Long time Bit-tech lurker, first time Project Logger. My original log is over at Gruntville.com...but thought I would post up here and see what people think/advise/suggest. I have been working on it since Feb 04, slow progress, and careful fabrication with many tests. I had purchased a Lubic PC kit a while ago, but never figured out what I wanted to do with it. Then I was looking at the UFO (Mountain Mods) cases and thought a Cube would be a change. My previous mod (Gluttony) has been all acrylic, all window, heavy wire management, and watercooled. I wanted to do lots of different things this time around... So: 1.) no windows, at all. The entire exterior will be black gloss acrylic (opaque but reflective). The only means to see the guts will be the Bifold Shoji-style side doors. 2.) Air cooled, and quiet. I came to love the silence of my 3/8" watercooled system but didn't want to have tubing and reservoir, and radiator in this Project, so high end air cooling was the order. Along came a nifty Heatsink from Thermalright-the XP120. 3.) I know how much noise a bunch of 80mm can make, yet I still needed decent air flow...so I chose Vantec Stealth 120mm all around. 2X intake, 2X exhaust. The fans axis shouldn't point at the user (I believe that generally transmits more noise front and back). 4.) Previously had stood behind AMD yet wanted to try new things...so Intel was the choice, and what else but the new socket 775LGA. On with Some PICs (since Project Logs require them). the structure so far. The Lubic bars are joined in various bracing and crossmembers. The central feature will have more detail to come (haven't uploaded the pics yet). an example of the shiny black plastic. It is entirely opaque, yet I want the insides to have a 'hall of mirrors' effect when the doors are open. What doors you say? These doors! custom router to join the corners, acrylic weld cement, and some fancy rice Shoji paper complete the look. More pics to come on the fab here when I upload them. The backside, 2X120mmn Stealth exhaust, and the Ultra Xconnect PSU in the center. I would have preferred to go with a TrueControl550, but the cable system of the Ultra was well suited, and I simply won't be running all the lights and such here. Yes, that is a swing up back panel. What is that white plastic board? The motherboard that hinges DOWN. So, to some of the insides: Here is the motherboard tray in the down position, easy access to all components. I will fabricate some drop down Feet to support it when resting on the table surface. The huge Thermalright XP-120mm Heatsink. In the "running" vertical position yah, tight fit on the Asus P5AD2-Premium I bought.
I don't think that anyone would call me a Gaming Guru, but it sounded lofty. Overall I wanted to include the concepts of Eastern Zen decor with Chinese Feng Shui "forms school" into the completion of a PC. More details coming, but the central feature is a self contained Fountain, with 6 sounds built in. It will be controlled by the Matrix Orbital 500 display. The Black plastic and Red paint highlights the "less is more" decor of Japanisme, but the simplicity of Feng Shui Elements: Fans-obviously the Air Chi element Fountain-obviously the Water Chi element Aluminum Frame-obviously the Metal Chi element Stones and mortar in the Fountain-Earth Chi element Electricity to run the system-Fire Chi element (not what you would expect, but I've done some reading) couple with that the larger scope Chi of Heaven (starfield pattern of my place and date of birth) and Human Chi (Matrix Orbital exerts my custom control over all elements of the system). More pics: the test fab of my Light pump for the star fiber optics. Later shrunk and put into a project box. said project box, with LED legs drilled using .5mm drill, and superglued in place. the wiring, ready to run to .1' grid USB style plug. other side, with wiring lables so I could remember which LEDs needed to plug in where... plugs in the Matrix, 3X low power GPOs, 2X into Tx/RX header. And....where do all the LEDs go to, why a Light Pump? Fiber Optics, with some help from reading MacroMan's stuff. yes, those are LOTS of realy really tiny holes (.25mm up to 1.5mm) superglue is tricky stuff while holding a fiber .25mm across! But, I think the results speak for themselves. Each LED leaves a hotspot a bit differently.
thanks all. Kind of going in reverse timeline to catch up to present--work is ongoing though, I haven't even powered up the hardware yet. A pic of the motherboard hinging (the dark pieces are just quickdrilled shims to space the 2 piece bolts and will later be refab'd): Here you can see how the lower 120mm are mounted, ziptied to the angle mounts that come with the Lubic system...really more rigid this way than I had expected. And some of the doors before I added the shoji paper. You can see how they will open, and hide the inner section. I made them slightly different horizontal dimensions so they would nest. More to come Thursday--the Water Feature, and LCD swingarm.
stole the words right out of my mouth . i love the led effects, not too mention the construction of your chasis.
I like. I've often thought about a PC case with a Japanese sort of theme to it. Metaversa is intended to create associations with a black laquered Japanese box when done (although so far I'm planning to stick with matt black and chrome, rather than gloss black). The starfield and Shoji doors are pretty cool though.
thanks for all the positive thoughts guys...more to come as I upload.. BTW, the hardware list (some of you may have recognized some of it): Asus P5AD2-Premium (775 X chipset, onboard dual Gigabit, 8.1 sound, 802.11G, PCI-Express, 8 SATA, etc.) Intel P4 3.6E 560 LGA775 Thermalright XP-120 fitted with 478-775 socket adapter Stealth 120mm cooling fan (may need to get Delta on low, don't know yet) Corsair XMS PC5400 DDR2 (LED ram) PNY 6600GT- no SLI, no 6800, my LCD only does 1280X1024, so why go bigger? Matrix Orbital MX5 VFD w/Keypad overlay Plextor 12X SATA DVD Burner (DL, etc) Ultra XConnect 500W PSU- still customizing most of the power lines using 16ga O2 free speaker wire (pics will come) 120Gig Western Digital 8Mg cache SATA Harddrive Logitech DiNovo Media Combo-Bluetooth-No external wiring, no external power needs (pics and details forthcoming) uploads continue Edit 1/20/05 been watching the Photobucket bandwidth allowances, and its already hit over 50% of my monthly already. I will watch for X's and maybe move to one of the Bit-Tech friends' hosts.
well, picture of the LCD swing arm were promised, so here you go: when its closed, the arm is bolted into the Lubic track and held in place with some locknuts. Open for gaming...it has Pan and Tilt, and the double hinge in the SwingArm allows for some front/back adjustment as well. Edit--resized some of the first pics to avoid Xs from Photobucket.
Here is the manuf: http://www.omnimount.com/product.asp?p=40 and Im trying to dig up the supplier. It retails for like $130US, but I found a discounter for like $59 I think. Maybe Monday in my Office email. Will update. Its Verah, Verah, nice. Pan/Tilt/Swing. Heavy Duty solid Aluminum construction. Adjustment Bolts for Tension on each joint so it will stay where you put it. Very smooth drag on the friction adjustment. Here is one combo link for some decent prices US: http://www.dealtime.com/xPO-Omni_LCD_Monitor_Cantilever
some new stuff...not yet caught up to present yet. Wiring to the motherboard: And the dongles for the Audio output so I don't have to tilt the board to plug stuff in all the time.
....and since I upgraded my space at Photobucket, here are the water feature pics. It started like this: Decent woodgrain, but not the look I wanted to go for. So I cut a bigger hole, like a Keyhole door. Then sanded to 1500grit, and painted it. Lastly, I didn't like the plain grey plastic "mortar" between the fake plastic stones. I took some nonfire Glaze with a granite look, watered it down, and used a hobby syringe to float it between the stones.
I've been following this mod for quite some time and I must say it is a very interesting design. I see that you shall be attending PDXLAN 4.05! I'm looking forward to seeing your completed project and of course, meeting you. I'll be over at table E seat 12. Just look for the big glowing Sun Microsystems Server case.
this mod isn't realy my thing but i still like the look of it. i especially love those audio plugs and the fiber effect that looks way schweet. nice job, looking forward to the final product!!!
thx all...Yeah, I will be at PDXLAN 4.05! hope to see you there. Seat, uh, hold on: L23 and L24 Registered for 5.05 too. As it turns out, the Orange was just the handiest Sleeving I had to make sure it all worked. It doesn't match the case, nothing else is orange, and there are no UV lights either. So I have recovered them in black: boring, simple, and plain. Little will be seen of them, as they only serve to go from the Vertical orientation of the motherboard to the horizontal table surface to make pluggin things in easier. More to come. I plan to start fab on the front panel this weekend, which will bring new pics, and detail on how I router the plastic for assembly.
