Scratch Build – In Progress Project: Der_Meister - custom alu case *Epilogue Nov 8th, 2007*

Looking very nice Jokkos, took me a while to read from where I left off 2 months ago.

I like the Samurize stuff, this is going on the 5" screen right? Whats going on the touch screen?

Jimbo

 

@captain:
I know that some things won't have to run, Samurize just uses a couple of their .dlls. Thanks for your offer to help, but as you can see I didn't do anything spectacular.
There's one problem: the lower line of the winamp panel scrolls. The background line for it (all '8' characters, alpha lowered) is fixed. Ideally, the front line would scroll by one full character at the time, but it scrolls with much smaller increments. So most of the time it's not aligned with the background line (I took the screenshot that I posted at a good moment). I don't see anything in the options to increase the 'jump' that the characters make when scrolling, only the speed and the pause before it starts scrolling. Am I missing something, do you have experience with this particular thing?

@jimbo:
good to see you're back, the Samurize is indeed going on the 5". The touch screen (8" and very sharp) will serve as an extended desktop, most of the desktop icons will go on there, as well as stuff like winamp, par2, toolbars etc while photoshopping...stuff like that.

 

Absolutly sick display! The font is a little bit strange tho, sorry to be repetative.

 

Under the display tab for any given text meter the scroll option has a "scroll interval (ms)" option. This controls how long it takes for the text block to scroll the whole line. The longer the interval, the slower the line scrolls.
I tend to put 250-400 ms if I need something to scroll and still be readable.

Also make sure that for every meter you set the refresh interval under the general tab to something that makes sense as a sensible refresh rate for each given item. Static images should have a really long refresh interval, like 60,000 ms. Meters for network traffic graphing, fan speeds, or temperatures only need to be updated once a second because they don't vary fast enough to warrant sub-second accuracy (where as memory usage, cpu usage, or clock hands might).

The fewer meters you have set to a 0ms refresh interval the lower the performance hit of your samurize config.

 

thanks captain!


It'll have to wait a bit though...because...:

*trumpets, drums, etc*
The case is 100% done! Finished! Complete!

Yesterday I put in the HDD's, today I took 'a couple of pics'...about 210 with my Canon and 110 with my friends Nikon. So I guess I'll have enough material to give you a huge final update. One problem: I first pull all my pics through an automatic photo enhancement program (DXO), but that needs to be installed first on Der_Meister. So you'll have to be patient a bit more, I'll make sure I get to it asap.

I also put the case to work. I connected all my stuff and put in my winXP disc. It's amazing how well the IDEtoSATA thingies work. Just perfect.

What's also amazing, is how silent the case is. Of course I expected the watercooling to be silent, but the sound-dampened cage for the hard discs does a SUPER job, the discs are in fact unnoticable unless they're doing heavy read/write ops.

The winXp install almost gave me a triple heart-attack though. It crashed, always at the same moment. BSOD, IRQ_NOT_LESS etc... This is almost always a video card issue. So I was afraid. It was indeed at the moment where XP sets the hardware and the monitor blinks a couple of times. So of course I thought I damaged my 8800GTS when putting on the waterblock.

I first tested that it wasn't the RAM (have had issues in the past with the ASUS and OCZ combo). Then I disabled everything I could in the BIOS. Nothing changed. So the time came to test that it was the 8800GTS. Because I have a secondary vid card (MX4000) I could take out the 8800 and use the other with my monitor. And...surprise, the error came again. So it wasn't the 8800. I can't tell you how happy I am with that. The problem turned out to be with the secondary vid card.
But hey: 8800GTS with waterblock etc: 580 euros, secondary vid card: 30 euros. A hell of a difference.
In the end, it was not a big problem at all. Once winXP installed correctly, I just plugged the secondary vid card back in the mainboard, and all went well. The three screen setup is alive, and I took a pic to prove it...

I wanted to tell you this story, since I really was pretty desperate when I saw that error coming over and over and I thought it was the expensive vid card. It tell you: the weight of the world fell off my shoulders when I discovered it was okay!!!

See you soon with pics...lots of pics!

 

Sounds realy good, but there are the finished pics?^^

 

Congrats on finishing this! I've been following this log for months now, and I for one cant wait to see the finished pics

 

hah hah hah hah! what a heart stopper! Im sorry for your blood pressure.

Awaiting those finals with enthusiasm



Hey and thanks for the referance to SketchUp! It really helped.

 

I really want see some photos , Please!!

 

Haha I know the feeling exactly, when you dont know if something is broken and you really feel bad But Im happy its ok, and longing for the final pics. Good job already - I've been waiting for you to finish this

 

Congrats, can't wait to see the results!!

 

I am so impressed with the work. Can't wait to see the end results!!! Mod-on!

 

Maaaan how cool! Now the project finaly is finished.
I want to see the pictures dude! Get that program installed, NOW

 

Thanks!

The pics are really coming as soon as possible, but I'm a bit pre-occupied now getting it all stable and nicely installed. I'm sure you all understand!

A couple of things about the progress:

-) installation is going very well, everything works

-) had a few stability issues at first, especially with the video cards. I had the latest Nvidia drivers installed, I eventually went back to the previous version and it is now a lot better. The new control panel takes getting used to. But all the screens are now running, and it's stable.

-) I read a lot of stuff on Aqua-Computer's forum about issues with Asus boards. Not for me, all the AC-stuff works 100%. Their software looks very promising, at the moment I've got the whole watercooling running maxed out, I'll get it on automatic mode later.

-) Temps @normal operation, all fans at 100%: water temp ~24,5°C, GPU ~43°C, CPU ~40°C, NB ~32°C. The CPU temp is a bit on the high side compared to the rest, but the CPU block is behind the VGA block in the loop. The GPU temp is pretty good! For some reason I can't measure the temp of the VGA RAM though, meaning I'll have to change the Samurize config a bit.

-) Speaking of Samurize: I installed it and it all works. The config looks good on the 5" LCD. But there's still work to do... The background image on the 5" was always giving a bit of disturbances on screen @1024*768. I found out why when I put the Samurize config on it: the config is too big! So the screen doesn't really put out the full 1024*768 in the visible area. This means I'll have to rescale the whole Samurize config though...somewhere later this week!

Later today I'm starting on the pics. I also decided to take a day off at work this week, there's just too much to do...

See you soon with pics!

 

Lol I woke up early just for this and you dont give out pics? Eh doesnt matter but you better get them up soon.

 

lol dude you should set your alarm clock to something else than 'play sound when Der_Meister thread is updated'

I'm flattered, pics will come asap...

 

jokkos, stop posting here, and get those pic's sorted!

 

He said in his post that he's taken some photos and will have plenty for a big final update.

 

A true modder!
I personally can't wait for the final pictures either, this is quite the incredible case.

 

Final update part 1 – inside pics – post 1/2

Here it is! The first part of the ‘final’ update, post 1 of 2.

I’ve got plenty of nice pics, I think I’ll have enough for 7-8 posts. There will be three main parts:
-) this one, showing inside details
-) next one will show the outside with ‘day’light, no case-lighting on
-) the third part will contain pics of the case in the dark with the case-lighting on

After that I’ll post some pics of the case on my desk, the three screen setup etc…

I think part two will be ready tomorrow and part three on Friday.

Before I start with the pics: the weather was pretty bad so it was pretty dark outside when I took the pics. So the lighting conditions aren’t always ideal. My apologies (especially an issue for the pics of part two).

Here we go!

Let’s start with the ugly side!
Here’s an overview, hard drives in and connected. Their cables come through openings that are conveniently located. The cable tunnel clearly serves its purpose.


The hard drives are supplied with fresh air by this 80mm Noiseblocker running at 50% and about 6db. Temperature in this zone is about 22°C.


Another one, the sound-dampening stuff does its job, the hard drives are almost completely silent. They’re mounted with rubber on both sides of the mounts.


The cable tunnel, top part.


And the lower section. There’s actually a pretty clear system to the wiring, even if it looks like chaos.


Let’s take an even closer look at that chaos.


And the other side. Notice the white led spot I added next to the pump to help light up the RCA plexi above the pump.


All that chaos is covered up by a few panels. The wiring leading up to the flowmeter and Aquatube is tied to the watertubing with some zip ties.


Another view of that. If I’d thought about it earlier, I would have made a mesh cover for the entire front panel (and top panel), to keep the led-wiring out of sight. Oh well, it’s hardly noticable from the outside now as well. I’ll keep this in mind for Revision 1 of this case (should that ever come).


The Aquatube area. The watertubing from the fillport is much better now I lowered it to the next fitting. Filling is much easier, just take out the top plexi led holder fitting, and air can escape while filling.


A closer look.



That was the ugly side, now let’s turn around the case!!!!

Here’s an overview of the goooooood side. The cables below on the right are invisible when the side panel is mounted. Look at that nice reflection in the fake bottom, I’ll come back to this later because it gives a really nice effect with the ‘Asus’-led on the mobo.


Another one of the fake bottom. This is what I always wanted the case to look like: not a mirror-finish but not dull either.


The backside. Again, the finish is just what I wanted: the thumbscrews reflect but it’s not a mirror. For the wires leading to the fan and lased led, I made openings in the fake bottom that are just right for them and I made two small brackets (0.5mm alu).

A bit higher. The 4-pin ATX cable is about the only cable that couldn’t be put away in the cable tunnel. Neverthelees it isn’t that obvious, a good thing I have that psu-support…