Case Mod - In Progress компьютер -- 2009.12.8 - structural assembly finished!

thanks for the comments. i was making the holes larger to accomodate the hex head bolts, since the hardware store only stocks them down to so small a size... it slipped down too much is what happened, the collet made contact with the surface and marred it, not like a walking bit. in this case i don't think tape would have saved it, it probably would have just gone right through it. i would love a drill press, but i am really tight on funds right now and no way i can afford to buy one. i am also not using the best drill for the job, but its what i have access to. its a milwaukee high rpm high torque drill. i think its more meant for drilling masonry and the like... i always have to be careful not to press the trigger in too far or bad things happen, like it knocking over the whole workbench.

 

made some good progress today. if i get a couple more things done tomorrow it should be ready to begin the assembly phase finally.

finally all holes drilled. my that was some amount of work.

the result. i forgot to take a photo before i created the blowouts in the grill.

top panel primed.

went with the template method for the ports since i had such a good result with the fan grill.

removing the bulk of the material with the rotary tool, then use the hand file for finishing.


even with much care and going very slow, the firewire didn't come out quite right. it ends up being a rectangle also.

test fit to make sure everything lines up correctly.

after a bit of touch up the usb/firewire module gets installed.

from the back side.

angle view from front.

inserted the led mounts since there was already some holes drilled in the panel.

angled view from the front.

checking the placement of the intake fan.

bolt 2 not so good fans together to make a better one?

the inspiration for the front panel fan vent

first vent hole, rough cut.

about half there...

and we are good. might need a tad more touch up with the hand file, but its pretty smooth, also marked out for the next 2 cuts.

hopefully tomorrow i can finish the front panel fan vent, get the plexi for the side panel cut, then i will start assembly.

 

I love how it looks really old. You have done a fantastic job so far.

 

thank you. the key is using things that are really old. for example the meteres have a manufacturing date of 1958, while the metal i used from an old ammo box on the front had an inventory date of 10/1966.
i keep looking at the top panel primed, and am wondering if i made a mistake by painting it... it was already nice and rusty. oh well i guess i will just have to recreate that rust.
i was so hoping to get some work done today, but it looks like rain. i suppose i can get some painting done if it does rain.

 

more problems... on hold for now

so i have gotten some work done, but since the ancient digital camera i have uses the floppy disk, and for some reason i can't mount floppy disk anymore in my bsd server that contains the only floppy drive i have, i haven't been able to get to the pictures i've taken. anyway...
i finished the grill slats on the front face, but unfortunately due to the lack of steadiness in my hand, the initial holes drilled to make the ends rounded got a little off center... and i really don't like how it turned out one bit. i've been thinking of some alternate designs on the front now. most of which involves adding another piece of metal, and i'm not sure i want to do this...
i've also had to replace the 120mm fan in my psu, as the old one burned out. i'm not really sure how long it had been operating with only the 80mm exhaust fan. perhaps it was some of the problem i was having with the system if the psu was overheating or something? since i had it apart i had the opportunity to get all of the dust and dirt out of it too, so that should improve things. i am concerned though, that the exhaust seems to be hotter coming out of the psu now than it did before. i'm not sure if the fan i replaced the original intake with is quite as good... as the old one had no specifications on it i don't know what the rpms etc were, although i assumes it was 12v. so i guess i will be doing something to try and improve the airflow since half the fan is inside of the case and that portion only has about 2cm clearance from the case bottom, i guess drill some more holes like i did on the top panel.
i have more or less finished the top panel. its has been painted olive drab, and rustified. it needs some minor touch ups, and then clear coat. also trying to decide on which details to mark on the top panel, and am looking around for something to cover the power port with while its not in use for obvious safety reasons. wanting to find some sort of screw cap type solution, perhaps with the little chain attached, like i have seen on some old ww2 era equipment.
as far as attaching the new top and front goes, i realized that for obvious reasons i wont be able to use nut and bolt solution since there would be no way for me to hold the nut in place on the inside. so i guess i will have to pick up a hole threading tap... since i do not want it permanently affixed.
on the other hand, i might scrap some of the work i have done and do something else...
i'm just really not satisfied with the way some things have turned out.
after looking at it as it is for so long now, i have gotten used to how some things stick out, and how there are different heights, depths etc to the different sections, and with the cover pieces is would be a standard block again, which is boring.
i am more or less satisfied with the framework of the case, so at least i won't be restarting from scratch. but i do defineatly want to alter my original plans and go for a more architectural look if you will.
so i am going to put this on hold for a little while, and do some better planning this time before starting in on it again.

 

photo update

the vent slats on the front panel

aged the led mounts

test fit

top painted olive drab

aging process on the top panel

power supply, opened up and warranty voided

120mm intake fan replaced with standard black

 

oi, great case to work on dude Like it so far. keep going.

 

WOW, she is really coming together nicely.

 

thanks for the compliments. i ordered today my res, and some other bits. probably order the pump and blocks next week. went for the koolance tnk-200. i want to incorporate it into the front right corner of the case somehow. i have a few ideas, but won't really be able to see how it will work until i have the part. i'm visual like that...
so i think i am having the worst luck with the hardware, as my replacement sapphire card ate it. i think i won't buy a sapphire again. it went all psychedelic looking and then stopped working.
so we now have 2x failed hd4850s, 1 failed seagate 500gb hard drive, and 1 failed power supply fan... not so good.
i've been monkeying around with some different concepts. but nothings final yet. i did come up with a solution to adding one of those toughpower single 5.25 size vga psu thanks to someone throwing out an old gateway at my building. it had some interesting case components that i salvaged. not to mention that the system works too. its really old though, and i doubt i will be able to seriously use it for anything useful. its a 1998 era celeron 266mhz cpu and it had a 32mb stick of ram. i overclocked it to 333mhz and added a 64mb stick of ram that i had lying about. it also has an amazing 3gb hard disk and a lightning fast 8x cd rom... so far i managed to install an extremely hacked server2003 appliance edition onto it, and have working wifi. theres no drivers for the strange video chip that i can find and i had never heard of it. so the display only runs in 16bit color with the windows vga driver, although that may be all the chip can do. lol. boy do i waste time with the most useless things.

 

post a pic of the chip and i might be able to get a driver for you.

What is this 2003 appliance edition?

 

server 2003 appliance edition is a stripped down version that only has file server capability. although i have been able to install alot of other software and pretty much every game i have on it and it runs fine. its a rarer to find version and was meant for nas applications for oem builders. i'm not even sure if it was ever a retail product. my stripped down build of that i removed a ton more stuff from it and it has a 76mb image, about 170mb on disk and a 90k commit charge with 12 services running. its not extremely useful since its quite crippled.
the video chip on the garbage board is something called an mpact 2dvd... i looked all over the web for anything, and it seems they went out of buisiness about a decade ago. but none of this is that important as it has nothing to do with this build. but if i do use that board for anything, which i doubt, it will probably be for a firewall, or maybe a nas. too bad it didn't have a typical chip like a rage 3d or something.

so i am torn between the xspc blocks at US$90, or the ek blocks at US$109. i think the ek blocks look nicer, but i really don't see much difference in apparent build quality. anyone have any suggestions? also i was wondering if it would be good to use a y configuration from the pump to the blocks, then a y configuration from the blocks to the rad? i don't really see anyone doing this, but in my mind it would make sense to push through both cards separate at the same time so one isn't catching any heat from the other. it seems there are several connectors for doing this type of thing, but i haven't really seen any examples of a configuration like that in reality. maybe there is a reason i haven't seen it.

 

so i finished the external dvd drive today... then it unfinished itself. i bought one of those dc to molex adapters that i had mentioned in one of my previous posts. it fit perfect the way i wanted it to be and i had no problems getting everything finished up. so i plug it in to give it a good test out, and lo and behold it fries itself AND the dvd drive that its connected to. i tell you i have all of the luck. i have to say i am getting pretty discouraged with the whole thing.

i guess this is what we get now days with all of the low quality chinese made garbage that everyone is stocking. since i had to throw out the power unit because of the stench, they aren't willing to do anything much. the best offer i got was a replacement of the power unit. but i have to ask myself do i really want one? i think not. the response was that it is not meant for drives so it was my fault... but according to the supposed specs on the unit it was *supposed* to be rated at 2 amps at 12+v and 2 amps at 5+v. according to the drive specs it wanted 1.2 amps on 12+v and 1.5 amps 5+v so it should have been fine. now correct me if i am wrong, but it has always been my understanding that a power source shouldn't be sending more power than what is being requested.

 

Man that really sucks. If it was faulty the place you got it from should get you a new DVD drive also.

 

wow it has been a LONG time...
i haven't been working on my project as i have been traveling all around eastern europe. had a great time. anyway, now that i am back i am getting back into finishing this up.
i have done quite a redesign and have gotten some work done. however i didn't have a camera so pictures will be coming soon.
changes:
removed the top hdd mounting, and added a vertical 2 drive cage inside.
affixed the top panel directly to the top of the old frame
redesigned front face. it will now sit flush with the frame wit hthe power supply jutting out like you see in all of the earlier pictures. this had to be done to accomodate the water cooling res and pump.
you'll see...

 

Can't wait to see the changes! It's nice you're back, sucked with your adapter btw :/

 

well i have actually gotten some more done and pictures. this has been so slow going with all of the disasters and re-do's i am glad i am getting close to done. now the only problems are how and where to mount the hard drive cage, and what the side panel is going to look like.
well on to some images...








the radiator mount is a temporary solution until i can finalize my side panel design layout. needed to wait until my new components arrive to see how the new systems sits.
new specs:
EVGA P55 SLI 132-LF-E655-KR
Intel Core i5-750
Mushkin DDR3 1600 4x2GB
Mushkin Power Supply

and re-using my hd4850, and hard drive for now until i can afford an upgrade to ssd.

 

Man, this thing looks like it went through hell, sat out in the rain, then went through a war and sat out in the rain some more... Keep up the good work!

 

Nice look.
Excellent work.

 

NEW HARDWARE!!! it's alive.








adding the coolant and powering on for the first time with a separate power supply for final leak test.





i can't wait to have to tear it all apart again soon since i was sent the wrong cpu block which was not 1156 compatible
and had to make due with the sub-par intel stock cooler until the correct block arrives...

still havent made much headway in how the hard drive will fit in. i guess the ssd will fit in more places with ease than a 3.5
drive will, but i may want a standard drive for storage as well... hmmm...
i guess we will wait and see if i can afford a 256 ssd or not anytime soon.

i have some ideas for the side panel but i am still toying with the layout.
more soon

 

Really nice grunge mod! glad you are updating it again.