Recap I finished my exams yesterday, hopefully the last exam I'll ever do so after a heavy duty celebration I can get back to some modding. Because it's been a long time since I've done some real updating and there have been so many changes since I started this mod I'll post a recap (and later on tonight a real update). The victim An hp e-pc which I got cheap off ebay a long time ago. Celeron 700 128 mb ram 10 gb hdd I made a new case for it with acrylic left overs I found in a bin (anyone say ghetto?) I didn't really like the new look and my dad needed a computer so I gave it to him. Not long ago he got tired of it taking too long to boot so he gave it back to me and slimline e-pc was born, a cad version at least. The original idea This will be a web/file server controlled via ssh, running ubuntu linux or freeBSD. It's going to be in my living room so it has to look good. That was the original idea but I was urged and encouraged by Bindibadgi to use a laptop hard drive wich was smaller and faster than the 10gb I was using. So after replanning a couple of times I ended up with the present design. The real thing That with an intake fan on the right and outtake fan on the left to give it a nice airflow. I found a few problems on the way; Capacitors too tall and hit the middle piece 3'5 to 2'5 adaptor got in the way Parallel port got in the way etc Where it's at I've done most of the outside work but still need to sand/polish the sides to give it a *bling* look. What next? Some sanding to do (a lot actually) Get the cdrom and hdd attached to the middle piece Put a start button somewhere Cut out the outtake Some cable management Feel free to browse the worklog. Comments are always appreciated. If it weren't for somepeoples comments this would be an ugly plastic case and not the beauty it's becoming, thanks guys/gals. BTW I'm looking for a new name, Serve-pc sounds promising.
Here it is I cut the adaptor and sanded the molex down a bit. BTW just as z4114 said, if you hold it up to a light you can see the forth pin is useless. Once in place it just fits partly inside the back of the parallel port. So the cable comes from under the middle piece and directly to the cdrom. As you can see there's not much space between cdrom and hdd, just enough for the IDE, but how is the cable going to get to the cdrom? Let's make a little hole, and while I am at it I also salded most of the cuts in the middle piece. You can see the rest of the cabling that goes from the mobo to hdd and cdrom, and you might also appreciate the sanded edges of the plex. I stil have to sand a bit more and finally apply acetone. Tomorrow I'll try to attach hdd and cdrom to the middle piece and finish the intakes. Stay tuned.
I've already mounted the hdd to the middle piece but then had a problem mounting the cdrom, the piece that was supposed to hold it down broke (drilled to close to the edge I think) so I'll have to do another one. I started recutting the intake holes and temporarily mounted the mesh on it. Not very straight edges but looks good, and you can barely see the fans through the mesh. I think it all has a nice flow. A place for everything and everything in its place. It looks crooked because it's not bolted down, even so the corners need some sanding and filing to get 90º angles.
looking nice although you havent plugged in the bits yet by the looks (is the middle divider in ? :O)
Looking great, its a great metallic design and thumbs up for cramming so much into that little box and the black acrylic sheets divide it up nicely, great modern contemporary touch...
Thank you very much. That's just the look I'm going for. It seems I'm achieving it. Nothing's plugged in yet. I'll probably mod all the cables because I don't think I can fit the 4 molex in the bottom tier (3 for fans and 1 for hdd). The middle divider still has some work to it, I have to do the outtake hole next to the hdd and to do the cabling I think I'll use some of these; They're called clemas in Spanish, what are they called in English? I'd use one with 3 connectors to act as a molex. All fans run on 5 volts and as I've shown before the 12v isn't used in the hdd so I don't really need it (unless I go crazy and stick an EL wire in there ). The idea would be to screw it under the cdrom and route all the cables in the alu Us. .:EDIT:. I need the four connectors because fans are all 12v. I was going to use 35mm 5v fans but the ones I'm using now are 40mm 12v. How could I forget?
We electricians in the UK call them "chocolate blocks" for obvious reasons P.S. nice work on such a small case,seems like too much punishment to put myself through .....some of us are gluttons for punishment
I've been thinking about how to cable the fans and hdd and I've come up with two possible solutions (I think). The first one would be to get the 5v couple directly to the hdd and the 12v to the fans. The second on is much more complicated. The e-pc has some sort of rpm control. At boot the fans spins at all it's got, but seconds later it lowers it's speed. I suppose the connector for the fan has a voltage control with a thermal sensor somewhere on the motherboard. I'm not sure about how stupid it would be to connect 3 40mm fans where there was only 1 80mm fan. They'd go lowest speed until they're really needed. Do I go for it? Could it burn the motherboard?
I would not connect three fans to one connector.. It's true 40mm ones do not take too much current, but three of them.. Check the manual to see how much that connector gives? The overall looks of this case are very nice! I would lit up the middle piece of acryl with some leds and this mod http://metku.net/index.html?path=mods/hdd_eyez/index_eng
if you wire the fansup in a paralle circuit they will all turn at the same rpm , and also only draw the maxium current supplied, so at worst the fan speeds will drop.
i got a very fast 60mm fan with a proccesor cooler once, but it says "do not connect it to the motherboard" beacause it draws too much current, so i wouldnt reccomend it
I would not connect 3 fans to that (or other any) mobo. Best you get a power spliter like this or such us. Maybe an Akasa fan mate Jr. with 3 fans regulators and 2 usb port would fit in that case.
Thank you all for your advice. I'm not going to risk it using the mobo so I'll just go with the first idea and cable the fans to the 12v. I've tried running them at 7v and 5v and they just don't move (I used this trick BTW). It works with 80mm and 120mm but not with my little 40mm. I'll try to cable all the fans tonight.
Mmmm... i did it once or twice. It works well. You also can try the Crazy Swedden style Mashie told me how to make this with the exact model of the diodes. You could find them at Conectrol or Telkron (local "Radioshack" shops) for a couple of bucks. Once soldered are small and you could switch the speed form 12 to 7V if needed. I did it for the Darkwater mod and gone OK. ps: I'm going to search the model of the diode. I have it in one piece of paper.... where?
It doesn't matter at all what diodes you use as they all drop the voltage for 0,6V. (all "normal" ones tho..) 1N4007 is maybe the most used diode and I see no reason why it wouldn't work in this circuit also.
