Project :blingGreen(04/03/2005 - MaximumPC's June issue! Rig of the Month!!!)

WOOT! (or "w00t" if that 1st one did not make sense to you...)

Boy oh boy... it is either a train or a light as I near the end of the tunnel!!!
Hehehehe, put the wraps on the top window tonight. My hands are so frikken shaky, I cant shoot my 3/4, no flash night glowy shot of the case!!! I took 9 pics and all of them looked like a was a crashing speed junky!!!

I only have a few more things to do to the case to wrap it up, however the list just got augmented by one more "to do"... Looks like I've lost my power switch! Found the rebound spring, but no button! Hehehe, guess it got tired of waiting for me to put it back into the case!

Vandal switch anyone????!?!

I like the look of those things, just hope the diameter is enough to cover what I am going to bore out for it to work. I'll start reading up on the specs tonight and get some dimensions. Ain't no frikken way I am going to bondo ANYTHING on that front bezel! Not after the martyr that thing tried to make of me!

So, withou further adieu, pic's that are as focused and as clear as possible!

This is the plexi under the flame cut. I hard etched the edges, then went over the whole sheet with a 60 grit sand paper using an electric sander, until the back was as smooth as I could make it. I had a few dips and whoopsies that I could not get out... as the gouges were just too deep and small. But you gotta get good and close to see the inperfections in the flame!!


Semi shaky, from the front "He's comming right at us!" view. If you note the front intake fan, you can see that the center has a design that "obviously" blurred. It is one of the fans with the active art in the middle of it. Pretty schweet!



This should show you how badly I was shaking!! THIS is the best of the whole pot! Hehehehehe, I'll take some flashed pics to show the normal light look of the case now.

For all that have noticed, the top 3 1/2" bay is empty. I'm planning on running a multi device card slot device there. Still looking for "just" the right one. It will remain open until I find my victim... erm... item!

More pics in a sec, just wanted to get these up!!
MOD ON!!!!

 

NICE Ive wtched this progress from the start and i must say this is turning out really really well. IM ready for the finshed product of this. Keep it up.

 

Thanks Meatloaf!
I hope you like what I end up with! I've been changing a few things around as I went, I hope they were not things you were looking forward to!


Day shots! (read: I turned on the flash this time!)

Check out the back wall... that flame top is crazy polished!!!! The flash reflection put the flames on the wall!! Almost brought a tear to my eye!

It also showed me that the center of my flame bulb on the top left is not cemented down! I'll need to break out the glue and "batten down the hatches"!!!!


*sniff* *sniff* It did it again!!!! I'm such a crybaby!!!


Too much crapola on the ol' deskola! (except for that 21" Nokia there in the middle, bending the very structural supports of the desk!!!! )

I've still got to build my standoffs for the bottom CCFL, going to have to craft up a replacement power button, finish cleaning up my bottom cabling, paint the base, and put on the feet (which I have some plans for as well!!! ).

Almost there!!!!!
More later!

 

that looks very awesome. I love that top window, really makes the case in my opinion.

 

OOOOO! that flame looks great! good job mate!

 

AWSOME! Nah man you did a very good job on this case. Two Thumbs up.

 

looking nice.. Finally we get to the BLING!!!! very nice Tech. I salute you on the time and paitence that you put into this thing. I probally would have launched it into outerspace.

 

The velvet around the mobo like that makes it look like its floating on water. Very cool

 

Thanks guys! I appreciate the support and comments!
*sniff* *sniff*

Ohhhh, there I go again!!!

 

I just got the board back today!


I'll look it over and compare to other pics that I had of it. I'll let you know what I see.

 

Great job, Great ideas, Great case ....that about wraps up everything i can think of to say...when can we expect a new project started?

 

Hrmmmm... good question!
I think the next victim is my wife's PC. Wont be nearly the artistry involved in that one. She's not wanting all of the cuts and stuff.

She is wanting more of a peaceful night sky motif, with more subtle colors.
That one wont be too hard.

Then me son's PC... of he knows how to pick em... want to combine 3 different modding themes... hehehe, that boy will be the death of me!
Hehehehehe

More in the future, but I still need to wrap this one up. I need to get a power switch mounted, I need to finish my cabling, and I need to get the plexi risers built for the bottom CCFL. THEN... I'll be done!

Thanks for the input!

 

Sounds good. IM readdy to see the switch mnounted and all, oh and tel your son Hes goign to be a great modder. First case starting out with 3 themes.
!

 

HURAAAH!!!!
Got the EpoX board back, It looked like they replaced the caps that were ruptured, the ones that were bloated, and then any that were near the suspect ones.

I dropped in my Athlon 1000, and popped in some RAM, pushed in a PCI card and hoped for a POST.



It's ALIVE!!!!!
It's ALIVE!!!!!

Hehehe, now I can drop this one into a case that my sone has picked out, and a few small purchases later, I'll have his case running about!

Let's hope MSI's repair is just as responsive! I'm sure it will be!


Now, with all that great news, I had a crapper happen tonight as well.
Not on bling, but on another PC I'm putting together for a friend.

I had 2 DOA motherboards that were shipped to me via a vendor that shall remain nameless (as this is the first time it has ever happened to me from them). So, on this one, I was really superstitious and cautious.

I unboxed it and placed the mobo on antistatic foam, went out and bought a new power supply, hooked up the 2000+ CPU, dropped in the new ram, pushed in a PCI Video card... and it POST'ed! YAY!!!!

Mounted it to the mobo tray on the case, applied power again, no problems.

Put it into the case, hooked up the drive (uno, 1... no CD, just the hard drive), ran the power cables and routed them for airflow. Bundled the remaining ones out of the way.

Hit the power... and smoke... LOTS of smoke!
Slapped the power supply switch and yanked the cable...

Fished around looking at stuff, and the power supply red lead to my hard drive was bubbled and blistered! That was not the smoke. The smoke was comming from my HARD DRIVE!!!! This thing had been taken through a complete load of OS, it had been functioning like a dream!!

I finally get a motherboard that appears stable, and my frikken power supply and hard drive go up in smoke!!!

Never seen that before.... Now, I'm out a 30GB drive, and I have to go and exchange this PS for another one, seeing as once load was put on one of the legs, it shorted out! I dunno.... anyone ever had that happen to them?

 

that's good to hear i'll have to repair mine sometime, it's been sat on my shelf for a month

 

Apologies for the lack of updates reciently, RL has been a bit of a bear on the modding time...

Last night, I did have an epiphany on my CCFL riser issue.
Instead of trying to "remake the wheel", I had a few blanks for the PCI slots... *ding*

Take 2 blanks, and cut them down to the right height, put them in the vice and bend the straight portions to form a "foot", attach velcro to the pre bent surface on top... voila'! Instant riser for the CCFL!

I painted them mat black, and them mounted them sideways, so that... when you look into the case, the slim profile is all that is facing you. You almost dont see them! Kinda like holding a piece of paper and looking at it's edge! 2D effect. Worked out well! I'll post up pics tonight.

Ordered my Bulgin switch (sheesh... still can't believe I'm spending $20 for a switch.. but they are cool! ) and added in a 3 LED Green, low profile broadcast type light. I'll put this one over my Power supply and fire it into the flames from the top, facing into the blue. I'm hoping that the top flames will come out 2 tone faded, we'll see.

I still have not located a plexi dealer that has the UV reactive transparent in the USA... this is KILLING me! I know it is made, but nobody wants to divuldge their "trade secrets"!!!!



Any lucky people in the states that have found a transparent colored, and UV reactive plexi/acrylic?

 

Looks righteous and sparkly

The crushed velvet is badass tech-daddy, really accents the cases already blingin quality. Ive wanted to see someone use some fabric on a case, so good job

Brew

 

Thanks Brew....
I learned something last night that anyone performing something similar might want to know...

Be careful with the hot glue. Not sure if all of them are... but my hot glue is UV Reactive!!! Hehehe, my crushed effect (on the back side) had globs of hot glue holding the crush effect together...

I booted my PC after mounting the UV's again, and I was like... "Did someone blow their nose in my case??!?!?!" and "WTF is that??!?!?!"



It was the globs of glue on the back! Once I turned the material back over, everything was cool! But I was laughing my butt off at what it looked like!!!

Heheheheheh

 

nice paint, lighting, windows.. blah everything you did looks cool

Whats this about active art?

 

The middle of the lower fan has 5 surface mount LED's that are sequenced to flash on certain points of the fans rotation.
Video can be seen here....

It is a pretty cool effect!