I've watched from afar for 2 years; now it's time to contribute... My girlfriend's 5 year old PC is on it's way out. Good timing, because now her new PC is my Christmas present! Background: She is a horse fanatic. She and her family have owned over 8 horses, and have just started a ranch in Arizona. She is also an artist and likes to draw horses (something I hope to integrate into the case). She will use the PC for email, web-browsing, digital photography (downloading, organizing, Photoshopping, and printing), and watching DVDs (needs to be quiet!). The original specs called for an AMD Thoroughbred (for true horse geekery), but I have since bought an Intel mobo (free after $90 in rebates). Full Specs: SOYO "SY-P4RC350" ATI 9100 IGP Chipset Motherboard Intel P4 @ 2.4GHz, 800MHz FSB, 512K Cache, HT - OEM Maxtor 120GB 7200RPM IDE Hard Drive, Model 6Y120P0 - OEM Lite-On Black 52X32X52X16 Combo Drive, Model SOHC-5232K - OEM 2 sticks of Corsair Value Select 256MB DDR PC-3200 (512MB total) IN WIN 3G Screwless BLACK MicroATX Mini Tower With 250W Power Supply, Model "V523G.I250BFU2D" SOYO BayOne XP Flash Media Reader/Writer Thermaltake P4 Spark 7+ (Xaser Edition) Heatsink I will be providing the speakers, keyboard, and mouse. I will reuse her monitor. Final price after rebates: $328.16 So maybe this is a Christmas AND Birthday present? Basic plans: I'm going for a clean case that would fit in with black and maroon furniture. Quiet and dependable; I might try to overclock, but if fan speeds get too high, I might even underclock. The case has a 120mm fan, and the Xaser heatsink has a 70mm fan, with speed control. At 1300 rpm, the Xaser is almost totally silent, but the case fan is surprisingly loud. Idle CPU temps hover around 23 C D, thank god for copper!), and case temps about 37 C. I'll try overclocking tomorrow, but right now I'm focused on installing Windows miffed, which is proving to be problematic. It keeps freezing at 24 minutes... Any thoughts? Is the cold cathode too much?
Which race of horses do they have? Western style riding i presume? I'm thinking horseshoes and leather. (yeah, kinky.. ) That may get the case too busy though. Maybe put a horseshoe somewhere on the inside? You could think about using a small, round, horsey gadget on the power switch? just snoop around the ranch for stuff, there's bound to be more odds 'n ends than you can imagine.. You could always give the case ears, too Hmm, i'm probably too late with this, but if you dont like Windows.. why not partition off a bit of that 120 gig and install linux as well? (or any other OS). Give her that option, and offer to teach her. It may just work
Her horse is a Percheron/Arab. She actually rides English. She is into eventing and dressage. Their ranch will be specializing in Draft/Percheron crosses. They have mostly Belgians right now (BIG horses). On that note, I think I have misled you: this isn't supposed to be a horse themed case. I don't want to make a leather-covered, brass-studded, horse-shoes-and-bridles case. She loves horses, but she has a clean, sleek room, with clean, sleek furniture. AND, all of her furniture is black and maroon. This case is suppose to fit in with the furniture. I would like to sneak a horse into the design, but still keep it understated. Scorpsel, I like your idea about using a round horse "thingie" for the power button. Maybe the decorative portion of a silver bridle or bit. I'll do some searching tonight. I know it's a bit plain, but I don't think she'll appreciate a true "modder's case" as much as she will appreciate a clean, sleek, and quiet PC. (P.S. the Ferrari horse would be too loud ) As for Linux: it is my opinion that Linux is not ready for the mainstream. There is not enough hardware support, and many of her favorite games would not run on a Linux box. I'm building this PC so I can get some relief from being her "unofficial IT department".
Quick comment. your cpu temps are at least 10 degrees off. maybe more. You cant have a 23 degree cpu with a 37 degree case..... case = ambient for you, so your cpu has to be 37 or above. try updating your bios.
i think if u mounted a horseshoe on the fornt bays, that'd be nice, i like the ferrari bit, that would be cool, and maybe horseshoe/horse/etc. type of fan grils would be nice ^^ i like the idea, i wanna see how it comes out
I thought about doing something similar for my daughter, she is a horse fanatic. Design a running horse on the side and cut it out for the window, the horses mane could almost look like flames coming off it's neck as it's running, that would look really cool with some red cathodes inside. Just my 2 cents. Can't wait to see what you end up with.
Percheron-Arab? Now there's a cross i would never had thought of.. wow. And english riding is better, more stylish So, no horses, maybe just a horse-cutout on the side, right? Well lucky for you Percheron's and Belgian's have a nice recognizable silhouette, you could use a picture of one of those races. Unless you want to use one of your girlfriends drawings of course. Hm another idea for the power button (if you can't find a nice bit of metal) would be to cover it in black leather. (I promise i'll stop about leather after this ) It could be a nice 'chic' touch, it might just fit in with the 'sleek' theme. And if you're going for sleek and clean, *please* stealth the card reader somehow? those things are ugly!
dannyqball: That's the look I'm going for. A simple line-art horse window with a flowing mane... Scorpsel: I will try to use one of her drawings as the case window (if I can find a suitable image for a cut-out; I'll scan some and post them here for opinions...). I didn't get a chance to look for a nice piece of metal for the power button. I'm sure I'll find a nice one, though. And stealthing the card reader is a good idea. Maybe a hinged cover plate?
Started planning some horse-shaped windows: Maybe not enough window; too abstract? More window, but still too abstract? Then I thought about screen printing: I think they look alot better than the windows (at least in Photoshop ) Here are the scans of some of my favorites from her sketchbook: She really got the eyes in the rough sketch... Sketch of a Robert Vavra photo: Hopefully she won't see this as an invasion of privacy, since they are so good! I got Windows running (finally!), and installed all the additional drivers. I'll get a photo up soon of the "before" state of the case. I start cutting and painting this weekend.
I was just wondering if this is always true. The case does have a unique fan duct; maybe that allows 15 degrees difference between CPU and case?
In accordance with the rules of Project Logs, I am moving this to Modding. When you have started the modding aspect of the project, PM myself or another moderator and we will move your project back Thanks. *n
I think it would be a great idea to look into getting some laser etching done to a peice of acrylic for a window. Using one of those high detailed pictures of the horse would look amazing. Take a look at modsquad's project log!! http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=62286&page=8&pp=20
i second the etching of the window idea - or even better, use one of those sketches to etch the side panel, and back it with plexi, and apply that red metallic window tint film. that would give you an extremely subtle look when the pc is off, and would glow red when powered up ... <edit> i like this one - sorry about the shoddy photochop, but i only have fireworks installed right now -
How did I miss that Black Narcissus window? It's amazing! For $20, it's worth it. However, the HotModz website seems to be down until January 1st I'll email them, and see if I can get a rush job done for Christmas... ^ My favorite! A tinted window etch seems to be the way to go. Should I use two pieces of plexi -- one etched, one tinted -- like the modsquad crew? I'm afraid tinting film will not look as clean. Has anyone used the self-adhesive tinting films? Thanks for the idea, babyroach!
wat would b friggen sweet it to somehow get a small projector and project the images onto the plexi not sure if that would work with logistics but its an idea
The projector would be a cool idea. Except it would cost more then the entire PC, so far. And it might be distracting while watching DVDs. It sounds like the perfect thing for a LAN party though. It could project random images onto the window; and then, remove the window, and use it as a video projector on a nearby blank wall!
If you're going for the cutout the draft silhouette is my favorite Laser etching: i like the 'sketch with eyes' and the Robert Vavra.. don't know how the first would turn out though. Yes, use a tinted window, in both ^ cases.. I'm guessing rhe full view of a mobo isn't what you're going for.. Do watch out that it won't give the horse red eyes though, that would be creepy *looking at pictures* Hm, white eyes is creepy too.. Maybe it's possible to etch the negative of the image?
I agree that the all-white eyes are a little creepy. I'll work with the etch, and see if I can get better results (although it looks like HotModz is down for the next few weeks; no reply yet; maybe no etched window...)
