on the socket.
Just a quick update with a couple of pics for everyone. I messed up the top and drilled the hole in the wrong place (new box on its way) I re-mounted the motherboard spacers because the original ones were out of line. The second set was mounted with a mixture of epoxy and aluminium filings. They were also out of line and I had a very hard time removing them. Nice and strong The I/O plate and motherboard installed The rear showing where the PSU socket will emerge
measure twice, cut once looking good so far, smart idea about the cut off switch. after its done post some pics with something for size reference. cheers.
I do measure twice. Since I cut the top from the inside, the measurements for the fan sizes and placements vertically were fine. But when it came to the horizontal placement the motherboard was effectively upside down which meant the hole is out of alignment when the lid is flipped over. Size reference? Don't you know how big a standard motherboard I/O plate is?
Now now, language It's not finished. I'll take a pic of the lot when I get my fans in and stuff. I actually lent the blue fan to a mate.
