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First Project Posting - Project Power User

Discussion in 'Project Logs' started by luvbug, 4 Apr 2004.

  1. luvbug

    luvbug What's a Dremel?

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    I've been here almost a year (I think) and lurked some time before that, added my 2¢ a few times here and there, but never really had a project to post. Well, I've decided to change that and start a project.

    I got this case about 5**½ years ago, when I was kinda new to computers. I bought it from a friend and he accepted payments, so I had nothing to lose really. When I got it, it had 2 CDROM drives, 2 CDRW's, and 2 Floppies. (Don't ask me why, I just thought it was cool to have that much stuff in one case.) :D A P3 500Mhz with 1.5gb SDRAM, a Quantum Fireball 14.4gb hdd, an ATI All In Wonder Rage 2 (TV tuner), and it came with a printer, monitor, mouse, keyboard, speakers, and color flatbed scanner for $2,000.00. I couldn't really pass it up.

    Of course, in that 5 years, everything has been replaced except the hard drive and the 1.5GB SDRAM..that comes in handy!

    Enough with the history, here's a picture of this monster
    [​IMG]

    Then I bought some cool Antec Cobra Cables to make it a little neater
    [​IMG]

    Added a piece of smoked plexiglass and a couple red CCFL's
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]

    Well, now I've got 6 hard drives, dvdrw and cdrw, and added another 250watt power supply and lighted fan to the mix. (don't know why I have an extra fan, but it looked neat) As you can expect, I have one helluva tangle of wires and that's what I'm going to fix.
    • make a custom channel or possibly use pipe (conduit or copper)
    • replace the standard molex connectors with 90° lighted connectors
    • combine the power supplies into one housing and add lights - maybe LED's
    • put the case cover back on and add a smoked plexi window
    [​IMG]

    Any and all ideas and/or thoughts are appreciated. (Unless you think I'm an idiot, in which case I don't care! :))

    Thanks for looking,
    luvbug
     
    Last edited: 4 Apr 2004
  2. richman

    richman What's a Dremel?

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    After browsing these forums for some time i have seen plenty of ideas that can be combined into cases, this case has lots of potential you could do the usual Window, Blow hole ect a paint job is needed have a look at other peoples logs and that should help you to get ideas

    Richman
     
  3. HQ08-Modder

    HQ08-Modder What's a Dremel?

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    Red X syndrome.
     
  4. luvbug

    luvbug What's a Dremel?

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    They all show up for me
     
  5. Sc0rian

    Sc0rian Here comes the farmer

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    me 2

    think it is very cool mate


    Funny way to angle a fan tho, lol
     
  6. luvbug

    luvbug What's a Dremel?

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    Plastic cable ties are "all the rage" nowadays..lol, doncha think?
     
  7. Sparrowhawk

    Sparrowhawk Wetsander

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    Wow... that's definatly one battleship behemeth barger of a case! :rock:
    /me likes
    Definatly a load of potential there, mate! :dremel:
     
  8. TMM

    TMM Modder

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    nice case. i <3 massive cases, but my dad won't let me get anything bigger than my full tower Antec (every time i get a new (bigger) case i have to mod my desk to fit it :D :lol:)

    that must be fun to take to lans :p i just got back from a massive lan (300+ players, went for 28hours) and slept for 14 hours when i got back :eeek:

    while i was there i got some uv fans and uv ccfls. UV stuff looks so much better then just leds and colored CCFLs. you should try some UV red stuff to go with your theme! :thumb:

    edit: also try to get those cables out of the way of your motherboard. i know they are rounded and looks alot better than non-rounded, but try them up out of the way adn im sure it will looks better!

    may i ask what specs your computer is now :) im guessing athlon.....
     
    Last edited: 4 Apr 2004
  9. luvbug

    luvbug What's a Dremel?

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    LOL, this bad boy doesn't go anywhere, it sits on the desk cause it's too big to sit under it. I do too much dvd and cd burning to have it sitting out of the way.
    I'm actually thinking of just doing everything in red, black, and copper (actual metal, not paint) Maybe add some chromed parts into the mix and paint the metal of the cage with automotive paint. I know the beige HAS to go!

    luvbug
     
  10. TMM

    TMM Modder

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    OOO me dumb, i just saw your sig LOL!!!!! thats what being awake for too long gets you
    :blush:

    remember if you use bare copper, treat it with clear coat other wise it will go dark ;)
     
  11. Father-Time

    Father-Time Minimodder

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    At the top of that HUGE case there is load of potential for watercooling madness, man it could take a huge res, rad and the pump in that area above the psu.

    A case that size has great potential, good luck. I would also stealthyour wires with braiding :thumb:

    FT
     
  12. luvbug

    luvbug What's a Dremel?

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    hm.... water cooling....... I think that's one hell of an idea! I'll need to make my own blocks though. What materials do you suggest? Acrylic/copper, acrylic/alluminium? I think if I'm going with copper and chrome, I should use acrylic/copper.

    luvbug
     
  13. Father-Time

    Father-Time Minimodder

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    Yeah acrylic/copper would be good, also look out for some Lucite, i think it is tougher and less easy to scratch, however it still cracks as i have found out.

    BTW, i would not attempt my own water bloocks, never been that good with my hands. :blush:

    Good luck if you give a go Luvbug :clap:

    .....further thought the matter would be to keep in with your theme, copper/copper :hip: Polished of course :clap:
     
  14. luvbug

    luvbug What's a Dremel?

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    I do have a question for the cooling gurus: With a HUGE res, is a radiator needed? What if I used a piezzo cooler on the res instead? A peltier cooler, if you will. Can I get away with not having a radiator with fans on it? :confused: My system runs at 102° F as it sits right now, so heat isn't a big problem in this big case. I know I'll have to use fans to move the heat away that the peltier creates, but it should be nothing like a 80mm fan strapped to a radiator....

    Let me know what you think.
    luvbug
     
    Last edited: 8 Apr 2004
  15. Yo-DUH_87

    Yo-DUH_87 Who you calling tiny?

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    The simple answer: no.

    The long and comeplex answer: maybe.

    Pelts are expencive and require a lot of power to run. The types of pelts you would be needing to cool a res would put out so much heat, you would more than likely require a seprate watercooling loop with a rad to remove the heat.

    Just bite the bullet and get a rad and a couple quiet fans, imo it's the way to go ;)
     
  16. NzC

    NzC What's a Dremel?

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    I agree go with the fans, but as you said an 80mm fan would be kinda noisy, so get a 120mm radiator and a 120mm stealth fan on 7v. That will be nearly silent! (you could also have a switch so that you can switch between 7 and 12v. Will be keeping my eye on this (big cases are awesome!)
     
  17. kill_me_quick

    kill_me_quick Big and Blue

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    Or you could get a twin 120mm rad and two 120mm fans, with a very low dBa and a reasonable flow rate. Then you could 7v them or keep them at 12v and see how it goes. love the case so far though. Nexus fan is 22.8 dB at 12v, nice and silent. Even less on 7v

    Were you thinking about going black. Black with either pink or red would go well. Well thats my opinion
     
    Last edited: 8 Apr 2004
  18. luvbug

    luvbug What's a Dremel?

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    You're right, I should just bite the bullet and deal with a 'quiet' fan. I haven't decided on a rad or res placement yet, but I've started work on the waterblock for the cpu.

    VERY MINOR UPDATE

    I got some freebie scrap piece of copper and some galvanized conduit
    [​IMG]

    I'm using dimensions from a spare AMD cpu cooler I had
    [​IMG]
    I dismantled the cpu cooler and took measurements of width, depth, and thickness.
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    Everything is within a few thousands of an inch, except the thickness, its much thicker then the thinnest part of the aluminum AMD heatsink. I can live with that though. :)

    I'll be back with some more pics of the actual block making process.
    luvbug
     
    Last edited: 8 Nov 2004
  19. luvbug

    luvbug What's a Dremel?

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    Yes, I know I'm slow....lol.

    Another small update

    Unfortunately, I didn't have any metal blades for my jigsaw, so I had to resort to a hacksaw to do my cuts.
    [​IMG]

    Of course, I got a pretty rough cut, so had to file the edges down.
    [​IMG]

    Pretty square cut for a hacksaw I think:
    [​IMG]

    After filing and sanding, I got down to lapping the bottom with 1500 grit wet/dry sandpaper (I may still hit this a few more times, I'm not completely satisfied with it yet.)
    [​IMG]

    Here's a couple more shots of the reflective surface of the bottome of the block -
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]

    And a last shot with the hose and fittings I'm going to be using with this setup.
    [​IMG]

    As you might have guessed, I'm not going to use barbs or hose clamps on this setup. I'd rather it be sleek and easy on the eye. these fittings are water proof and require no tools to secure or remove the tubing. No tools = a good thing.

    I know I haven't shown you the business side of the water block yet, and I'm sure you're wanting to see what it looks like... be patient...lol.

    I also decided to go with my original idea of NOT having a conventional res/rad/fan setup. I'm going with a VERY large res and that's all. No radiator and no annoying fans. :idea: I'll reveal this idea as well, when the times comes.

    So until my next update, please let me know your thoughts, comments, concerns, questions.

    luvbug :dremel:
     
  20. technomancer

    technomancer What's a Dremel?

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    You need to have some form of radiator to dissipate heat in the watercooling system. You can get away with a passive radiator, but just having a large reservoir will not work unless you're only going to run your pc for short periods. Otherwise the fluid in your system will heat up over time.

    Unless of course you're talking about using a swimming pool or something similar for a res. :D
     

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