Scratch Build – In Progress Casdon 379 BACK ORDER SUCKS! Feb 26, 2008

Thanks for the reply. One of the benefits of clear case modding is you can mock things up and look at them from all around. The cable looks about right if I sandwich the HDD in between the optical and the PSU. I'm try to leave a empty space in the middle from front to back so that little shows when the door is open. Playing with the camera today for ideas.
John

 

Looks like a cool and fun project to both watch and work with.Cant u put the psu at the botom of the case and have the psu exhaust blowing out at the botom of the case? (if the case has feet), then u could place the Dvd on top of the case for easier aces and the Hdd in between, Just an idea,keep up the fun work.

Regards.

 

Today is camera day! The liner mock up is done, the motherboard only fits one place, all else is moveable. Pictures this afternoon for ideas.
Modding the good fight.
John

 

With the new and smaller PSU, i think this will be by far your best solution. It gives your cabling some slack, frees up airflow, and still allows for the lil' extra you may or may not want to put in later. You could even mount the HDD directly to PSU with some of those standoff screws we all normally use for motherboards.

 

Hey it's steve from pc city. The other week i've came across a really short single drive ata100 cable from a old scrap mini "book pc" desktop. I think it will be perfect for your hdd. Right now it's my weekend, but i will see if i can find it when i get in on monday.

 

Perfect! The Book PC is actually the PSU I've been trying to find! Skinny and Vertical. This is the littlest one I could find. The cable sounds perfect. Thanks for reading. And thanks for the nice store.
John

 

I think the book pc we had was pretty much trashed. It was also an older a socket 370 system. I remember seeing the board had a blown southbridge and messed up capacitors. I'm fairly sure the psu had problems too. If you want just give me a call at the office on monday and i'll see if i can find a couple of cables that will work.

BTW, nice work on your Casdon!

 

This PSU is just fine. I'll call or stop in Mon. Have a good weekend.
John

 

If the short ATA100 cable from chEx doesn't work, you could flip the hard drive 180 degrees and run a standard IDE flat cable from the MB to the hard drive. You'd at least have the length of the hard drive to do the fold of the cable.

 

Layout Poll

I have assembled the main ingredients into the 2 most promising configurations. I need some feedback on which to choose. By a happy accident and dedicated dremel work on the inner fascia, both options allow me to use half height PCI cards in both slots. WIFI and WinTV maybe? Anyway. Here is door number one:
Looking straight in from the back

Front 3/4 view

Straight in from the front

This is Seagate mounted vertically. The only vertical HDD I have is in the MicroFly and it has worked forever.
Now - Door number 2 same shots
Straight from the back

Front 3/4 view

Straight in from the front

This one has the Seagate mounted horizontally. The white foam core and the plexi scraps are to show ventilation for air flow. Brackets will hold the pieces apart. Also please note that I tried to eliminate the HDD mounted crossways in the front. I'm trying not to block the view through the washer door. There is some magic coming to the door opening courtesy of the dremel work done to the fascia so far.
Where is door number three you ask?
Maybe I should just chuck all the fans and put in H20 cooling!!! This is for Tribal and Cheapskate!

A RES!!!! Crack my self up. Wife wont's to take my temperature.
John

 

LMAO

you should mod the res to look like a washbin, with some dolls clothes chucked in there

As to your question: i think door number two is the best one, as long as you can create enough airflow over the HDD. It might start running a bit hot.
Also, stacking the HDD in the middle you might crate some vibration trouble. really plan which component you mount on which, or this might suddenly become a noisy fella.

 

Verbal Update

I am going with door number 4! I found a new layout that suits the parts and have been doing optical, HDD and PSU mounts. No pictures tonight Maybe in the AM before work. I think you guys will approve.
John

 

Final interior layout

I found some unused space and this is the final layout. I'm going to use the washing powder bin support as a support for the HDD and this shouls make the cable management easier. The pictures:
on it's side

View straight in from back

Laying down with HDD

The foam core board is mocking up the cantilevered support for the HDD.
Another shot from the side:

Another side shot with the plexi cutout for the washing powder bin. The white board is crooked because of the weight of the HDD. The clear shelf will be level with the cutout.:

And a last one sort of looking down at an angle:


I'm cutting the pieces tonight and gluing the brackets in. Remember the clear is all prototype for the final coloured acrylic. I haven't chosen the color yet but I'm leaning towards dark smoked with black acrylic mounts. I depends on whether I can squeeze a 4" CCFL inside somewhere.
That's a wrap.
John

 

I was talking to my lady wife and she said what I've going to end up with is a stand alone computer in a clear case that just happens to fit in the washer. That's an interesting idea. Now I have to think again. The thinking is hard work.
John

 

They're easier to work on like that. The weighted companion cube pc is built the same way. It won't exactly be true when the hoses go in, though.

 

Isn't this inevitable when you try to retain the original look of the washer? There's no way it's strong enough to glue stuff to, and you can't put any screws through the panels! Mod on man, don't let female logic lead you astray!

Since when does a mod need to make sense, anyway? I mean, come ON, a PC in a toy washing machine?

 

Actually won't lead me astray. It just means the parts need to be prettier so can show it off as two pieces. Nice brackets instead of the flat 5mm plates, some LEDs or CCFL. What the younger people call "Bling" is just attention to detail to us ancients.

I never worry about making sense, I built an eMachine parts into a wicker picnic basket, put another eMachine into a full size female mannequin I made into 1 of 1 the Borg - I won't say where the 2 80mm fans ended up. Even my wife Marilyn is always looking for things for me to put PCs in. We "How About?", "No It's Been Done Already" to each other.
John

 

Still here

I've been working on bracket designs and trying internal supports. No pictures but I'm still here.

 

LOL @ the 'res'. The funny thing is, it fits!

 

Far out idea John! The best thing about Modding is that there is no rules to follow.