Scratch Build – In Progress Fresh Fusion: 30-11: Do the GPU Shuffle!

thanks for that Navig

I'm going to keep the current config.
Never thought that the cooling bit would be so counter-intuitive. Just as a test, i took the side-panel off my current PC case, and aimed it at my feet. After 10 minutes i had to abort mission, this thing DOES cool very well, just over an area. And my CPU heatsink has its own 80mm fan, so no worries there.

 

very nice idea although i would have issue with the cable tidying although as people have prooved it can be done very nicely. I think water would be very cool on this. my only other possible gripe would be ease of upgrading/repairs

 

udate 5-1-08

We are long due an update.

First, some images:
top view:


two showoff views:



The plate that i will mount everything on will ideally be a mirror. I'm going to look into mirror handling, and get plenty of practice before i start, but then again, i'm not in a hurry to get all this done

The holes i made will be a lot smaller in reality. As small as i can make them, maybe even by removing the plug off the wire, passing the wire through, and re-attaching the plug. Admitted, this will limit my ability to service or extend the system to some degree, but not too much to sacrifice such badass looks

I'm searching my ass off to find some cheap one-way mirror effect, and so far the cheapest one is a shop in belgium that will cut it to size for around 70 euros, but shipping is impossible at these sizes... i have to drive 500km to pick that **** up.
It's expensive, but the upside is that they sell real glass, not acrylic, so you will be able to see where the extra money went when everything is finished.

I'm also going to order some good-looking cabes for the parts that are visible, and some of those neat lightscribe-fans from revoltec to fit on the right. (unless you people start telling me that they are rubbish, loud and revoltec eats babies, they i'll just get two blue led fans ).

I'm also in need of a good rotary tool to do all the work on my panels, and a good looking power switch and frontpanel. I'm still concidering taking those from my current case, if i can do it without killing the case.

One more thing i decided on: the USB dongle for wireless kb & mouse will sit directly on the motherboard, inside the case. Neat huh?

 

Looking better and better

That dongle idea is nice. Its always smart to save on wires - if one can.


Mirror board! Will that not be very difficult to make those wire hidding holes into?

What kinds of lights do you plan to use in your mod?
Will they work well with the mirror?

I'd still be thinking about acrylic mirror, and some of that scratch restant plastic sheeting thats being used for PDAs and CellPhones.
Perhaps thats made of mylar. Mylar is a very strong plastic.

What kind of buttons have you been thinking about?
Because I think that some of those wandel resistant touch buttons, with blue light built in, would be great for this project.

The trick with any button, may be how to "hose" the wires from it, and out of sight.


Like the location of the DVD drive. I would move it about an inch from the edges though. I think that will give a better overall feel of the front plate, that one or two centimeres are kept free from objects.

You might also consider rounding the corners of the front plate - that one from the front to the side with the fans on it. Sharp edges or corners seem to attracht more attention to them, than soft edges and corners.

 

ok, update

materials
I'm not only scrambling to find materials, but also in desperate need of better tools to work them! Remember, i'm 100% new to this

Any advice on what tools to get (please let it be cheap!) and especially where to find proper materials will be most welcome. I live in Holland, so plz don't tell me how great the suppliers in the US or Canada or on Venus are, i'm getting a bit hopeless here

I have bought some blue tinting film for car windows and a cheap sheet of clear plexi. Since i have more then i'll ever need of the film, i'm going to play around a bit with making samples and training myself on how to work with acrylic. I also have enough old mirrors lying around to practice with. With the right kind of drill and some patience i think making holes in a mirror is very possible. Mylar may have been a better choice if i would have access to it and access to tools to work it...

design
I totally agree with you on the round-edges point. The problem there is this: i suck. It might be possible to masquerade the case as a round edge with some clever stickering or something like that though

Buttons: i must admit i have no answer to that yet. My ideas on the matter range from using the bigass button on my current case to remote control. At the moment the best idea (imho) i have is to take the bigass button from my case and place it in the top plate (the wooden one) on the left of the monitors. This will solve a lot of my problems with it all at once: 1) material gathering 2) wire hiding 3) view blocking. I just got an idea, scroll down to changes to see what it is


In fact, (this idea came to me just now) i need to think more out of the box (litterally). I could just place the entire frontpanel (usb, on/off, reset, mic, headphones) to a better place on the desk. If i do the same with the DVD drive, i could be looking at a completely untainted front. I like it, I like it, I like it, I like it, I like it!
New sketchup impressions coming tonight, when i'm not at work.


lighting
As mentioned before, i'm completely new to modding, and i have 0 (zero, nothing, nada, bupkiss, niente, zilch, zip) clues as to what sort of lighting will look best. What i do know is:

• All the lighting will be in blue, the same as is present in the current casefan (see pictures in post 1). I'm going to have to mask the yellow led in the dongle, other then that my pc has no non-blue leds at this point. Practicality Cheesecake!
• I want it to be subtle. It should look hi-tech, attractive, and shady. I really want some shadowing going on inside, leaving the spectator with more questions then answers.

I plan on experimenting a bit with it once i finish the case itself. It\s obviously not very hard to change the lighting in a late stage.
Any ideas or suggestions are welcome

Changes
I've extended the mirror plate to the left to include the area where the fan is placed. In fact, i'll use two plates, one holding the fan, one holding everything else.
In the current design there is loss of airflow underneath the mirror. I could mount a very small "side-panel" there, but that would ruin the illusion of a hidden floor. That's why i've come up with the solution of mounting the fan inside the mirror aswell, extending the mirror all the way to the side.

There is one major problem with this: cutting that giant hole on the side of the plate will make the thing too fragile to work with, especially when i need to take it out to service the system. I'll solve this by using two mirrors: one holding the fan, one holding everything else. The resulting line is the lesser evel that i'll have to live with.
Maybe i'll even find some ways to make this segmentation work for me, by shaping the mirrors attactively. Decisions, Decisions, Decisions!

Tonight, i'll show you guys a further evolved sketchup drawing and, especially for your amusement, some pictures of my very first tries at working with acrylic. Prepare to rofl!

 

Yay updates! I'm really liking the idea here, i'm watching this thread avidly and with baited breath I wanted to do something like this a few years back but never got round to it, plus I had to move house anyway and it would've been difficult moving the huge workbench/computer workstation. Blue LEDs would look fabulous with this mod and I would definately recommend the vandal resistant switches suggested by Pegasus. With regards to tools, I would recommend a set of needle files. I have some and have found them absolutely invaluable in creating holes for various switches and plates etc. You'll be able to do some very fine detailing on hole cutouts. Also you can't go wrong with a dremel if you haven't got one already, something i'm sure many modders here will attest to. One word on working with acrylic: some glues will cause the acrylic to "fog" and sometimes develop micro fine cracks on the surface (crazing) so like many things, test on a small area first. For a first time mod, this is coming along very nicely, can't wait to see it up and running

Regards, Chris

 

nice closet lol

 

ok, i promised some embarassing pictures, and here they are...

The tools of the trade:
or rather: "what a basic modder has left after an everything-is-for-free garage sale



First, i tried cutting a fitting board of plexi for the front plate. Obviously, i didn't cut deep enough as i used an inferior blade, and broke off a random piece instead


Right. I made an acryl shard

ehm...

ya.

...

...

i need some positive energy, bad!


moving on!

I decided to do something else . I cut off the tip of the acryl shard i made and used it as a color sample. In the pictures below you can clearly see the 3 options i had: 1, 2 or 3 layers of blue carglass-film.

One layer is clearly not enough. You can see through it even with these crappy images. Both two and three layers do a pretty acceptable job at blocking the view with a dark background.

Next step: i used the most awesome program ever created (paint) to make a lighted background with some colors. Now lwets see what the color sample does with that:


AHA! Three layers is too much, it's even making it hard to see inside when there's backlight.

Two layers it is

I'm actually pretty happy with the way the film looks. If i had a way to cut the acrylic properly, i could fabricate a complete frontpanel today.

That's it for today i think.

Guys, those vandal resistat touch buttons you suggest... where are they? i don't really know what you mean

 

I managed to coax my webbrowser to find this link on the RS website for vandal resistant switches. RS ships all manner of electronic delights all over the world, including sweden

Good luck fella, and great modding

Chris

 

wow, thanks for the hint, this is a great source of goodies!

For example, i was looking at this nifty little key-operated automotive switch.

It seems too cheap, and it sais in the header that it's only a cover, but in the description is the full switch. My swedish isn't really at it's best today ,
so could you perhaps tell me if that is indeed only the cap or it is the complete witch? I'm tempted

 

RS are indeed a great source, glad I can be of assistance Here is the UK equivalent of that particular webpage. I've looked at all the products and they are indeed complete switch assemblies, not just the covers These guys also sell vandal resistant switches and I have used Farnell many times before. They have an excellent range of goodies and the delivery times (to the UK at least) are super fast

Hope this helps, tons of stuff here, tools included, not just electronic goodies

Chris

 

some more late-night modding

After my little color test, i decided it was time to destroy something. The fan is my brave volunteer. I need to know how hard it will be building it into it's new home anyway. Here is how it is constructed:


There are 3 layers:

• the grey ring on the outside of the case
• the hex mesh
• the fan itself

The black circled screws bolt the fan to the ring.
The blue screws connect the hex mesh to the ring.
Both sets of screws pass through the panel, pressing the whole fan in place.
Here are all the parts when fully disassembled:


Perfect
This means that all i have to worry about when fitting the fan to the mirror is getting the holes in place, and possibly getting long enough screws. I get to use the external ring and the hex plate without any trouble.

After all that success i decided to have another go at cutting a front panel. I found a (slightly) better blade, and started slicing away. I even did the dishes to free up space in the kitchen, so i could break on a sharper, more sturdy surface. Here is what it looked like after the dust settled:


Partial succes. I was too lazy to keep cutting, so i knew the cut wasn't deep enough on all places. So, i'm quite happy with about 40cm of straight breaking surface. I quickly set about to sticker this frontpanel v0.0.1 and putting it in place.
Here it is:
Lights off:

Lights on:

Isn't that freakishly beautiful?

ok, just cause it looks so good, one more time:
Lights off:

Lights on:


I spent the rest of the evening on going back and forth between light on, light off, like a three-year-old that is trying to figure out whet the deal is with the light in the fridge

I gotta say, after seeing it on a bigger scale, i'm not even sure i need the second layer of film to get the darkness i want. One might be good enough too. I'll have to see it in daylight to make a good decision there though.

 

Looking very very nice so far I wasn't sure one layer of film would be enough either but it seems to work quite nicely. Keep it up man

Chris

 

this is looking pretty good. i like the idea that you created, but as i'm someone who likes symmetry, i wouldve liked it in the middle.
oh well
it does suck that you broke those pieces of acrylic. i am still not good at that either, so dont worry

 

The acrylic is less of a problem then i thought. What i did yesterday was some messing around to figure out what tools i need for the job.
Better to mess up a 10 euro sheet of acrylic then to spend 50 euros on tools i'll never need.

Looking at it that way, it went a lot better then i expected.

 

first mockup and miserable failure

Ok, break at work, time for another update

Yesterday i decided to see what it would look like to run the PC without the case. I have no pictures this time, it was just a quick excersize in PC unbuilding/rebuilding.

The whole process i went through yesterday can best be described as:


Explanation:
: anticipating the destruction of my PC
: taking the thing apart
: wiring everything up
: this looks wicked
: it's not booting! It's not even powering up.
: included all the gear in the mock setup, still no boot
: holy sh!t, what if i really screwed up this gear?
: noes! nonononono! this can't be happening!
: i hope i can fix this...
: putting the case back together
: all systems go! problem fixed!
: so why the hell did it not boot on my desk?
: right... i never even grounded the mobo...
: whole evening lost, no pictures or results or progress to show for it, and i had a horrible time doing it

That's about it. So, now my question to you people is: what is the best way to ground the PC when it's not sitting in a metal case?

Oh, and one more thing i thought of: is there a better place to host my pics then imageshack? It's good for now, but they will take the pics down within a year, i don't want my thread to be empty

 

Hi there, i love your project

1st thing: picture hosting: Photobucket.com (that's the way to go)
2nd thing: overclockers use some sort of foam to put under their mobo (as most of them don't use a case). I'll look up the name for you
3rd thing: did you keep in mind that you might upgrade your pc in the future? Maybe sli or a larger cooler etc.. will that still fit in the space you made for the mobo?

Alright i hope i helped you out a bit already

 

that is strange.... i have seen several times computers work naked.... without a case.... and in all acrylic cases.....

 

About acrylic: I can be easy to work with, but it's something you gotta get used to, making sure you score deep enough into the acrylic- preferably on both sides. Nice sharp knife and a steel rule if you have one, can't go wrong If you don't have one, both RS and Farnell sell them. (think that's where I got mine)
About grounding motherboards: Weird problem you had there, i've never seen a motherboard that required extra grounding to work, maybe a problem with your psu? I dunno. RS and Farnell sell crimp rings you can crimp onto one of the PSUs ground wires and when you screw the motherboard onto your base plate, whatevere you decide to use, just have the crimp ring attached to the motherboard underneath where there's a screw hole. I've probably not explained that at all well, let me know if you have any questions. Keep up with the cool mod though

Chris

 

thanks
1: don't they delete images after a while too?
2: I dont think foam will solve my problem here, but thanks for the hint, i'll check that out.
3: Yep i did concidered that. The false bottom that i wil use to mount everything on will be fitted with standard ATX mobo-layout, the same goes for all the other stuff. I'll be able to take that whole panel out in a matter of seconds, and change any of the parts in there. The AC Freezer Pro 7 i use is about as big as heatsinks come, so i'm not worried about that. Everything else fits in there EASY.

!!! i thought exactly the same...
I think i'll try again when i have a little more time. That will enable me to provide you guys with some decent pictures too

Anybody has any ideas about what i did wrong? The PSU's indicator light was on, so it was receiving power. On pressing the power button the LEDs on the fan flashed for a fraction of a second, but immedeately went dead again. Nothing else happened, AT ALL.

Perhaps a cabling error?